ANH Vader Stunt Lightsaber

Similar placement for button (on/off switch) on Luke motorized saber (seen here in an ESB rehearsal shot) and Vader Barbican saber (hole under grip.)

ButtonComparison.jpg

Brandon
 
...Plus you see this thicker shroud on the Planet Hollywood Vader saber that also has small piece of T-track on the underside by the shroud...

I hate to be cross-pollinating threads and topics but this is a near dead ringer for the stunt in Steve Sansweet's collection (the tank-antennae Vader stunt). Perhaps share the same lineage?
 
Brandon, are you saying the Luke/Vader shared stunt saber was made into the Barbican ? Or are you saying the Luke ANH stunt saber and the Barbican were both made during ANH ?

Or was the Barbican shroud used on the Luke stunt saber during ANH and then the Luke stunt was made into the Barbican later ?

I know we see the Luke stunt used in post ANH promo photos and Mark/Bob used it as a practice saber during ESB, so it wouldn’t have had the MMP clamp and thick shroud added permanently during ANH.
 
I think it’s that there was a dedicated stunt for Vader, scratch made from a tube, square shroud, and MPP clamp. It appears in a couple shots, but for whatever reason, they re-used Luke’s stunt for most of the duel.

So the Luke/Vader shared stunt is what we’ve always said.

The dedicated Vader stunt was given an overhaul post ANH, maybe for ESB, maybe for ROTJ— the motor was removed the shroud reworked, and it was set to be a bladed stunt. It seems to have never been used in that capacity, but the details are there. During ROTJ it was copied in resin for the hand gag.

It was one of the only Vader sabers left after ROTJ and became the basis for the promo sabers. It was named the Barbican by people like us after it showed up at that museum.
 
Yes, as Seth says above - they started the film with a motorized dueling saber for Vader and another for Luke. Vader's had the big square shroud on. At some point, they painted Luke's with a black emitter and let Vader use it for the duel.

After ANH, at some point the square shroud on the Vader dueling saber (aka the "Barbican" due it first being displayed there) was rounded off to better match other Vader sabers. But I don't think it was used for filming again. I don't think the Barbican shroud was ever used on the Luke motorized saber.
 
I made note of it in the guide!

Knowing production the way I do it is very rare for any prop to not have a twin or backup.
 
Yes, as Seth says above - they started the film with a motorized dueling saber for Vader and another for Luke. Vader's had the big square shroud on. At some point, they painted Luke's with a black emitter and let Vader use it for the duel.

After ANH, at some point the square shroud on the Vader dueling saber (aka the "Barbican" due it first being displayed there) was rounded off to better match other Vader sabers. But I don't think it was used for filming again. I don't think the Barbican shroud was ever used on the Luke motorized saber.

Now it all makes sense, thank you !

I always thought it was odd that Luke and Ben had special motorized stunt lightsabers and poor Vader had to share Lukes stunt saber. Good to know Vader did indeed have his own motorized stunt that just didn't work very well.
 
The endcap on this Vader saber is beautiful. Reminiscent of the MPP but with mtiple flanges and stuff

I'm a fan of the t track greeblies, like hans blaster, but it doesn't match anything on an MPP placement wise right? Other than the riveted label
 
The endcap on this Vader saber is beautiful. Reminiscent of the MPP but with mtiple flanges and stuff

I'm a fan of the t track greeblies, like hans blaster, but it doesn't match anything on an MPP placement wise right? Other than the riveted label

It matches the bulb release assembly on an MPP.
 
In the bulb release spot you're seeing the same unidentified greeblie that is still on the Barbican today. The first pic shows the short piece of t-track where the S ports of an MPP would be.

Both pictures show the same t track looking piece to me. In the more recent pictures there is only the 1 unidentified piece. Given that they obviously did some machine work to it post ANH and we know those t tracks were notorious for falling off, it looks like parts have been replaced. At the time of ANH there are either two pieces of t track on the saber or the whole square part of the shroud spins.

EDIT

I brightened pic#2 and I still can't tell if I see the vertical part of a t track or if the part is completely flat and its just part of Vader's glove that I'm seeing. Could be either one to me at this point. I concede it could very well be the flat part as seen on the Barbican, but personally I'm not convinced.

Saber2.jpg
 
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Information over load! My brain is buzzing with excitement!!

That is one beefy emitter!! Doesn’t look like the whole pipe is that thick gauge metal. I can only imagine how top heavy this saber was


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Both pictures show the same t track looking piece to me. In the more recent pictures there is only the 1 unidentified piece. Given that they obviously did some machine work to it post ANH and we know those t tracks were notorious for falling off, it looks like parts have been replaced. At the time of ANH there are either two pieces of t track on the saber or the whole square part of the shroud spins.

EDIT

I brightened pic#2 and I still can't tell if I see the vertical part of a t track or if the part is completely flat and its just part of Vader's glove that I'm seeing. Could be either one to me at this point. I concede it could very well be the flat part as seen on the Barbican, but personally I'm not convinced.

I'll grant you that the prop was modified over time, so it's difficult to know just what the details of it were during its tenure as Vader's ANH dueling saber. But that little front t-track piece survived all the way into production of ROTJ when the saber was cast for the severed hand gag, so it's not a stretch to suppose the unidentified greeblie box was on it during ANH as well.

I'd call the pic inconclusive, if anything. It is hard to tell. Luckily we have the surviving prop, and (even better) the cast ROTJ hand gag prop that allows us to make an educated guess as to what was there.
 




Thanks Brandon for these pictures . . . one other piece of compelling evidence that this saber was indeed present
before and during filming of ANH and as far as I can tell not mentioned yet, is . . . the attached stunt rod which, as
we know, was partly black and silver due to light reflective tape to create the laserbeam effect as was Obi-Wan's ...
and Luke's lightsaber :



Since the first action figures* came out almost one year after the release of STAR WARS why then was the next picture of Darth Vader with that ANH stuntsaber chosen for the packaging? Any thoughts about that?



Chaïm

* See the first episode of 'THE TOYS that made us' :

 
one other piece of compelling evidence that this saber was indeed present
before and during filming of ANH and as far as I can tell not mentioned yet, is . . . the attached stunt rod which, as
we know, was partly black and silver due to light reflective tape to create the laserbeam effect as was Obi-Wan's ...
and Luke's lightsaber :

I don't see how the dueling rod enters into the equation as it is not present on the prop today.

Since the first action figures* came out almost one year after the release of STAR WARS why then was the next picture of Darth Vader with that ANH stuntsaber chosen for the packaging? Any thoughts about that?

You want to talk about toy package design? :wacko ;)

There are a couple things about this new info that are interesting to me. One is we now have a more rounded out picture of the three motorized stunt sabers that were made for each character in ANH, and the evolution that each of those props took throughout production of the trilogy.
The second is the significance of the ROTJ hand gag casting. It shows us what Vader's ANH dueling saber turned into... As far as we know it was never used again on screen, but for some reason it was finished not unlike a Hero prop. But why? That's very interesting to me.
 
Apart from all the points made by Brandon to convince us the Barbican stunt was around in 1976 for the shooting of ANH he could also have pointed out the stunt rod with the reflective tape as seen in both pictures as evidence ... it is an obvious clue it was prepped for shooting.

Indeed I always wondered why the picture on the packaging used that particular Vader with the stunt saber whereas it clearly did not represent the MPP based belthanger lightsaber :wacko

Chaïm
 

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