Saber customizations, that make them look more like they do on screen.

[GregG124]

I'll let Vyk come and handle the description but I'd be wary about having a character use 2 Ravens. They are monstrous and it would be unwise to wield 2 of them.

[BlindJedi]

At one point I wanted to plug up the hole at the bottom of the Reaper, but now I'm thinking it could be an interesting place to have a flashlight.  Blade on one side, and a light on the other, now if the Reaper could only open a bottle, or can, we'd be in business.

[Vyk]

Well, if you know somebody with a machine shop, you could probably replace one of the claws with a bottle opener...  As for a flashlight, you just need an Initiate staff with a 36" blade on one side and only a blade plug on the other. 

[Vyk]

6. Standard Issue.
7. Liberator.

The Standard Issue, often shortened to SI, and Liberator, often shortened to Libby, are two popular basic sabers.  In both, the pommel is MHS-compatible, while the emitter is not removable.  Both are available in normal and Dark versions.  The normal versions are entirely polished aluminum; the Dark versions are anodized black and have had all grooves re-machined silver, like the Dominix LEs have.  Because of this extra machining, the Dark versions are slightly more expensive.  There are no all-black versions of these sabers, nor are there variants of these sabers with gold trim.

Note that both of these sabers are v3s; in other words, they can have Emerald or sound, but not both.  There are also no RGB versions, so if you need both sound and changeable color, you're out of luck unless you can get Ultrasabers to install quick disconnects for you.  (Quick disconnects are not listed as an option; it's not clear to me if they would fit in the space available.)

The Standard Issue is a very straightforward design.  It's a constant 1.48 inches diameter and 12.25 inches long.  The emitter is a simple 45-degree angle slant.  Below the emitter are 5 circumferential grooves.  Below that is the activation switch.  Below the switch is an option that is available on the Dark SI but not the normal SI.  If you get the Dark SI with vertical grooves (also known as the Dark SI with lines; they use both terms on the site) there are 12 longitudinal grooves machined here.  There is a place in the ordering system to choose whether or not to get these grooves; however, at the moment, only the version with grooves appears.  I don't know if this is intentional.

Below this long grip section (grooved or not), there is a single circumferential groove, about a half inch of space, and three more circumferential grooves.  Below this is a section about an inch long that, like the grip section, is blank on the normal SI and either blank or with vertical grooves on the Dark SI.  Finally, the pommel is a simple disc, except that it has two grooves machined around it (rather than being knurled like many of the other low-end sabers).

Next we have the Liberator.  This is only slightly more complex of a design.  It's 1.42 inches wide for most of the length, although it is slightly narrower below the activation switch.  It is 11.625 inches long.  The emitter has a lip at the top, with a narrow recessed section below that, followed by two grooves and another recessed section.  The two recessed sections are machined silver on the Dark Liberator.  On both light and dark, they also have small windows in them--10 circles, about the same diameter as a retaining screw hole.  Below this is a straight blank section, about two inches long, followed by a groove.  Below this groove, the hilt is concave for about 4 inches; approximately one third of its length.  The activation switch is at the top of the concave section, just below the top groove.  The concave section ends in another groove, followed by another blank section, and finally the pommel.  This is the same pommel as on the SI--a simple disc, but with two grooves around it rather than being knurled.

Clearly, both of these designs are very simple.  However, I feel they look quite nice; they don't have the overly-simple feel of the Aeon v2 about them, in part because their emitters are not just simple cylinders.  Each has its dedicated proponents on the forums.  One potential weakness for these sabers is that, due to their constant diameter, they may not be ideal for spinning; your fingers may tend to "wander" up or down the saber.  My inclination would be to use 32 inch blades on these sabers; they're most comfortably gripped just below the activation switches, which would suggest a shorter blade to bring the balance point lower.  (The SI does have grooves near the emitter, which could allow you to grip it up there; the Libby is basically smooth and constant diameter everywhere except the concave grip section.)  However, I should note that I own neither of these sabers, so it may be wise to poke around the forum and see what owners suggest for blade length.

[BlindJedi]

Once again Vyk your description paints a pretty picture.
If anyone wants to see the list of sabers I plan to use in my films feel free to ask.
Now I'm just waiting on a description of the Mantis, and wondering if one could duel wield them like so many Jedi in the Clone Wars.

[Vyk]

Now I'm just waiting on a description of the Mantis, and wondering if one could duel wield them like so many Jedi in the Clone Wars.

I actually started working on the description right after the SI and Libby, but I had to pay attention to real life for a bit. 

Compared to the sabers I've been describing, the Mantis is at the opposite end of the complexity scale.  It is currently the only curved saber in the Ultrasabers lineup, and like many of the recent sabers, it's very complex.  It is available in four colors--black, azure, crimson, and bare aluminum (the last is called the Mantis CE).  The CE is all one color, while the others have both colored and silver aluminum sections; in the description, I'll refer to those as "body colored" and "silver," and you can just bear in mind that the CE is entirely silver.  Also, any time I describe "front" I mean the side with the activation switch; this is the side that the saber bends away from.  In other words, one could call it the convex side, with the "back" being the concave side.

Let's start with dimensions.  The saber is 14.25 inches long from emitter to pommel and 1.7 inches wide at the body.  With claws, it's 17 inches long from claw to pommel.  I believe those are straight-line dimensions, so if you were to lay a tape measure along the front of the saber, it would be slightly longer.  The emitter, elbow, body, and pommel are all MHS compatible, and the two shrouds are removable.

There are two options for the emitter--with and without claws.  I'll describe without claws first, and then with.  The basic shape is slightly bulged; that is, it has a linear increase in diameter followed by a linear decrease in diameter.  It has three longitudinal slots down its length, dividing it into three "petals".  It is body-colored, with three silver circumferential grooves near the tip.  With claws, there are three claws, straight on the inside and convex on the outside, extending up from the center of each petal. Below the emitter is a short blank section, then a thicker collar.  This is still body-colored, and has an alternating pattern of 10 small circular windows with 10 dots between them.  The dots are small holes that are bored into the collar, similar to the windows, except that they do not go all the way through.

Below this is a short silver shroud, about two inches long.  It has seven tightly-spaced grooves in its lower half.  Among these grooves it has three chevrons cut out of it, spaced evenly around the collar and with their points toward the emitter.  Through the chevrons, you can see the body color; however, due to the way the chevron is cut, they actually appear to have the middle third body color and the outer two thirds silver.

Directly below this is where the saber bends.  The activation switch is on the outside of the bend.  The bend is a smooth curve, not angular, but of fairly short diameter.  Thus, the saber gives the appearance of being two straight sections with a bend in the middle, rather than being a continuous curve.

Below the bend, the saber increases diameter as a grip section.  This is actually a shroud over the main body of the lightsaber, and is body-colored and extends the rest of the length of the hilt.  There is a sudden diameter increase (the edge of the shroud) followed by a taper.  The rest of the section has seven cuts that spiral to the right down the hilt, about a 60-degree spiral.  Through these cuts is the body of the lightsaber, which is silver and has been cut away into a sawtooth pattern.  At the bottom right is a silver Covertec wheel.

The Mantis is available with two pommels.  They are the Kenobi pommel, like on the Guardian, and the spiked version of that, like on the Scorpion.

As I stated, the Mantis is a very complex saber, so I hope my description has not been too confusing.  I think it is clear that this is a unique-looking saber.

I, unfortunately, haven't held a Mantis in my hands, so I'm not sure how well-suited they are to dual-wielding.  I expect they would work well--they look pretty well-balanced and controllable, although they won't be the lightest sabers around, so whoever is using them will get a workout.  As always when dual-wielding, I would suggest a shorter blade; 32 inches would probably be good.

[James Casey]

Vyk, your descriptions are excellent - +1 for taking the time on them.

As someone who's owned a Mantis, I would say that if you feel comfortable wielding one, then two would pose no more trouble than two of any other hilt. It's not a heavy lightsabre (without claws, at least - mine didn't have them) and my natural inclination was to hold it at the base of the emitter in any case.

I would say that I found the shroud beneath the emitter to be quite uncomfortable. It is removable, though, which made it a lot easier to use.

[Vyk]

On to the Consular!

I believe you said that you had a '90s Hasbro Qui-Gon saber, so I'm going to compare it to that, since I have one also.  Overall, it's very similar, including both being cylindrical below the activation switch; on the actual movie saber, this is flat on the front.  (On the Consular, this is round to make machining easier; on the toy, it's round to make room for the C batteries, which I'm thankful no saber uses these days!)  Length is very close; the Consular is twelve inches long, while the Hasbro Qui-Gon is twelve and a half inches long.

Going from the top, you have a silver ring.  On the toy, this is just an inverted cone; on the Consular, there is a short--about one quarter inch--cylindrical section above this.  Below this, the hilt changes to black and has three grooves.  Below that is a rapid increase in taper, and then a straight section.  On the toy, this is over an inch long, being where the top unscrews to put the batteries in; on the Consular, it is about half that long.  Below that, the diameter tapers quickly back down.  On the Consular, everything from here up is the MHS-compatible emitter section and can be unscrewed.

Below this are several grooves above the activation switch.  On the toy, there are six large grooves, while the Consular has 9 smaller grooves.  The silver shroud starts here.  Below this is the activation switch, which is a big red button on the toy, and can be a black guarded switch or a black or silver AV switch on the Consular.  Below here are more grooves; 13 fat ones on the Hasbro, 12 finer ones on the Consular.  Finally a silver section, which is the bottom of the shroud.  The shroud on the Consular, although similar in overall design to the toy, lacks the oval-shaped cutouts on the back; there is a black Covertec wheel in about the same place that there is a fake wheel on the toy.  On the toy, of course, the shroud is part of the same plastic as the rest of the hilt, painted silver; the Consular's shroud is a separate piece of polished aluminum and can be removed.  The shroud is available nickel-plated, but like many options, that doesn't currently show as available when ordering.

Finally, the pommel.  The Ultrasabers pommel is slightly longer; on the toy, it takes two steps up in diameter and is about three quarters of an inch long, while the Consular's has a straight section and then takes another step down; it is about twice the overall length.  The pommel, of course, is MHS compatible.

Needless to say, the Consular is much brighter and sounds much better!  For anybody who hasn't heard it, I've included a quick recording of my 1999 Qui-Gon toy; before you ask, the recording is perfectly fine and it really does sound that bad.  As you can hear, there is no swing sensor, and it only plays swing sounds after a clash.  I also like the horrible attempt at looping the idle hum. 

[BlindJedi]

Awesome description as always.
Never thought I'd ever hear that terrible audio again.
If I remember right the blade of that saber was made out of a different plastic from the Hasbro norm, and would glow under a black light.  The Darth Maul saber had the same sort of glow under a black light.  Which in my teenage mind made them so much cooler.
Anyway, I'm loving these incredible descriptions.
Any sabers look good in Crimson, or Azure?  I'm thinking of getting the Reaper in Crimson, and possibly the standard version.  Along with two black Mantis, and maybe two Crimson Mantis.

[Vyk]

And the Raven.  As Greg mentioned, I wouldn't suggest dual-wielding them.  At a total length of 19 inches, including claws, this is one of Ultrasabers' largest sabers; I believe the only thing larger is the Malice, which is 21.5 inches including large claws.  Without the claws, it still comes in a little over 13 inches.  It's also slightly larger in diameter than most hilts; on the Raven, the narrow parts are the diameter that most hilts are at their wide parts.  If you took the claws off, you'd be at about the size and weight of a normal saber, but you'd also have gotten rid of the most distinctive feature, so that would be kind of silly!

So, to start with, the claws.  There are three, evenly spaced around the blade.  The standard claws stretch 5.75 inches up from the emitter; the Super Sith Edition claws stretch 7.75 inches up.  In both cases, they're shaped like very stretched trapezoids; they are flat on the blade side, and taper slowly thicker on the outside, have about a half inch where the outside is flat and parallel to the inside, then taper slowly back down to the tip.  Their width is constant, and a bit under a quarter inch.  They are a bit over a quarter inch thick at their thickest point.

Overall, the emitter is a silver cylinder.  In between the claws are indentations that run a couple inches down the length of the emitter; these indentations are black, round at the lower end, run off the top end of the emitter, and contain seven small circumferential grooves inside.  They end at the same place the claws do.  Below this are matching indentations, round at the top and running off the bottom of the emitter; they are not as deep and are black inside with no grooves.

Below the emitter, the saber is mostly black.  At the top of this section is the activation switch, which has a straight featureless section below it; on the RGB version there are four switches in a row here, but it's the same length (which should give you an idea for size).  Below this is the grip section.  Unlike most sabers, which have grooves, this instead has seven raised silver rings.  Below this is the pommel.  There are two options for pommels; one is a plain silver cylinder, flat and silver on the bottom.  The other, the Super Sith Edition pommel, is again a silver cylinder but has 8 longitudinal black grooves and is black on the bottom.

That's it; with the exception of the claws, the Raven is a fairly straightforward design.

Edit: FYI, the Raven's pommel is MHS compatible, but the emitter is not.

[Vyk]

Never thought I'd ever hear that terrible audio again.

You're welcome!

If I remember right the blade of that saber was made out of a different plastic from the Hasbro norm, and would glow under a black light.  The Darth Maul saber had the same sort of glow under a black light.  Which in my teenage mind made them so much cooler.

I'm not sure I've ever had mine under a black light, but it does look like it would fluoresce.

The saddest thing about that saber is that it actually stands up pretty well against one of the modern basic toy sabers.  I have a modern (Bladebuilders) ROTJ Luke saber, and in comparison, the 1999 saber is brighter, more evenly lit, and, unfortunately, slightly louder.    How something that uses modern LEDs can suck so badly compared to decades-old technology is something I do not know...

Any sabers look good in Crimson, or Azure?  I'm thinking of getting the Reaper in Crimson, and possibly the standard version.  Along with two black Mantis, and maybe two Crimson Mantis.

I like all of the Crimson and Azure sabers.  On my personal want list are an Azure Reaper and a Crimson Mantis, although I like the Azure Mantis, too!

I do feel that the Crimson Reaper's silver pattern is slightly less obvious than the same pattern on the black or Azure Reaper.  On one hand, that's just my perception from pictures, and don't know how they'd look in person; on the other hand, you're looking for something for a movie, so how it looks in pictures is kind of important!

The Mantis doesn't have the same problem, and I think it looks great in black, Azure, or Crimson.  The only Mantis I'm not huge on is the all-silver Mantis CE, and that's mostly because it's less striking than the other three rather than anything wrong with it per se.

I'd also like to mention the Crimson Scorpion.  I think it looks better than the black Scorpion; it's a little more complex and a little more unusual.  Personally, I'd rather have a Crimson Scorpion than a Crimson Reaper; conversely, I'd rather have a black Reaper than a black Scorpion.

[BlindJedi]

I guess I have to rethink my saber line up for my films a little bit.
Would the Raven make a good saber for an evil war lord?

[BlindJedi]

I was trying to replace the two Ravens for my duel wielding villain, and came up with the Dark War Glaives.  Would these be easier to wield than two of the Ravens?

[GregG124]

I was trying to replace the two Ravens for my duel wielding villain, and came up with the Dark War Glaives.  Would these be easier to wield than two of the Ravens?

Pretty much just as big! For duel wielding (for a bad guy) Dark Initiates, Dark Apprentices, Dark Liberators, anything of that size. Any other suggestions forum members?

[Grey Owl]

Pretty much just as big! For duel wielding (for a bad guy) Dark Initiates, Dark Apprentices, Dark Liberators, anything of that size. Any other suggestions forum members?

Yeah sure a shock, maybe some dark catalysts, domonix's, Dark sentinels, a couple DSI's, Um a menace staff, oh overlords, dark prophecy, dark pike. Missing anything