MR Luke rotj hero question

[arkangel]

Having owned a suitable control box for at at least 5 years now, I'm finally looking at having a stainless steel version of the luke rotj hero made.
After 5 years in a sock drawer, it's starting to talk to me. :lol

My plan is to have it made in 3 pieces to allow for a copper neck, but I'm unsure about the saber's overall size.

What confuses me is this ....
The MR hero is much smaller in size than the V2 (as it should be being a completely different saber) but is the MR hero "undersized" ?

I feel silly asking this (as I know they had the actual reference material), but I read somewhere that the MR hero measurements were based off of the screen used metal hero AS WELL as an original resin casting, and I was wondering if shrinkage on the resin casting would account for any substantial undersizing, if this was indeed what the measurements were based off of.
I also wonder about this because I've seen some absolutely exceptional fanmade replicas here that match up beautifully to the reference pics yet pics of them next to the MR V2 show that they are substantially larger than the MR hero (Ie: closer in size to the V2, and sometimes almost the same size ! )

The 3rd reason I've wondered about this is simple intuition. The MR hero is much smaller than any previous fan made replica I've owned and it looks much bigger in Vader's hands in the "I see you've constructed a new lightsaber" close-up.

Please excuse my ignorance. The MR hero's dimensions may very well be bang on (aside from a bit of creative licence with the pommel and the even grip rings). Maybe Vader has small friggin hands !! :lol
I simply want get my blueprint as close to the real world metal hero as I can in terms of overall size and scale and what I've seen and read has me questioning a few things.
Any advice/education would be much appreciated.

Clark

 

[TheRealMcFly]

I have heard the same rumors, but nothing substantial. However, there is one photo of this saber (not a resin duplicate) next to an ESB Graflex. I have a tiny thumbnail of it titled What They Carried... perhaps from a magazine or larger book? I would post it here but you absolutely cannot get an accurate measurement from it, trust me. If you're having a saber made make sure you account for lens distortion which can easily add uneccesary length. You cannot simply scale up a photo and measure it end to end and expect to nail it... the true dimensions lie at the center of the ellipses created by the cameras point of view.

Speaking of nailing it... look for our very own Anakin Starkiller who had this saber done with uneven grip rings and all. It is certainly larger than the MR release, and IMO the most accurate version ever offered.

 

[arkangel]

I honestly never knew that you couldn't simply up scale photos like you can with an actual item in hand. In a perfect world all these props would have been photographed next to a ruler or a penny.

As for the "AS hero" , I wholeheartedly agree. I've owned 3 fan made rotj heros over the years, and none of them nailed the look of the reference pics like Dan has. He did an incredible job recreating the uneven grip ridges and the pommel looks just like the original.

Damn - my brain still says, "Scale up a reference photo. It's just simple math ratios. It'll work ! Trust me ! " :lol