So the Obi Wan lightsaber seesm to be...

...the place a lot of people start 'round here. I love it, myself...as does my boy.

I originally (and naively) asked about buying one in the buying section, but caught the vibe right quick that that wasn't the way to go. I'd love to build him one, but the amount of information on here is a bit intimidating.

I've gathered some info about the pieces, real and replicated, but I must confess I'm at a loss as to where to start.

I think I'd like to know some opinions, either publicly or not, about a good, accurate place to begin.

I can almost hear the collective sigh from the vets as the newbie steps up to ask the silly question, but I'm being sincere.

So...what do you say? Anyone have the patience to educate a brother?

-B

i imagine you will get more useful advice if you answer the following:

1) how old is your boy?
2) does he want saber for display or to play with? with light beam? sounds?
3) and by "play with," will he wave it around the house a bit for imaginary duels or does he intend to go all out and duel with it for real with friends who may also own lightsabers?
4) how accurate are you hoping for it to be to screen used?

most will assume you mean the obi wan as seen in NEW HOPE, but Obi Wan had other models of the saber depending on the movie.

the NEW HOPE version, to get it screen accurate using the original parts used to construct the actual prop can get pretty expensive -- i'm no expert, but i'm guessing $500 to $1000 and maybe more -- some of the pieces are hard to find if you desire the ACTUAL part it was really made from.

other replicas (no sound/light) look pretty darn accurate using simulated parts, and will run you $200 to $500, i believe.

if you want light-up blade and sounds, then i'm guessing $200 to $500 depending on how ACCURATE you want it to look to screen-used.

not sure if you know this, but HASBRO is selling what looks to be low-end sabers at TOYS R US for $30 or $40 that are pretty nice for kids. You can also look to online stores like THINK GEEK for sabers with light/sound and removable blades for about $100-$150 that might be perfect for your kid.

good luck.

An accurate, all real parts ANH OWK saber will easily run several thousand as the parts are becoming more and more rare

Thanks, guys....we have a bunch of HASBRO sabers that we use for dueling. I have one replica ANH Luke made from all genuine parts (well, genuine Graflex and Exactra bubbles, anyway!) and it was talking about this piece with him that got him interested in making an Obi saber.

He loves movies...the idea of movies, of peeking behind the curtain, seeing how things are done, acting etc. When I explained the real world origins of Luke's saber he was WAY into it, so I figured building an Obi Wan (ANH, of course....is there any other?) would be a great summer thing for us.

I figured the real vintage parts would be nigh impossible to find, but this is the REPLICA prop forum...I never really thought authentic parts were within my grasp

I guess I need more practice posting....what's clear in my brain isn't necessarily what comes out when I type.

Anywho, who is ressrep....he makes Obi parts? I searched for his name but found nothing.

Thanks so much for your help!

-B

It's actually "russrep" ... and yes he makes Obi parts.
You do have to wait sometimes for runs of particular parts though...

yes, russrep makes ..THE best parts I've ever seen, and one of the only guys right now selling and/or machining parts. At least from a money standpoint, one part may cost anywhere from 80-120 dollars (labor, metal, etc) so If you have the money it is ABSOLUTELY worth it!

If you're like me, and don't have that kind of dough, you can take the time to look for older parts or resin ones, which is cheaper but takes more time and altering parts to fit together

Or you could scratch build your own, out of pipe, PVC, epoxy, fixtures, all that jazz. For that either search hardware emitter, hardware saber, or....honestly I would email Tan Djarka, he has a website where he documented his attempts (successes rather) of building an Obi Wan ANH saber or...three. And more sabers!

Do you really want to start with one of the most expensive sabers to make?

Funky Jedi said:

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Do you really want to start with one of the most expensive sabers to make?

Yes, because it's the most interesting, a bit of a challenge and our favorite.

Good luck! The first half of the fun is collecting the parts. The second half is assembling and weathering. The third half is seeing it on display.

I'm an auditor/accountant, so that math works for me and adds up to more fun than you should have collecting sink knobs, grenades, jet engine parts, camera flashes, calculators, and machine gun parts. Well, some of that does sound exciting, but sink knobs and calculators still sound lame...unless of course you're an accountant.

How does one get in touch with a 'russrep' any way? I searched the member names but didn't find him...or her.

Not sure why you can't find him, but here is his thread in the junkyard

Yeah...found him. Just spazzed a bit with the search feature.

E-mailed him and PM'd but no response. Is he on a lot, or does it usually take some time to get back to a person?

Just curious...

He's London based, so you have to account for UK time zone.

He's asleep right now, it's 4am there.

James Kenobi 1138 said:

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He's London based, so you have to account for UK time zone.

He's asleep right now, it's 4am there.

Good to know, but it was a few days ago.

Unless he REALLY sleeps in, the time zone shouldn't matter.

I be patient.

forgot to mention, they are gonna be pretty difficult for beginner to convert but sounds like u want a challenging build even though i wouldn't recommend it for ur first builid. Good luck

djkibaman said:

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or u can buy one of these and go from there

Posting active e bay auctions is a no no here.

Oops sorry didn't know that modified and erased

by the way, Do you have a picture of the saber toy or the box it came in? I was just in a K mart and there was a pretty thin Obi electronic saber there too, along with about 2 others, and during the release of that movie a few were also out...haha it's hard to pin down the one that was small enough

Ah! Thank you, that very detailed reply touches any questions I had There are so many star Wars toys out for each movie, it's hard sometimes to separate them in just photographs. and..yea Looking back, that saber (and most that are produced) are so oversized and proportioned weird it's almost funny - My old ROTJ Luke from the 90's had an emitter I could have eaten Ice cream out of