FX-Sabers.com
FX-Sabers Discussion - Including a Gallery of custom sabers. => LED SABERS => Topic started by: eastern57 on October 29, 2020, 02:16:27 AM
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I've been brain-stewing some potential contest ideas. :lamp: These kind of play to my strengths, so grain-of-salt and all.
Chime in, pro/con it, like/dislike, add more ideas... :afro:
Definitive saber project - make your idealized lightsaber. What elements do you think are the MOST lightsabery, the MOST indicative of a lightsaber, or the MOST iconic? Make something that, when viewed by anyone (star wars fan or not) screams, "I AM A LIGHTSABER!"
Design a movie hilt - Make something that fits the aesthetic of the star wars movies. Prequel, OT, Sequel... or possibly all ranges. Harder than it seems.
Iron Chef - Everyone has to use a certain part, e.g. an MHS booster section, a graflex clamp, an MHS pommel or blade holder, etc.
Anything but the hilt - The only rule is no pre-made hilts, outside of that, anything goes.
Themed lightaber - blend your favorite genre, franchise, character, time period, era, steampunk, cyberpunk, atompunk, dieselpunk, any-punk, post-apocalyptic, superhero, video game, music group, tv show, art style, lightsaber maker, sword, gun, axe, hammer, sportsball team, ... literally anything!
One-hand/Shoto/Padawan hilt - fully functioning, but short... e.g. not including shrouds, tip of blade holder to end of pommel no more than 6".
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Definitive saber project - make your idealized lightsaber. What elements do you think are the MOST lightsabery, the MOST indicative of a lightsaber, or the MOST iconic? Make something that, when viewed by anyone (star wars fan or not) screams, "I AM A LIGHTSABER!"
Interesting idea, but over the years, I've found that for most muggles, the very fact that there's a glowing blade and a hum kinda satisfies all the requirements. the hilt could be shaped like a fake dog turd, and they wouldn't notice :wink:
Iron Chef - Everyone has to use a certain part, e.g. an MHS booster section, a graflex clamp, an MHS pommel or blade holder, etc.
Good one. the real trick will be to find a part that TCSS won't run out of stock of the moment the challenge is announced :tongue:
Okay, I'll suggest a couple ideas:
The Swap Challenge: a six month long challenge: Contestants get the first three months to design a custom, single hilt lightsaber with a crystal chamber, but without dimensions or hardware specifications. Then they submit their design to an arbitrator. That arbitrator then assigns their design to another contestant at random, who has to make that saber to the best of their ability.
The What Now? Challenge: Every new trilogy has come up with a new take on the lightsaber. PT had saberstaffs, ST had crossguards. Your briefing is to come up with a new Saber Concept, as if you'd just been hired by Lucasfilm and they need something cool to show off in the last few seconds of the trailer for Episode X: Sidious' Other Revenge. One blade, four blades, axe blades, Swiss army blades, anything goes, be as creative as possible.
The Jazz Challenge: Aluminium? Pah! Brass? Phooey, I say! Steel, copper and bronze? Get them out of my sight! Make a saber from non-traditional materials only. For practiality's sake, there would have to be some kind of metal core to hold the saber together, as well as nuts and bolts here and there, but outside that, anything goes as long as it's not Metal. 3D printed parts (within reason), sculpted epoxy putty, woodwork, glass, whatever you can come up with.
The Jedi with the Golden Saber Challenge: Inspired by the Bond film of a similar name, the idea is simple, but the execution difficult: make a working duel-capable saber, that can be broken up into multiple parts and reassembled. Like Kannan Jarrus' but more extreme than a emitter-hilt split.
The Ten Hour Chall... Jedi business, go back to your drinks. :wink:
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I like the ideas of either:
Everyone gets the same parts or
A themed saber
As mentioned above, parts in stock could be a thing, but not if they are pretty common ones.
But that in itself guarantees creativity, since everyone is in the same boat parts wise. Although customizing them should be allowed of course.
As far as themes go, I’ve always loved those and have made some of my own. I’ve done a couple Viking themed ones, and even a sports team saber for a customer.
I’d probably join in if it were one of those
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RE: limited parts. I don't see that being a problem, we only had 6 people play, and if the piece was MHS, we might even be able to give TCSS a heads up so they could stock up. Or, we could keep it even simpler, like: must incorporate any MHS blade holder
RE: Golden Saber Challenge - that's sooo tempting. I've wanted to make a "field stripable" lightsaber fo-re-ver. I've tried numerous times, but have only semi-succeeded once. It's surprisingly difficult when you start considering fitting parts, wire management, contact points, tool-less disassembly... a removeable chassis is downright simple by comparison.
The genesis of the Definitive Lightsaber idea was a project that I did a few years ago at JSSDC. I asked a number of questions like, flanged or angled/s-curve emitter? Parallel or lateral grips? Mostly silver, or with dark accents? Obvious or hidden activation? The consensus was actually pretty consistent... then I made it, it was cool, but then a month later, Man-At-Arms (AweMe) made the exact same hilt for a sword. I like the idea of seeing what other people consider lightsabery.... but actually, now that I'm thinking about it, we might just end up seeing the same hilt a bunch of times... so nix that one. :laugh:
We've also done a "swap project" before too, but the result of that was that it was never finished. It was a little differently formatted, in that, it was a bunch of smiths, but one hilt. Each smith would add something, e.g. blade holder, body, accent LEDs... but it died before it was completed... don't know where it ended up.
The ideas I'm leaning towards are:
Themed hilts, Duh. (insert "Hey, it's me" meme)
Short hilt, just because I want to do another rapier-style hilt
Iron Chef, a.k.a. same part... it's a tried and true contest format, and
Golden Saber Challenge... I really want to try this again, but it takes a lot of grey matter
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There’s one that you haven’t really mentioned which I has been thinking of sharing here (pending some further discussion with Yoda, K-2SO, etc.). The logistics on that one are a bit trickier though.
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The ideas I'm leaning towards are:
Themed hilts, Duh. (insert "Hey, it's me" meme)
Short hilt, just because I want to do another rapier-style hilt
Iron Chef, a.k.a. same part... it's a tried and true contest format, and
Golden Saber Challenge... I really want to try this again, but it takes a lot of grey matter
Oh, that's a point, I could get a fencing lightsaber off my to-do list with a short hilt challenge. Hmmmmm...
Well, I for one, am curious to hear what FJK has up his sleeves. :afro:
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Why not all of them? The forum isn’t going anywhere. I see enough for at least a couple of years worth of contests.
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Why not all of them? The forum isn’t going anywhere. I see enough for at least a couple of years worth of contests.
Good point, no need to rush. I'm still kind of giddy from this last one. :tongue:
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I like the shoto option, and iron chef or theme could be fun...not a fan of the hand of the design option.
Also like East’s original ideal saber suggestion. Also good post by DC to stage them, could be seasons on a schedule where one could sit out a challenge that they aren’t feeling, but be thinking on the next seasons challenge.
Also curious why FJKs idea had to be discussed in the star chamber before spilling!
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Wow, really great ideas here!
I think some of Eastern's ideas could work for the next contest. I like the Iron Chef option. Maybe the moderator of the contest picks the MHS parts, or someone who won't enter the contest. I would even buy all them at once and in advance so that TCSS won't be 'out' of the part when it's time for the contest. I'll just mail everyone who wants to do the contest the part or parts.
SirRawThunderman has a true winner of an idea with the Golden Jedi idea where you split your saber into like 3 parts or whatever. For hiding on a belt and it won't look like a lightsaber. That sounds cool. Very focused idea.
I have a kind of 'combination idea' between some already-stated ideas and my own:
Purchase and Pass- Is where we each purchase a pre-set number of MHS parts such as 1 Emitter, 1 pommel, extentions or main body parts, up to you. Then those parts get 'passed' to the left (someone will draw a ring with the participants) and you have to build a saber with those parts. We can discuss details like adding shrouds, etc. The funny thing that could happen is that people might purchase parts they find 'ugly' just to trip up the next person lol. But it's all in good fun.
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I like where all these ideas are going!
The flash gun idea was my favorite. To be honest after I saw Space do such an awesome job with a Graflex it would have been a great idea for everyone to get a Graflex replica and make whatever you can out of it.
I do really like the idea of picking two or maybe even three MHS parts like mentioned that have to be incorporated any way you wish in making your own build.
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Great ideas for sure. Especially like the themed idea.
I also really like the "Jazz Saber" Idea- meaning no metals allowed to be used. That would be a really unique approach I bet most of us haven't done. Aside from PVC sabers of course. ;)
You could also do a nod to the old school and do a "Hardware Saber", meaning the only hilt parts you could use were those you find in your local hardware store.
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I am leaning towards the iron chef/mhs route. I was never a fan of the buy the ingredients and pass them off (secret Santa’s always sucked for me). I also like the Hw store idea, however some members (like me) don’t have a ton of equipment, so those with more machining access or capability would have a material advantage in terms of boring and threading hilt pieces...I would still find a way to enter since flashgun was so fun, but might suppress entries.
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I like the sound of SirRawThunderMan's golden saber idea. Building a saber (and chassis) in multiple pieces that you can assemble and just fire up. I've been vaguely thinking about that concept for a while now. It could be quite a challenge.
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how about: The Challenge Challenge: Build a saber. The winner is the saber with the most features from the most suggested challenge ideas the forums can come up with.
...just got to come up with a field strippable, wooden, themed shoto, made from a flashgun and one MHS part. By someone else :tongue:
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I like all of these ideas, if only because I have roughly a dozen sabers in progress (for years) that would fit any of these categories (and I would have some motivation go finish them)!
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How about we make real lightsabers?
This Retractable Plasma Lightsaber Burns at 4,000 °F - Nerdist (https://www.google.com/amp/s/nerdist.com/article/retractable-plasma-lightsaber-hacksmith/%3famp)
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How about we make real lightsabers?
This Retractable Plasma Lightsaber Burns at 4,000 °F - Nerdist (https://www.google.com/amp/s/nerdist.com/article/retractable-plasma-lightsaber-hacksmith/%3famp)
Oh god, not that one again.
...everyone on facebook kept sharing that with me the other week. It got bad enough that I had to set up and adblock filter to never see it again :cheesy:
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it seems mostly everyone is on board with the Iron Chef idea. I guess that's the reason why its such a popular show. :azn: It's also universally applicable, anyone from noob to master should be able to yield something cool from this concept. The other two specific ideas that folks are digging are the Themed and Golden ideas. Both of which, imho, are very design heavy, and have the potential to trigger a ton of game-step-upage. IOW, they're difficult challenges, but the results would reflect that. :cool:
Also, there are a lot of mentions to exchanging parts, i.e. mailing one or more parts or projects to each other. I/me/josh (just my opinion) think that while it may be fun, it's possibly not the best format to use with a time limit, simply because life gets in the way. If the progress of the contest is reliant on ALL the contestants buying parts or starting projects, and then waiting for ALL the contestants to ship and receive said parts or projects to other players... next thing you know, it's 6 months later, and JoshSaberFan still has yet to start on his contest entry. And there's also the "screw ur neighbor" aspect. If different people get different parts, then it's no longer an even starting point and inevitably someone will start at a disadvantage, be it obscure parts/project or relative experience in improvisational lightsaber crafting (a.k.a. MacGuy-Fu).
...The simple solution to these problems is to standardize the starting point, i.e. everyone has the same part and no one is at an inherent advantage or disadvantage, and then everyone procures their own - which brings us back to Iron Chef.
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it seems mostly everyone is on board with the Iron Chef idea. I guess that's the reason why its such a popular show. :azn: It's also universally applicable, anyone from noob to master should be able to yield something cool from this concept. The other two specific ideas that folks are digging are the Themed and Golden ideas. Both of which, imho, are very design heavy, and have the potential to trigger a ton of game-step-upage. IOW, they're difficult challenges, but the results would reflect that. :cool:
Also, there are a lot of mentions to exchanging parts, i.e. mailing one or more parts or projects to each other. I/me/josh (just my opinion) think that while it may be fun, it's possibly not the best format to use with a time limit, simply because life gets in the way. If the progress of the contest is reliant on ALL the contestants buying parts or starting projects, and then waiting for ALL the contestants to ship and receive said parts or projects to other players... next thing you know, it's 6 months later, and JoshSaberFan still has yet to start on his contest entry. And there's also the "screw ur neighbor" aspect. If different people get different parts, then it's no longer an even starting point and inevitably someone will start at a disadvantage, be it obscure parts/project or relative experience in improvisational lightsaber crafting (a.k.a. MacGuy-Fu).
...The simple solution to these problems is to standardize the starting point, i.e. everyone has the same part and no one is at an inherent advantage or disadvantage, and then everyone procures their own - which brings us back to Iron Chef.
Yeah, that's why my version of it was just an exchange of designs, rather than physical parts. much simpler, only relies on emails.
But I agree. a "standard" start point would be fairer- and doesn't exactly preclude a golden saber build either, if the contestants are up for it. The Iron Chef with the Golden Saber could be tortuous fun.
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If we talk to tcss and get entrants to make a deposit, we could maybe get a surprise design on a unique part nobody else will see until the contest reveals. If there is enough interest it might be worth their while considering we'd all most likely be getting other parts as well.
Either way if we have an entry deadline with payment they could ship everything at once.
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Also curious why FJKs idea had to be discussed in the star chamber before spilling!
Probably because there are a few “external issues” that would need to be really ironed out and resolved first. :wink:
I like some of the ideas you guys are coming up with, and I know that some here, as well as FJK, have seen variations of those types of contests before.
We’ll see what happens.
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If we talk to tcss and get entrants to make a deposit, we could maybe get a surprise design on a unique part nobody else will see until the contest reveals. If there is enough interest it might be worth their while considering we'd all most likely be getting other parts as well.
Either way if we have an entry deadline with payment they could ship everything at once.
I like this!
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I like the Jazz Saber idea as well. Metal cores should be incorporated, but not be the mainstay of the saber.
The single part idea always works pretty well.
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How about we make real lightsabers?
This Retractable Plasma Lightsaber Burns at 4,000 °F - Nerdist (https://www.google.com/amp/s/nerdist.com/article/retractable-plasma-lightsaber-hacksmith/%3famp)
Oh god, not that one again.
...everyone on facebook kept sharing that with me the other week. It got bad enough that I had to set up and adblock filter to never see it again :cheesy:
Wah
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I've got a twist on the Iron Chef idea. How about you have to use an MHS piece, and it can be any piece (V1, V2, MPS, etc).
It is also the ONLY MHS piece you can use.
Some "essential" MHS parts (LED holders/pixel connectors, switch boxes, etc) wouldn't count as your one part, but apart from that, that's it. You only get one. Use it wisely.
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I've got a twist on the Iron Chef idea. How about you have to use an MHS piece, and it can be any piece (V1, V2, MPS, etc).
It is also the ONLY MHS piece you can use.
Some "essential" MHS parts (LED holders/pixel connectors, switch boxes, etc) wouldn't count as your one part, but apart from that, that's it. You only get one. Use it wisely.
Not bad.
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I've got a twist on the Iron Chef idea. How about you have to use an MHS piece, and it can be any piece (V1, V2, MPS, etc).
It is also the ONLY MHS piece you can use.
Some "essential" MHS parts (LED holders/pixel connectors, switch boxes, etc) wouldn't count as your one part, but apart from that, that's it. You only get one. Use it wisely.
I love this idea. And I already know what piece I'd use: an MPI. They're just so dang useful. I tend to lean toward some of the more obscure pieces... because they're obscure.
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Yeah, my thinking was to balance things out a bit. The main problem as I see it with the Iron Chef challenge as is, if you have to integrate one specific MHS piece, then the temptation is to just use MHS parts to complete the saber. And then the contest is "just" another MHS building competition. Not a bad thing in itself, and there's certainly a lot of creativity that can come from using MHS only.
This way, you get one piece, and you have to use it carefully. Scratchbuilders get to play with tubes to see what fits, and those with lathes/mills get to try and make custom pieces that fit with it. everybody wins.
And I already know what piece I'd use: an MPI. They're just so dang useful. I tend to lean toward some of the more obscure pieces... because they're obscure.
I also have a certain MHS piece in mind. Although, that's nothing new, I have an idea for pretty much every suggested contest so far.
I think that whatever the next contest is, my entry will have features of other suggested contests worked in, because that's probably the only way I'll be able to make all these ideas come to fruition without bankrupting myself :cheesy:
(also I'll start building a lot earlier)
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So, FJK, any news of that challenge idea of yours?
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I think the iron chef idea is cool but I think it limits the contestant pool to USA a bit, given the current state of post worldwide, also some folks would get their parts way before anyone else (not sure if that matters).
I love the "Golden Saber" idea as well as "The Jazz Challenge" other materials. they sound like they would both yield very unique sabers.
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So, FJK, any news of that challenge idea of yours?
No. I have a feeling that contest will have to stay where it is for now. If something changes down the road, that’ll be a different story.
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I think the iron chef idea is cool but I think it limits the contestant pool to USA a bit, given the current state of post worldwide, also some folks would get their parts way before anyone else (not sure if that matters).
I love the "Golden Saber" idea as well as "The Jazz Challenge" other materials. they sound like they would both yield very unique sabers.
That's a good point. I used to live in Japan, and it could take months for stuff to get to me from the states. I think we'd be able to overcome that with a longer build time lines. The flashgun challenge, albeit rudely interrupted by a pandemic, was 7 months long. IMO, that should be enough to keep international members interested. Besides, the majority of the work happens in the last month or two anyway. ;)
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Besides, the majority of the work happens in the last month or two anyway. ;)
...Or after. :cheesy:
So, FJK, any news of that challenge idea of yours?
No. I have a feeling that contest will have to stay where it is for now. If something changes down the road, that’ll be a different story.
Fair enough. In that case, is it worth taking a vote on the challenge ideas submitted so far and get that ball rolling?