General Grievous Lightsaber

Is it fun? YES!

Is it fun for more than one kid? Uh. . .maybe.
You can share lightsabers but then there's no point in having the gyro handle if someone isn't using it as a single or double.

Material is the typical hard but slightly giving plastic found with other sabers.

Is it Cool? YES! Cools sounds. Also as a single, the gyro handle gives it the cool hilt of a sword kinda look.

Other single sabers are around $25, so for a bit less than the cost of two you get two, plus you get the General Grievous spinning action.

I can't imagine any kids trying to spin two of these, one in each hand like General Grievous. . .it's already a lot for an adult to handle one with both hands, since you need one hand to do the spinning and one to do the holding.

I imagine my kids, and others, are going to have lots of fun battles with this toy.

Lightsaber toys of the past are something of a comedy staple for us Star Wars enthusiasts as they were overly priced and broke easy since they were used for (surprise!!) dueling each other with brutal precision. As a child of the 80s I grew up with numerous Star Wars toys (my parents were fanatics) including my lightsaber replicas and, personally, broke eight of them.

When I had the opportunity to try out the newest in a VERY long line of lightsaber toys, namely the General Grievous spinning thingy from the hit TV show Star Wars: The Clone Wars, I was pretty skeptical of the quality and lasting entertaining value. While the new Grievous spinning lightsaber is unique that it breaks into two lightsabers, is attached by a spinner that... well, spins, most lightsaber licensed products don't do very well. Needless to say, a true test of quality was warranted and I knew just how to do it.

To ensure complete objectivity in my test of the products durability I turned to the target audience, more specifically the neighborhood boys living conveniently next door, to give the lightsaber a true test. If anyone could find fault with the product, and by that I mean break it, they could.

For thirty minutes I observed the boys assemble the lightsaber, take it apart, hit multiple objects (and each other) with it, accidentally smack themselves in the head while spinning, put it back together again, take it apart again, fight each other with the split lightsaber, spin it around and around, smack themselves in the head (repeatedly), and NEVER got bored. I even got a call later that night saying they were still playing it, enjoying the flashing lights that lit up when they swung the toy around.

During brief intermissions I managed to get a few swings (and smacks to my head) and also enjoyed the novel idea of the swinging lightsaber that was operated simply by swinging it around in circles and letting momentum do the rest. What really impressed me was that, despite our repeated attempts to hit our opponent(s) hard, the product didn't break of bend.

As you no doubt have noticed, we smacked ourselves in the head a few times. Needless to say, this toy requires something of a learning curve as new users will, no doubt, hit themselves a few times before figuring out how to properly weld the lightsaber. Not to mention that parents should pay heed to the "6 years or older" suggestion on the box. The local 4-year old was unable to properly weld the toy since his reach was shorter than that of the lightsaber.

Other than that, this new toy held its own value even under extreme duress. I would recommend this to any parent even if it is to be shared between children as it separates.

My son loved this lightsaber. Assembly presented some challenges, the parts do not snap together easily. The saber makes cool sounds, lights up and generally is tons of fun for a nine year old boy. However, nine year old boys and light sabers mean saber battles with friends and I found this toy does not stand up long to the abuse. The lights and sound went first and then the connections snapped. But my son still plays with the two parts without all the light and sound. If you are looking for a toy that is an instand hit, this would be it for all the Star Wars fans out there. Just realize it is not durable for rough play.