A couple of days ago, the wait had finally ended for me, I have received my first replica grade lightsaber ever!!
The Toblerone arrived my office on Monday the 22nd and shipping to Hong Kong was fairly reasonable. I ordered my saber on Dec 7th and received notification about it being made on Feb 7th then the saber was picked up on the 15th. Overall there wasn't much delay in the build and the delivery except that USPS kept giving me weird notifications.
I have always loved the saber used by Obi-Wan in EP 1, the clean and modern feel to it just catches my attention. I have had my eyes on this saber for a month or 2 until I finally decided on making the purchase. I have done my share of research before that and compared it to other maker's version of this saber; I have to say that the Avenger by Saber Forge looked the best to me amongst the others.
Let's get on to some of the specs of my order.
Tier: Champion
Hilt Finish: Standard
Blade Colour: Artic Blue
Blade Type: 32 inches
LED: 12W (Upgraded to 12W+ by SF)
Quick Connect: No
Belt Clasp: Yes
Sound Font: Viridium
In-hilt Charging: Yes
Now when I ordered the saber, I was contemplating on putting Quick Connect on or not and ended up deciding not to do it because I didn't feel like I would need to change the colour of it. I did get nervous a little about the colour I chose and thought that the shade of blue wouldn't be similar to what it looked like in EP1. I also was unaware that there was a 12W+ when I made the purchase and when I found out, SF already discontinued the post-ordering add on service. HOWEVER, SF ended up upgrading my saber to a 12W+ anyway because the old 12W had officially been discontinued, so I guess I saved a little bit of money from this.
I opened the box and took out the items in it and there it was.
The hilt was fantastic! It was unexpectedly hefty for me as I had only held the Hasbro's and MR's light sabers before. The whole design to the saber was closely detailed with reference to the one onscreen and books. The blade plug did a very nice touch to the entire feel to it, the black and silver matched the Avenger really well. The whole hilt and it's parts were made with crisp and clean cut edges, but I must say that some of the edges might have been too crisp to the point that it was sharp. On my saber, the grip area was the sharpest which affected a little bit of my experience on holding onto it. I later took a 1200 sandpaper and sanded out some of the edges on the grip as well as the little rectangles on the pommel.
Charged the hilt until the power supply was green and I ignited the saber with the blade plug on. WOW it was bright, I mean I knew it was going to be bright but seeing it in person just blew me away. The light came out from the blade plug and looked amazing!
Now this got me excited about finally putting the blade in there and see how it looked ignited like that. So I quickly looked for the Allen key for the blade retention screw. Wait-a-minute...where's the blade retention screw...where's that hole? I looked around the whole hilt and I only found one, and it wasn't for the blade...I panicked and thought I might have to send the saber back because there wasn't a hole drilled for the blade retention screw (though I did thought about why the blade plug would be stuck in the hilt). Luckily, OvrcAHst came to the rescue and gave me insights about what might have been the issue.
Apparently, SF had changed the design a little and instead of drilling another hole on the emitter area, they made the 3 silver hex-screws on the emitter area the retention screws! Although an Allen key was provided when the package arrived, it was the size for standard rentention screws for the hilts. In the Avenger's case, the 3 retention screws requires a bigger Allen key which is 3mm. Good thing I had a set of Allen keys in the office so I was finally able to get the blade plug out. One thing to note is that the blade plug might be a bit tighter to get out the first time (at least in my case it was).
With the 32 inch blade plugged in, now I'm ready. I must say, SF did deliver something beyond my expectation. Upon igniting the Avenger with the 12W+ Arctic Blue, I was soooo overjoyed! The Viridium sound font was good, it did give me the vibe that a lightsaber should. I played around with the settings and I figured that I was happy with the flickering at 5, sound on low, impact sensitivity and motion sensor at 9.
I was testing the saber in the conference room so I took it out with me ignited, my colleagues mostly gave me the "omg what are you doing" kinda look; they were probably used to it though since my cubicle were just filled with toys and stuff.
Overall, unboxing the Avenger was very exciting for me. Wielding it in my hand did make my day and I am now seriously thinking about utilizing the ASP later on and perhaps making a control box-less Graflex or an original hilt with red blade. To some people, the saber's price might be a bit expensive but I do feel that I was happy with this product and worth while for someone that appreciates the design.
Thank you Saber Forge!
Hope you guys liked this review!