Here’s my entry ‘sabre, a Catalyst.
I ordered this in Blazing Red with Fire Orange flash on clash. It’s kind of a dark side setup for a light side hilt, but then...
...it has a twin.
A twin it can, apparently, exchange body parts with.
As previously documented, I bought my Dark Catalyst in Fire Orange with a Blazing Red flash. With the addition of quick disconnects, the LEDs can be swapped out to create...
...an appropriately light-sided/dark-sided pair, and no-one need have any identity crises when wielding them.
And while I’m not especially a staff wielder, I could hardly not put them together.
It’s interesting that I didn’t care for the Catalyst model at all when I first found US. Even when I bought the Dark Catalyst, it was with the intention of turning it into a Marauder. Had the option existed, I’d have just asked US to keep the emitter and pommel and accepted the saving to go with it.
However, the hilt has grown on me. I still don’t think much of its looks but it’s such a nice hilt to handle and even dual-wielding the pair (my preferred method) feels comfortable. More on that when I do my full review, hopefully this weekend.
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As for my prize... Well, remember this?
This is a curved ‘sabre prototype received by Coruptous about eighteen months ago when his order for a Crimson Reaper was accidentally processed by US despite the hilt being out of stock.
I’d been hoping to order a Crimson Reaper at the time, and missed out due to it being out of stock. Given that I’d also been hoping to buy a curved ‘sabre at some point, I couldn’t help but feel a little envious at Coruptous’ fortune.
Fast forward eighteen months...
US apparently didn’t stop tinkering with curved Reapers as they worked out how to put together what would eventually become the Mantis line of hilts, because in addition to the curved Crimson Reaper they also produced at least one...
...curved
Azure Reaper.
The evolution of the idea is fairly clear, I think. As on the Mantis, the ‘elbow’ section is coloured to match the main part of the hilt.
I’d thought this was an Azure Mantis when I drew it out of the shipping box, which would have been cool to pair with my silver Mantis, but at the same time it’s very nice to have something unique. To my knowledge, there aren’t any others of these around (although more may show up, of course!).
The ‘sabre is very, very blue – blue hilt, blue AV switch (on a raffle prize, to boot) and blue blade. It doesn’t have flash on clash, which is slightly disconcerting as all my other Obsidian hilts do and I wondered briefly if something had got broken in shipping (the box was damaged, sadly). As a prototype, though, I doubt there was any need to wire it in. Perhaps I’ll look into it as a future project, although if it’s a single-colour LED I may need to replace that as well. Silver with a blue flash, perhaps?
About the only issue I have is that now it’s going to be really difficult to justify buying a black Reaper, which was always my intention to go with my Crimson Reaper. Oh, the hardship...
I’ll do detailed reviews of both ‘sabres in due course, but I’m delighted both with my Catalyst and with my prize, so thanks once again to Ultrasabers for running the raffle, and for picking me as one of the winners!
PS: A few people have wondered whether you could use two curved ‘sabres to make a Klingon bat’leth – or Asajj Ventress’ curved staff. Well, you can...
...but maybe invest in an adjustable coupler, eh?
