I took the opportunity to use the recently offered forumite discount on an order of a grab bag saber with the following specs: metal hilt, heavy grade blade, random aside from that.
It just came in today:
I opened it up:
I noted the distinctive hilt design of the Standard Issue right away, but wasn't sure what color it would be, until I saw the color discs wrapped up with it. That meant it was an Adegan Silver hilt, very interesting. I liked the idea; silver hilt, silver blade.
(Heavy Grade on the left in Fire Orange Dominix hilt, Heavy Ultra-Edge on the right in Standard Issue Adegan Silver.)
Here I decided to start doing some comparisons with my previous blades (Fire Orange Phantom V2 w/ Heavy Ultra-Edge 24" blades, separated into dual Dominixes), swapping out the blades to check out the differences as well.
(Heavy Grade on the left in Fire Orange Dominix hilt, Heavy Ultra-Edge on the right in Standard Issue Adegan Silver.
The middle one is Heavy Ultra-Edge.)
Comparison between Heavy Ultra-Edge in Fire Orange Dominix(left) and Heavy Grade w/ Red color disc in the Adegan Silver Standard Issue hilt (right).
The color discs are a nice little touch, though it's true what they say about it in the knowledge base; they're not a replacement for single-color sabers. Some of the results were a little weird; when I tried the yellow and orange discs, I got light greenish colors. Red disc got me a pretty decent orange though, I think that's the nicest of the bunch. Other than that, the silver just looks better, but it's fun to try out the other discs and see what you get. The purple disc made for a decent light violet color.
This was also my first time swapping out blades between hilts, it wasn't too bad. The longer heavy-grade blade looked nice when swapped into my Dominix hilt, though I felt a slight wobble at first, then I tightened it more securely. It definitely isn't as easy to spin around a longer blade, I'm used to the shorter ones. I think the regular Heavy Grade looks nicer though, especially with the Orange color. It's personal taste, of course. The Ultras do look more like they are full of light, but the clear walls of the Heavy are a cool touch in my view.
One unfortunate thing I noticed while swapping blades: my Dominix hilt scratched the Heavy-Grade blade right at the emitter, I guess it's not entirely smooth in there. It wouldn't be obvious normally, but when swapped back to the Standard Issue hilt, which has an angled emitter, the scratch is rather visible in the front. It doesn't show up in the pictures, but I can't help looking at it. One nice thing about the Ultra-Edge blades: they don't show that sort of thing as much.
Overall I think both of the blade types look pretty nice. I'm leaning slightly towards the Heavy-Grade blade in terms of looks at the moment, but the Ultras definitely have their bonuses. I think part depends on the colors used with them too. I bet they look quite good in red, green, or blue, for example. I think my next Heavy Grade will be shorter, if I get to pick. This one's a tad long, though it certainly looks more impressive than my other blades, since they are just initiate-length.
I'm happy with my grab bag purchase. Money is kind of tight these days, so I'm going to try and exercise my willpower here and resist further impulse purchasing for the time being. I've got a nice starting collection here, with some interesting options for configuration. These have told me a lot about what my preferences are, and the info will be very helpful in future purchases. I'm interested to see what else these guys will come up with this year. I'm sure it'll be worth the wait, whatever they've got on the way.
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed my review.
edit: fixed spelling.
