So now my first "custom" saber (SF or otherwise) has arrived. I bought it the first day it went up on the website (Feb. 21st), a bit over 3 month ago. It did not disappoint since I basically wanted a ROTJ Luke saber without the control box. When I ordered it I realized thru the forum that apprentice hilts are a bit thinner than their elite counterparts, so I was a bit surprised that it was bigger than I expected it to be.
There's a few things quality wise that I noticed, nothing major and things you might expect of milled pieces like these. The speaker "grill" in the pommel doesn't sit flush in it's slot for example. It's glued there tight tho so I'll leave it be for now. The center tube that goes in the blade is a tiny bit off center so that the width of the metal on one side is slightly thicker than the opposite. Barely noticeable, nothing to freak-out about.
The all-plastic new kill-key well... it is what it is. I would've like the old ones better but I get why they went with those. Still gonna buy one on TCSS to replace it.
From what I've seen recently on the forum, I wasn't too surprised that they sent me the wrong charger (EU version) as it seems a common mistake. I also got a regular blade instead of a thin-neck one, so the film inside crumpled when I tried it on.
Still with all that, I sure love the thing! Can't fully charge it yet because of the EU charger but it's still quite bright, I'll have to check again once I get a replacement. I went with the Viridian soundboard because of the way the led is set up in thin-necks, else I would've gone warrior tier and do my own install for FoC (Spark 2). The way I figured, if you want optimum brightness, you want the center lense and 12w+ like the SF led setup so no FoC for this one and the Sabercore soundboard does a good enough job.
Now pics!
P.S. Am I part of the Emerald Knights now?