TOPIC: Champion 12W+ Purple Bastion + Day Blade and stand

Well My first SF saber arrived today, a Purple 12w+ Champion edition Bastion in standard finish. This review is going to be focused on first impressions, and my overall experience with ordering, receiving, and finally holding my first SF saber.

The decision to go with a Bastion hilt boiled down to a couple key factors:
1) Price – being my first “Custom” saber I didn’t want to put in $400-600 for something that I may find out I don’t really like. The apprentice line at $325 for a champion edition seemed low enough that I could stomach it if it turned out to be not so great.
2) Design – I was looking for something that had an Old Republic look and feel to it, with a simple elegance in the design. It needed to look good but also reflect functionality.

After some debate I decided to go with an Etsy order since I didn’t need any customization on the saber beyond what was available via the Etsy store. With the relaunch of the Etsy store, the quick shipment was also a huge plus. I placed the order on Sunday the 24th, and received it today, the 29th. Only 5 business days for build and shipping. Knowing that in the past shipments have taken as long as 4-5 months, 5 days is quite the blessing! I also took advantage of the Xmas in July sale and received an extra blade plug, a saber stand and a day blade for no extra charge. Not to mention the 10% off. Pretty great deal, and so far my experience was very positive. If I had one critique of the ordering process it would be the use of USPS priority mail. Their package tracking leaves room for improvement.
I received the Saber and extra goodies in the typical long triangular priority shipping box. Packaging was decent. Having read through other reviews and having watched unboxing videos nothing came as a surprise. Everything was bagged or wrapped in bubble wrap and nothing was damaged.

First impressions of the saber:
1) Looks – it looks great. The design is simple, but elegant. No extra do-dads to get in the way, nothing extra fancy, but just enough design elements to catch your eye. The emitter windows look fantastic and really do help draw the eye.




2) Feel – It’s light. Probably a good half pound lighter than I was expecting. It’s a little shorter than I expected and could probably benefit from an extra half to three quarter inches added to the main body. The hilt is comfortable in the hand and the size feels right. I have held and own a couple sabers that are thicker and don’t “feel right” in the hand. This feel much more like a hilt designed for a human and for combat.




3) Construction – The machining is tight with no burs. The powder coating is excellent and provides a great contrast to the polished aluminum body. The “switch section” grooves do have sharp edges however. While every other edge on the saber has been chamfered, this area seems to have been missed. Spinning the saber in my hand I could feel the edges biting between the thumb and forefinger ever so slightly. Not enough to cut but it was noticeable and did scratch up my hand a bit.

4) Accessories – I received two of the newer Lazerforge blade plugs and they look great. No complaints here. The Saber stand I received was the basic “Falcon” stand, I received it for free but it just doesn’t seem to be worth the $30 asking price. It’s a nice looking stand, but I couldn’t see paying more than $20 for it. The tolerances on the braces for the stand are very tight, and I managed to break the main brace trying to put it together. I like that the stand was added for free, but IMO the stand needs a little work.




5) Blades – the V4 blade looks great, it’s solid, and can take a beating. Not much more to say here. We beat it around against another saber and felt very solid. The weight of the blade really made the saber spin fast but it wasn’t so much as to pull the saber out of control. The blade was bright and fairly evenly lit. there is some slight base flare, but this is common.
DAY BLADE – This was a cool addition. The blade is purple and does have diffusion film wrapped inside. The tip appears to be a different material and doesn’t shine through very well. That being said the blade does give off a pretty cool effect. The core is very bright with an almost black halo around it. Very stunning in person and not easily captured in a picture. It’s not as bright as the standard blade, but it looks great in its own way and under lights really stands out.



DAY BLADE:



STANDARD BLADE:



6) Overall impression – I’m pretty satisfied with this saber. There are some minor complaints but nothing that would keep me from buying from SF again. I feel like the hilt needs to be just a little longer than it is and the switch section edges need to be smoothed out.

I’ve only had the saber in hand for a handful hours now, so I will be doing a follow up in a week or two.

Great review Jas-Ot! Saber looks great! The Bastion is my favorite of the apprentice hilts (love those windows on the emitter!). The purple looks fantastic also. Thanks for pointing out that the day blade has the film inside--I thought they came without it. Congrats & Enjoy!

DK44 wrote:
I agree, there was something about the way this saber looked that just kept catching my eye. All the other apprentice line sabers look great, but there was just something about the Bastion that really stood out.

Good review, congratz on the Bastion. I have one too, and agree it's one of the smartest looking Apprentice lines. It's very light and feels light when you spin it etc.

Interesting about the purple Day Blade. I'm waiting on mine and your opinion confirms what I was guessing, that it gives a deeper impression of the LED color but not necessarily brighter than the standard V4 Infinity blade. The standard blades may look brighter because of the washed-white effect of the plastic tube but not necessarily a closer impression of the LED color.

Very nice Bastion and equally beautiful color. My wife has one in pink and wants one in purple also. Now I see why. Congrats!

Phenomenal review! Congrats. The Bastion is amazing hilt and one of my favorites. I completely agree with you in that the emitter windows are Amazing but the saber does have a "light" feel to it. That just makes it a faster hilt in performance.

Greysider wrote:
I would highly recommend getting a purple day blade for it. The effect on it is REALLY cool. Worth the cost IMO.

Follow up Review part 1:

I've had the saber for a few days now and put it through plenty of real life scenarios over the weekend.
Some light dueling with my son, showing it people, displaying it and just generally playing with it. So here's my first follow up review:

I'll start with my critiques:

1) Machining - The hilt looks great, everyone who sees it or holds it says, "Wow!". But there are sharp edges, namely around the "switch section". Playing with the saber and some light dueling highlighted this. I had multiple occasions where the sharp edges scraped my hand and felt uncomfortable. This could be easily fixed by polishing down the edges with a dremel and polishing wheel

2) Retention screws - Like any good company trying to keep costs down and standardizing equipment, I'm sure SF has a standard retention screw with a standard length they use. They probably work fantastic in the majority of their sabers because they match the depth of the wall of the blade emitter. On the Bastion the screws are set into a recessed grove and they stick out. Choking your hand up the hilt or spinning the saber those retention screws stick out far enough that they catch the skin and can scrape or cut. Easily solved by cutting them down the 1/8" or so.

3) Blade power on effect - There really isn't one. It's just instant on. Powering down the blade you get the dimming effect. I feel like there should be a similar effect for the power on.

4) Blaster deflection (Veridian font) - I loved the idea of the blaster deflection sound effect, however the sound font used sounds like an AT-AT firing and not like a saber deflecting a bolt. It's not just my ears, others thought the same thing.

Now the Raves:

1) Looks - Did I mention this thing is gorgeous? There is something about the simplicity of the design that just makes the hilt pop. it really is an elegant.

2) Feel - It just feels like the right size in your hand. I think it could benefit from a little extra length, but that could just be my size of hands.

3) Day Blade - SOOOOOOO cool. The tip doesn't illuminate as nicely as the standard V4 blade, but the effect the day blade gives off is really cool. It looks nearly movie accurate to Windu's purple saber in ROTS. It has a nice deep dark purple halo around a bright light purple core. It's also plenty sturdy, we beat the heck out of it over the weekend. No idea if the other colors of day blades have the same effect, but if you own a purple or pink saber head over to the storefront right now and go buy a purple day blade. Seriously, do it now... STOP READING and go buy it.... Did you buy it?

4) Stand - Initially I was disappointed a bit with the saber stand, but I've started to change my mind on it. I realized it will hold 3 hilts or blades, up to 4 blade plugs and it really looks sharp on a bookshelf with a hilt parked on top. I'm not sure if I think it's worth the $30 price, but it is very nice looking and offers some great utility as well.

Now my observations:

1) Blade flicker effects - Kind of on the fence on the flicker effects from the Saber Core 2.0 board. Part of me likes them, part of me doesn't. I can't really decide here. I think if there was a more random timing offset on the flicker it would help. As it functions now it's just a strobe.

2) Swing and Clash - Trying to figure out the perfect setting. Trying to dial them in seems to result in either swing sounds constantly or random clashing when not hitting anything. The clash seems to activate best when the hilt is jostled itself, rather than if something impacts the blade. I'm sure this is just a matter of figuring out what settings work best, but I feel like there should be a default setting that is pretty spot on.

3) Blade plugs - The plugs themselves are really cool looking. They a feel a little long though for this hilt. The top of the plug sits right above the blade emitter. On one hand it looks cool, but on the other hand it would feel a little more "accurate" if they sat recessed in a bit. The emitter windows might make that look funky as well though. Hard to say without trying it.

4) SF Lightsabers are crack - Like any product there are always things that can be improved or specific tastes that can alter an opinion. And while that is true here, it's also true that they are possibly as addicting as crack. I mean seriously, I'm going to need a second job to support this habit. This is my first SF saber and I'm extremely impressed. Phil and his team have done a great job to produce a quality product.

I love the Bastion! I got pretty much the same thing (the same deal also) only with the crimson sound font and I went for the black finish. I was wondering which kill key you got, I got the older style. I also noticed that the retention screw for the blade plug was at the top of the emitter on mine instead of where the one on yours is, wondering if this is a new design or just a one off. I still love it but was just curious about the differences in design.