Mara Jade's Father
Master Member
Re: Obi-Wan ANH **Weathered Lightsaber** - May the 4th sale!! UPDATE July 14, 2014
Please note: the following is based strictly on memory and/or the truth as I perceived it.
For those who are new prop replica collecting, here's a funny story about how far we've come. This saber came to fame as we all know in 1977. When the earliest version of this board existed (swfan.net) in 1999, all that was really know was the bubble strip, clamp and sink knob. The emitter was thought to be a sink drain and later some sort of welding torch. The booster was thought to be a a cluster of T-track, then a gear from a lawn mower. And the grip... and this is almost laughable now... was thought to be a motorcycle grip.
Prior to 1999, the lightsaber collector's greatest ally was Jeff Parks (Parks Sabers). At the time, before he did LED blades and even before he did EL blades, he simply did static hilts. You can see Park's earliest work here: http://www.angelfire.com/biz3/jakecho/lightsaberreplicas.html
Around this time, maybe 2000, SD Studios came out with at the time was the best looking Obi Wan replica (even by today's standards it would be quite a nice piece in someone's collection. It was in demand because Icons had offered limited run of the Obi saber and for the time and compared to the Vader and Luke, it was a bit more expensive. Icons had it's issue with quality, timely delivery and customer service so a lot of fans were leery to buy from them. I think Icons lasted from 1995-1998 For those who do not know, SD Studios was a founder of MR so this version was very similar the that item. The best reference for the Obi saber was the image above from the Star Wars Chronicles. You will note it is a black and white image and remember that no one at the time knew about the grenade being the correct part. As a result the replica had a black neck as no one had any idea there was any brass detail on the real prop. It's funny that the whole community never really contemplated the fact that B&W images might hide some type of color.
I lost my picts of the one I had but you can see one here: http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=162929&p=2519964&viewfull=1#post2519964
I did sell it a couple years later to buy a Roman around 2001-2002:
And then I upgrade the emitter (and possibly the pommel) with Gavidoc's parts run:
I was quite sad when it was stolen. :cry I replaced it with the MR as it had just become available.
As you know, I sold the MR to fund the sweet sweet Roman Obi Saber.
View attachment 353337
Now, the only way to have a better saber is to get one made with all real found item parts... which I won't be doing.
Please note: the following is based strictly on memory and/or the truth as I perceived it.
For those who are new prop replica collecting, here's a funny story about how far we've come. This saber came to fame as we all know in 1977. When the earliest version of this board existed (swfan.net) in 1999, all that was really know was the bubble strip, clamp and sink knob. The emitter was thought to be a sink drain and later some sort of welding torch. The booster was thought to be a a cluster of T-track, then a gear from a lawn mower. And the grip... and this is almost laughable now... was thought to be a motorcycle grip.
Prior to 1999, the lightsaber collector's greatest ally was Jeff Parks (Parks Sabers). At the time, before he did LED blades and even before he did EL blades, he simply did static hilts. You can see Park's earliest work here: http://www.angelfire.com/biz3/jakecho/lightsaberreplicas.html
Around this time, maybe 2000, SD Studios came out with at the time was the best looking Obi Wan replica (even by today's standards it would be quite a nice piece in someone's collection. It was in demand because Icons had offered limited run of the Obi saber and for the time and compared to the Vader and Luke, it was a bit more expensive. Icons had it's issue with quality, timely delivery and customer service so a lot of fans were leery to buy from them. I think Icons lasted from 1995-1998 For those who do not know, SD Studios was a founder of MR so this version was very similar the that item. The best reference for the Obi saber was the image above from the Star Wars Chronicles. You will note it is a black and white image and remember that no one at the time knew about the grenade being the correct part. As a result the replica had a black neck as no one had any idea there was any brass detail on the real prop. It's funny that the whole community never really contemplated the fact that B&W images might hide some type of color.
I lost my picts of the one I had but you can see one here: http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=162929&p=2519964&viewfull=1#post2519964
I did sell it a couple years later to buy a Roman around 2001-2002:
And then I upgrade the emitter (and possibly the pommel) with Gavidoc's parts run:
I was quite sad when it was stolen. :cry I replaced it with the MR as it had just become available.
As you know, I sold the MR to fund the sweet sweet Roman Obi Saber.
View attachment 353337
Now, the only way to have a better saber is to get one made with all real found item parts... which I won't be doing.
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