Re-inventing Lukes ANH Lightsaber- And Vaders too??!?!

Good point Scout....

Heres my theory...When filming began the saber had 7 grips, somewhere during filming one grip fell off...By the time anyone realized 1 grip was missing they had already moved locations and probably didnt know where the hell the grip was and probably didnt have a clue as to where start looking for it. After realizing this and finding out that they didnt have any spare grips they decided to remove the 6 remaining grips and reattach them spaced evenly....

Thats my 2 cents..
 
My Opinion:

I feel the saber in the picture I have (that was posted by Chris Trevas) is the same screen used saber. Proof from the picture shown of Luke holding the Gaffi stick and you can see the lever not closed all the way... just like as seen in my scanned picture.

I think the original "ANH" saber was stolen after filming and a totally new Graflex had to be converted for "ESB".

That's why we see 2 red buttons, a totally different D-ring and an edge connector instead of an LED strip.

Also, a lesson learned from the one grip (at least) coming off during filming prompted the prop makers to screw the grips on this time.

- Jim
fett_esb_icon.gif


P.S. I'm totally sold on the 7 grips!
 
</SPAN><TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD CLASS=$row_color>Quote:<HR></TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS=$row_color>P.S. I'm totally sold on the 7 grips!

So am I....Great find!
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fixed quote tags
 
Well, my .02 cents are:

ANH started out with 7 grips and a lever that would not close properly.

One grip fell off in the Tunisia heat, and probably some of the foil/mylar tape used to cover the clamp.

After ANH, the Saber was remade with the remaining 6 grips, screwed and riveted down, and the clamp was covered with 1 inch textured tape.

George liked the look, but wanted a better looking 'Hero' saber, so a few new ones were made (Hoth, Carbonite Chamber....)

The original ANH saber had the top red button put in the bottom hole Because the crew figured this side would be seen more often on camera, thus no red button on top, and became the Dagobah stunt Saber dropped in the drink along with Mark Hamill.

But hey, I could be smoking crank or something.....
 
The one problem I see with the one grip falling off and the 6 remaining being repositioned is the Chronicles photo- it still has 7 grips. Chronicles pic should be post production- why? Obi-Wan saber is missing a washer seen during filming, Han blaster front sight is broken-seen unbroken in pre-production photos.

James Kenobi 1138- Yes, I'm thinking the D-ring bracket may be more like you said- folded over metal with the screw or rivet hidden underneath. In all the photos which show the profile of the saber bracket the top and bottom of the bent metal never completely touch except at the very end (too close for the fastener to be way out there).

<img src=http://mywebpages.comcast.net/lonepigeon/bracketprofile.jpg>
 
DID the film crew complete all the Tunisia location shooting BEFORE returning to the studio...?

IS the production schedule known/documented?
 
I believe this is basically the order: Tunisia was first, then Elstree, then Shepperton (End Ceremony- no saber) and then pickup shots in Death Valley (no saber- Tusken Raider shots). I'd have to check some books for any more schedule details.
 
DS - you need to edit your tags - you've got the posts all messed up. DOH!

Ok, I'm pretty convinced about 7 grips. I'm not so convinced on the stunt saber theory though, because I swear in the scene where Luke is training on the Falcon, the are a couple of instances where you can see ears on the lit saber. But that's neither here nor there. I know there were no ears on the lit saber in Ben's home - just thought that was strange.
 
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lonepigeon wrote:<HR></TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS=$row_color>
I know PoSW continued the misconception of 6 grips and the wrong D-ring for a long time, but it was Icons that started it. We were only guilty of believing they did their homework. </TD></TR><TR><TD><HR></TD></TR></TABLE><SPAN CLASS=$row_color>

People where making ANH Graflex sabers with 6 grips well before Icons did it. The folks at Icons probably made them that way for the same reason everyone else did: the ESB apparently had 6 grips.

As far as the strap goes, people used different pieces there before Icons. No one knew what the bottom really looked like. People started copying the interpretation Icon's came up with assuming that they had pictures of the the bottom of the saber no one else did. I positioned one of those single hole, half size "Clip and Dees" (like the one I posted above) on my Graflex and stuck a rivet in the hole. From the same angle as shown in the "foot" picture, you can't see the rivet or the strap on the other side. The "wrap" area around the D is taller then both the rivet and strap and you can't see over it.
 
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itbedave wrote:<HR></TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS=$row_color>
DS - you need to edit your tags - you've got the posts all messed up. DOH!

Ok, I'm pretty convinced about 7 grips. I'm not so convinced on the stunt saber theory though, because I swear in the scene where Luke is training on the Falcon, the are a couple of instances where you can see ears on the lit saber. But that's neither here nor there. I know there were no ears on the lit saber in Ben's home - just thought that was strange.
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Check out the scene where Luke first tries out his new saber, during this scene he is holding the HERO saber but as soon as he ignites it theres a quick cut scene and the saber magically has the control box at 12:00 (if you watch this scene in slo-mo you can actually see the scene jump when they had the "cut" to replace the Hero saber with the stunt..
...Anyhow in that scene He takes a couple of practice swings and you'll notice there are absolutely no ears.

I also took a look at the scene where hes practicing on the Falcon..I couldnt see any ears except right at the moment when he switched turned off the saber and the stunt was replaced with the Hero...

Lonepigeon- If the D-ring flat metal IS folded over the fastener how is the top folded portion of the metal held in place???

And why would they attach the d-ring in such a wacky way??
Sersiously, if you were making a saber and you were attaching a D-ring wouldnt you take the simplest route, rather than riveting the bottom portion of the metal THEN folding it over the D-ring, and then trying to figure out how to keep the top folded part down???
 
If it was pretty stiff metal, probably steel and not alunimum, and they had to use pliers to bend it, it would probably stay quite well and take two handfulls to unbend it.

I can only imagine they would be trying to 'hide' the fastener, since there were no other screws/rivets on the other Sabers in ANH.
 
That's the only reason I could come up with too- to hide the fastener. I'm not saying this is right either, but I don't think the type of D-ring brackets we're looking at would have a profile like that. To be fair, all we've seen are top views of these new D-ring brackets. I'd like to see profile or something close to the pics we have of the prop to compare.

I just did a frame by frame analysis of ANH. I really couldn't find any conclusive evidence of 6 grips. The scene coming out of the compartments on the Falcon show 3 grip3 clearly, but the saber is partially obscured by Luke's shirt (a fourth grip would easily be hidden there)-inconclusive either way.
The Big Ass Gap (aka B.A.G.) - I can't explain it. It seems pretty odd but doesn't look big enough to fit a whole grip there. I did notice the darn clamp lever sticking out in that scene. Since Tunisia was filmed first if it was missing a grip I 'd say it was replaced later because there were a couple shots that really looked like 7 grips. When Obi-Wan first pulls the saber out of the box- there's a big closeup of his hand pulling it out. His sleeve covers the bottom half of the grips, but the top half is shown very clearly and they look close together (ala 7 grip spacing).

The D-ring dropping down shot was funny watching it come out of nowhere, but didn't reveal any details.

Watching the stunt closely, I'm not even convinced it's a Graflex. The top half looks like junk, a chrome pipe with a couple knobs on it. The clamp looks odd too.

I wish the DVD was out. ANH prop details are a pain.
 
so, now we know for sure the anh has 7 grips. What about the ESB?
It would make sense that if the rotj had enough holes to hold seven grips on the saber that would be the ultimate proof, since they riveted and philip head screwed the grips in ESB to prevent them from falling off.
(As you stated about the ANH grips)

So, anyone with some good MoM pics that show how many holes are on the DV ROTJ saber?
 
Actually it would make sense that the ESB has 6 grips, when they were switched to seven for ROTJ the grips became offset, thus allowwing you to see some of the holes left fro the six grip pattern.

ESB has been confirmed as 6 grips, the only saber in question is the ANH.
 
Did anyone happen to see the pics of the D-ring assembly I posted in this thread? Scroll up guys...let me know what you all think....it IS a found item like that of what is being discussed here.

-SS
 
</SPAN><TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD CLASS=$row_color>Quote:<HR></TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS=$row_color>The scene coming out of the compartments on the Falcon show 3 grip3 clearly, but the saber is partially obscured by Luke's shirt (a fourth grip would easily be hidden there)-inconclusive either way.
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Chris, when I suggested to look at this scene I said to look at the SPACING between the grips, not count the number of grips themselves..We've already established that the number of grips seen from one profile could easily indicate 6 or 7 grips, and would be inconclusive..

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD CLASS=$row_color>Quote:<HR></TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS=$row_color>The Big Ass Gap (aka B.A.G.) - I can't explain it. It seems pretty odd but doesn't look big enough to fit a whole grip there</TD></TR><TR><TD><HR></TD></TR></TABLE><SPAN CLASS=$row_color>

I'll admit that might be up in the air whether or not it can accomodate another grip or not, but you have to admit thats a pretty big gap...But when Luke is walking towards Ben you can see that there is yet another gap (not as big as the first but definitely bigger than one found on a 7 grip) on the oppisite side of the first gap...
Now, I dont know about you but fitting 7 grips on that saber with those 2 large spaces would be rather difficult...
If they did manage to pull off attaching 7 grips, they would all have to be touching each other...



Ssdesigner- I didnt see any other postes by you on this thead when I scrolled up...???
 
Here's what he posted:

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ssdesigner wrote:<HR></TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS=$row_color>
Hey guys....what do you think of this D-ring assembly I found on a 70's piece of cleaning equipment? And yes...the D-ring itself is 1" wide
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ViewImage.dll


ViewImage.dll


-SS
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That looks like it might be it...The fastener looks like it has a low enough profile so as not to be see from the "Toe" pic angle...The only thing that bothers be is the kind of rivet used...What kind of rivet is that anyway???
 
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