Phantom V4 Reveiw

[Flensborg]

well about 2 weeks ago i ordered a Phantom V4 stunt saber staff and a grab bag. The grab bag saber is awesome! i got a DARK APPRENTICE LE V4 with a red blade, and i am very happy about it.

now to the Phantom. i really like the design of the hilts and since i have big hands they are a perfect fit for me. But i am not really impressed with intierior design of them. Both the LED and the battery pack is loose, so there is always a slight rattle. i contacted Costumer service and they recommended that i adjusted the velcro around the battery pack for a tighter fit and it helped a bit. With the LED i have to jam the blade as far down the emitter as possible, and make sure it is screwed in very tight. That leaves marks and dents in the blade.

overall the phantom is a 2/5 for me and i wont recommend buying it.

[scifidude79]

Yeah, that's just the way these things are constructed.

The batteries are loose for obvious reasons, so you can pull the battery pack out and replace or charge the batteries, depending on which kind you have.  Speaker mounts stop them from doing this, but you (obviously) don't get those on stunts.  One thing you can do is go to your local store that sell craft supplies and buy some cheap craft foam.  You can cut this into pieces and put it in there to cushion things.  You can put more pieces into the hilt forward of the battery pack, leaving just enough room for the pack (wrap it around the wires) and that will stop the pack from sliding forward.  You can also wrap a bit of it around the battery pack itself to lessen the movement back there.

The LED modules are loose because they have to be.  They're just an LED unit with optic inside a heat sink that sits inside a 1-inch diameter tube (the emitter.)  That's the only way to get them into the saber hilt and there's no way to secure them.  It is loose and slides because the wires had to be longer than necessary in order for the people who built it to solder the wires to the switch before the switch was inserted into the hilt.  So, it slides forward and backward.  Tightening the blade as you do is the only thing to do with these.  The only sabers that won't have this are the ones with removable MHS compatible emitters.  That's because the heat sinks on those have a "lip" that gets caught between the MHS sections when they are screwed together, holding it securely in place.

Realistically, your Dark Apprentice has these issues too, because it's built the exact same way as the Dominix hilts that make up your Phantom.  The difference is, in a shorter hilt, there's less room for the parts to move around, so it's less noticeable.

[Flensborg]

Nice explaination Scifidude79

but my  i stand by my review. i buy a product and after i recive it i have to fix some small things that the maker shoud have thought of. Sure the product is working as intended, but not to full satisfaction.

[scifidude79]

Yeah, no sweat.  You're certainly entitled to your opinion.  And, it's not like a Phantom is cheap, you pay quite a bit for those, even without sound.  I'm sorry to hear it didn't meet your expectations.

[Corwyn VonBeck]

I do think a move to using little retention screws for the non MLS units would be a good idea. My sentinel has a small rattle unless I jam the blade down, but I will be fixing this with a retention screw once I get to modifying it like I want.