TOPIC: Venomous Fury Hero Edition w/RGBA

I just received my Hero Edition Venomous Fury w/RGBA

First off, I have to say that the Venomous Fury is such a great design - much like all of the Saber Forge sabers. Saber Forge really makes some great looking stuff at this price point and the hilt itself doesn't disappoint. It's a really nice and mean looking saber hilt - I would say in Standard or Weathered finishes. I chose the Standard Finish so that I would have a bit of flexibility between cosplaying/costuming characters on both sides of The Force. That is also why I decided to get RGBA on it. To allow some additional options when portraying different characters.

This is the 2nd blade in my collection. The other one that I have is a no-sound, stunt saber from a different sabersmith, but I really wanted to get my hands on something with a great look and feel, with sound and some bells and whistles and that's where Saber Forge came in. I took my time selecting my saber - I think it was about a year waffling between 3 different styles when I finally pulled the trigger on the Venomous Fury.

As soon as it arrived yesterday, I couldn't help but tear open the box and start messing around with the saber - I'm sure that's pretty common, but yes I did. Once I got the blade in and turned it on to start playing around with the features, I immediately noticed the weight of the piece. The hilt itself has good weight to it, but the blade also adds some heft since it is a thick-walled blade. So, it provides good resistance and speed when spinning the blade. The blade length is about 4" longer than the one on my other saber. So, it took a bit of adjustment to get used to it.

I then cycled through all of the saber fonts (5 fonts came with the sound card). There were 2 extras that I wasn't expecting. One of them is SaberTracks, which plays music instead of activating the saber and saber sounds, but it's still an additional font on the board. Not a necessary add, but it was there nonetheless.

Then, I started playing with switching the blade colors, using the throttling motion to activate the switch. This was cool to see in action. I'm just not sure how much use I would get out of it at this point, since it would mostly be a 'behind the scenes' change out of blade color at any given appearance (or whatever).

All in all, I'm very happy with this blade and saber... Now to document a couple of minor dings in the experience... Just trying to play some devil's advocate and possibly offer some help for others purchasing their first saber.

1. Wait time - My wait time was 1 day under 13 weeks (Purchased on Feb 25 and received on May 26). While this wasn't unexpected, the wait time listed on the site when I purchased the saber was 10-12 weeks, which changed to 12-14 weeks some time after I made the purchase. I'm sure this varies from time to time during the year and there was Celebration Anaheim in the mix. It looks like the wait time is back to 10-12 weeks now. So that's good, but it would be nice to see that be shortened somehow. But, it is what it is, but it's very tough to wait that long. So, just be prepared for a long wait.

2. The messaging and status updates - Once I ordered the saber, the status of the order was listed as Confirmed. This stayed that way until it changed to Shipped about a week before I received the saber. Part of the message in the Shipped email gave me a tracking number, but it also said that the tracking number wouldn't go live until it was actually shipped out. I never received an update to tell me that the package actually shipped. So, I was never able to track the package. In fact, it was a complete surprise to me when it arrived at my door. Not a huge deal, but it was a bit confusing and expectations, as a result, weren't set accordingly. But, I would rather have a saber in my possession instead of a tracking number. Still, some improvement in that communication and customer contact area could be looked at.

3. RGBA - I really liked this feature when it was announced, which was why I purchased that option on my Venomous Fury. However it wasn't as bright as I was expecting. So, that just may be a trade-off for that feature/component.For this, it's really 'to each his own'. I really like the options it gives, but I may opt for the 2-color option on future purchases.

4. Pointy-pointy - The shroud portion of the Venomous Fury is very sharp at the points. I scraped the mess out of my hand when I was spinning and manipulating it for the first time. So, just be warned that this may need to be sanded a bit. Not a deal breaker, but I will probably take the edge off a bit on mine, because it is very sharp.

Overall, I'm super happy with what I got and the Venomous Fury is a very good looking product. I can't wait to start showing it off when I go out in costume. I don't have any pics now, but I'll post some once I get a chance.