Luke's hero ROTJ lightsaber, what's really there, and what isn't?

jason1976 · Feb 1, 2009

Ok, I'm getting a headache. I've read, and read, thread, after thread, and web site, after web site, for years now, and I'm just as lost as when I started.

I'm working on the "ISYHCANL". (I think, but who knows what's what anymore. I like the one in the Lucas film archive, aka "From star wars to Indiana Jones the best of the lucas film archives") This is the first prop I fell in love with years, and years ago, when I fist got a good look at it in that book.

I (and others) have even brought some of these thing up in other threads, but I get a different story each time.

I hate to sound dumb. I mean, if the answers, are clearly, and definitively stated elsewhere, I'm sorry. It just all still seems open to interpretation, and I want to get it right.

And if they are all totally different props that's cool too. I mean, I know the difference between the V2, Stunt, and Hero Luke ROTJ sabers, but if there is more then one hero, fell free to straighten me out.

So here I go:

The board on the control box: Some say brass, some say copper. (it always looked copper to me) and the stripes on it, some say black, some say blue, some say green. (black looks very nice, but I think it was actually kind of a blue, with a hint of green. but I could be wrong, I don't see very well, and all computers, and pics are different)

The triangles on the control box: some say the smallest size triangle LED's ( 3.6 mm), other say the medium size ( 4.6 mm), others say they weren't LED's at all, but rather little triangles of red, and green acrylic, or something like that.

Some say the "ISYHCANL" control box is just the Yuma box, with extra stuff added, but then there are those pics of the saber all opened up, with the board slide forward, and guts inside. I've even seen pics of other parts of the saber opened up, and the green triangle LED light up. (but I just don't know if these are all the same prop, or not.)

Some pics of the control box have a dark grey strip on either side, just bellow the brass angled strips that hold on the board, other pics have no gray strip. I know that strip doesn't appear to be there in the "ISYHCANL" seen, but, there are a lot of pics of a Luke hero saber with them on it. So I have to wonder if it's another version, or if they added them after filming. (I find that hard to believe though, because that would be a lot of work, to add them after the fact, when the prop had already served it's purpose.)

For that mater what about the emitter stem? It looks copper to me, people say it painted copper, but if the box bits (board, and angled stips.)are brass, then why would the stem be copper?

I'm so confused. If they are all different versions, witch shoud I do. I mean, I know that's my call, but on one hand I like being able to open up a book and say see there's my saber, but then when people say hey you got it wrong, but then if I do something mor elike what seems to be on screen, then people say "hey, there is a really clear pic of your prop in this book, and you got it rong." (this happens to be a lot, especially with star wars props

)

HELP! can the old timer, prop gods straighten me out please?

lonepigeon · Feb 1, 2009

jason1976 said:
The board on the control box: Some say brass, some say copper. (it always looked copper to me) and the stripes on it, some say black, some say blue, some say green. (black looks very nice, but I think it was actually kind of a blue, with a hint of green. but I could be wrong, I don't see very well, and all computers, and pics are different)

I think this is being re-examined now and something new will come out of it.
The board definitely looks a little blueish in pics. It could be a blue circuit board, but no match has been found.
I'm still researching myself.

jason1976 said:
The triangles on the control box: some say the smallest size triangle LED's ( 3.6 mm), other say the medium size ( 4.6 mm), others say they weren't LED's at all, but rather little triangles of red, and green acrylic, or something like that.

Those measurements are purely from Pastor Jedi's parts run. I don't know how he came up with those sizes. The real arrows are 4mm (so his "smalls" are too small and his "mediums" are too big). Those arrows are the only currently available option.
I think they might have used real LEDs on the prop, but I'm having troubly finding the right size and type.

jason1976 said:
Some say the "ISYHCANL" control box is just the Yuma box, with extra stuff added, but then there are those pics of the saber all opened up, with the board slide forward, and guts inside. I've even seen pics of other parts of the saber opened up, and the green triangle LED light up. (but I just don't know if these are all the same prop, or not.)

The ISYHCANL box can't be the Yuma box. I thought it might have been, but that doesn't seem possible. The ISYHCANL box matches the hollow box seen in books (though with minor differences).
Forget the light up telescoping lightsaber. It's a fake prop made by "Elstree".

jason1976 said:
Some pics of the control box have a dark grey strip on either side, just bellow the brass angled strips that hold on the board, other pics have no gray strip. I know that strip doesn't appear to be there in the "ISYHCANL" seen, but, there are a lot of pics of a Luke hero saber with them on it. So I have to wonder if it's another version, or if they added them after filming. (I find that hard to believe though, because that would be a lot of work, to add them after the fact, when the prop had already served it's purpose.)

Grey strips are not on the real ISYHCANL prop.
I believe they were added to make the control box slide open easier for a Luke constructing his lightsaber scene ultimately cut from the film.

jason1976 said:
For that matter what about the emitter stem? It looks copper to me, people say it painted copper, but if the box bits (board, and angled stips.)are brass, then why would the stem be copper?

I'm still debating colors myself. Copper seems a little too red, but brass seems too yellow. Maybe an antique brass paint? (definitely paint, not a different metal)
I'd like to see some discussion on this and some recent exhibit pics.
I WISH this saber was currently on display so that I could re-examine it in person again.

Some pics from Parts of Star Wars:
http://www.partsofsw.com/lsrotjsab_gal/lsrotjthumbs.htm
(Note some are the resin copy of the Hero)

lonepigeon · Feb 1, 2009

I think this pic shows the colors and some other details fairly well.
- Board looks blue (note the stripes are on the surface, it's not a metal plate).
- Side bars look copper
- Underside of emitter is painted (looks brassy but still reddish).
- large gap under activation plate not present in the movie.

jason1976 · Feb 3, 2009

lonepigeon said:
I think this pic shows the colors and some other details fairly well.
- Board looks blue (note the stripes are on the surface, it's not a metal plate).
- Side bars look copper
- Underside of emitter is painted (looks brassy but still reddish).
- large gap under emitter plate not present in the movie.

Thanks for the info.

That's a shame about the opened up version, because that is quite possible the coolest thing I 've ever seen.

So you mention " - large gap under emitter plate not present in the movie." What does that men, I don't think I see a "large gap under the emitter plate" on any of the versions I've seen. (I assume by emitter, you mean the business end, were the blade would come out if it were real.)

I agree about the copper on the angles, and the paint for stem. (or a redish-goldish collor anyway's.) What about the other color on the bord. (I agree about the blueish, color but do thing think copper, or brass, as the other color?)

See in that pic there is those great grey stips on the box, but ok, if they weren't there in the film, what was? I mean, on the film version, was there just a gap between the copper angles, and the black control stip with the notch in it?

Oh, and as for the LEDs, what about this place?

http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Cat=524729;keywords=triangle led

Sumatra · Feb 3, 2009

Oh, and as for the LEDs, what about this place?

http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Cat=524729;keywords=triangle led

Judging by this picture here from the site:

They look too diffused. That's what the green LED on my Viper box looks like. It makes them look milky when not lit.

You can kind of see it here:

cayman shen · Feb 3, 2009

I think the large gap lonepigeon referred to was the control box, not the emitter plate?

TheDisturbance · Feb 3, 2009

Sumatra said:
Judging by this picture here from the site:

They look too diffused. That's what the green LED on my Viper box looks like. It makes them look milky when not lit.

You can kind of see it here:

These are the same exact LEDs I use to use from Digi-Key back in the day. They are pretty nice. Took a while to find triangle LEDs that would work. These definately do.

jason1976 · Feb 3, 2009

oops double post

jason1976 · Feb 3, 2009

cayman shen said:
I think the large gap lonepigeon referred to was the control box, not the emitter plate?

Oh, That makes more since.

(hey it's early, here, my brain isn't up yet. :lol )

Well, I never thought the prop in Vader's hand was clear enough to know for sure if the grey stips were there, but since they (nor a space for them) is present on the resin on, I guess I'll have to except it. I mean, if the screen used resin prop, was cast off the hero screen used prop (witch just makes since) and it was cast without the space, then there must not have been one.

(Man I really like those gray strips. )

Well, I have a JE, I'm redoing the box on, and one of the new supper accurate blanks AS did last year. I guess, I could do one box, screen accurate, and one accurate to the post production, with the gray strips. Now, witch blank, should I put wich box on? HM.

Um, ok, so still other then blue, what is the other color on the bord, brass, or copper. I always thought copper, but looking at the pics on POSW it kind of looks more brassy, then the coppery angled strips on either side of it. (at least in those pics, I've seen other s where it looked more coppery to me.)

Oh, and again, are we sure they are LEDs? They look pretty dark, red, and green, and most of the LEDs I've seen are pretty bright red, and green.

Sumatra · Feb 3, 2009

jason1976 said:
Oh, That makes more since. (hey it's early, here, my brain isn't up yet. :lol )

I thought the same thing and I've been up for 12 hours :lol

jason1976 said:
Oh, and again, are we sure they are LEDs? They look pretty dark, red, and green, and most of the LEDs I've seen are pretty bright red, and green.

Depending on how screen accurate you want to get, it may matter more if you want to light them up. Personally, I don't want to light them up so I'm going to go with Pastor Jedi's medium triangles and then sand them to the right size. If we can find the right LEDs, I'll get them, but I have a bit more flexibility.

TheRealMcFly · Feb 3, 2009

While I agree that the angle metal on the box appears to be coppery, I think you may want to reconsider brass... or at the very least painted brass. Copper at that thickness is very soft, and I'm sure there would be more dents and rounded areas if it truly was just copper. Consider all the scratches on the saber, and that the grey plastic bits seem to have taken a hit. The angle brass still looks straight.

Ripcode · Feb 3, 2009

In this pic the section under the emitter does looks copper colored, though a weathered copper color.

I'm guessing the flash is washing out the color in most of the other pics we see.

jason1976 · Feb 3, 2009

ripcode said:
In this pic the section under the emitter does looks copper colored, though a weathered copper color.

I'm guessing the flash is washing out the color in most of the other pics we see.

Yep, I got that book at a half price book store, almost 9 years ago, and it took me from someone who just thought props were kind of cool, to some one who had to have them.

That is not only one of the largest, and clearest, pics I've found out there of this saber, but it's still my favorite.

cayman shen · Feb 3, 2009

That's the book and pic that first got me thinking about making my own props. Then I found yodashouse and learned about Graflexes, and the rest is history!

lonepigeon · Feb 3, 2009

That should have read "activation" plate in my first post.

The grey bars are absolutely not present during filming.
See HD screen caps below.

Besides raising the activation plate (leaving a big gap) the grey bars also make top of the control box much wider. In the movie, the box is the same width besides the small difference of the thin rail material.

Sumatra · Feb 3, 2009

lonepigeon said:

I realize these shots are lightened, but the side bars in this scene have always looked brass to me. I'm wondering if they had been painted at a later date (maybe when the grey bars were installed) to look more like the metal of the neck.

And if you look at the near side of the L-bar in this shot below, it looks like there is some damage to the finish. Could it be paint wearing off?

lonepigeon · Feb 3, 2009

Sumatra said:
And if you look at the near side of the L-bar in this shot below, it looks like there is some damage to the finish. Could it be paint wearing off?

I always saw that as glue residue.
I think the L-bar has gotten redder over time since it's now more red than the neck. Maybe something affected the finish? Handling the prop could have caused some sort of patina.

Sumatra · Feb 4, 2009

That could be glue residue. There does appear to be something on the grey bar in that area as well.

I don't think I've ever seen brass age to a redder color. Anyone have an example of what might cause this? From my own personal experience, brass has always seemed to darken to a browner/dirtier finish, but I have no idea what that saber has gone through or what may have been done to it as far as preservation or repair.

Regarding the tri-ring...I'm wondering if it was just a bent piece of heavy guage wire. The shape is so soft compared to every tri-ring I've seen and all of the rings, both tri-ring and d-ring, I've seen have been plated. If it was just plain steel wire it would rust more easily. I'm betting we could find the correct guage wire before we find a correct, pre-made tri-ring.

jason1976 · Feb 4, 2009

Sumatra said:
That could be glue residue. There does appear to be something on the grey bar in that area as well.

I don't think I've ever seen brass age to a redder color. Anyone have an example of what might cause this? From my own personal experience, brass has always seemed to darken to a browner/dirtier finish, but I have no idea what that saber has gone through or what may have been done to it as far as preservation or repair.

Regarding the tri-ring...I'm wondering if it was just a bent piece of heavy guage wire. The shape is so soft compared to every tri-ring I've seen and all of the rings, both tri-ring and d-ring, I've seen have been plated. If it was just plain steel wire it would rust more easily. I'm betting we could find the correct guage wire before we find a correct, pre-made tri-ring.

HM, you know all the pics of the prop as it appears after production, with the gray strips, etc. The side bars (angles) IMO have always without a doubt looked very copper. However the screen caps of it in Vader's hand, really do look very Brass like. So I could be sold on the idea of them either having been painted copper later, or even replaced with copper angles after filming. I just wish Vader had given us a look at the stem up close in the same seen, because that would give us an idea of how coppery it looked in that same light. (you know to gage if what we are seeing is real, or a trick of the light.)

As for the tri-ring. I got a modern one, off of member here, last year. as part of a lot. It had been around for a wile, since it looked like he had used it for something else, but it was in very good sap,e and un-weathered. Well, I tried, putting it in the correct conditions to rust, paint, burning it, etc, and it all just rubbed off, and look bad, before it did. Then I put it in some Perma Blue, and it turned a very nice color, very much like the real one.

Sumatra · Feb 4, 2009

If you look at the circuit board in the same screen caps, the angle bars look to be very close in color; more gold than reddish. If we could get an accurate idea on the color of those stripes, it may add weight to one side of the argument or the other.

Luke's hero ROTJ lightsaber, what's really there, and what isn't?

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