The USK was announced for preorder in February 2004, with delivery originally expected to be in July 2004.
I was in itbedave's bulk order in June 2004, and he got my OWK and MPP parts from Parks in December 2005.
I'm still waiting for two Kobolds.
The workmanship for the parts was some times shoddy:
* I had to rethread one of two grenade stems.
* There are ugly machine marks on the curved opening of my Graflex that I can not remove, because of the nickel plating over it.
There are also marks on the sides of the MPP side bars. They were also quite apparent in the grooves of the grenade before I filed those down.
* My two MPP shrouds were both not long enough. The two openings were not even cut at the same length and angle.
* The screw hole for the thumbscrew on one MPP shroud was drilled off-center and the threads on the thumbscrew are ugly.
There were also scuff marks
inside a few parts and a few pieces bent and dent in shipping that Parks refused to replace.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Anakin Starkiller @ Feb 20 2007, 05:39 AM) [snapback]1422421[/snapback]</div>
However, the $450.00 price that Parks charges for the three sabers breaks down to $150.00 a piece and for that price you might be able to pick up a real graflex on ebay and an Parks MPP on e-bay for the same or less money.
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The USK (OWK,MPP,Kobold) used to cost $225 and the Graflex replica $125. (when not ordered in bulk)
I have seen a few real Graflex flashes go on eBay in the last three months for just under $100.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Anakin Starkiller @ Feb 20 2007, 05:39 AM) [snapback]1422421[/snapback]</div>
Parks' OWK saber is overall very inncurate. He didn't have any of the real parts available (and didn't really care to invest the effort in producing a truely accurate replica) and as a result he scaled his replica from photo's and took a great deal of creative licence with his interpretation (but then again, so did MR). Although Parks' replica resembles OWK's lightsaber in a general sense, almost all of the dimensions are wrong.
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This is not true for the grenade in the kit.
He used a real grenade as template, and I would say that the grenade in the kit is a very accurately reproduction -- of
that grenade.
However, there are differences between the real grenade he used and the one used on the original prop.
Personally, I like that the grenade body is made of steel and that the pieces are tapped and threaded, interchangable with real parts.
Romans grenade body is made of aluminum and not threaded, but has a more accurate external shape.
Parks "gear" was for a time regarded as being the most accurate one, but it was never improved on. Romans gear has had two generations since then.
The biggest inaccuracies with the emitter and handwheel are that they are drilled and tapped for set screws used to fasten them onto the other pieces. The emitter is slightly undersized and have a few other inaccuracies but it can be "accurized" by hand a little bit making it just as accurate as the competition's pieces .. from 2004.
The handwheel is chromed aluminum, but has soft edges and looks wonky..
