Options for the wife's B-Day Present

[janx]

The wife is a little miffed that I got a saber before she did.  There's only one solution.  Get her a good one.

I just got the black Grand Master with red Heavy Grade blade and v4 chip.

She wants a purple blade.  I figured a Medium Grade blade so it's lighter (she's most likely to wave it around and maybe do light sparring for show).

She has small hands.  Loves purple. Loved the Grand Master but I'm hoping to steer her to a different looking hilt (you have no idea how many times we've both got the same thing)

I don't think she needs/wants to change colors or change up the sound FX (the V4 is good enough for that I suspect). She's probably not going to hook to a PC to mess around with it a bunch.

She'd like a flash effect if the swords clash.  I didn't know that was possible when I bought mine at Comicpalooza yesterday...

What are some hilts and options to consider that may hit what she'd like, based on what I've stated?  Particularly for hand size/weight and the flash effect (what makes it look/sound cooler as she uses it).

[Karmack]

I would recommend (highly!) getting either an Initiate V3 with a War Glaive hilt, silver AV switch, VA with silver flash-on-clash, and either Obsidian V4 or Obsidian Lite sound.  These silver hilts look great in purple.  :-)

An even better option would be a Sentinel V5 LE or Dark Sentinel V5 LE.  

Both are easy on small hands, easy to maneuver, and especially the Sentinel V5 LE they look amazing, have really AWESOME windows, and are very, very nice.

Another great "purple" hilt is the Emperor's Hand.  With the angled activation box its quite comfortable to wield.

Below are the Initiate V3 with the custom hilt (for some extra length and counter-balance of a longer 32" or 36" blade - make sure you order the longer blade and not the 24"!)  and then my own Dark Sentinel V5 which is Arctic Blue rather than purple but it will give you a good idea of the look of the hilt.  (It also has a Dark War Glaive pommel...)



(painting is custom work, the hilt comes all silver as above)  (also noticed that the Sentinel V5 is in the very top of the picture on this one, too.  LOL)



And the Sentinel V5 LE, side-by-side with a Sentinel V4 LE (also a great and comfortable hilt)

[Karmack]

Y'know, on second thought, go with the Emperor's Hand.  LOL

[tx_tuff]

The Manticore is a smaller lighter saber that still has some style with a great emitter. Also it is MHS compatible. I would get it in Violet Amethyst with Barnes Heart FOC with V4 sound. V4 sound is only $10 more then V3 so totally worth it.

Another great saber that is light weight with great style and perfect fit small hands is the Catalyst. And that comes in either silver or black with highlights. Both would like great in the same combo as above.

[tx_tuff]

Y'know, on second thought, go with the Emperor's Hand.  LOL

Do you really think that is a good saber for small hands? I don't own one but seems like it wouldn't be a good fit.

[Malik Thanewulf]

How about a Crimson Menace with blazing red 32in blade and silver flash on clash.

[Lady Revan]

Lady with small hands here coming with recommendations and saber size shots. Due to limit on attachments, this will be in multiple posts.

Catalyst (comes in silver or black)
Apprentice V4 (comes in silver, black, silver with gold, or black with silver; available with or without windows)
Sentinel V4 (comes in silver, black, silver with gold, or black with silver; available with it without windows)
Savior (available with gold, black, crimson, or azure accents; windows available)
Spectre (available plain black or with circuit board engraving; windows available; multiple covertech placements available; D-ring available)

I’m also including a pic of a custom saber that’s quite nice (war glaive body, archon V2 emitter, And Revan SS pommel) and a pic of the Emperor’s Hand. EH is quite heafty, but that being said, I also did my entire first saber class with one and managed just fine actually using the saber in a semi-combat setting. Only thing is the coke point isn’t the most ergonomic.

[Lady Revan]

More!

[Lady Revan]

And finally...

[Lady Revan]

A quick disclaimer, the "Pommels" I have on the Catalyst and Sentinel V4 LE pictured are both parts of a quick connect since I use them as staves.

[janx]

Thanks for all the pics and extra thoughts on your recomendations.

The wife is making a list of the hilts she likes (and starring the few she really likes).  The list has just arrived to my hand (* on the really liked):
*Monarch
*Azure Savior
Raven
Guardian
*Emperor's Hand
*Spectre
Mantis
War Glaive


I'm new to the tech terms here, but I saw from another thread about Flash on Clash, that you must have a multi-LED setup/driver (appears to use the inactive colors to cause the flash).  So I can't flash with my red-only LED.   Is that a correct understanding?  karmack mentioned a Silver v4 something, so what options to get is a bit confusing yet.

Got to figure out resolving her list to the recomendations (the goal is make her happy while avoiding some predictable issues).  I'm less keen on the solid silver hilts with rings carved in them (and suspect she feels the same based on centuries of marriage).  We both like variance across the device.  Really like the cut-out LED windows where the hilt starts.

We like the Spectre, but I'm not keen on the 4-way protrusions on the pommel (that is asking to snag on garb or bite into wrist during a twirl.

Anywho, we'll go through your pics and see what influences her.

Can y'all simplify for me what to select on the order form for electronics to get the Flash on Clash and good sound selection and a Purple blade (she's happy with fully changeable color as well so long as all roads lead to purple).  Unless you know a purple person, you may not know how purple drives decision making here...

Thanks, this continues to be very helpful!

[Lady Revan]

I can do size comparison pics of the Raven and Guardian too. I would deter her away from the Guardian though if she wants to learn to flourish with it at all. FoC isn't available on stunt sabers or tri setup. FoC can be specified in the order. V4 will give you lots of sound options and you can program different ones later if you want using the US launcher.

Obsidian V4 Sound with VA (Violet Amethyst.... so purple) and FoC (I would personally choose silver, arctic blue, or yellow flash) is going to be the most economic option for your flash with lots of sound options. If you want fancier, you can go emerald or diamond... but if you're doing emerald with sound, I would recommend diamond instead since it's not much more expensive and you can change the colors without having to hook up to a computer after you've programmed it)

I'll also see if I can manage a short spin video with the spectre to show how it handles for someone with small hands

[Lady Revan]

Raven SS and Guardian. I can’t even close my hand around the Guardian. Raven is pretty but the little grooves below the claws are kind of sharp

[janx]

Flipping through the Build a Saber on the store, I found the part that's confusing me.

After picking the Emerald driver (+ sound), it then prompts to pick a blade color and talks about color discs and how that sucks.

Which is like, then why are you asking me to pick a color disc when I just picked LEDs?

I think this is where y'all are talking about Silver, referring to the Blade.

This is an area that isn't jiving with what I'm expecting to be selecting. I'm sure it makes sense used to the parts list here.

What am I misunderstanding? Am I picking the pre-programmed initial color?

[Lady Revan]

Don't use color discs. That's for if you're doing AS, and LEE filters work better than the discs.

If you're picking emerald, you're just choosing the pre-programmed colors. Any time you want to change colors on emerald you will need to connect to a computer with the US launcher and reprogram. This is one of the main reasons why I prefer Diamond.

"Silver" refers to a white blade. My Spectre is in Adegan Silver Here is the spectre spinning video. My Spectre has Arctic Blue FoC

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DE_Stqht1k&amp;feature=youtu.be&amp;fbclid=IwAR3aR3aJ-1EKTZ4S8DJYXP6AzGS7bsBbzMHbh_y-uwmSFQOzHdk83HBZzF4" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DE_Stqht1k&amp;feature=youtu.be&amp;fbclid=IwAR3aR3aJ-1EKTZ4S8DJYXP6AzGS7bsBbzMHbh_y-uwmSFQOzHdk83HBZzF4</a>