I've wanted a Saber-staff for a long time now, and finally decided to spring for one. Anyway, it arrived two days ago, and I've played around with it enough to give a proper review:
I opted for Pyrestone Orange as my color - worth the extra cost, as I wanted a proper orange, and Fire Orange is just too yellow for my liking. Anyway, the first thing I did when I pulled out my sabers was to see if US had been able to give me Pyrestone Orange... in short, they did, and it looks beautiful. The pic below doesn't quite do it justice:
Shot without flash, in the dark (the flash has a tendency to wash out the color of the saber)
By the way, that's the standard mid-grade blade... I'm sure with an ultra-edge the color would be a little brighter, but I want the darker tone.
The hilts of the phantom are interesting. Visually, the silver on black of the LE style is quite cool, but I've found it to have too much silver. I'm sure its been seen before, but pics are always good in my mind:
Again, darkened room with no flash.
Room with lights on
Finally, when put together as a staff, the saber looks incredible. It can be a little tricky to get the second saber properly on the threads of the connector, but with time I'm sure I'll get better with that. Anyway, more pics:
Full length - it's a little over 6'5" or so when together, just a few inches taller than me.
Close up of the handle of the staff.
Mostly, I'm very happy with the sabers. The choke points (both top and bottom are useful for different situations) are very handy, and make using the saber (in separate form and staff form) fairly easy. I find that the top choke point is ideal for solo spins, while the bottom is good for power strikes and staff spins. The weight is very good - heavy enough to make the saber substantial, but not so heavy that its hard to control.
I do have two issues with them though. First, as is the battery packs move around too much for my liking, and tend to bounce around in the hilt a bit (mostly when spinning/striking with some force). I've found a way to mostly mitigate this, but I'll need to perfect it. The second issue is with the silver groves - I kinda wish they were slanted inward, and not cut straight down. Perhaps it's because of how I grip it, but they tend to dig into my hands a little. I've solved this problem with the first step of my customization (although I also need to perfect that).
I wonder if the battery issue wouldn't be coming up if I had opted for sound (I may decide to get it added at some point, and thankfully I have the Li-ion setup already). The sound wasn't a critical need, and money is tight enough that I would not have been able to afford this if I had wanted it from the start.
The only other thing I might change would be to pick up a different pommel for them while in separate form. The standard pommel is nice, but I'm thinking of putting a dark catalyst on them instead.
Oh, and one other annoyance. I didn't realize that US had changed the size of their blade retention screws, or I would have ordered one... the one that I have for my Omen is too large to fit into the hole.
