TOPIC: V2 Crystal Reveal Prodigal Son

When you get to the pictures of this saber, you might not believe it’s actually a Saber Forge Prodigal Son, because it is quite different from any standard models available on the website. But, believe me…it most certainly is! It began life as a standard finish CR Prodigal Son. Now, it is so much more! Why change such an already cool saber this much...well, this was a case of being determined to make reality match the fantasy! I had a picture of this saber in my mind, and I set out to see that picture made real.
************************************************************************************
My friends, this review has been a long time coming. As you read, you will see why it took as long as it did, but before I get into it, I will quickly reference my Exhalted review (for any that are not scared away by a VERY wordy review), as much the same reasons why I had to get this saber. I won’t rehash the obsession/compulsion I had for getting my first thin-neck, as that has not changed, and was covered pretty thoroughly in the original review. What has changed are my reasons for opting for the Exhalted, over the Redeemer, or the Prodigal Son, mostly having to do with my thinking that every saber in my collection had to be duel worthy and have a practical use. The thought of a “Shelf Queen” was unfamiliar to me, and to be honest, I did not envision ever owning enough sabers to relegate some to display only. That too has changed.

Exhalted Review

So, now we come to the saber I am actually reviewing here, but before I get to the actual “feature by feature” review, there is a history that goes with it, that I felt compelled to tell. To that end, I will start by saying that I actually received it almost a year ago. What, you say? How could I (or anyone), have a saber like the Prodigal Son Crystal Reveal for that long, and not done a review on it? Especially, when I have done reviews on many sabers that I have received since. The best answer I could offer in that regard, would be that I did not feel that what I initially received was the finished version of this saber, so how could I review it? I will delve a little deeper into that.

The decision to get a Prodigal Son was easy. It was Luke’s ROTJ saber! An absolute no brainer! Any collection has to have one of these! It’s practically a moral imperative! So, when the opportunity to get one finally arrived, I felt that giddy feeling one gets when ordering their first saber, even though I had been through the experience a few times already.

In sizing up my options, I had much to consider. I had been hankering for a Crystal Reveal saber, and those chambers had been recently improved, so why not do it on this saber! Ok, that was done. So many more options to decide on.

The Finish? Well, for this saber, there was only two real choices available. Standard, or weathered. Hmmmm….both options had their appeal, but I preferred the standard finish over the weathered for this saber, even though in the back of my mind I was picturing the movie prop with it’s very beat-up outward appearance. I knew there was no way to get THAT finish from a regular order, so Standard finish it was.

Sound! Which sound option? At the time, the only choices were Hero (NEC), or Champion (SaberCore2). I liked the Veridim font, but in order to really make this saber sound the way I wanted it to sound, it was going to require a sound font offered from a third-party to be loaded to it, and to do that, it had to be Hero. So, Hero it was!

LED Color. One would have thought this was an easy selection. Green, or perhaps even Lime Green. Here is where my resolve was tested, and I failed. It was suggested to me that with the RGBA option, I could have any color I wanted! Wow! That sounded great…at the time. I would quickly come to regret that choice. But, the die was cast, and the process had begun.

Now, fast forward a few weeks, and the saber is delivered to my front door. I was excited, but not as excited as I should have been. Something was bugging me. I opened that Toblerone of Joy, and went through the items. Of course, I went straight for the saber. Once unwrapped, and I looked at it…damn it! That feeling again! Good, but not quite the picture I had in my mind. That weather beaten conglomeration of parts that blazes into bright green fire, to become the weapon of a Jedi Knight. There was nothing wrong with the saber itself. It was exactly what I ordered. Everything worked perfectly, including the RGBA LED.

I began to experiment with the functions of the soundboard, including the sound fonts, which were very good. The auxiliary effects, satisfying. The “rotate to change colors”…yup. It worked. I cycled through the pre-configured colors, knowing I could edit the settings to create more, or different ones. When I got to the green, I stopped for a moment. I looked at it, almost willing it to be the blinding green I was imagining, but it was not. The single LED providing the Green color was doing its best, but one die just can’t be as bright, and satisfying as three, or four. Plus, since this is a thin-neck, the total amount of light put out by that single die was being further constricted through that little tube, which by all accounts, has about a 10% dimming effect. Not a big deal under normal circumstances, but 10% off the output of a single die is more noticeable.

Then I unscrewed the halves of the main body to expose the crystal chamber. The spring action on it felt very strong. It was well crafted, and sturdy. When ignited, the crystal showed in whatever color the blade was displaying. It was pretty cool. But, I was just not feeling it like I should have been.

Let me say again, there was absolutely NOTHING wrong with this saber. It was exactly what I ordered, and everything was functioning. The techs did their job when building this saber. No complaints there. The problem was ME. I was holding exactly what I ordered, but yearning for what I was imagining.

Many times, I started to write a review. Every time it ended in frustration when I found myself attempting to portray enthusiasm for a saber that I had come to admit twixt myself, was not inspiring me to devote that kind of time. It felt like a project only half complete. When it finally dawned upon me what I really wanted, I resolved to write that review…once the saber was really finished, whenever that might be. Then the enthusiasm that was lost on any efforts to review the saber, turned to enthusiastic efforts to find someone who could make this saber match my vision.

The answer to that question was to be found right here in our midst! I had spent a couple of weeks looking at posts in the various saber groups, and here on the forums, and I did not feel any closer to making a decision. Then I saw a post from one of our members, who was already known as accomplished saber smith. He was showing the latest examples of his work on the forum, and I found my interest piqued. After what I recall to be a fairly quick process of Q&A, I had settled on that very person. After an equally quick negotiation concerning what I wanted, we came to terms. An invoice was issued, approved, and paid. The saber was packaged, sent, and tracked all the way to the designated artisan. Our very own Jas-OT!

Now, I will say right off the bat, that due to some unforeseen circumstances, the engagement took longer than either of us could have anticipated. However, I never viewed the delay as any violation of our agreement. Rather just an unexpected extension of it. I was not in any particular hurry to get the saber back, so the extra time was no imposition. I deemed it a worthwhile investment. We talked frequently during the ensuing months about the saber, but also got to know each other a little, getting to the point of sharing some historical, and current accounts of our respective lives. In short, I originally engaged someone to do a heavy modification on my saber, and due to those same unforeseen circumstances, gained a friend by the time the work was completed.

During that time, he shared with me his ever developing plans for how, and what he was going to do, in order to bring about the transformation I wanted. Every detail he shared sounded great to me, because every finalized detail meant that once the work actually began, there would be a plan of action in place which would account for all contingencies. Early on, he shared a picture of a finished ROTJ saber representing the “V2” treatment, basically saying this was what we were going to achieve with my Prodigal Son. It was absolutely PERFECT! That was what my saber was meant to be, and exactly what I wanted it to be! In addition to the beaten, and worn finish, the saber sported a Graflex Clamp, and lever, a circuit card, and the cone shaped greeblie that I had come to recognize as the mark of any screen accurate ROTJ saber. Another change that I asked for was the replacement of the RGBA LED with the brightest green LED possible. As you will see in the photos, that was exactly what I got.

At some point, he shared with me that the crystal chamber represented a bit of a problem, because it limited the space he had to work with in the hilt, and it was going to take some ingenuity to get everything to fit. He was able to do this by re-arranging some things like the activation button, and the RCP. He also added a chassis to keep things together, and organized inside the hilt. The finishing touch was the “Luke Hero” sound font that I obtained from the SaberFont site. I sent the compressed files, and he loaded it on the first bank.

During the build process, I was sent a lot of progress pictures, and with each one, I saw my vision inching ever closer to realization. It was exciting to watch the process of change! I have said this on numerous occasions, and I still feel it’s true. Folks who do this kind of work fall into two categories. The first are those who do what is asked, get paid, and move on to the next saber. Rinse, build, repeat. Then there are those that pay such attention to infinitesimal details, and essentially express their artistic side through their saber building. They absolutely refuse to settle for anything less than perfection. Fortunately for me, I got the latter, and it shows in the finished product, as you will see.

So, that is the story of how my Prodigal son came to be as it is. My sincere thanks to Jas-OT for his efforts, ingenuity, perseverance, attention to detail, and artistry in making this saber what I really wanted! If any of you are looking for this level of service, I could not offer a more sincere endorsement.

Pictures, and technical review coming soon after the saber arrives tomorrow. However, I won’t leave you without anything after having read that huge write-up. So, here is a little preview…

Specs, as provided by Jas-OT

Client wanted to convert it into a V2 with realistic weathering and a brighter blade. PS was completely gutted, stripped and replaced with:

-- G/G/G/W Cree LED
-- Crystal chamber rewired
-- Roman Props Stamped Graflex Clamp
-- Slothfurnance V2 clamp card
-- V2 lever by Solo's Hold
-- Hidden 2.1mm RCP under clamp
-- Under card main and aux switches
-- Goth-3Designs 1.11" chassis
-- Custom weathering
-- Spark Color 2 soundboard
-- 18650 Panasonc 3400Mah Li-Ion battery
-- 28mm Bass speaker

For reference, this is what it looked like when I sent it to Jas-OT...




And it became this...



More to come...

Oh...I can't do that to you guys! You deserve more after the effort to read that story!

Here are the rest of the pics Jas-OT provided just before he packaged it up. I will take some of my own, but his were sent via FB Messenger, so they were already the right size for the forum. Mine would have to be converted (taking more time), and they likely won't be any better than these.

That beat to hell finish!








Crystal chamber never looked so good!





Even the card is weathered!

Cone shaped Greeblie! *Squee*



Graflex Clamp BABY!



Grenade section never looked so good, looking bad!!



Tomorrow, after it arrives, I will get more into actually reviewing the technical features, and the saber as a whole, but I could not wait to share with you the saber I have really been waiting all my life for!

Yeah, you'd better have more than one pic after that story. That was almost as epic as the movies themselves.

Well, it was a saga a year in the making, from start to finish. Many months to realize what I needed to do, and months getting it done! After putting anyone through the chronicles of that journey, they deserved the payoff.

I'm just glad you are finally able to get the saber how you want it. I know how it is to be disappointed with a saber you were looking forward to, though that was more to design issues.

What an outstanding conversion. A beautiful Luke V2 in every way. Very tastefully done.

Everything you said about Jas is 100% true. He just did a standard install on my ASP, nothing like the extensive work he did on your saber, but I wasn't just impressed with the work he did, which was excellent. I had never had an install done before, and my ASP was to be the crown jewel of my collection, so I had roughly half a million questions, to the point where I was afraid I might be becoming a nuisance. But Jas was always super friendly and willing to help. I've even gone to him for questions about several other things that I was trying to do myself, and he always took the time to answer. He really earned a friend in me, and I gladly throw my endorsement in with yours!

Thank you so much for such a wonderful review and praise. As I've said privately, I hope my work even remotely lives up to such praise.

Awesome saber Brax and props to Jas-Ot indeed; that's a beautiful conversion and damn... even though I am on the other spectrum (despite the V2 version having a definite sex appeal, I do prefer it to be somewhere in between the clean and V2 version), I do definitely now have to reconsider on that clamp - cause damn
It seems that clamp should always just've been on Luke's lightsaber, no matter screen accuracy; that is a definite awesome edition that I might take inspiration from for in the future.

This was a labor of love and quite a bit of problem solving to complete. The addition of SF's Crystal Reveal feature really upped the difficulty level on this one to get everything arranged hidden in the hilt. The RCP was the biggest challenge but I managed to create a novel solution that safely hides it, but provides easy access without compromising on the over all look. Even the kill key is safely tucked away,

There are hours and hours of work in the weathering. Pictures barely do it justice, up close you can really see the detail, and the hilt really does look every bit the part of a purely functional saber pieced together from scraps recovered from Kenobi's hut.

I'm particularly proud of the clamp and the detail there. Maybe Brax can snap some pics that will showcase it.

I also must give credit to Brax, he was awesome to work with and as he said in his review we really got to know each other and I consider him a good friend.

Well I see that you and I got our Cone Greebly from the same source , I am still afraid to weather the grenade area of mine, I should send it to you Jas lol. Looks good, congratz to Brax on getting and Jas on the work.

Vechaljian wrote:
Dude, I'd totally weather it for ya

Jas-Ot wrote: I'm looking at Brax/your V2 and mine right now and thinking other than my Clean clamp and my clean grenade sections , I didn't do half bad compared, when I can do some afford extra work I'll be talking to you

Just one more post on this thread, to show the display box, which has become it's permanent home. Some of you have already seen it in another thread, but for posterity's sake, I thought it was a good way to complete the review.

Awesomeness all round. I'm not much of a fan of the thin necked sabers but this one is so fine. The box is inspiring.

Impressive transformation, that looks sweet!

I don't read Aurabesh, but while looking for patterns in the writing, it only took me a few seconds to figure out what it says.