TOPIC: Instead of complaints, how about some stories?!

So, I've noticed there is a bit of dredging going on for the Saberforge crew right now, what with all their record breaking sales, new build options, media coverage... Additionally, I'm sure they're stressing about the new facilities move, waves of new (rookie) customers, and having to let go their shipping person.

I think it would be awesome to start a thread with some stories/favorite moments your saber has brought to you. It'll be cool to hear from a lot of people, plus it'll kind of lighten the mood that has come of late upon the saber builders/technicians.

I'll start off by sharing one of mine in dramatic fashion (for fun) :

[Note: I owned a Master Replica's saber in this story, but have since purchased a SF saber and it is way more awesome than MR. Unfortunately, MR is all I had that was affordable and of good quality at the time. Hopefully I will have more stories like the one below with my new saber as my wife really wants one too]

Not long ago, in our galaxy right here, as a 13 year old boy, I obtained a Master Replica's saber. It was glorious. Many times the icy blue blade pierced the night while I ignited it in the frosty outdoors, being ferociously twirled and twisted time and time again as hordes of invisible enemies were slain. The more I experienced the childhood-dream-turned-reality device, the more the eagerness to include my friends was unbearable. They too would understand this immense emotion of wonderment and astonishment as I had. Luck would have it, soon after I received my priceless treasure, a father-son camp out was scheduled for myself and many of my peers. This. This would be the time and place to utterly blow minds and staple this camp out as one for the ages. Activity scheduled for the camp out? Capture the flag. At night. In the woods. It couldn't be more perfect.

We show up to the camp out, half forest, half beach-lagoon in deep south Louisiana, and I keep it hidden. Dusk began to settle in after we set up our tents and eaten a stereotypical camp-out dinner of hotdogs and chips... The anticipation alone of brandishing my new toy was virtually impossible to mask. Everything else became a blur, until the announcement that were about to be ready to begin the bout of our seizing hidden cloths. Unsuspectingly, I went to my tent to go get my "flashlight."

It was dark. It was cold. My excitement crackled in the air.

I spotted my victim. I wasn't going to reveal my saber as a drink is served by a waiter; no. I was going to come in, stealthily, then explode into the area as I knew none my age nearby were prepared to witness, nor knew of, the device's existence.

He was one of my best friends. He was sitting and conversing with the only other two people around the fire (the rest had gathered elsewhere in preparation for the forthcoming game). I lurked slyly around the bushes which flanked the sizable bonfire built by the fathers. The flames lapped no more than 4 feet high, but abreast it was 8 feet in diameter, making it possible to traverse if enough momentum was gained. I positioned myself directly across from him, gripped the cool, metal hilt, let out a long, silent, steam-producing breath, and exploded forward.

With 3 long, quick strides, I reached the edge of the roaring fire. A mixture of hot and glacial air whipped against my face as I launched myself upward and across the coals and flames. As if it happened in slow motion, I animated my elegant weapon mid-flight, with it exposing the full length of the blade right as I unevenly appeared through the smoke. I landed on my forward leg, rapidly thwarting my momentum, for the remaining distance was a mere 2 yards. As I impacted the sand, it gave way and I slid right upon him, bringing the glowing blade inches from his neck while my other hand grasped his shoulder. As soon as I hit him, and his face washed with terror-stricken, utter surprise, there was only one phrase in my mind deemed worthy:

"All too easy." I growled (Although there was a heavy musk of humor at his flabbergasted and helpless expression, so it wasn't bred from anger).

Needless to say, it made capture the flag incredibly awesome. Also, he remembers that moment to this day, as do I. That night, we went through several rounds of spare batteries while we took turn after turn playing with it. It was pure bliss.

tl:dr I got a saber in the winter, jumped over a fire at my friend and scared the crap out of him before chasing around people while we played capture the flag at a father-son camp out.

He bought one two weeks later and we had a blast many a nights for months to come.

I know it was a lengthy post, but I loved my first communal experience with my lightsaber and wanted to share it in a fun way.

What's your favorite story with you saber?

That is a great story! Thanks for sharing.

Instead of a first dance, thylacinewings and I had a lightsaber fight when we got married a couple weeks ago.

We double-killed each other, she jabbed me in the ribs as I slashed her across the chest.

She's got a video somewhere of my older step son taking off both my thumbs with her pike shortly afterwards.

My first experience with any sort of lightsaber beyond the cheap extendable bladed ones was with a Luke RotJ Hasbro Force FX lightsaber, which I still have. When I received it as a birthday present from my parents when I was probably no older than 10 or 12 years old, I was soooo excited that I tore into that box about as quickly as humanly possible to see it. Of course, at the time it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen in my life. I've been a fan of the franchise since I was 4 or 5 years old when I first saw A New Hope (then still only known as Star Wars I believe) on LaserDisc in my grandparent's basement in the early 90s.

It's still a relatively nice looking saber, but at the time I didn't recognize the huge discrepancy between this "replica" and the movie prop, ie: the not-so-thin neck on the Force FX saber.

Fast-forward to last year when I began searching the web for a higher quality hilt that I could call my own. After searching for a few hours, I stumbled upon SaberForge and instantly fell in love with the hilts. Initially, I thought about going straight for a Prodigal Son or a Redeemer due to nostalgia alone. Instead, I chose to forge my own path and elected to order the Epoch 6W Cyan blade.

I couldn't be happier with my choice to choose SaberForge as my saber company of choice, three sabers either received or in the works and that doesn't look to be changing any time soon lol. Hopefully I'll soon be able to get my hands on either the Prodigal Son or Redeemer I've always wanted, maybe both depending on tax returns next year . I look forward to continuing my support for this fantastic company for years to come. Thank you for making this Star Wars fan's dream come true!

That's awesome! I just got married a few weeks ago too! Also, I did just see a viral video of a couple having a lightsaber fight at their wedding... Is that you?!

When I was ten years old, I had my first experience with a replica Lightsaber. I started getting into Star Wars just after my 8th birthday. Saw the RotS premiere at a local theatre dressed up with a banged up telescopic lightsaber and my Darth Vader Voice Changer mask. It was a magical experience and something that set me down a path I still haven't recovered from (and frankly don't have any reason to!).

Star Wars quickly became my life. From watching the movies and Cartoons, to collecting action figures and roleplaying. Shortly after my 10th Birthday, my parents and I were attending a business dinner somewhere out of town. I remember my dad leaving early but don't remember exactly why. Around 8pm, my mom pulled me away to tell me it was time to head home; giving some silly excuse about it being bedtime. 8pm was a little early for my taste (not surprisingly) so I put up a fuss. She dragged me home, put me to bed without so much of a word and closed my door behind her. After a few minutes of quiet seething, I think I drifted off to sleep. My next waking moments really changed my life. I remember being awoken at something like close-to-midnight by the sound of Darth Vader's breathing. There was a bright red light and the ignition of a lightsaber as my dad turned the corner into my room. I squinted, burying my head in my pillow for a few seconds before remembering that I didn't own anything remotely realistic enough to make that noise. My eyes shot open and I sat straight up, watching as my dad pulled off the ill-fitting mask with a huge grin on his face. He held up the glowing saber before igniting another equally bright Blue one, yanking me out of bed and jumping back with the words 'Come on, let's duel!'. I don't think either of us got much sleep that night.

Back in August, years after having gotten rid of the Master Replica Force FX lightsabers (Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker Episode III) after literally clashing them into the ground, I discovered Saberforge. Memories flooded back to me as I remembered the late nights in our dew-covered yard, swinging these incredible replicas around for hours. There was no need to make swooshing noises or shine a flashlight into the base of the blade. These things were as real as they got. And now, the stakes were truly raised. I rushed to the phone, called up my father after hastily emailing him an Etsy link and said 'Look at this. Look at this and drool'. I could almost hear him smiling on the other end of the call as he paused before replying 'Don't buy one... I'm getting us two for Christmas'. We're now anxiously awaiting the arrival of four sabers ( we overdid it, but we're not sorry) for an epic duel.

Thank you, Saberforge. for renewing that childlike wonder in both myself and my father that I didn't think I'd ever see again.

Autski wrote:
Nah. Our wedding was far less formal, just us and the kids. A friend who is ordained did the ceremony for us in his backyard, while his wife and daughter witnessed. The wedding itself was several months earlier than we'd originally planned, due to some things going on in our lives right now.

We'd been planning for lightsabers to be part of it for a couple months, and were kind of miffed when that video came out, because now everyone accuses us of stealing the idea from them.

Well isn't that heartwarming!

Thanks for the initiative Autski! Great idea!

Very nice to read abour your stories people! Mine don't involve sabers (as I don't own one yet) but I'll make sure to share these with you when I do have some. Don't worry, I WILL have stories to share!

@SupremusTotus: Oh my gosh. That is so incredibly awesome. He wins dad of the century... Twice. Haha Like, that made me want to go get several more right now and hand them out to my siblings and others to have an awesome duel. I feel the same sentiment for my saber now! Definitely digging up some childhood nostalgia.

@Afadir: I gotcha. Yeah, unfortunately original ideas that happen to be around the time something viral comes out gets plastered as "copying." I fully believe your duel with your wife was many times more fun than the video I saw. In the video, it was cute/cool for about 15-20 seconds... Then they just kind of repeated the same, simple moves. Maybe it would have been much better if I would have known them or would have been there. Idk

@Faethien: Sure thing! I think hear from others is always a neat way to see how the Star Wars fascination was embedded. We all have a mutual, profound love and interest for Star Wars, but to see how we all became "initiated" is really quite extraordinary and intriguing.

Not going to lie I think this has become my favorite thread.

Now on to a small story that has recently resurfaced in my mind:
My brother and I used to play with each other in our backyard all the time and one of my earliest memories of this was with an old telescoping darth maul saber. One of the blades would pop out so I, being the younger one, got just the blade where as my bro got the full saber. I don't remember how it happened but our mother took it from us and misplaced it
I was probably 7 at the time.

Fast foreward 10 years and while cleaning out the house we found it and that memory flooded back to me. Oh nostalgia.

Star Wars movies , especially the original trilogy, are to me one of those very few movies that still take me away from my seat to a magical feel whenever I watch it.

Now I feel the hand produced craft and design of SF sabers have that "realistic" look and sound. Blades are super bright, hilt designs look like what a SW character would use. It looks damn convincing!

Well well, let's see how well I can date myself here haha.

Long long time ago when I was so little I was only known as Zeddy I used to watch the original trilogy Star Wars a lot (twas the favourites of my mother and I!) and play with "The Force" lightsaber toys with the whistle tips in them so they hummed with a friend on a daily bases. For hours on end. Given these were released in the early 80's and they were not exactly new as they belonged to my friend's older brother, whom was grown up and moved out when I met him. Two midget Jedi had epic sized battles all over the place.

I had such a great time with those things. They were simple hollow plastic tubes, no lights, nothing fancy. But the hum they made with that cross piece embedded in the blade at the tip so totally put me into the movie as a kid it was unbelievable.

Jump ahead oh...you know...about 25 years and now I have kids of my own. I got them the retractable lightsabers that show signs of HEAVY use by the kids and myself. Just didn't seem the same though for me, though I was having tons of fun with the kids. Come across this site and begin poking around as the thought of hitting that thrill note again was too much to pass up.

Wife orders one for a surprise gift behind my back and tells me once it's ready to genuinely ship! Wait for it to cross the border. Oh, the wait at customs. I was checking that tracking label a few times a day.

Get home after work late all pumped that it should have arrived and it wasn't here yet. Doh. Canada Post can suck sometimes. Watch some Dr. Who with the wife and head to bed.

In the morning around 6AM I shamble down to get ready for work and there's my younger son bouncing at the bottom of the stairs. Holding mah toblerone. He stashed it away before he went to bed so we can open it in the morning together. He's his dad's boy, he's a huge Star Wars fan as well, and own several retractable blades.

So there are now two 8 year olds ripping into this toblerone, one figuratively 8, the other literally 8. Get all the accessories removed from the packing and set aside so all we have in front of us is that bubble wrapped package.

Oh so carefully open it up and unroll and at this point the wife walked in to a collective "whooooaaa" from us both. Pick it up and check it out and I felt like I did back as that little Zeddy so long ago. Quickly hand it to my son and watch his response. his eyes really lit up holding something that felt like it would be a real lightsaber. I loved the feel of what could be considered a real lightsaber, made out of metal like the ones in the movies with the proper look and 'feel' to it.

He excitedlyl handed it back. I inserted the blade and removed the kill switch and returned it to my son. I don't think I've ever seen a kid so excited as he was when he hit the activation button. The hum as it started up literally made us both giggle like kids. Just watching his reactions reminded me of how I felt when I was his age so long ago.

Saberforge gave all three of us a great gift that morning. They almost gave me a concussion too when he started swinging it around, those blades are SOLID.

Autski, what you did in your first story is similar to something that I have been planning to do to my Boy Scout troop for quite a while. I'm the oldest and an Eagle Scout so I can pretty much get away with anything

It also helps that the younger boys practically worship me. LOL

my earlist memory of using hasbro or an toy lightsaber was when i was bout 7 years old

it was not meant for dueling.
however it was cool at the time.

and it was bout the same year i got into the star wars universe via both my father games and the movies as well as the comics few years later

the games was however the thing that caught me in the universe of star wars

how i came across star wars fans later on ?
the Scifi Con

i think of all members im probly the youngest one in this forum (24 years old)

Jedikind wrote: I'm 17. I WIN!!! LOL

Jedikind wrote:
Hey! Don't forget about me! I'm 20

I have a bunch of memories of playing with the plastic extending blade sabers, but nothing worth going in depth about. Fast forward to my preteen years, being in Barnes and Noble with the fam getting some books. Right before we get to the register, papa bear notices a display. Star wars display.

Master Replicas aww yeeeeee

We were instantly full of excitement. We get two, one for me and my bro (Anakin's for me, Luke's for my bro)

We get home, put our books aside and dig in. That first ignition was heaven. We shut all lights off in the house and run around taking turns dueling. It was a great night. I gave my family an honorable death in glorious combat. Now I currently own a green Resilient and am waiting on a blue Disciple!

We still have our Mr sabers and plastic/electronic ones

good to know im not the youngest of all XD

Just turned 25 myself, so you're not that young haha.

It's so cool to be a part of a community full of people who share the same passion for Star Wars as much as I do. I've got a friend at work who's in the same boat as the rest of us, but she has yet to pull the trigger on a saber to call her own due to money constraints. We plan on attending a bunch of conventions next year, and one of her costumes requires a lightsaber. I expect her to be purchasing one soon after the Holidays depending on her money situation. Of course, she plans to buy a SaberForge saber. She's struggling between one of the Apprentice sabers (Consular, I think), the Princess, and an ASP saber. Soon she'll join the rest of us in our nerdiness...er...awesomeness!

galade120 wrote:
Got you beat. I'm 15

Y'all are young as hell.