TOPIC: ASP Katana Review

As I've posted before in other sections of the forum, I ordered two asp sabers on 18th of June, and this arrived 15 July. This katana is the second of the two, and is actually a saber I ordered for my daughter. She is a big fan of the Teen Wolf tv series, and the character Kira is a katana-weilding bad-ass chick. And her favourite colour is yellow. And she wanted an all-black saber. So I went the asp route. And here we are.

I chose the smallest of the katanas, the 10.5" tanto, which I figured would be easier to weild; a 12watt+ amber blade which I think is a better yellow than the original yellow; a 32" blade. She chose all black, and the Imperial round tsuba.

I chose a different switch section because I didn't like the look of the original katana switch which didn't sit flush to the body and emitter. I used the Sinister Prophecy switch which would provide a streamlined look to the saber.

This is what I ordered:



I had the package sent to my workplace so that there would always be someone to receive it. So it arrived Friday afternoon and I couldn't wait to get home and open the toblerone of joy. When I got home I was so excited that I forgot to take a picture of the box.

So I opened the box...



It came with the usual warranty document, the charger, a stand which sadly had a broken part, the electronics kit in a package, and the assembled asp parts wrapped in bubblewrap with the blade.

As I unwrapped the hilt, I was surprised to see this:





My first reaction was that it was larger than I expected. And soon realized that they sent me the wrong sized saber. Hmmm...

No matter. I was still excited. Let's put this puppy together. Let's start with the electronics. Let me tell you, assembling the quick connects is a no brainer, until you realise that the battery is configured upside down. The "nipple" should be pointing towards the speaker. Once I had the battery facing the right way..."Sabercore Crimson!" Woohoo! We have sound and light! Let me tell you, people are not kidding when they say these things are bright!



So I look for the allen key to get the blade plug out. Wait, what?! No allen key?! I was hoping my mtb allen tool had the right size, but alas it didn't..

By this time, I was getting progressively annoyed. Not only did I receive the wrong parts, I couldn't even put it together. Anyway, I fiddled with the clocking washers for about half an hour, and this was as close to getting it aligned.



I gave the hilt to my daughter to practice weild, and true enough, it was way too large. So at this point I'm sorely disappointed. Though I still wanted to see it assembled, I decided to send the hilt back. Bummer! I've emailed customer service and await their reply.

Pros
Quick-connects are the bomb diggity!
12watt+!
There's a weight to the saber. It doesn't feel like a toy.
The black! It looks anodised. I would say it's similar to a mtb's handlebar in terms of texture and colour. Satin black would not be far off.

Cons (aside from being the wrong parts)
Hard to align. I didn't bother so much as I'd decided to send it back.
The switch holes are really sharp. I drew blood.
All corners of the Imperial logo are sharp.
Drilling for the retention screws was not precise. You can feel rough edges when your fingers touch them.

Here's the assembled saber once I found the right allen key:


Switch side. Couldn't get the covertech wheel on the other side.


Side opposite switch.. That piece off to the side is part of the broken stand.


Fully assembled, unlit. 12.5" hilt; visible blade is 29 3/4".

Personally, I think 32" is the perfect blade length. If this was the correct hilt, it would have been perfect. Sigh.


Slightly dark room.


Fully dark room.


Amber 12watt+. As close as I can get to the real thing.

Unboxing video to follow.

Reserved for unboxing video.

(Semi) Congratulations Gnost-Dural with your anticipated ASP delivery. I can see the direction the setup was going, nice configuration mate and equally so with your Daughters play on the build. Shame about the Stand and Part lengths you received but it sounds like you've got it under wraps and are ready with sending it back to Oregon City. I reckon the Stand you got is the Darth Maul Version...?

Amber's such a beautiful colour and photogenic as well. Somewhat a contributing reason why I favour it so much. Since this is 2 of 2, surely Saber Order 1 of 2 is pretty darned close to getting to you right? I only hope that one comes good and am actually keen to see what configuration you ended up with for that build. Thank you with sharing what you have so far even if it's a temporary stopover. oh and a Friday USPS delivery ain't that far off from the Tue/Wed I punted on either.

**FYI- I've gone and shifted this Review from ASP General Enquiries to ASP Reviews Section.

I love the all black on this one! Congrats. Sorry to hear you didn't get the rights parts. Customer service should be able to help you there.

I've got an all black ASP hilt I've been waiting to do a review for (when I get the install done) and I will say, the all black is really well done!

Congrats!

OvrcAHst wrote:
Haha! The stand's actually pretty functional. All I'll say about it is that SF could improve their packaging methods.

Funny you should say that about delivery of Saber 1. It was ahead in shipping by two days, then went missing (or no activity) for three days, then pops up again with a notification. Meanwhile, this one arrives, leapfrogs Saber 1 and gets delivered. I still haven't got it. Something dodgy is going on me thinks.[/quote]

Not sure how that happened. I'm using an ipad to do the review and I must've selected the wrong section.

HotRod wrote:
Thanks, mate! The black finish itself looks awesome, but sometimes I feel that it looks too plain on this one. Maybe because of the simplicity of the design.


Not sure why the photo is upside down. It's right side up on my screen. Mods, please feel free to edit.

I'd also like to add that the silver part where the blade goes in is actually an insert and works as a blade holder. The silver makes it stick out like a sore thumb and really should have been black as well.

It's removable by unscrewing both the led and blade retention screws, but would be a little hard to put back because you'd have to align the tiny holes to insert the screws again.

On the same note, once that bit is removed, it looks like the tsuba can also be removed. However, when you do that, the screw holes on the emitter will not align with the holes on the holder, and would have to be redrilled if you wanted a guardless katana.

Edit: it would take a bit of doing to remove the tsuba by the looks of it. the pic above happened because when I was unscrewing the led retention screw to change the led. the silver blade holder just slid out. it was an "oh, sh!t" moment for a while there. but i put it back with no problems.

More pics:







Overall saber rating: 8.5 / 10
Having had the saber for over a week, I feel that I've handled it enough to give a fair assessment. The parts are ok individually, but some sections are a bit sharp for my taste. I think it would take a combination of two sets of timing shims to correctly align this (and other) asp sabers as you'd be using two of the same-sized shim plus others of the included sizes.

For this particular saber, I can't see why the retention screws are silver, when in my other saber, they're black. The body with the covertec wheel aligns naturally with switch holes, but with the wheel on the same side as the holes, when they should be opposite. Maybe the covertec wheel should have been installed on the other side? Though I should mention that this switch is not the stock katana switch so that might have something to do with it.

As I mentioned in the above posts, I'll be sending this back as soon as I receive a response from cs. Initially I didn't even want to post a review but I wanted people to benefit from my experience.