Lightsaber Props Blade Technology: A Timeline
A brief summarization can be made for the toys that came before The Phantom Menace’s release in 1999 and while they did hold sway over the fandom they never quite reached the level of realism we’d always hoped for. During the “Dark Times” 1983-1999 realistic looking lightsaber blades were primarily made from acrylic tubes (or some equivalent) and a bright unfocused light source shining up the tube. There were likely other variations on this tech that I myself am not aware of due to not having access to sci-fi magazines and movie prop replicas like the older fans of the series did. I do recall seeing an advertisement in the mid-nineties for an early saber available from Parks Sabers but these were far beyond the budget of a 12 year old.
1995- Blue and White LED’s were developed by Shuji Nakamura which would ultimately lead to the development of the first High Powered LEDs.
Hasbro releases the first of their Power of the Force Extendable Lightsabers. Luke Skywalker from Return of the Jedi is the first model to hit the toy shelves. This saber features an extendable plastic blade and flashlight bulb that illuminate the tubes and for the first time featured motion activated sound effects.
1996- Icons Authentic Replicas gets the official license from Lucasfilm to produce the first commercially available Lightsabers Props endorsed by the Star Wars brand. Theses lightsabers were static hilts but were made from premium materials and were extremely accurate for their time. The first in the line is Luke’s Graflex Lightsaber from A New Hope. Hasbro releases the second lightsaber in its Power of the Force line of toys. This time its Darth Vader’s lightsaber from Return of the Jedi. Hasbro never releases any other model of saber in this line until new models show up in 1999 for the release of The Phantom Menace.
1998- Plasma Sabers begin arriving in the fan communities which featured neon tubes encased in polycarbonate tubes. These blades can scroll up and down to resemble the ignition and retraction of the film sabers and for the first time these blades were far more evenly illuminated than their predecessors. The drawback is that they are fragile and cannot be dueled with.
Companies like Information Unlimited offer “Plasma Fire Sabers”
2000-Electroluminecent (or E.L.) sabers become a new and updated replacement for the plasma blades of the day and are either made from E.L. tape or E.L. cable. Now the blades can be encased in polycarbonate tubes but can be swapped out for different colors and can be dueled with. The illumination method is even like the plasma blade but they do not feature any scrolling effects. The other drawback is that with the E. L. Tape the blades have visible gaps and both versions have a high voltage driver which emits a piercing whine as it is powered.
2001- Several companies begin to emerge with this new tech. Parks Sabers adopts it and uses it in conjunction with their machined hilts though it is possible that they used this tech before this time.
Being Seen Technologies is another of this era though they sold other E.L. supplies and tools other than sabers and only sold blades made of E.L. Tape and not cable.
Lighttech Industries became a huge player in the market and featured machined one of kind hilts akin to Parks Sabers but at much more affordable prices and used E.L. Cable to light their blades which eliminated the gaps left from using E.L. Tape like other companies.
Hyperdyne Labs who had been established in the prop community for a few years and known for their Vortex Sound Board (which gave early Vader costumer’s their voices) develops and releases his first basic lightsaber sound board which features ignition sounds, swing sounds, clash sounds, and retraction sounds but no looped humming.
ASAP: A Site About Props web forum begins in earnest and with E.L. being the industry standard of the day a small group of people begin experimenting with other illumination methods.
2002- A fan made company called Master Replicas (MR) gets the license from Lucasfilm to produce accurate replicas of lightsabers and other props from the Star Wars films. They release their first “FX Lightsaber.” The hilt is modeled after Anakin Skywalker’s from Attack of the Clones and is the first saber to feature a full range of motion activated sound effects and an E.L. Sheet blade which fades on and off upon ignition and retraction.
Hasbro releases an “Interactive Lightsaber” in an Anakin AOTC model that far surpasses the Power of the Force Lightsabers from a few short years before. It features motion activated sounds, flashing lights and voice over commands including lines from the films themselves.
Another company in Japan called TOMY releases its own officially licensed Luke ANH and Darth Vader Plasma Sabers.
During this time experimentation is in earnest by fans on the ASAP forums to develop an alternative blade method. A forum member by the name of PippMaster creates a thread called “A New Lighting Strat (Strategy)” and he is the first to propose using LED’s in some form to illuminate his blades along with painting his polycarbonate blades white to diffuse the light better.
2003- With the advent of the FX Saber from MR Lighttech Industries develops its own sound board that can be attached to his sabers or used stand alone with other lightsaber props. It is small, compact and features the full range of sounds. Ignition, hum, swing, clash, and retraction. The sound quality is great for its time and it requires lower power than other sabers.
During this time Pippmaster has been able to purchase the first piece that will push the technology into new territory.
Luxeon (a French based company) releases the first commercially available High Powered LEDs. Pippmaster purchases one of these and begins experimenting with great results. Several months later others begin to come up with their own results with these new light sources as Luxeon LED become more readily available.
Among them is Psab Keel. A newcomer to the world of forums having only been a lurker and seldom poster from the previous year he purchases some Luxeon I Star LED’s with attached optics and begins experimenting. Recalling an unreleased prototype from a Mace Windu Toy which had ridges cut into the blade tube it catches the light in such a way that it produces what looks like a central core of light. In order to reproduce the effect he unsuccessfully tries to lathe ridges in polycarbonate tube by hand and when this fails he comes up with a unique work around.
Using a ¾ inch outer diameter Polycarb tube he meticulously wraps it in clear fishing line to build ridges where it will catch the light. Lighting it with his Luxeon LED it shines with the same effect as the unreleased Mace Windu toy saber. Encasing this tube into a 1 inch outer diameter tube and capping the end with a reflective disc to shine the light back down the tube he has created his own type of blade method.
2003-2004 - Psab begins selling instruction kits that feature a how to and supply list to build his “fishing line” blades that also includes the reflective discs for the tip. Among those who purchased one is Corbin Das. When the LED began to dim as the batteries in his saber were losing juice he noticed that the central core of his blade appeared to be slightly “retracted” as an optical illusion. Using this idea he developed an LED driver that would take advantage of it which led to being able to dim the LED on and off to mimic the extension and retraction of the light out of and back into the hilt. Since the “fishing line” blade was too tedius and time consuming to build Corbin searched for a blade film that would mimic the ridges of Psab’s design without all of the work. Having sourced a special form of lighting gel, Corbin’s film was born.
By this point there were several methods of lighting saber blades with Luxeon LED’s and among the other methods included painting the a dual tube blade where the inner tube was painted white and then inserted into a larger diameter tube to protect the paint but allow the user to duel with the blade if they chose to.
Master Replicas releases several other models of FX Lightsabers. This time though they begin to feature a new blade method which is an LED ladder of 5mm LED’s that light up sequentially to mimic the scrolling effect.
On the new fan development side a forum member (someone please remind me of who it was) uses cellophane gift wrap inside a polycarbonate tube to diffuse the light in his blades. It works like a charm and this new method of diffusion starts to overpower the Corbin “core effect” styled blade in terms of popularity because it creates a fuller looking blade and diminishes the bulbous tip look of the Corbin styled blades.
2005- A new website appears on the web offering E.L. Saber parts and hilt components called The Custom Saber Shop (TCSS). It unique for its time and featured a nearly one stop shop experience for saber building enthusiasts. As Revenge of the Sith is released and Luxeon LED’s start becoming more affordable and widely used TCSS begins phasing out their E.L. products and carrying High Powered LEDs. MR releases several new FX Sabers based on the new Star Wars film.
2006- At this time an aftermarket begins to grow out of the FX sabers popularity and where fans are looking for ways to duel with their new sabers without the fear of a 5mm LED getting broken they begin to convert them by swapping the LED ladders with Luxeon LED’s. TCSS begins offering blade conversion kits with heatsinks and metal blade holders to replace the fussy plastic ones included in the original design. TCSS begins selling Corbin’s drivers as well as his Corbin’s film.
A new player emerges in the tech and innovates a new soundboard which allows more accurate sound and integrates light effects for Luxeons LED’s all controlled by one board. Plecter Labs introduces the Crystal Focus which is the first board to feature a user programmable board with a removable SD Card.
2007- A new forum is developed that specializes in these new conversions and FX-Sabers is born. At this point all kinds of advances have been made in the world of High Powered LEDs. Luxeon has developed far past its initial release of Luxeon Star 1 Watt and 3 Watt LED’s to K2, Rebels, and other companies have emerged too. Seoul. CREE. Now there are different optic methods and some people are using reflectors instead of just acrylic/ polycarbonate optics.
Hyperdyne Labs develops and releases his first blade method called Hyperblade. Using a Nylon blade tube he creates his own LED Ladder blade that is segmented and to accompany this he develops an updated soundboard that like Plecter Labs uses a micro SD card to upload sounds directly from your computer.
TCSS has its own vibrant forums and a newer member named X-Wingband develops a way to use Nylon tubing for a blade method for Single source LED’s like Luxeon and CREE LED’s. Instead of using the standard cellophane gift wrap inside a polycarbonate tube he uses it in a Nylon 6/6 tube (the same kind used in the Hyperblade system) only catered to the needs of a single in the hilt LED method vs. a string method. It is the first saber blade that eliminates the “light in a tube effect” and shines the light all the way out to the edge of the blade.
2008- Another company that emerged in the few years preceding 2008 was Ultra Sabers who had developed their own sound board by this time and had been sold not only on their site but on TCSS as well. With X-Wingband’s breakthrough of the Nylon 6/6 blade Ultrasabers developed and released their own polycarbonate equivalent, the Ultra Edge blade. The first white polycarbonate lightsaber blade. It was similar to the Nylon blade in its diffusion properties but with all of the impact strength of the polycarbonate blades.
A brief summarization can be made for the toys that came before The Phantom Menace’s release in 1999 and while they did hold sway over the fandom they never quite reached the level of realism we’d always hoped for. During the “Dark Times” 1983-1999 realistic looking lightsaber blades were primarily made from acrylic tubes (or some equivalent) and a bright unfocused light source shining up the tube. There were likely other variations on this tech that I myself am not aware of due to not having access to sci-fi magazines and movie prop replicas like the older fans of the series did. I do recall seeing an advertisement in the mid-nineties for an early saber available from Parks Sabers but these were far beyond the budget of a 12 year old.
1995- Blue and White LED’s were developed by Shuji Nakamura which would ultimately lead to the development of the first High Powered LEDs.
Hasbro releases the first of their Power of the Force Extendable Lightsabers. Luke Skywalker from Return of the Jedi is the first model to hit the toy shelves. This saber features an extendable plastic blade and flashlight bulb that illuminate the tubes and for the first time featured motion activated sound effects.
1996- Icons Authentic Replicas gets the official license from Lucasfilm to produce the first commercially available Lightsabers Props endorsed by the Star Wars brand. Theses lightsabers were static hilts but were made from premium materials and were extremely accurate for their time. The first in the line is Luke’s Graflex Lightsaber from A New Hope. Hasbro releases the second lightsaber in its Power of the Force line of toys. This time its Darth Vader’s lightsaber from Return of the Jedi. Hasbro never releases any other model of saber in this line until new models show up in 1999 for the release of The Phantom Menace.
1998- Plasma Sabers begin arriving in the fan communities which featured neon tubes encased in polycarbonate tubes. These blades can scroll up and down to resemble the ignition and retraction of the film sabers and for the first time these blades were far more evenly illuminated than their predecessors. The drawback is that they are fragile and cannot be dueled with.
Companies like Information Unlimited offer “Plasma Fire Sabers”
2000-Electroluminecent (or E.L.) sabers become a new and updated replacement for the plasma blades of the day and are either made from E.L. tape or E.L. cable. Now the blades can be encased in polycarbonate tubes but can be swapped out for different colors and can be dueled with. The illumination method is even like the plasma blade but they do not feature any scrolling effects. The other drawback is that with the E. L. Tape the blades have visible gaps and both versions have a high voltage driver which emits a piercing whine as it is powered.
2001- Several companies begin to emerge with this new tech. Parks Sabers adopts it and uses it in conjunction with their machined hilts though it is possible that they used this tech before this time.
Being Seen Technologies is another of this era though they sold other E.L. supplies and tools other than sabers and only sold blades made of E.L. Tape and not cable.
Lighttech Industries became a huge player in the market and featured machined one of kind hilts akin to Parks Sabers but at much more affordable prices and used E.L. Cable to light their blades which eliminated the gaps left from using E.L. Tape like other companies.
Hyperdyne Labs who had been established in the prop community for a few years and known for their Vortex Sound Board (which gave early Vader costumer’s their voices) develops and releases his first basic lightsaber sound board which features ignition sounds, swing sounds, clash sounds, and retraction sounds but no looped humming.
ASAP: A Site About Props web forum begins in earnest and with E.L. being the industry standard of the day a small group of people begin experimenting with other illumination methods.
2002- A fan made company called Master Replicas (MR) gets the license from Lucasfilm to produce accurate replicas of lightsabers and other props from the Star Wars films. They release their first “FX Lightsaber.” The hilt is modeled after Anakin Skywalker’s from Attack of the Clones and is the first saber to feature a full range of motion activated sound effects and an E.L. Sheet blade which fades on and off upon ignition and retraction.
Hasbro releases an “Interactive Lightsaber” in an Anakin AOTC model that far surpasses the Power of the Force Lightsabers from a few short years before. It features motion activated sounds, flashing lights and voice over commands including lines from the films themselves.
Another company in Japan called TOMY releases its own officially licensed Luke ANH and Darth Vader Plasma Sabers.
During this time experimentation is in earnest by fans on the ASAP forums to develop an alternative blade method. A forum member by the name of PippMaster creates a thread called “A New Lighting Strat (Strategy)” and he is the first to propose using LED’s in some form to illuminate his blades along with painting his polycarbonate blades white to diffuse the light better.
2003- With the advent of the FX Saber from MR Lighttech Industries develops its own sound board that can be attached to his sabers or used stand alone with other lightsaber props. It is small, compact and features the full range of sounds. Ignition, hum, swing, clash, and retraction. The sound quality is great for its time and it requires lower power than other sabers.
During this time Pippmaster has been able to purchase the first piece that will push the technology into new territory.
Luxeon (a French based company) releases the first commercially available High Powered LEDs. Pippmaster purchases one of these and begins experimenting with great results. Several months later others begin to come up with their own results with these new light sources as Luxeon LED become more readily available.
Among them is Psab Keel. A newcomer to the world of forums having only been a lurker and seldom poster from the previous year he purchases some Luxeon I Star LED’s with attached optics and begins experimenting. Recalling an unreleased prototype from a Mace Windu Toy which had ridges cut into the blade tube it catches the light in such a way that it produces what looks like a central core of light. In order to reproduce the effect he unsuccessfully tries to lathe ridges in polycarbonate tube by hand and when this fails he comes up with a unique work around.
Using a ¾ inch outer diameter Polycarb tube he meticulously wraps it in clear fishing line to build ridges where it will catch the light. Lighting it with his Luxeon LED it shines with the same effect as the unreleased Mace Windu toy saber. Encasing this tube into a 1 inch outer diameter tube and capping the end with a reflective disc to shine the light back down the tube he has created his own type of blade method.
2003-2004 - Psab begins selling instruction kits that feature a how to and supply list to build his “fishing line” blades that also includes the reflective discs for the tip. Among those who purchased one is Corbin Das. When the LED began to dim as the batteries in his saber were losing juice he noticed that the central core of his blade appeared to be slightly “retracted” as an optical illusion. Using this idea he developed an LED driver that would take advantage of it which led to being able to dim the LED on and off to mimic the extension and retraction of the light out of and back into the hilt. Since the “fishing line” blade was too tedius and time consuming to build Corbin searched for a blade film that would mimic the ridges of Psab’s design without all of the work. Having sourced a special form of lighting gel, Corbin’s film was born.
By this point there were several methods of lighting saber blades with Luxeon LED’s and among the other methods included painting the a dual tube blade where the inner tube was painted white and then inserted into a larger diameter tube to protect the paint but allow the user to duel with the blade if they chose to.
Master Replicas releases several other models of FX Lightsabers. This time though they begin to feature a new blade method which is an LED ladder of 5mm LED’s that light up sequentially to mimic the scrolling effect.
On the new fan development side a forum member (someone please remind me of who it was) uses cellophane gift wrap inside a polycarbonate tube to diffuse the light in his blades. It works like a charm and this new method of diffusion starts to overpower the Corbin “core effect” styled blade in terms of popularity because it creates a fuller looking blade and diminishes the bulbous tip look of the Corbin styled blades.
2005- A new website appears on the web offering E.L. Saber parts and hilt components called The Custom Saber Shop (TCSS). It unique for its time and featured a nearly one stop shop experience for saber building enthusiasts. As Revenge of the Sith is released and Luxeon LED’s start becoming more affordable and widely used TCSS begins phasing out their E.L. products and carrying High Powered LEDs. MR releases several new FX Sabers based on the new Star Wars film.
2006- At this time an aftermarket begins to grow out of the FX sabers popularity and where fans are looking for ways to duel with their new sabers without the fear of a 5mm LED getting broken they begin to convert them by swapping the LED ladders with Luxeon LED’s. TCSS begins offering blade conversion kits with heatsinks and metal blade holders to replace the fussy plastic ones included in the original design. TCSS begins selling Corbin’s drivers as well as his Corbin’s film.
A new player emerges in the tech and innovates a new soundboard which allows more accurate sound and integrates light effects for Luxeons LED’s all controlled by one board. Plecter Labs introduces the Crystal Focus which is the first board to feature a user programmable board with a removable SD Card.
2007- A new forum is developed that specializes in these new conversions and FX-Sabers is born. At this point all kinds of advances have been made in the world of High Powered LEDs. Luxeon has developed far past its initial release of Luxeon Star 1 Watt and 3 Watt LED’s to K2, Rebels, and other companies have emerged too. Seoul. CREE. Now there are different optic methods and some people are using reflectors instead of just acrylic/ polycarbonate optics.
Hyperdyne Labs develops and releases his first blade method called Hyperblade. Using a Nylon blade tube he creates his own LED Ladder blade that is segmented and to accompany this he develops an updated soundboard that like Plecter Labs uses a micro SD card to upload sounds directly from your computer.
TCSS has its own vibrant forums and a newer member named X-Wingband develops a way to use Nylon tubing for a blade method for Single source LED’s like Luxeon and CREE LED’s. Instead of using the standard cellophane gift wrap inside a polycarbonate tube he uses it in a Nylon 6/6 tube (the same kind used in the Hyperblade system) only catered to the needs of a single in the hilt LED method vs. a string method. It is the first saber blade that eliminates the “light in a tube effect” and shines the light all the way out to the edge of the blade.
2008- Another company that emerged in the few years preceding 2008 was Ultra Sabers who had developed their own sound board by this time and had been sold not only on their site but on TCSS as well. With X-Wingband’s breakthrough of the Nylon 6/6 blade Ultrasabers developed and released their own polycarbonate equivalent, the Ultra Edge blade. The first white polycarbonate lightsaber blade. It was similar to the Nylon blade in its diffusion properties but with all of the impact strength of the polycarbonate blades.
