Now before I actually start this unboxing and review, I just want to say the Customer Service is fantastic and whoever is Marlena from
Customer Service, I totally love you for putting up with my pain in the ass. I had to contact them multiple times to get my order through
Marlena is fantastic rep from Ultrasabers. I am quite surprised since I have heard many bad things when it comes to customer service from Ultrasabers from a few things, I guess they just drew the short end of a stick :/
I just got my order from Ultrasabers yesterday around 10AM, only two days after they fabricated my two sabers and I have to say I was quite surprised, I though it would take a week probably to get here but nope, only two days to which I say am impressed! It came into this nice,long cardboard box to which confused me at first, I had thought the Hilt and the blade would not be connected in case of nothing happening but nope
Let see what inside shall we
So I opened it using a Knife which on the exterior is sealed tightly to keep the box from opening(Tried it with scissors and failed lol) , on the inside the blades themselves were well protected with wrappings around the blade and hilt to def make them more shock resistant. I couldn't say if you threw them in the back of a truck going off road that they still be intact but for normal driving, this packaging is very good! Still don't get how they got two blades in there lol. Now my only complaint about the packaging is that the Chargers themselves are not protected at all inside and could have possibly broken with the wall charger boxes bent with reddish stuff(looked like traces of Jam on them) on the inside, weird? It's not really a complaint though since I got a free XTAR VC2 Plus Charger out of it with one of my blades despite the fact I didn't didn't order one for it. I decided not to take pictures of the chargers because I didn't really see any point but if you guys want, I'll take some pictures and post them for you.
Now onto the blades, the first one is my blade, A Dark Initiate v3
As I said before, both blades are finely wrapped to make them shock resistant and there not connected so you can take them out one by one which is nice since you can reuse the wrapping at any time when moving these guys over long distances. I've also noticed that the tips are more wrapped then the rest of the blade or the hilt, I guess this to protect the tip since it's probably more fragile than the rest of the blade or the hilt.
So after removing the wrapping, I finally discovered my hilt, my Dark Initiate v3, It was exactly as I expected and advertised as which is excellent. It's made out of light metal, Aluminum so this thing can take a small beating and be dropped a limited amount of times although your bound to damage the wiring before seriously damaging the Hilt. The Hilt itself was a tad longer and bigger then I expected but that's not a bad thing at all as it fitted perfectly into my hand and felt very comfortable in my hand until a couple of hours after practicing Kendo with it then the palms of my hands were pretty rough but that my fault, not the hilt lol Since the hilt is long enough, you can place your hands on it in a number of ways and it works well with many kendo stances although I can't used to wielding my Dark Initiate v3 in a side stance lol The Hilt itself is practical in design and does have a "flashlight" like look to it however I, was in the star wars universe would keep a practical, simple designed saber similar to this so it works out just fine for me, Lastly I got a Silver Guard Switch since I wanted to have a star war like iginited switch, it looks better and for some reason in my mind, it would keep dust out a bit better. The Guard switch is nicely done, feels natural and you need to actually push down on the blade to ignite it or turn it off so I won't have to worry about it turning off on me during Kendo or during a lightsaber duel. the only complaint here is that I wish Ultrasaber would give you the option of them adding something like a Tsuba Guard on your lightsaber so that your hands don't touch the blade, obivously this isn't a big deal but if this was a real lightsaber, I would of lost my right hand lol
As for the Pommel I just got a Regular Solid Pommel, nothing fance or anything and scews on and off easily. As for the batteries, I got the Li-Ion Setup since EVERYONE essentially says it's the best setup for a saber and it doesn't cost that much more and they last about two to four hours before needing to be recharged again. At first I had no idea whatsoever how to get them out until I used a pair of scissors to gently pull them out just enough to take the batteries out to charge them.
Now onto the blade itself, I got a 32' UltraEdge Heavy Grade Blade, the blade sits FIRMLY in place and doesn't move, even after a few hours of practicing Kendo with it, the blade itself was smooth with no defects or damage. The blade was very light from what I was expecting, I honestly thought it would be 2x or 3x thicker and heavier but it wasn't, I guess I can't bash a zombie's brains with this XD
The end I got was a round tip and is fine although when it's on, it's seems to bit off well get to that in a minute.
May I Present you, the Priestess of the east yin yang......erggg uh I mean my Artic Blue Dark Initiate v3...Yeah!
Now since it's an Ultraedge, the Artic Blue is unified in the blade meaning it looks good everywhere all the time which is great at least to me until I get other blades however now comes the biggest complaint I have about the blade, the brightness ugh. I guess I didn't do enough homework I guess? I spent weeks looking up this stuff and asked around as well as reading dozens of threads but the brightness was a total disappointment. I honestly though the brightness would have the blade look like it does in the first picture which LOOKS FUDGING AMAZING! but atlas the blade really looks like the third picture which kinda killed it for me
Every picture/Video I saw of an Ultrasaber always had them look like in the first picture, something right out of the movies where in reality there the fourth picture. From what videos and pictures i've seen with them with the brightness of the fourth picture, I thought they were low on battery power or were really close up so it would look that way. Then the next gripe I got is the tip which looks dirty like there's dry glue in it or something so the middle of the point is never lit up and it's certainly noticable noticeable from afar or when dueling someone.
Final thoughts on my Dark Initiate v3: The craftsmanship of the Hilt is great and fits well in my hands and is comfortable for a period of time but the blade itself brings it down a bit. This thing neat to look at and I'll use it for practicing Kendo or have lightsaber duels with my best friend probably alot but it doesn't look like a real lightsaber to me :/ Was it worth 150$? hmm hard to say really, The more I used it, It's been growing on me and it's not garbage by any means! I love the hilt, the brightness of the blades just kills me. If you can get passed the brightness of the blade(the true brightness is the fourth picture, not the first picture) then I say it's worth it and if you die hard fan, get sound! I didn't beacuse this blade doesn't truely reflect me per say, this does
but Ultrasaber won't build it so....
I am now going to do the Dark Initiate LE v4 I bought for my friend. The Dark Initiate LE v4 won't be as long since it's similar just to let everyone know :/
Just by looking at this, this is nicer and I guess "exotic" looking compared to mine but it's not a big deal to me since this ins't my taste anyway. The hilt is really nice with Aluminum as with mine with silver grips which just adds to the hilt. The Dark Initiate LE v4 is basically the same size and thickness as my Dark Initiate v3 so you shouldn't have problem holding them in your hands and I have to say this Hilt ALOT better grip wise honestly, I was able to grip it better and put more strength and momentum into my swings then I could with my Dark Initiate v3. It still does look like a fancy "flashlight" look to an extent although this one alot nicer. This one also has a Silver Guard switch and it looks good and blends right in with the hilt as if it's supposed to there. This hilt doesn't really a Tsuba Guard
like the Dark Initiate v3 since the grips keeps your hands in place with the worse, my hands moved to the emitter windows but I don't think I would of lost my hand?
As with the Dark Initate V3, I got the same setup with the Regular Solid Pommel which looks better on here with it being Flush and a Li-Ion Setup. I don't know why but every time I unscrew the Pommel on this one, it squeels until I take it off.
As with the Dark Initiate v3, it has a 32' UltraEdge Heavy Grade Blade and is firmly in place as well and doesn't move.
The Dark Initiate LE v4 INGITED!
From the pictures this thing LOOKS AMAZING......unforntuely it doesn't look like that or the red blades from the star war universe where's its white in the middle and red on the outside, it's just has the entire blade Bright Red, I can't give an exact color but you get the idea, it looks real bad to me honestly to the point I get a "fake" or "Crappy" vibe but that's not the word I describe it, it's off maybe? The Tip on the blade is bright unlike my Dark Initiate v3 and isn't any stuff stuck there at the top.
Final thoughts on my Dark Initiate LE v4: Hilt is GREAT, it looks nice, exotic for the price and grips very well in your hands. as with mine, the Brightness of the blade brings it's down, I HATE the red honestly, it looks bad and gives off a "fake" or "something off" vibe but at least am not a sith lol As stated before for 140$, it's upto you if it's worth it or not. This hilt would probably be great with other colors.
Final thoughts in General: Although am heavily disappointed in the brightness of the blades, these two UltraSabers look great and I love the Hilts, there easy to take apart, easy to maintain and look cool, just a bumer the brightness sucks on these. For 250$ I could of put that towards a Switch or something else but I don't really regret purchasing these two sabers since I owed my best friend and I know he loves Star wars to the point he calls himself a Dark Warrior or Sith so I know he enjoy the Dark Initiate LE v4 even if the blade off and am sure he challenge me to a duel XD So as long as you do your homework and know what your buying, you can't go wrong with one of these and I recommend buying a soundboard to make it badass. The only reason I didn't do sound for these two was because these two Sabers don't reflect me and my best friend so it won't be the same. The two of us are like Jedi, we want to hand craft our own sabers make them feel unique and that they belong to us.
