Hey folks, it's Ben Pass coming at you again with my newest saber, the Crimson Reaper! Now, I was one of those people who saw the Reaper and Crimson Reaper posted here, and immediately ordered one. Now, the way that I excused away the impulse buy was by ordering it as a stunt. I figure I'm getting good enough at wiring stuff up that I can upgrade to sound later.
Now, you don't want to hear about my excuses and how I made up my mind to order it; you want to hear about the saber! Now, this is a beautiful saber. I can honestly say that I regret not having bought one of the red anodized Libbys, and now that the Crimson Reaper has been released, I couldn't let it slip by.
The anodization is of top quality. It feels great in the hand, and I honestly like the crimson red color. It gives the saber a completely different flair than my other sabers. I also really like the circuit board style silver parts. Overall, it is a wonderfully detailed hilt, and I am glad that I purchased it.
The hilt, as you're probably aware, is MHS compatible and unscrews into five (yes 5) pieces. Now, I don't know if it's just mine or not, but the battery pack stays in the fourth section, and the wiring is in the third (counting from emitter to pommel). That means that I can mix and match the emitter and pommel, and remove the silver shroud, but the middle two parts stay together. That isn't an issue with me though because I really like how the saber looks as-is. One thing I want to point out is about the silver shroud. Now, I thought that it screwed in as well, but it does not. Instead, you simply place it on the main hilt and then screw in the emitter. Not a big deal at all, just an interesting thing that I was unaware of that I thought I'd let you all know about.
As to the claws, I was unsure how I would feel about them when I first ordered the saber. Now that it has arrived, I can attest to the fact that the claws are (like all things US sells) well made. They are not sharp, but are incredibly detailed. That said, my claws do not line up. I can (and probably will) get a rubber O-Ring and put it on the pommel so it will line up better because I'm not a fan of the claws being off centered from each other. That is not a complaint against US or the quality of the saber; it is just an observation and a personal preference. Because of that fact, until I get an O-Ring, I'll probably keep the pommel claw off (which is very easy to remove by the way).
Now, as you'll see, I got the regular latching switch (since it's a stunt) and I am very pleased with how it is set in the hilt. It doesn't stick out nearly as far as some other models I've used, and seems to fit quite well on the saber.
As for handling, I was unable to do a whole lot of swinging/spinning because of the snow we've had the last week (I don't want to go out there lol), but what little I did makes me believe that it is a very nicely balanced saber.
I'll review more at a later time, but I just wanted to give you a bit of a rundown on the saber, and let you know how much I love it! So now, here are the pics!
Beautiful saber!
Location of retention screw:
Colors...now I tried to swap in as many colors as possible so you would see what different colors look like on the Crimson hilt:
Here's BR:
SY:
And SRD:
Each piece individually:
I've seen one or two people worrying about the open pommel. Well, I'm here to say, "Don't worry about the open pommel"! Even without sound, the battery pack will not fall out.
Size in hand:
Claw taken off pommel:
Two different pommels; the Arbiter and the Dark InitiateV3/Dominix V3/Dark Prophecy V3:
One thing that I wondered about was the fact that this saber has the regular LED module instead of the MLS unit, but also has QDs. See how easy it is to swap QD colors from MLS to regular LED Module! Just unscrew your MLS unit with QDs, and screw it into a LED module with QDs:
Hope y'all liked it, and that this helped you get an idea of this wonderful saber!
