Alrighty, and now for my full review...The flamberge is amazing and I cannot decide on the name Leviathan or Abeloth. Ok, first the blade, I went with a 40" ultra edge, but I want to up grade to a 56" (estimated) heavy grade. The reasons are three, first the heavy edge will add to the weight and perception of more power. Trust me, when i got it in my hands I instantly knew what the fighting style that should be used for it is. Second, when removing the blade you physically have to grip the blade and twist. I felt uneasy with this because it felt like I might horribly damage the blade. Third, is its resemblance to a great sword, resting on the ground the pommel comes up to here on me and I'm 5'11".
When it should really come up to here.
This kind of blade is not meant for close quarters fighting by any stretch. It's meant to keep your enemy at a distance by an untrained fighter and is meant to slap your opponents blade down then come back up and lop his head off or straight shatter his freakin skull with the pommel. A very raw, powerful, and brutal fighting style as compared to the elegant seven forms of lightsaber combat.
Now more on the quillon (cross guard) blades. Once again, If you're dead set on the blades all being one color forever, get them in that color. If you want versatility in color go Adegan Silver with discs and buy and extra set of discs for each blade. You'll get better reds and blues mostly. now its hard to tell in this picture, but the quillon are actually pink. That's with two red discs each and it is so because of the way the ultra edge material bounces around the light within. I've yet to get lee filters and it will take quite some time until I do so but I'm hoping it might cut down on some of the orangeness of the blades.
It took 3 red color discs to get it to be really red like this, but only two in the main blade.
Next is the length of the quillon, 8" is fine, but in my opinion it's two big to really be comfortable. You're gonna poke yourself with those and it's really gonna hurt, so I'm going to have to cut mine down by about an inch or two on each side. The only complaint I have here is the near the main emitter it looks a little pink, but whatever, this is why if you're dead set on a single color forever, do it.
Now onto the hilt. Just look at it. Until you hold one, it's really not the same as my Prophecy or the Sentinel I bought for a friend. I have slightly less that average size hands, so for me it really gives it more of a sense of power, but I am by no means struggling to grip it. The length of the hilt is really nice. Not to short to be disappointed with, and not to long to struggle with. I went with a full black finish, because I can't decide if I want a limited edition look, or if I want to go more with a canon look with what we have so far in the trailer. I'm waiting on trailer #2 that will come out on The Avengers: Age of Ultron to fully decide more. The pommel is really the only thing I don't love about the hilt. Yes, it has a classic great sword look, but I would really prefer a more canon looking one, but thats because I'm in the middle of making my Kylo Ren costume for Denver Comic Con. I may say screw it and do it for Starfest here in Colorado and skip the helmet until DCC because damn I love this saber and want to show it off. I also with the piece that holds all three blades in place had a uniform thickness as compared with the rest of the hilt, but I understand why it can't
Now, for gripping it. I grip it right here with a close choke because its the most comfortable and logical place to do so. Only thing I need to do is figure out what firehand10k means when he says you can rotate the quillon to about any angle so that its parallel with the front of my body. However, its also comfortable to choke up to the quillon and widen the choke to the pommel for a more bushido fighting style. You can also curve a finger over the quillon like firehand10k says as well, but this is more suited to larger hands than mine. On a kind of side note. the button placement is prefect for my pinky and I'm really glad I decided to put the covertec on the opposite side because flipped around, it really gets in the way.
Next is the innards. OMG the sound is amazing and I wish I got it on my Prophecy, but it has more of a function as a flash light for me. The sound module is kinda hard to get out, but that's probably a good thing considering it doesn't rattle a whole lot. I can't wait to pull that ignition sound from the trailer, clean it up, and make it my ignition sound and modify some existing sounds to get it close to what the actual hums, idle, and clashes would be like. unfortunately the LED modules are a little loose but I can fix that, and when you unscrew the main blade, the wires are pushed up into that piece that holds the blades in place. Just to give my self some piece of mind, I'm going to throw some gaff tape in the to hold that stuff down. I'm not going to try and take a picture of it, because I just don't want to deal with that, so have this nice dark picture of the flamberge to look at until the next part of my review. Also, always, always, ALWAYS go with a lithium ion setup so you can upgrade your sabers and so you don't spend ridiculous amounts on new batteries.
Comparison time! Katana, love it. Good weight, good grip, versatile in fighting style. Thin blade long sword: Good weight, versatile grip, meant for fast but not elaborate fighting. Flamberge: Heavier than the rest, but not too heavy to wield, Versatile grip, powerful brutal fighting style. Prophecy: light weight, semi versatile grip, meant for elegant, elaborate, or strong fighting style. I can't pick a favorite, but I'd have to put lightsabers above the others because come on... their freaking lightsaber. (BTW, this is far from the extent of my armory. And yes, I know I need new batteries in that prophecy because now that I see it that's pathetic.)
Also, I will do picture requests provided they are reasonable.
