Customer Reviews

Star Wars Force FX Lightsaber Obi-Wan

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is my second force fx saber, and my first made by Hasbro. You can feel the quality of the materials when you hold it. It feels heavy, and solid, and the metal is usually a little cold. The hilt is huge to hold if you have relatively small hands like myself.

Power up and down effects are pretty smooth, and the sound effects sync up nicely. The clash effects when you hit the blade against something are MUCH more responsive than my Yoda saber, for which I am very thankful.

The only disappointment was the brightness of the blade, and apparently this is because I'm spoiled by the green Yoda saber. I did a little research and apparently the green ones are considerably brighter than the other colors. Something else a tad irksome: the photos people post show a much brighter saber, with a slightly white core. Mine is just a dull blue compared to these photos. Would love to hear some comments from other owners on that.

It's fun to practice and show off the spinning moves from the movies, you'll find a lot of tutorials on the web (youtube). It serves as an attractive mantle piece and fun conversation item (everyone wants to turn it on), and perhaps best of all is dueling with two of them... looks and feels pretty awesome.

A final piece of advice - consider the Yoda one, especially if you're on the smaller side. I'm a small guy (5'8, 140lbs), and I find it much easier to wield, especially for executing one handed moves. It's lighter, smaller, and brighter.

when you take it out of the box it is in foam and plastic protective wrap. It is a brilliant blue straight from the movie and replicates it perfectly. However it is NOT durable at all. DO NOT fight with this.

I received my fx lightsaber and from what i can tell from videos of master replicas, these are the same quality, construction and appearance. It's like hasbro just took over the designs of them and squarely kept to them. The battery hatch is a bit difficult to slide open on first try, but if you remove the arrow sticker it will easily slide off. It's durable and the sounds are nice. The hilt is made mostly of metal. Comes with a sturdy display stand. If you had been waiting on these, curious if they matched up to the older master replica ones as I had been, I'd say your wait is over. Go buy one.

This is an excellent saber. The handle is all metal with a brightly shining blade when turned on. It takes 3 AAA batteries (I recommend Energizer Lithium non-rechargeable) and a small phillips head screw driver to remove a small covering on the battery case that helps the batteries stay in place. (I think it's neat.) Overall a very cool item. I rated it a 3 in education because you can use it for martial art katas and for practicing swordplay.

Very durable, but to use it for dueling, you can get it converted to a single, super-bright [...]

After waiting for countless years for a true lightsaber to hit the market, the day has finally come.

The Force FX Lightsabers are nothing short of amazing. While they aren't actually made of laser, they're probably the closest you're going to get to a real lightsaber for a long long time. I own three of these bad boys, and I have to say that the Obi-Wan Kenobi lightsaber from Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith is definitely my favorite.

The intense blue blade shines very brightly even in a lit room, but in a darkened room is where it can really take your breath away. The LED strip inside the blade shines through the very sturdy permanently attached polycarbonate blade beautifully. While the manufacturer suggests that dueling with these sabers is not a very good idea, you can do so if you use light taps. Indeed these sabers are intended to be collected, not fought with.

The hilt is beautifully crafted. I really like the hilt on the Obi-Wan Lightsaber because of the color variety that it features. The hilt allows for spinning, with a grip pattern placed on the middle of the hilt. The power button is the only slight problem I have with this saber. It protrudes out of the side of the hilt, which can get in the way of moving hands. Other than this, however, the saber has a great hilt.

Overall the Obi-Wan Kenobi Force FX Lightsaber is the best Force FX I have ever owned. I would recommend the Force FX series to any serious Star Wars fan looking to get his hands on the closest thing possible to a real Lightsaber.

This is my second "adult replica" lightsaber, I have a 2003 vintage Darth Vader saber made by Master Replicas. Consequently, I'm going to compare the 2 in this review:

Generally, the "new version" compares favorably with the old one. I remember paying something like $149 for the Vader saber in 2003 while this one sells for as little as $50 at Walmart (if you can catch it on special). Nice.

That said, the quality really hasn't declined, perhaps the plastic on the hilt of new Obi Wan saber feels a LITTLE cheaper, but overall the build quality is still very good: the metal parts and overall fit and finish scream quality. Again, nice.

The blade of the new saber compares well with the old one, it seems just as durable and actually may be a bit brighter (which is really nice since the old saber runs on 6 AA batteries while the new one runs on 3 AAA). This however, brings me to the negative parts of my review. I do have 2 complaints about this new saber.

The sound quality of the effects isn't as good, nor is the motion sensor as sensitive. While the new saber seems to have MORE sound effects (i.e. my 2003 vintage Vader seems to have only one clash sound, the 2007 vintage Obi Wan has several) the sound is not as crisp (it has an annoying buzzy, static quality) and you really have to smack something hard to trigger the clash ... not a recipe for success if your kids are playing with this.

The second complaint is with the battery compartment. What idiot designed this? The original saber took 6 AA batteries in a very simple to unscrew and operate compartment. You didn't need any tools or instructions to change batteries. Now you get a much smaller 3 battery compartment that requires you to undo an inconveniently mounted and very easy to strip Philips screw and fiddle with an easy to break plastic cap to change batteries. What a bright idea (heavy sarcasm). And why switch to AAA? If the manufacturer wanted to make the saber lighter and easier to operate and move to 3 AA (instead of 6) ... OK, but AAA are both more rare (i.e. people tend not to have them lying about) and they don't last as long. Their only benefit is saving a few grams of weight per battery (which I'll bet you couldn't even feel after getting everything assembled).

I suppose I could understand it if they made the hilt of the new saber a bit smaller and easier to grip (it's big ... even a bit too big for my hands and I'm 6'2") but they didn't ... it's still just as large as the vintage Vader hilt.

This redesign is a classic example of someone not understanding the wise old principle of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

Other than these gripes, this is a fine product that I'd certainly recommend.

I must say that I am very surprised and pleased with the blade and construction of this lightsaber. My little guys begged and begged me for this when they saw it. I agreed they could have them if they worked up for it. After buying it for them I figured that it would only last a day or so, but the lesson of taking care of their things would be worth the price as I could have a talk with them about be destroying toys or their valuables by being too tough on them.
Well its been a couple of weeks and we still have them, and the surprising thing is that they treat them really carefully doing slow motion battles and practicing moves where they make contact, but do not drive through. My older one stated that the reason they are not smacking it out with these as they did with the cheap 10+ sabers is that these are really nice and don't want to break it. In other words the quality is picked up by an 8 and 9 year old. It was nice to hear them say this as I agree they are really nice, but after watching them play they do take moderate punishment very well.
This has made the purchase price all the more easy to take for my wife, when she found out thanks to the boys, that they cost more than $100.00 dollars each. So if your thinking about getting this for you little one I cast my vote in for a yes, as they will really see a quality product and will be taught the important lesson of, handle that with what you value with care young jedi.

I bought this for my grandson as a Christmas present. It is one of the neatest things I have ever bought him. I works great.

We had been shopping for quite some time for this light saber and thankfully came across it here for a great deal and a trustworth seller being Amazon.

However when my son opened his Christmas present we realized the dammaged box it came it actually meant the product inside was dammaged which I find very irresponsible on Amazon's behalf. The indestructible poly carbonate blade is actually destructable, even when wrapped securely in plastic and styrofoam. There is an imperfection line on the poly carbonate blade, that is very noticible when it is lit up.

So beware when ordering online, the goods may come dammaged, even if you order from Amazon.

I really wanted to find out if anyone else with a Force FX lightsaber has their lightsaber make the power-down noise with the light going out briefly when you swing it around? I just got one and I think I need to return it as defective.

It is a very cool "toy," but mine wouldn't be too reliable in a "Jedi duel," Hehehe.

13 December 2010 update: I had to return this item for a new one. The new one works much better.