REVIEW: New Hasbro Force FX Luke ANH Lightsaber with Removable Blade

Trooper_trent

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RPF PREMIUM MEMBER
These apparantly just came out and I ordered one a few days ago. It just came in so I thought I'd give a quick review of it.
I'll take a video later and do it proper, but for now here are a few pics.

Overall I'm fairly happy with it. for $129 you can't beat it for a fancy toy that now (thanks to the new removable blade) doubles as a fairly accurate prop replica for display. In the following pics I'm comparing it to my Luke ESB made from an original Graflex 3 cell.

Pros, the length is dead on. it's of good quality construction. Nice finish. The red button is the right color. Everything is metal that should be, except for a couple of parts. The grips are nice rubberized plastic, and yes there are 7 of them. It comes with a belt clip and hook (not accurate but still cool) and a separate socket to use when displaying it without the blade. It makes a cool "click clack" sound from the speakers when you connect/disconnect the blade and if you try to turn it on without the blade, it make a cool "shorting out" sound like Anakin's in AOTC when it got cut in half. Overall it is very cool and seems to be fairly accurate.

Now for the Nit Picky stuff. it's just a tiny bit wider in diameter than an original graflex. There are a couple of plastic parts that seem just a bit cheap but not bad - The glass eye and the bulb clamp seem to be chromed plastic. The socket pins are way too shallow and are the wrong shape (not that noticeable) the eye lens isn't actually a lens but a polished piece of gray plastic. (just looks really cloudy) The bulb socket insert that you use when the blade isn't in is the wrong shape. The beer tab isn't quite long enough. The clamp side bars are a bit too thick and the lever might be a hair off in length as well. The shape of the grips is off a bit on the end and the fin of the "T" track is a bit too wide.

As for the blade and sounds, I'll take more pictures later but the sound is about as loud as the others. It does feature ANH specific sounds (although the clashing sounds are from Obi-Wan's ANH saber since Luke never actually uses the thing besides with the training remote) The blade isn't as bright as I would have liked. I remember the MR FX Anakin episode III was one of the brightest I'd seen and hoped this would be as good or better. I think my son's MR FX Yoda is brighter.

So, bottom line. for an accurate prop replica, I give it an 8 of 10.
For an expensive toy for the average fan, I give it a 9.5 out of 10 (-.5 for the brightness issue)

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Re: New Hasbro Force FX Luke ANH Lightsaber with Removable Blade

I had the MR FX permanent blade versions of this saber which had the plastic blade holder. Is this the case with this replica as well?
 
Re: New Hasbro Force FX Luke ANH Lightsaber with Removable Blade

I had the MR FX permanent blade versions of this saber which had the plastic blade holder. Is this the case with this replica as well?
Can you be more specific about what you mean by "plastic blade holder"?
are you talking about the display stand? or part of the graflex where the blade is inserted? Not sure what you mean.
 
Re: New Hasbro Force FX Luke ANH Lightsaber with Removable Blade

Can you be more specific about what you mean by "plastic blade holder"?
are you talking about the display stand? or part of the graflex where the blade is inserted? Not sure what you mean.


Oh my bad, i was referring to the emitter where you actually make insert the blade into the saber. In the original graflex, its the springy bit connected to the bunny ears. (gotta love them technical terms)
 
Re: New Hasbro Force FX Luke ANH Lightsaber with Removable Blade

Oh my bad, i was referring to the emitter where you actually make insert the blade into the saber. In the original graflex, its the springy bit connected to the bunny ears. (gotta love them technical terms)

Gotcha. It does appear to be chromed plastic. But it's fairly thick and sturdy.
 
I really don't know why they fowled this up so much. The ESB was oversized, sure, but the details were almost dead on. When I saw the fixed blade version of this in the stores for the first time, it was disappointing. The emitter loop was brittle plastic and prone to chipping. The "shoulders" under the red button and glass eye were part of those pieces instead of the main tube. The clamp is two separate pieces instead of, well, a clamp. Count this as another one I'll most likely not be getting.
 
I bought the Vader version last October and was quite pleased with it. Granted, I don't have an original flash to compare it to, but what attracted me was teh removable blade feature :)
 
i am pending my luke skywalker purchase for a good review.. :)

@trooper, can you confirm that the blade is hold down with a pin screw-down just like the anakin? this always has been a problem for me because comparing with the others (obi-wan, maul, vader) they are bolt down and the blades tend to be steadier compare with the pin-screw...

cheers
 
As others have said already - thanks for your review. As Hasbro FX goes, this one seems closer to screen accurate than most (yeah, I'm talkin' to you Luke ROTJ)
 
Can you confirm that the blade is hold down with a pin screw-down just like the anakin? this always has been a problem for me because comparing with the others (obi-wan, maul, vader) they are bolt down and the blades tend to be steadier compare with the pin-screw...


For this one, the top red button unscrews and there is a pin that goes all the way through the blade and back out the other side to thread into the interior of the graflex on the inside of the glass eye.
I can tell you that the socket for the blade only fits one way (there's a groove guide) and that it is very snug. Also, the connector pins on the blade are spring loaded so once you get the pin in, you have to push down on the blade to get the holes to line up and allow the pin to slide through. Additionally, the threading is very smooth and snug. So once it's screwed on tightly, the blade is VERY secure. I don't think you'll have any problem with it.

I just recorded a quick video of the blade removal process so you can see what I mean. I'm super happy with it.

Here you go!
‪Hasbro luke ANH force fx lightsaber with removable blade‬‏ - YouTube
 
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Cool review :cool. Thanks :)

I have a Vader one of these and am extremely pleased with it too.

(I especially like switching it on when the cat is looking through the mesh into the prop room :lol)
 
thanks for the video.. it is the same removal process as the anakin.. which unfortunately for my case, after a little bit of flourish.. the blade becomes wobbly....

still a neat piece of blade and i would need it to complete my hasbro collection.. :)
 
Thanks for the review. Iwas waiting for someone to do a review.

I'm thinking of waiting for the inevitable ESB Luke. Bt very tempted to get this one.
 
Great review and video. This is the way the FX sabers should have been from the get go. I used to have almost all of them (except the Maul) but sold them all off over the years. This one is just too darn cool to pass up now. Thanks again. I need to pop over to the FX Sabers forum now.
 
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