TOPIC: Hero Bane Weathered review.

Hi guys,
This will be my first official review so please forgive me if i rant off-topic.

Received my first saber from SF. It is an Hero-Tier Bane Weathered. Here is quick summary of my order timelines

Ordered 2016-06-02
Shipped 2016-08-15
Left Workshop 2016-09-14
Arrived West Coast Canada 2017-09-17
(Canada Post took over and put it on a donkey and travelled across the country)
Arrived on my doorstep 2016-09-26

Here are some pics that i would like to share with you. (Will share more once i complete my testing and review comments)











First word that i thought of when i unwrapped my saber from the package was "menacing".
Truly does have that look and description. I could not close my mouth after opening the box as my mouth hit the ground in utter awe of this piece of work.

Unfortunately when i opened up the package, two things which were just a slight delay was:
1. Kill key was dislodged and so the saber was totally dead when i tried to ignite it. Charged it after a few hours and it started up nicely.
2. Allen key was not included. Quick search in my toolbox fixed that delay.

Visual Impressions of the saber.
I apologize to those that are multiple saber owners. This is my first saber. i am biased when i say that i am very impressed with the look and feel just because it is my first saber and have no other sabers in my collection to compare (as of yet). The only weaponry I collect are some chinese weapons such as the Nandao(chinese broadsword) that was given to me by my close friend (a wu-shu grandmaster).

The weathered look definitely adds to its 'menacing' description. I examined the detail of the design and found very little/no flaws on the build other than some gaps at the hilt where the light can escape (which has been reported by other Bane-saber owners).
Funny thing to mention, got my parents to ignite the saber and it was so funny to see their facial expression especially from a 70yr old. I bet they reminisced the time they took me to see Episode 4 in theaters Moving forward to the 2nd generation, i got my two toddler daughters to ignite it and their smiles are priceless. Definitely a bit heavy for them and i may consider apprentice sabers down the line for them A lot of sharp edges on the hilt. Will have to smooth those edges so that i can rotate the saber properly .

My height is 5'8 and a 32" blade was ideal length for me (hold the hilt to your waist and hope the blade lines up perfect height to your head then you have the correct length).

Functionality of the saber.
I knew coming in that when purchasing a hero tier CURVED-HILT that rotating throught the different colors will be a hassle. That is absolutely correct. At the moment, i cannot fully comment on this section because i am still running into issues navigating through the colors. I am at the moment navigating through the forums to answer some questions i have before i decide to approach CS.
One thing which is totally a fault on my own was that i had thought we would be provided a cord that can connect the saber directly to the computer so that we can use the SparkColor Config Editor, but then found out we would need to open up the hilt ourselves to take out the card and insert it into a card reader (which I would need to purchase).
So, i was trying the alternate approach which is directly editing the colors in the saber itself. Unusual issue is when i enter into Saber Configuration mode, the saber automatically keeps altering the color without me pressing the button to change. Very frustrating but hopefully this should get rectified soon the more i test with it.

Curved hilt versus basic hilt.
Why did i chose this hilt? It is something definitely out of the 'norm'. I respect the name given to this as i am an avid fan of the Bane trilogy books. For those who actually train in weaponry-handling know that posture is critical when wielding. A sword is supposed to be extension of your arm and for this type of hilt it requires modification to your posture to really utilize its strengths. Sorry ranting off-topic a bit
Conventional hilt has always been comfortable for me. Wanting to try this new style is a curiosity that i find no regret in taking.

Overall Impression.
I love the saber. I keep gripping it and can't shake off the grin on my face. Despite the frustration points mentioned above i like this saber a lot. This will not be my last SF saber that is for sure.

I will keep you guys posted and will share more pics once i get this up and tested. I appreciate those who took the time to read this and would love to hear back from any of you with questions or comments to the questions i have. We are all one saber family here.

Congrats, HugoMontoya! Very nice! You are right, it does look quite menacing with that weathering.

If you are feeling gutsy, you can alter the twist sensitivity. This means you are more likely to get a color change while swinging it, but I find this helps.

There is a setting called gYZThresh that I would set to 165 or greater. That may help. It can be done by downloading the Spark Color 2 Config Editor from http://www.saberigniter.com/sparkcolor2.aspx or changing the setting directly in the master.ini file.

Either way, if you do remove your SD card, do it CAREFULLY and don't yank on your speaker or you may break wires. And back up your SD card (copy the files to your computer) before you do anything else just in case something in your files gets messed up.

I suggesting checking out the manual for your board (also downloadable from the same link above) to find all of your settings.

Great Saber! I think you'll enjoy it!

Damn nice Bane HugoMontoya! Every time I look at one of these in weathered finish it reminds me of the Alien movie franchise. Doesn't get much more menacing than that. Congrats.

hi all. Just wanted to provide you all an update.
Had some great conversations with SF CS. They were quick to respond and we went through some numerous activities.
We tried the following:
1) Re-seat SD Card RESULT: Same issue but noticed saber shut off more often now
2) Downloaded default files and overwrote the SD Card. RESULT: Was able to load different colors with the different fonts, however it did not remove the original problem.

CS has asked me to now send it back to them. Totally sucked that i could not fully experience this saber after opening it from the box. Halloween did not go as planned as i only carried this saber around for display purpose only. Everyone admired the design (including myself), i just avoided to ignite it that much.

So as i am preparing to ship it back home i do have a question to this audience, has anyone from an international location had to return their saber for work? Any special method of delivery to ship it to them? Pricing all ranges in terms of delivery speed and do we cover the full cost? My last email to them asked these questions and am waiting for their response.

HI guys.
Just to update you all. Sent by saber in and got it returned in the mail (fill in RMA form as repair and when it comes back you should not have to pay for any customs $$$).
From the documentation, they replaced the soundboard. got a new kill key which snuggles in nicely.
Initial testing the saber is intact and does not shut off.
Went into the Spark color config editor program and was trying to change the colors, however, the default settings and color display on the editor program does not reflect the actual color of the saber. My memory seems to have lapsed these past few months. How do we know what our initial LED settings are on our saber. I went on a youtube instructional link regarding this config editor and he mentioned to make sure you know your correct LED settings so that you can put that info into the config editor (Options--) Color Settings).
Anyone know

I tried the alternate of just using the hilt itself to change the colors but for some reason i cannot even get to the instruction options (held the hilt facing down and held the AUX key to no affect).