New guy from TX; first saber order today, stoked!

[Ziran Le]

Greetings from Austin, TX, all.  I just found out about UltraSabers about a week or so ago.  Been a big StarWars fan my whole life and my 2 kids love it as well.  They both have birthdays coming up in October and since my daughter's b-day is on Halloween (yeah, we did that on purpose) we always have costume parties!  Well, gone are the days of Disney Princesses and fairies; this year, it's a Star Wars-themed party.  The whole family are looking for costumes and choosing their "character" right now.  Mommy and daughter will probably do the predictable Padme-Leia duo, son and I are less sure.  All we know for sure, is that everyone wants to carry a lightsaber!

Like you (I'm sure), we've gone through the Hasbro plastic lightsabers and broken them quickly, and so I began searching for a quality, entry-level saber that I could afford to order for the kids (saving for mine, but soon), and that's how I came upon US!  I've been fascinated and have wasted a lot of time on the US website over the past week, looking at different hilts and options, plugging in options to see how much different sabers will set me back etc.  But finally, I placed my first order for 2 sabers today!  Really excited and can't wait to see them!

I've enjoyed checking out the forum a little bit over the past few days and can't wait to spend some more time here.  I'm new to this, but not to Star Wars, so I think that I'll find it all very interesting.  I don't have much to contribute to the forum at this point, but I'm here to learn and I appreciate the input of the community.

Cheers from TX, and May the Force be With Y'all
Jason (Ziran Le)

[Molina00]

Welcome aboard Jason. 

If you have any questions feel free to ask.  Lots of friendly and helpful people around here. 
What sabers did you decide one?

[Ziran Le]

Thx Molina.  Looks like you have quite the collection there!  I can see how this could become addicting; I want a bunch of 'em already!

So, I ordered an Aeon LE v3 with a purple (VA?) blade for my daughter.  She wanted something nice looking.  My son is majorly into all things Dark Side/Sith and wanted something with a red blade, but isn't too picky, so for him, I went with a grab bag!  I chose to get the blazing red blade, and I'm hoping that the US employee who picks our grab bag will get the red blade=sinister vibe and hook us up with something with black on it.  If I'm not happy with what we get in the grab bag then I may just keep that one for me and order Dominix or DSI for my son to get the look that he will enjoy.

I am hoping to be able to order a saber for myself in the next month or so if finances allow.  On a Social Worker's salary I can't afford to get a high-end saber with sound and flash, but I'm ok with that for now.  Can't wait to see how the kids like their sabers and to be able to have fun with them. 

[Molina00]

Yes, it can be quite addicting as you can see in my signature.  I like it but my credit card doesn't. 

I'm sure your kids are going to love them.  Even without sound they are awesome.  The Aeon is a nice entry-level choice too.  A very sleek saber and will look great in VA.  I would guess the odds of the red bladed grab being black are pretty good.  I have gotten 3 grab bags with red LED's and all have been black hilts. 

Sabers without sound (or stunt sabers) are good to have too because the batteries last a lot longer and are less likely to annoy people if you just want to practice with it.

[Prowl 1701]

Welcome to the forum!  This is indeed an addictive hobby, I started collecting in July of last year and have 19 sabers, lol.  Stunt sabers are great, I much prefer to practice with them.  If you are curious about any paticular hilts you should check on YouTube, many of us( including myslef) do indepth video reviews on our sabers.

[Karmack]

Welcome!  The Aeon is a very nice hilt, and the LE version will complement the VA blade nicely!  My daughter has an Initiate V3 in VA, its very nice.
My own are SY, also nice, and very bright.  Also a bit "neutral" as the Sentinel Yellow doesn't really show up in the movies so they tend to be "unknown".  Dress in black and light that one up, and no one knows if you're Sith, Jedi, or undecided.  :-)

I would look for a Dominix or Dark Initiate V3 with your BR grab-bag, but it could be others.  Generally grab-bags tend to be either an Aeon/Dominix V3 or V2, but there have been sprinklings of standard issues and even a liberator or two. 

Enjoy!  Halloween will never be the same again! 

[Ziran Le]

Yeah, I'm expecting something like a Dom for the grab bag.  That would be fine as it would be the "evil twin" to his big sister's Aeon, haha.  Seems like, after going back a few pages in the grab bag thread that they aren't really giving the Initiates away in the bags anymore.  A couple of people commented on that, but who knows.  It also kinda seems like if you buy a cheaper model saber and add a grab bag that you may get something similar to what you ordered (full price) for your GB.  Don't know if there's any rhyme or reason to it.

I'm feeling lucky though.  Maybe we'll end up with something cool for my boy.  Regardless of what it is, he'll flip out over it...as long as it's not some new anodized pink prototype!

[Darth Scorpious]

Welcome to the forum mate 

[sedstiskyfaller]

Welcome to the forum! A Star Wars party sounds like blast. The new sabers will definitely liven it up 

[DavidOgilvie]

Welcome to the forum! 😊 im tempted by an Aeon/initiate V3 LE in VA myself too.. I have three sabers at the moment and theyre all quite sithy - i feel i ought to have something with more of a jedi look to it to create more of a balance in the force 😝
Plus, the aeon is a very nice sleek looking saber and if it handles anywhere near aswell as my dominix V3's then i'll be happy!!

[DavidOgilvie]

*dominix V2's !

[James Casey]

Welcome to the forum! Halloween is so much a bigger thing in the States than here in the UK, it must be great fun to head out as a family like that.

[Darth Nieuws]

Hey, Welcome to the forum. I just had a son who turned 7 on July 2 and we had a Star Wars party too. My son and daughter did a Obi Wan and Leia duo. We had a great time! I have a Manticore and my kids both have Initiates LE v3's with Sound and they love them.

[Ziran Le]

Very cool!  Yeah, both of my kiddos have birthdays about 10 days apart and my daughter's birthday is actually on Halloween, the 31st, so every year we have a costume party for both of them, together.  We let the kids pick out a theme and everyone dresses up in costumes, even the grandparents, aunts and uncles...  We have it in October and encourage all of the kids attending to wear their costume, no matter whether it goes with the "theme" or not, it's just fun for them.  So, in the past we've done pirates, renn faire (I got this awesome "woodsman ranger" outfit with a green tunic, and as soon as kids started showing up they all shouted, Peter Pan, Peter Pan!), and The Nightmare Before Christmas (with me as Jack, of course).  I've been waiting for the kids to be old enough to get into SW for a while now, but my wife isn't big on violence and didn't want them to watch things where shooting and dismemberment/beheading with edged weapons (or laser ones) was involved.  The kids broke her down finally and she is currently working on her own Jedi outfit/robes for the party, haha.

So yeah, I got the confirmation that the sabers are on the truck for delivery today.  The turnaround time at US was super-fast.  I noticed on the site that it said "usually ships in 2-3 weeks" so I wanted to make sure to order in time that I could check them out and decide what to do about getting my own saber in time for the party, hopefully one for the wife as well.  I didn't expect for them to get here within 3 working days!  Now that's good service.

I'll post up pics of our first sabers soon.  Cheers from Austin, TX.

[Ziran Le]

Our sabers were delivered just a little while ago; soooo coool!  Really excited.  Since I couldn't afford sound on the first go around, I had to swing 'em around the living room (while only hitting the chair twice, and didn't even whack the ceiling fan once!) making, "bbbbrrrrrrr, vvrrmmmmmm, bbbzzzzrrrr" noises like a little kid, haha.

Since this was my first time handling any LED, quality saber, I was most impressed.  You feel like you could take on the Empire by yourself when you swing these things around a few times.  The original intent was to order 2 sabers for the kids and see how we liked them, and then decide on whether we want 2 more for my wife and I.  Yeah, well, I can hear my credit card calling out to me from my wallet already.

Aeon LE V3 - really like the feel of this hilt.  So smooth and love the choke points.  This thing just feels natural in your hand, like it's purpose-built for swinging and actually using, not for display purposes.  I love it and can tell that it's going to get a lot of use (probably breaking things all around the house) in the future.  This one was supposed to be for my daughter, which I why I chose the more elegant look of the LE with the purple blade color.  But now she has decided that she wants a black/silver hilt with a green blade, so either my wife or I may keep this Aeon as a first saber, dunno.

Grab bag for my son was:  Dominix LE V2 - This is exactly what I expected to get from the grab bag when I specified a blazing red blade color.  Of course it's just what my son wanted as well so I'm happy with that.  The two-tone look is great on the saber and gives it some dark side class.  Considering that it was a grab bag, I was, sorta, almost let down a little because really, who doesn't want to score an Archon, a Prophecy or something amazing like that in a grab bag!  If that would have happened I would have obviously kept it, and ordered my son a nice Dark Initiate in the next order, hahaha.  But seriously, this is perfect for him and he'll love it.  Of course it's very similar to the Aeon V3 but without the choke points (which I now know that I much prefer after handling them both).

So, first time saber buy; lessons learned:  I love the feel of the Aeon hilt!  It looks great and not too much like a chinese ebay flashlight, which was a potential concern in the back of my mind.  The length is great and I believe that I am going to be a longer hilt type of guy.  Not sure that I like the look of the Ultraedge blade being so white; reminds me too much of a fluorescent bulb like in a shop or kitchen light (or elementary school).  Will try regular midgrade blades in the next order.  Love the weight of the mid though, it's lighter and easier to swing that I expected.  And finally, even though I have never heard the sound of a saber with Obsidian in person before, I'm already convinced that it will sound better than my pitiful imitations of saber noises as I defeat the powers of evil in my living room.  Therefore, I must get one, with sound.