Hello, everyone. This is the review of my latest purchase from Ultrasabers, the Dark Catalyst.
I ordered mine in Fire Orange with Blazing Red flash on clash. I'd picked up an MLS unit in the opposite combination recently, and thought it would be cool to switch them around. More on that later...
For reasons set out below, I never intended to buy this and keep it as a stock hilt. That being said, I'm impressed (and surprised) by how well it handles. The choke makes for a really comfortable grip, and even with a 36" blade (I prefer 32" blades) it was a nicely balanced and whippy hilt. It's also very light, and I'd say overall it probably handles as well as a v3 Aeon or Dominix. I'm happy to recommend the Catalyst line, then, on handling grounds.
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For a long time I didn't think much of the Catalyst line. The design just appeared exaggerated to me - the choke point was too deeply curved, the pronged emitter was just for show without adding anything the way the Raven or Malice claws do, and while the pommel is a favourite of a lot of forummers, to me it appeared to just be a plain cone, like a simplified Dark Shock pommel.
That being said, the main body of the hilt was an attractive feature to me, and I spent some time thinking about whether it could be 'redeemed' by way of swapping in other parts using the modular hilt system.
I had in mind a pair of twinned 'sabres, being a fan of dual wielding. Given the expense involved, I knew I'd have to buy one at a time (and I still haven't picked up the second half of my Reaper pair yet, but that's another matter). I also knew I'd want to have an all-silver hilt, but also that the black and silver of the Dark Catalyst hilt would need black and silver parts to go with it. In addition, I knew I'd need an extension piece for the main hilt to hold the MLS unit, as on the Catalyst line the LED sits inside the choke.
Catalyst body alongside a Manticore for reference. This thing is short.It wasn't until I received the Dark Catalyst that I realised...
...the LED inside the choke is actually just an LED inside the choke. No outer housing, the way a typical MLS unit is built. Instead it's just an LED held in place by the emitter, which in turn...
...has the lens glued inside it.
That meant that there was no prospect of swapping the standard LED for any MLS unit, or even one taken out of its housing. The Catalyst's LED sits on a much larger board and I suspect that any other LED, if removed from its housing, would just rattle around inside the choke and eventually break. There's no space inside the choke for an MLS unit complete with housing, either.
I wasn't relying on the Catalyst's LED for the project I had in mind - I already had a Blazing Red MLS unit, which you can see in the picture above, which I'd bought in the sale a couple of months back. Still, I'd thought I'd have a spare orange LED, but that's just down to poor research on my part. When spending money on something this expensive, it's important to cover all your bases in case you're not sure, and I'd only have had myself to blame if I'd badly erred.
Anyway, on to the project...
I had to settle on three pieces - emitter, extension and pommel - which would complement the black and silver of the Dark Catalyst body, but which would also be available in silver for the twin hilt using the Catalyst. There aren't too many hilts that come in Dark and Light versions... In fact, there's only four that have at least two of the pieces I needed: the War Glaive, the Shock, the Arbiter and now the Mantis.
As I have no real fondness for the War Glaive, and the Mantis wasn't released while I was putting this project together, it came down to the Shock and the Arbiter.
The neck piece from a Dark Arbiter...
...and the pommel...
...and emitter...
Just look at it! It's a work of art!from a Dark Shock were my choices.
When I received them I was pleased to see, as I expected, that the anodising of all the pieces matched up nicely. This was, after all, to be my first Sith weapon, and I wanted it to look worthy of the part.
Of course, as I was now venturing into the realms of building my own lightsabre (well, as near as I ever will!) there was one more obstacle to overcome: I couldn't fit the MLS unit in place. The leads were too short, with the plugs finishing inside the neckpiece, and no way of plugging the plugs from the body of the 'sabre into them.
No biggie...
...just remove the outer housing from the MLS unit, attach the leads which are long enough to have the LED sticking out of the top of the neck piece...
...replace the housing, fit it into the neckpiece, and screw the emitter on top.
Remind me, why did I want to go for something unique again?
Oh, yeah...
This is a design I've decided to dub the Marauder. That's the class I was drawn to in playing as a Sith on the Old Republic MMO, and to my mind it deserved a heavy, brutal 'sabre, as much a club switched off as a more elegant weapon from a more civilised age when activated.
In saying that, it's not all
that long.
It's about 14.5 inches, which is a pretty fair length, but the Manticore is around 12 inches. The stock Catalyst line comes in at around 13-13.5 inches, end to end. The body of the Catalyst really is very small.
I had a chance to duel with the Marauder yesterday, and despite its length I found it easy enough to wield single handed or two handed. I found that having one hand near the emitter and the other near the pommel made for accurate strikes, although perhaps slower than usual.
The neckpiece makes for a comfortable grip. The edges aren't sharp, but there's enough resistance (for want of a better word) to make the grip secure. In addition to the ridges that runs around the neckpiece, there's vertical segments cut along its length that add to the level of grip.
Although heavier than the stock Catalyst, the Marauder isn't cumbersome. It's pretty well balanced using a 36" midgrade blade, and easy enough to wield. Should anyone else feel compelled to follow my example, the Marauder gets a definite positive recommendation from me - so long as you don't mind the slightly fiddly conversion from stock to personalised
All lit up, complete with tribute to JJ Abrams on the AV switch
