Gadgetory

when it comes to movie props there's never been anything as iconic as the lightsaber so with all the merchandising tie-ins the Star Wars has to offer you'd think that'd be the one thing they really have figured out there's been everything from cheap plastic toys two limited edition replicas but nothing has really captured the feeling of what it would be like to hold them the items from the movie that's why over the past 15 years fans have taken matters into their own hands they've built a homegrown lightsaber aftermarket where people make custom machined hilts designed high-end sound and lighting electronics all the name of getting as close to the film's as possible now it's not cheap but if you dive down the rabbit hole nearly anything is possible I personally started collecting last year and thought just one would do it not so much so this is an original design made by a husband-and-wife team called Vader's vault this blade can turn any colour you want and it's sturdy enough for full-contact dueling and this is an obi-wan Kenobi made by Romans Empire props every single piece of this thing is an exact replica of the part used to make the original prop back in 1977 I also have a Luke Return of the Jedi being installed with electronics somewhere in Arizona I might have a bit of a problem but even though I have all of those what's been haunting me is the original lightsaber you know the one with the force awakens' literally ending with rey handing that lightsaber to Luke I decided it was time to find the most authentic accurate Star Wars II Skywalker saber I could possibly find so of course I ended up talking the ODA my name is Michael Murphy I own a website called epic sabers calm people know me as Yoda and I specialize in turning the vintage 3-cell Graflex camera flash which was the original saber seen on screen into a functioning lightsaber now you're probably wondering what a vintage Graflex camera flash is it might be hard to remember but back in 1977 the original Star Wars was kind of a low-budget flick and everything from the Death Star to the blasters were made from fan parts and old model kits the one thing they couldn't figure out was the lightsaber until one day set decorator roger christian found an old box that vintage camera flashes from the 1930s the company that made them reflects christian added some grips a bubble strip pulled from an old texas instrument and that was really it that's the original lightsaber he apparently showed it to George Lucas and Lucas looked at it and just smiled and that was apparently the biggest compliment you can get from Lucas at the time and that's what I feel when I look at a graphics I just smile when I look at and say this is you know this is more than just a camera flash okay so this is where it's going to get pretty nerdy but it's also where it's going to get kind of amazing because according to Star Wars lore lightsabers were powered by a tiny crystal inside them and Michael made a lightsaber with the crystal chamber that looked like it was working on the inside as much as it did on the outside that lightsaber sold on eBay for $3,900 it was really the first of its kind thing on eBay as an artist it was like putting a painting up at Sotheby's or something for auction and other people look at it and said oh wow this is something I can make a bunch of money I was like oh wow I've got to live up to this I've got to make it better and over the years he's basically become the Graflex Godfather in the lightsaber world if you're looking for something that's as close to Canon as possible Yoda is the guy how much so his latest design sold on eBay for over 15 thousand dollars so after getting on Yoda's waiting list I picked up an old Graflex flash on eBay and then it was time to get started Luke's lightsaber is slightly different in each of the different movies and in this case I was going for my personal favorite The Empire Strikes Back we selected the exact two crystals I wanted to use and then Michael drills them by hand underwater that's to make room for the fiber optic lighting system but first the 80 year old flash has to be disassembled and cleaned this all happens by hand and once the insides of the flash are gone that's when Michael can drill holes for grips and put his own chassis inside when you get a lightsaber you swing around and stuff and to make sure everything didn't break he took a design cue from RC cars and built a custom chassis the nice thing about this is that the combination of abs and aluminum piping in the way is hooked together and the plates that I've created allow it to flex a little bit in various directions that way when it it takes a hit all of your electronic components aren't completely absorbing that chassis absorbs it for them so obviously making a lightsaber is super easy okay so it's been about a month since we last visited and we are now heading back to Yoda's to to pick up the finished lightsaber but this doesn't look anything like Dagobah okay this is awesome I kind of don't want to touch it cuz it's so nice and I feel like it's like a movie thing that I I feel like I'm actually at a a prop show this is this is beautiful the blade fits just perfectly snug I want to start doing all kinds of like crazy but I want to hit anything ever so I'm terrified my seven-year-old self inside me right now is is like freaking out and I feel like I've accomplished like a long life goal that probably sounds like an exaggeration and yes there are more important things in the world than a replica movie prop but there's something beautiful about the passion it takes to create something like this it's a reminder of the power storytelling has to encourage and inspire to bring people across the world together in pursuit of a common goal and that's a gift that artists like Michael get to pass along to I like making the fans happy and I know when I'm able to put that into someone else's life then it it makes it worth it for me too hopefully it will serve your collection family for years to count this fan is very happy and you guys like The Goonies there's this guy in Texas who makes a really like kick-ass one-eyed Willy map we should go