Customer Reviews

Star Wars Darth Vader Force Action Lightsaber

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I purchased this item for a Halloween costume. You can purchase some really cool replica lightsabers for $100 minimum, but they don't expand or retract. I wanted a lightsaber that I could hold straight up, press a button, and have the "blade" shoot out. That's exactly what this does. Sometimes a couple of the segments don't expand all the way, but only by an inch or two. The "blade" is actually pretty long for a kids toy and the color is more of an red-orange day glow: more similar to the movies than the deep red that is pictured. I purchased this knowing that it had the following shortcomings: huge hilt/handle, weak light, and no extra sound variety. It makes 5 sounds: expand, idle hum, swing, clash, and retract. There is only one variety of each sound and the sound quality is pretty bad. The "idle hum" is particularly annoying and doesn't sound much like the movies. The "swing" sound has a mandatory delay so if you want it to sync up you have to wait between swings (think fighting original trilogy style as opposed to episodes I-III fancy fighting). It's connected to a motion-sensor that is quite sensitive: the slightest movement will set it off. You have to hit it frighteningly hard to activate the "clash" sound, although I found hitting the handle with your free hand will do it. The light is extremely weak, even in pitch black. Given that and the poor sound quality, I am considering using this without batteries. The spring function does still work without the batteries. Of course weak light is better than no light. You could probably easily unscrew the thing and remove or destroy the sound chips. Just leave the part alone that connects to the light. Should be obvious: look for the speaker. I should note that you have to manually retract the "blade" with your hand and this will occasionally throw reverse the on/off toggle; meaning it will play light up and play sounds while retracted instead of when expanded. Just hold the blade in and press the button. Overall I'm quite pleased. There is simply no other lightsaber that fully expands and retracts which, to me, is the effect that really seals the deal.

We have a year of good lightsaber fighting under our belts (with kids) and I can say that the extension mechanism and the translucent cylinders work reliably and are stronger than I expected. The electronics, however, went off-and-on within the first few weeks of use. We have one lightsaber that works most of the time, and another that finally died before I decided to cut it open (see below). This is unfortunate because the light and sounds add a lot to the drama of using these things. I would still purchase these toys, but design-wise, I think there is a mismatch in the reliability of the various components.

For Do-It-Yourselfers: I spent two hours one evening repairing one of ours. I don't recommend this for most people. Even though there are screws in the handle, Hasbro glued the half shells together at the top. So to do this properly, you really need to cut through one of the shells to open it up, see what needs fixing, and then meticulously put it back together. There is a small circuit board, two contact switches, a motion sensor, the battery pack, a speaker, LEDs, catch/release mechanism, one large spring, two small springs, the outer switch and, of course, the translucent tubes. Where our lightsaber was having trouble was with the main contact switch. I removed the small piece of foam between the contacts and it has worked well since. I closed up the shells with a band of hot glue around the cut (ringing the hilt).

I got this for my 6 and 8 year old. They love it! It was a great price and the sound effects really make it a winner for them over the standard lightsaber. We have not had any quality issues and they play with it pretty rough!

This is a lot of fun. Extends automatically, makes noise, takes a beating without breaking. Only complaint is that you have to hit pretty darn hard to make the "collision" noise.

the light is very VERY dim, you can only see the junctions. the sound effects are not very good, rather annoying.
but it's nice that it opens quickly with a single button.

As much as my children (ages 7, 4 and 2) despise Darth Vader, this lightsaber is the best quality lightsaber that we have purchased. It sees over 3 hours of use per day, and has lasted for over 6 months! One word of caution--it is heavy, and can be quite dangerous for little ones due to it's weight.

I got these for a comic con costume that I'm not going to have. However, the sabers are still nice. The hilt feels a little large, but the spring action is cool. I haven't really played with them, I just took them out of the package to test out, and then put them back. But they seem solid enough for some light saber fighting; Ep 6 style, not Ep 1.
They would serve great as toys for the kids, or for a costume if you don't want to pay for an FX blade, or want something that can actually be hooked on a belt. However, there is no hook, haven't figured that part out yet.

All and all, very cool Lightsabers!!

This red Darth Vader Star Wars Lightsaber is one of my 5-year-old son's favorite Star Wars toys - and he has many! This model has light, sound, and a spring action blade. The blade automatically extends out of the handle to its full length when you push a little slide button. The blade also fits entirely inside the handle when it's not extended. The lights and sounds are automatically activated when you push the button to extend the blade, and they turn off when the blade is placed back into the handle. Also, the lightsaber sound effects seem to be motion sensitive in that they change pitch when you swing the blade-similar to the way "real" lightsabers sound.

The only issues we've ever had with this lightsaber are (1) when he was younger, my son had a hard time fully engaging the sliding button that you have to push to release the blade and (2) the blade is sometimes a little tough to get all the way back into the handle and locked into place. That button IS hard to push, but it's what releases the spring inside the handle that allows the blade to quickly extend.

This is actually our second lightsaber like this. We had to replace the first one which finally broke after a year's worth of daily use. It held up very well considering the treatment it received, so I had no hesitation in replacing it with the same model.

My four year old thinks he is truly a jedi!! He has had the best time playing with this lightsaber and playing with others that have lightsabers as well. Considering how rough my son is on toys, this has held up extremely well. The noises and the light sound and look really cool. After playing with this toy for some time, we eventually bent the tip, but I just bent it back and it turned out fine. Highly recommend this toy for star wars fans!!

Works well and very durable. Used by a 5-6 year old since Christmas of 2009 and still works great. He loves to play Star Wars with this Light Saber.