Review of my first lightsaber purchasing experience

Short Version
4/5

Long Version:
To preface this, this is not only my first Ultrasabers purchase, but it is my first purchase of a lightsaber of any kind that is worth over $20. I actually ordered a few things:
•   Diamond Fulcrum
•   Diamond Lost Gray
•   Diamond Azure Menace
•   Diamond Crimson Menace
•   Silver Adjustable Coupler (x2)
•   Silver Quick-Release Coupler (x2)
•   Various length blades (4-32” blades with the sabers, and then 2-24” blades and 2-36” blades separately)

My intent is to use them as saberstaves, but to also be able to use them as either single or dual-wield if needed.

Now, I have as of yet to try the 36” blades, but since this is all one purchase, I’m going to share my experience, and then review several items at once. I am going to look overall at things I like and didn’t like from the experience itself and from the items, and then give a rating of 1-5 for my overall experience.

How I’ll be Rating Them
First, my rating system: I am rating on a scale of 1-5. A 1 is absolutely terrible, a 5 is absolutely perfect, and a 3 is “meh”. 2 and 4 are not directly between. A 2 is something that was pretty bad, but had a redeeming quality to it. A 4 is something that was close to perfect, but not quite for one reason or another. Think of a 4 as “1 under the highest” as opposed to “between 3 and 5”, and a 2 as “1 over the lowest”. So the rating I gave above means I am overall very happy, but there were some snags along the way.

The Website (5/5)
When I’m ordering something online, I like a good website. Something that is easy to navigate, easy to see what you’re buying and what options come with it, and where the contact information for the company is readily available. You’d be surprised how many sites don’t meet these basic criteria. They may just be a list of items with no way to filter them, or the contact information is impossible to find.

Ultrasabers' site was easy to follow. When I first started looking at sabers, I used the site’s chat feature to ask a few questions, and later I sent an email to the company asking more questions, and my questions were answered. Ultrasabers videos on Youtube helped me decide what specifically to get. Jumping ahead, when I had issues with my sabers, I’ve gotten responses both on the forums and in email in a reasonable time from Ultrasabers employees. This is especially good, because I’d read other reviews that say Ultrasabers is the kind of company that will be responsive when you’re a prospective buyer and then ignore you after they’ve made the sale. From my experience, that is not the case. I feel like a valued customer even after I’ve given my money to the company.

Shipping (2/5)
Back to the story. I ordered my sabers, and they came through FedEx. Personally, I have issues with FedEx, which I won’t get into here. Without getting into the drama, let’s just say that FedEx only works for me for large orders because I have to be home when they deliver. This obviously eats into my work schedule. With the order I placed (you can do the math on 4 Diamond sabers with options plus accessories) I was fine staying home to sign for it, but as I look ahead, I see FedEx as a liability if I want to make smaller purchases. I’m fine working things out to stay home if I’m receiving a package worth hundreds or thousands of dollars, but would have a harder time justifying it if I order a couple replacement blades or a yari extension, for example. In that case, having the option to use UPS or USPS would be nice, as I don’t have the same drama with them. Next time I want to buy a small order from Ultrasabers, I will wait until I am also buying a new lightsaber, because if I'm going to take the time to stay home and wait for delivery it might as well be worth it.

Because the only shipping option is Fedex, and because I have issues with Fedex, I'm giving this a 2/5.

Quality Control (4/5)
So I got my sabers, and they look better in person than they do on the website. This is sort of a criticism of the website, but also a positive for the sabers themselves. However, 3 of my 4 sabers had minor issues on receipt that I (believe) have since been resolved:

   •   The Crimson Menace and Azure Menace both had crashes where the sound would freeze. I ran diagnostics on these and found they each had different configuration issues. After resolving those issues they appear to have stopped freezing.
   •   The Lost Gray, upon receipt, would not accept the coupler I had purchased. I blew out the threads with canned air and the problem went away.

Both of these were minor issues, but they are part of the reason why I’m giving a 4/5 instead of a 5/5 on quality control. They worked, and I was able to resolve the problems myself, but I did have to do a bit just to get three of the four items into working order when I received them.

Documentation and Support (3/5)
I received my Lightsabers with a paper that basically said “be sure to recharge your batteries, and here’s our website. I had lots of simple questions, like:

   1)   How do you plug in the USB cable?
   2)   How do you change the blade on the Menace?
   3)   Where is the software that I can use?
   4)   Various questions regarding the software?
   5)   Why is it flashing blue and red on a saber that didn’t even have blue and red as any of the selected colors?
   6)   How do I fix the crashing error that I had?

While #6 might have been a stretch to expect, it would have been nice if there was a document that explained how to perform some of the basic things on your lightsaber. How to get to the USB port, how to change the blade (especially on the menace, where the retention screws are covered up), a product manual on how to use the software, basic maintenance, all of those would have been nice to have included. I’ve also seen reviews from people who didn’t know some things about their sabers. For example, a review by a Raven owner who didn’t know you could line up the emitter so that the blade retention screw was accessible without dismantling the emitter, who gave a negative review that it took several minutes to replace a blade. So I’m giving the documentation a 1/5.

However, as far as online support, I’m going the other way with 5/5. As I mentioned above, I’ve gotten swift responses from Ultrasabers employees whenever I’ve had a question, and I’ve been able to find half my answers by searching Youtube or other sites. The lack of documentation is mitigated by the excellent support I’ve received. Because of this, I’ve included both together in my rating.

The Lightsabers (4/5)
This is my first lightsaber purchase, so I can’t compare the sabers to each other, and I can’t compare the sabers to sabers from other manufacturers. However, I do have some comments on them:
First, I was actually looking at getting the Raven or one of the simple sabers (i.e. Aeon, Dominix, Sentinel, Initiate, Apprentice). However, the Raven was backordered until just before my purchase, and I decided that a staff of Ravens, while cool, would also have a very tiny amount of usable blade space, so I decided to hold off on the Raven for now. The initiate/dominix combo I also wanted was backordered, and I didn’t want to wait.

The Fulcrum and Lost Gray lightsabers are absolutely beautiful. They are minimalist, albeit with a few more bumps and knobs than the basic sabers, and the knobs they do have are mostly smooth and rounded. This means that no matter how you grip it, they are usually comfortable. However, they are BIG. I’m used to staves of around ½ inch to 1 inch thick and kali sticks around ¾ inch to an inch. These are even wider than the other sabers. I knew that going in, but my issue with their width is with the couplers to make a staff. While the Menace is pretty much a straight shot, the coupler is a lot skinnier than the Lost Gray and Fulcrum, and it isn’t a smooth transition. I knew about the size going in, but it still takes the saber down to a 4/5 for me (which, remember, means almost a 5, but not quite).

The Menace is just the right size, but I feel it’s a tad knobby. Which, again, I knew going in, it’s just my impression of it. The knobs remind me of finger grooves on a handgun. They’re great if the grooves fit your fingers, but terrible if the grooves do not line up. Similarly, if the knobs happen to be in the right spot for you, it’s great, but if not, then they feel in the way. So I think I would prefer the basic sabers to this one. I also wish I would have ordered them without windows, because I find I like to grip with my main hand on the emitter, primarily because there aren’t a lot of knobs there.
Now, these are minor issues, and I did know about them ahead of time. Overall, the sabers seem durable, and there’s a lot of things you can do with them. I like the sounds, I like that you can modify the color with the application. I just recently learned I can program several different colors that I can change on the fly (and will probably play with that more in the next few weeks). I like the heavy grade ultra-edge blades, I like how easy they are to change things out.

There are a couple of design issues I have with the Ultrasabers in general, though:

   1.   The Micro-USB port requires you to partially disassemble the saber in order to connect it. This seems like a bit of a flaw to me, especially when I can connect the power charger externally.
   2.   The on-saber menu seems to accept input at a few specific points, and not accept it at others.
   3.   Sometimes plugging into the software can be a pain, because I have to turn both the saber and the software on, and then plug the saber in a couple of times to get the software to recognize it. I have other issues with this connection, but I will discuss that in the next part.

Overall, I am very happy with the sabers, but there are a few critical flaws to me that keep me from giving them a 5/5. The external Micro-USB is a definite thing that I think should make it into future sabers.

The Ultra Sabers Launcher Software (3/5)
I like how robust the Diamond software is, but it’s also a little bit daunting. This will probably ease up over time through education and familiarity with the system. However, there are a few issues I have with it:

   1.   Whenever you write to the saber, it causes you to end the current session between the saber and the software. However, I’ve gone back and forth between options and not had them save. This is something that learning more about the software may help, but as of right now it’s very cumbersome for me to use.
   2.   I’m still trying to figure out the differences between the different files that I’m saving. It seems to me I can save individual effects, I can save sound fonts, and I can save entire configurations. As I mentioned earlier, the lack of documentation (at least, documentation included with the saber, I don’t know if there’s a manual out there) really holds me back in my initial learning. I’m sure I’ll learn it through a combination of the forums, Youtube, and good ol’ fashioned trial-and-error, but this is part of what is so daunting.
   3.   It would be nice if the defaults were, by default, saved when I install the software, instead of requiring me to download them. For example, defaults for various colors (i.e. red, blue, green, yellow, sunrider’s destiny) were included, as well as the 8 custom fonts that came on my saber in addition to the basic font and the mute font.
   4.   I’d like the software to be able to tell me what gestures are programmed into it (as in, what motions will activate the effect).
   5.   When the diagnosis tool tells me “point 2” has an error, is that the second point including the T=0 point, or the second point AFTER the T=0 point? That wasn’t clear to me and I had to edit a bunch of them to get it to work.

Overall, there were some frustrating things about the software, and a few things that would make the software a bit nicer. I like what it’s capable of, and maybe once I learn it better I’ll give it a 4 instead of a 3. It will also be a lot easier to use once I have configurations established and all I need to do when I get a new lightsaber is apply them. However, for now, I think I give it a 3.

The Couplers (4/5)
Remember, my initial idea was to get staves so I could use staves that are fancier than just a stick. The coupler is then a very important piece of that. After watching the video of the quick-release coupler, and seeing it freely spin, I thought it might feel really weird to grip if the pieces are sliding around on each other. That’s why I also ordered the adjustable coupler, that I could line up the pieces how I wanted and then leave them be.

The quick-release coupler is not nearly as spinny as I thought it would be, and is actually really comfortable to hold. I think I would only use the adjustable coupler if I was doing a demo or movie where I wanted it to be a staff 100% of the time, just to make sure the power switches are always in line with each other.

I do have a suggestion for each coupler, though. I don’t know how easy it would be to do or how well it would work, and it might not be worth doing, but there’s no harm in sharing it:
   •   The adjustable coupler should be adjustable while the sabers are attached. It was very annoying adjusting it, attaching the sabers, checking the alinement, detaching the sabers, and repeating.
   •   It would be nice if there was a way to lock the sabers into an alignment with the quick-release couplers (i.e. they can only spin while the quick-release is pulled). That way if you start a video or demo as a staff, you have them lined up (like with the adjustable coupler), but you still have the quick-release option.

Overall, I really like the couplers. They both have their advantages and disadvantages, but it would definitely be more convenient if I could align the adjustable coupler without trial-and-error of attaching and detaching it.

Edit to add: Also, the adjustable coupler gets out of line with itself if the sound holes are not lined up. I don't know a good way to fix this (maybe a grate that goes all the way around), but if the purpose is to align the sabers for the looks, it would be nice if the sound lined up.

Overall (4/5)
As I said above in my short version, overall I give my Ultrasabers experience a 4 out of 5 stars. The main areas that I would most like to see changed are (from most important to least important):

   1.   Add a UPS or USPS shipping option
   2.   Include more documentation with the product, even if it’s just a simple how to remove the batteries and/or how to charge, how to replace the blade on this model (or just generic if it’s a model with a visible retention screw)
   3.   External Micro-USB port
   4.   Improve the user experience of the Ultra Sabers Launcher software
   5.   Check for configuration issues before shipping a lightsaber

I’d read some really nasty reviews about Ultrasabers, and my experience is that they are false. The company seems to really care about its customers. The 4/5 I’m giving, remember, is a great, but not perfect.

I hope that this review can do a couple different things. I’d like to see Ultrasabers maybe take some of my criticisms into account as they move forwad. I’d like to see others understand that Ultrasabers is actually a good company with good customer service, and that they make good sabers. And I’d like to see maybe some Ultrasabers customers give me advice that will help educate me and alleviate some of my concerns.

Thanks for reading my review.