Once upon a time, in a land far away...shall we say Canada, a very wise man put his thinking cap on and began to construct a one of a kind curved lightsaber from the dark side. This lightsaber was revealed to the world, the people were drawn to it with all it's sithy goodness. The power of the dark side emitted from this saber, and the people spoke. There couldn't just be one in existence. So 10 more were constructed, (and then an 11th). These left the far away land of Canada, and made their way across the globe. Thousands of years later (I'm trying to set the mood, in actuality it was lightning quick :P), a briefcase washed up on the shores of Perth, Australia. A very good looking young man (:D:P) happened to stumble across this briefcase. He opened the briefcase, being drawn in by the dark side (and proceeded to jump on a forum called "FX-Sabers" just to review this for you fine people :P) Inside the briefcase revealed:
Madcow of Genesis Custom Sabers brings to you: Darth Bane Curved Saber #5 limited edition!
Darth Bane styled curved hilt
Stainless steel curved body with brass accents
Custom Krayt Bone grip by Madcow
CFV5
P4 Red LED
Reveal Crystal Chamber with Red 7 segment bargraph
7.4V In hilt rechargeable battery pack
Vader's Vault 32" Dual diffused shine through bullet tipped blade
Fonts:
Calibrate
REVENGE
Hero
Shatterpoint
Korriban
Blackstar
Love the briefcase that Rob included, it's really handy to carry the saber around in. Having the foam cut out to mould to the curved hilt makes this fit nice and snug.
So the first thing I was drawn to with this saber was the bone grip, which aside from it being curved is the main focal point of the saber. The weathered bone really gives it that feeling of a lightsaber from thousands of years ago. I went with the "clean" option for the hilt, and it gives it such a nice shiny look to it. You can see the light reflecting off the hilt here:
The hilt itself has a nice smooth look to it.
The next feature that draws you in are the claws, one situated at the top of the hilt, one at the bottom. They are the perfect size claws for this saber, and go with the theme of a Darth Bane saber perfectly.
I snapped this picture to show off how the speaker is placed in the pommel. Rob has attached one of his custom pommel inserts, but the really interesting thing I found is how the speaker is placed and the hilt continues past it. I LOVE this. Now everyone so far has said how loud this saber is, so I had to see for myself. I fire it up...
In a word...yep. You guys weren't lying. I'm seriously worried the neighbours will complain of the loud noise :D It's loud in a good way though. It maintains a crisp, clear sound whilst being super loud. This is the first time hearing a lot of Rob's fonts in person, and I've really fallen in love with Korriban. It sounds perfect in this saber, and the menacing hum is enough to make even the bravest of Jedi tremble in their boots 8) Rob's new font, calibrate is really cool too. I agree with Rob on the lockup sound, its really cool. Check out his video if you haven't already.
This is my first Madcow saber I've owned, so I've never seen his "Madcow switches" in person. I'm a huge fan of them, they are really practical when dueling. On this run of sabers, they have been backlit with the same red as the blade. A very nice effect. Now you can see the red glow of the crystal chamber through the bone grip. This is truly awesome. The chamber pulses through the grip, as well as the blade. Now as you all know, a red blade kind of shows up orange on camera. If you look at the red of the chamber through the grip, that is more accurate as to how the red looks in person. The blade colour is exactly the same as that. So are the switch backlights. So my first P4 LED saber I got was my Yoda Graflex V, and I was surprised at just how bright the blue was on this saber. The same was the case with this. It is VERY bright indeed, and once all the lights are off it sets the whole house alight with a pulsing red.
The saber lit up, in the middle of the day. In the second picture, you can get a good look at the weathering on the bone. So awesome.
Still the middle of the day, but there wasn't as much sun shining into the house. That is still a lot though, as we are in a scorching heatwave in Perth at the moment.
So Rob included instructions on his video of how to "reveal" the crystal chamber. I was of course, super excited to get to see this in person. So easy enough, I remove the screws to reveal the beautiful Madcow crystal chamber with bargraph:
The bargraph acts as a battery indicator, which is a nice effect. I have been playing with this saber pretty much non stop all weekend...and it's still on full battery! :o the runtime is incredible.
Anyway, so back to the chamber itself. You slide the bone back to reveal this amazing chamber. The crystal sits nicely inside there, backlit when the saber is ignited. You can't see it in that picture, but I was aiming at getting a shot of the full saber, with the bargraph lit up. This next picture we get to a close up of the chamber...are you ready guys?! :P
This is a shot of it in stand by mode. The crystal is VERY large, and has a nice clean look. The Crystal Focus V5 sits in there, barely visible, but enough so you can access the SD card to change around the fonts. I don't see myself doing this, as the fonts included are a perfect mix of Rob's sith fonts. Like I said earlier, I'm loving Korriban so that one is the "main" font for this saber for me. Now to light the saber...
Truly a beautiful sight! This chamber is for show, and really you don't want to be dueling when the chamber is revealed. The bone sits further down, and would be too awkward to duel when it is like this. Putting the bone back in place is a lot better for dueling as the shine through effect of the chamber looks really cool. So the CFV5 sits in there nice and neatly, such intricate work inside this chamber.
So this saber was to be a saber that I duel with very lightly, just around the house. I wouldn't dare do any full on dueling at all with it, or even anything more than light clashes and spins. However, I think the way it's constructed it could stand up to a lot of damage. I'm never going to find out though, it's too much of a masterpiece to be doing anything like that. I'm thinking before it arrives to myself..."I wonder how I'm going to go with spinning and gripping this saber due to it's curved nature and general construction with the claws". All those thoughts were put to rest as soon as I gripped this saber in my hands. The bone grip fit so snugly like a glove in my hand, and my other hand rested nicely in place further down the hilt. This hilt is quite large in size, once you factor in the claws. I'm currently using a Vader's Vault 32" blade, however I find it to be a touch too small due to the size of the hilt. I'm planning on upgrading to 34", I think then it will be perfect. Spinning the saber was another worry of mine before I got it. However this spins really well! It balances well, and spins very nicely. The bone grip helps you to grip perfectly to get some nice spins going. The only thing is, the occasional claw scratch happens. The claws aren't sharp at all though, and it's just a bit of a hiccup, but then you go straight back to spinning :)
So there we have it, I'll add a video as soon as I can but I wasn't planning on writing such a long review! I thought this saber was definitely worthy of a lengthy review though, it's truly magnificent! The Darth Bane is such a one of a kind run of sabers, it's very unique indeed. I would like to thank Madcow for giving me the opportunity to own one of his masterpieces! I'm blown away by finally being able to see Madcow's work first hand. I hope that this is the first of many Madcow sabers.
Thanks everyone for reading, I hope you enjoyed :D Please feel free to leave any feedback, or ask any questions at all!