So I have been contemplating the dark side of the esb saber/sabers, I have a theory, it starts with questions.
1. We have a Hero saber, no blade, just dangles and looks pretty from Lukes belt.
2. We have a bladed version
3. We have one where Luke gets his hand cut off that has no D ring, has the glass eye, and the grips are close together, it must be ANH saber
4. Then the infamous ranch saber not seen in the movie, or is it?
5. The Dagobah saber, well that's missing a button, and may not be another saber.
Srews or rivets?
Here we go
The Hero Saber, we see in the wampa cave and the promo shot, the grips are riveted, they are silver in one promo shot, they could have also been painted black with a marker at some point. Why rivets, they are easy and look good, and also this is the Hero, it does not get wielded around, no need for screws. The broken piece of T track, if it's the Hero, well it gets thrown around a bit, plastic under pressure will crack when struck, or it could have broke when riveting, but the other grips are riveted without being cracked, so I believe it happened when it got knocked out of Luke's hand on Cloud City. Ok then why screws on the ranch?
The bladed version, which also has a mpp clamp and two buttons, I ask, how was the blade fixed into the graflex? In ANH T track keeps coming loose during the movie. Luke barely uses the saber in that, just waves it around, the blade probably just slotted into the graflex tube and wasn't even fixed. So there is a existing problem to solve from the first movie into the second. So problem solved, screw throught the T track, the graflex tube, and into the blade slotted in. Mark Hamill complained about the sharp edges, well this can only come from the bladed saber he wielded, and even the clamp lever may have cut him. Thus the ranch sabers hilt was from the bladed stunt saber, the kobold is on the other way with two screws, which also could have screwed into the blade. The D ring missing from the ANH saber where he gets his hand cut off was recycled, stretched and mounted on the kobold clip. I did this with my spare D ring from a graflex case and it flattened out near the top just like it does on the Ranch saber pics, and it also seems to have black paint like my D rings from my case. The ranch sabers grips are right angled and look uncomfortable to hold.
The ranch sabers clamp is screwed down: Theory, the clamp lever was extremely uncomfortable during wielding, maybe it kept popping open, or cut their hands, so they tried screwing it down, still uncomfortable, even vader complaining about his lever? Well the Mpp clamp is smaller, more comfortable, so they both use mpp clamps, ditched the levers and screwed the clamps tight. As we know Darth's esb saber is missing the clamp lever and screwed shut. This explains why Luke's bladed saber has a mpp clamp, and why Darth's mpp lever is missing. Comfort whilst dueling?
So this leaves us with the top part of el rancho saber, well it could be the top of the hero that very well may have lost a button during filming at Dagobah, (If it was filmed after their epic duel which may have loosened the button) this would make sense.
So El Rancho may be the result of a frankenstein effort to put together some left over remnant parts of a few esb sabers. Lastly the D ring on the Hero I belive is a 1" opened a little and mounted onto the kobold, and prehaps a little deformed by this process.
Well this is my insane theory, look forward to amendments and any exrta input
May the shwartz be with us all
1. We have a Hero saber, no blade, just dangles and looks pretty from Lukes belt.
2. We have a bladed version
3. We have one where Luke gets his hand cut off that has no D ring, has the glass eye, and the grips are close together, it must be ANH saber
4. Then the infamous ranch saber not seen in the movie, or is it?
5. The Dagobah saber, well that's missing a button, and may not be another saber.
Srews or rivets?
Here we go
The Hero Saber, we see in the wampa cave and the promo shot, the grips are riveted, they are silver in one promo shot, they could have also been painted black with a marker at some point. Why rivets, they are easy and look good, and also this is the Hero, it does not get wielded around, no need for screws. The broken piece of T track, if it's the Hero, well it gets thrown around a bit, plastic under pressure will crack when struck, or it could have broke when riveting, but the other grips are riveted without being cracked, so I believe it happened when it got knocked out of Luke's hand on Cloud City. Ok then why screws on the ranch?
The bladed version, which also has a mpp clamp and two buttons, I ask, how was the blade fixed into the graflex? In ANH T track keeps coming loose during the movie. Luke barely uses the saber in that, just waves it around, the blade probably just slotted into the graflex tube and wasn't even fixed. So there is a existing problem to solve from the first movie into the second. So problem solved, screw throught the T track, the graflex tube, and into the blade slotted in. Mark Hamill complained about the sharp edges, well this can only come from the bladed saber he wielded, and even the clamp lever may have cut him. Thus the ranch sabers hilt was from the bladed stunt saber, the kobold is on the other way with two screws, which also could have screwed into the blade. The D ring missing from the ANH saber where he gets his hand cut off was recycled, stretched and mounted on the kobold clip. I did this with my spare D ring from a graflex case and it flattened out near the top just like it does on the Ranch saber pics, and it also seems to have black paint like my D rings from my case. The ranch sabers grips are right angled and look uncomfortable to hold.
The ranch sabers clamp is screwed down: Theory, the clamp lever was extremely uncomfortable during wielding, maybe it kept popping open, or cut their hands, so they tried screwing it down, still uncomfortable, even vader complaining about his lever? Well the Mpp clamp is smaller, more comfortable, so they both use mpp clamps, ditched the levers and screwed the clamps tight. As we know Darth's esb saber is missing the clamp lever and screwed shut. This explains why Luke's bladed saber has a mpp clamp, and why Darth's mpp lever is missing. Comfort whilst dueling?
So this leaves us with the top part of el rancho saber, well it could be the top of the hero that very well may have lost a button during filming at Dagobah, (If it was filmed after their epic duel which may have loosened the button) this would make sense.
So El Rancho may be the result of a frankenstein effort to put together some left over remnant parts of a few esb sabers. Lastly the D ring on the Hero I belive is a 1" opened a little and mounted onto the kobold, and prehaps a little deformed by this process.
Well this is my insane theory, look forward to amendments and any exrta input
May the shwartz be with us all