UltraSabers Aeon V3 - A Review of TWO Theme-Customized Sabers
This forum post is a review and presentation of custom themed sabers that I've produced starting from the fantastic UltraSabers Aeon V3.
Why Build A Customized Lightsaber? Why Not!Growing up with Star Wars and being a creative artist-type person, I was always thrilled with the idea that the "final test of a true Jedi is to build their own lightsaber." So through high school my brother Dustin and I collected miscellaneous parts and items that we thought would look neat together. Following in the style of the movie model and prop makers who source parts from every-day objects around them in the prop department from cameras, electronics and industrial equipment, we collected all kinds of things to put together.
Flash forward almost 20 years later to my kids asking, "Dad, what's this box of junk?" and I got inspired, "Maybe it's time to put together my first lightsaber..." and I've put together 4 or 5 since then!
Themed Lightsabers & High-End Electronics!As I've learned as I've moved from my first one or two assembled together sabers to ones now with lights, I've learned that the customization process is my favorite part!
Within the Lightsaber building community, there are so many kits that can be assembled, so many portions and milled pieces that can be combined, all the way up to epic $10K masterpieces of artwork. Some of my favorites that I've seen online are where people "mashup" their favorite characters and themes to create unique crossover or combo sabers. There's an Iron Man Lightsaber... a Thundercats Sword of Omens Lightsaber... Mark Hamill was even presented with a gift of a custom JOKER Saber to tie in his long work as the animated Batman series's voice of the Joker... and that got me thinking... "how can I bring together the two things that I love in a theme for a customized saber?"
I'm a web developer by trade and I wanted to bring together the different coding technologies and content management systems that I work within to make a themed lightsaber as a give-away for a conference earlier this year. Let me tell you, the interest in the prize was huge!
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Why Do I Love the Aeon V3?https://www.ultrasabers.com/product-p/diy-aeonv3.htmThe Aeon V3 can be one of the more inexpensive hilts to start with, especially if purchased without electronics, but the entry-level cost isn't my main draw for this hilt. It's the construction of this hilt's style... the balance of sections, lines, tapered areas and most importantly, the balance of large flat space where I can have space for customization and artwork touches!
Many of UltraSaber's other hilts are finished pieces of art in their own right. You wouldn't purchase a completed painting to begin a new painting on top of, so here I want to start with a good frame that I see as a blank canvas, ready for artistic touches!
If you watch only one of these videos, watch this one... In it I make a case for why I especially love working with the Aeon V3 for customization.
UltraSabers Aeon V3 Review Video - Published on Mar 23, 2017
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Customized Saber #1 the "DNNSaber" UltraSabers Aeon V3Well, there are plenty of details that I can share and stories I can tell about replacing, testing, burning and rebuilding the electronics... about initial laser engraving and etching needing to be worked out in different methods... but it's all part of learning and the creative process. I've added a few photos of the initial construction stages as well as assembly steps.
>> Building In progress
>> The Finished Product, the DNN Saber - Theme-Customized UltraSabers Aeon V3
Cuatomized Hilt Presentation Video - Published on Jan 15, 2017
This presentation video served as an intro to the new owner and showed off the features of the customization
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Customized Saber #2 the ".NETsaber" UltraSabers Aeon V3After the first one was awarded to a lucky convention attendee, I was asked about making a second one as a gift to the conference's primary keynote speaker. For this second saber, they suggested that it have a purple blade and feature purple, so off I went!
Again, the Aeon V3 provides a wide space for paint and rings and elements to be added! I mention in the video that, for me, the Aeon V3 is the best canvas for working on... it has more wide flat sections than the other Aeon models and has plenty of room for additional switch holes, screws and more to help customize the look.
Customized Hilt Presentation Video - Published on Mar 13, 2017
This is a presentation video for a customized UltraSabers Aeon V3, which as been created as a thank you gift for the keynote speaker at the DNN Summit conference in Denver 2017.