So...first, I'll do a review on the saber and all the important stuff. After that, a couple personal notes, just for fun.
ASP Saber Images!
Empty hilt. It arrived assembled, but without the electronics and whatnot. Probably safer than shipping a bunch of loose parts, right?
With saber installed, lights off.
So...not sure how to summarize this, so I'll try to do it logically:
Saber Review!
1.
Appearance: It looked exactly as I hoped. Black finish (no blemishes or flaws) and while I was unsure of the leather wrap at first, I actually love how the dark green leather looks with the black saber. And the Vengeance emitter (the part I had the hardest time committing to) matches the pommel and body perfectly, in my opinion, so I'm glad I went that route. All in all, I was really impressed with how it turned out.
2.
Feel: I'm not a professional or expert, but I'm kind of a sword nerd. That said, I have no realistic idea how balanced or appropriate the weight of a lightsaber hilt should be, but I like the length of my hilt (seems a little longer than average) and the heft actually makes it easier to maneuver with my wrists and get fluid and fast swings. It feels like it might be a big heavier than most, but I like it.
3.
Assembly: Full disclosure, I went into it blind. Intentionally. I didn't look up any tutorials or walkthroughs on assembly, because I wanted to see if it was dummy-proof. Turns out, it's fairly dummy proof. I assembled the hilt myself, then checked a video online to compare and realized that my saber was so different, the video wasn't overwhelmingly helpful. For example, I guess most sabers have two retention screws while the Vengeance emitter I got only had one up top (the ones around the trim pieces are solely to hold the trim pieces on). I would've gone insane trying to find a second retention screw. Overall, my saber was easy to put together. I set the switch in place, slid the locknut over the connector and screwed it tight to hold the switch in place, then put it together piece-by-piece. Easy. All threading with a little allen wrench action. Some people complain about the battery pack being too big, but mine was perfect. Too big to slide in without a fight, but big enough to be pushed in and remain in place on its own and with zero room for clanking around or shaking. Perfect.
That sounded like an innuendo. Sorry about that. Get your mind out of the gutter, though.
4.
LED/Saber: The LED is surprisingly bright. Errr...well, I'm in the electrical business and I sell 12w LED lights for residential and commercial buildings, so I guess I should know how bright 12w LEDs are, but I was surprised it reflected so well in the saber. My first thought, and the first comments I got on it from some friends and my wife (who isn't a huge Star Wars fan, though she does like the movies) were all basically: "It looks real". The only semi-flaw I would report is that the pointed tip doesn't seem to light up as well as the pictures and the SF site show in regular ambient light (daytime or lights on), but most of the time and in darkness or low light, it's lit completely. Really, there's just some dead spots at certain angles, but for the most part, it's good. No complaints, since it doesn't make much of a difference, I'm just being a stickler for detail.
Overall Review
Pros: Hilt feels amazing to hold. The look is better than I expected, quality-wise, and the finished saber looks like the real deal. It was easy to assemble and if there are any parts I want in the future, I'm not afraid to take it all apart and reassemble it. Seriously, I love it. If I could go back in time and show it to 12-year-old me, I'd "Back to the Future" myself out of existence, because his tiny nerd heart would explode at the sight of it.
Cons: I didn't like that the blank switch was just a flat plate, more or less, with no way of securing it to the saber outside of adhesive like shoe goo or E6000. Not a big issue in any sense, but with everything else so awesome, it just seemed kinda lazy. There might be a reason for it, but since I don't know it, it just seems off-putting to have to glue a piece to the hilt. Also, while I haven't had an issue with it yet because I haven't actually hit anything with the saber, I'm iffy on the fact that the saber (and the LED module under it, in the case of my emitter) is held only by a single little retention screw. I can see either the retention screw gouging the blade and/or the blade coming loose. Maybe it's just me, though. For a "combat ready" saber, though, I just feel like one retention screw tightened down on a blade isn't really "combat ready". Again, and to be fair to SF...it obviously IS "combat ready", since there's a whole academy of duelists who obviously use the same thing, but as a first-time buyer, I had to do a double-take to make sure I wasn't missing something.
Overall, I was impressed with how it turned out, and very happy with it. The hilt looks better than the designer showed, the saber works perfectly, and any issues I have are extremely minor. I'm looking forward to the ASP shop opening up, because I feel like while the project obviously had some hiccups and issues, it's running at full (or at least fuller) speed now. As far as my own saber, I'll likely add sound and maybe an optional little part or two to swap out, but I imagine I'll want to build another saber for either myself or a friend or family member down the road. Especially with, I would imagine, more parts being developed and released as time goes on. One of the biggest benefits to the modular saber system is that if my saber becomes outdated and new and improved guts are released (light or sound), or if I find a part that might look better, I don't have to put my saber off to the side and buy a whole new setup. I just have to buy and swap out a piece at a time.
I hope you guys enjoy the review, and I hope it helps in some way or at least entertains you enough to be worth the ungodly and unmerciful rambling it entailed.
Personal Notes
Sorry the saber doesn't have a cool name. I couldn't think of an appropriate one. I keep trying to think of who I would be, and what I would call it, but...eh, nada. I see names like "Burning Vengeance" and "Justice Crusher", etc., which sound awesome, but I wouldn't have a cool name like that. In all fairness, I might literally call my saber the Nameless, were I in the Star Wars universe, because I'm that boring in terms of cool names and symbolism. Either Nameless or "the thing that kills, maims, and/or destroys other things while looking super awesome". Nameless rolls off the tongue better, I think.
To be fair, I'd make the worst Jedi. I'd absolutely be a Grey Jedi. And not because I'm a Jedi Hipster who wants to be anti-establishment or that I hate one side or the other, I'd just get way too cynical and loose to stick around the Order. If they made a movie about me, it would be R-rated for Excessive Snarkiness, Graphic Language, Excessive Violence, and Partial Nudity. I'd be like a less-attractive Archer with a lightsaber and the Force. Tons of snark, morally ambiguous, terrible language, total jerk to most people for the fun of it, but as much as I would try to hide it, my main goal is to do the right thing in the end, but people better shut up about it.