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The S.A.B.E.R. GUILD: Saber Manufacturers => FX-SABERS Graflex Armory & GraflexShop "GRAFLEX FX-SABERS" => Darth Vader ROTJ => Topic started by: Darth Raijlin on February 18, 2007, 12:52:34 PM
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Is this a modified graflex? I noticed that in the description on one site, that they said that they utilized a Luke Stunt Saber from Empire Strikes Back to make the Vader in ROTJ.
Just wondering because it looks nothing like the MPP Flash, and I'd be interested in the future having a ROTJ Luxeon Vader made.
Just would like to have my information handy ahead of time. Right now I'm focusing on my MPP Vintage ANH.
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good question.
i would think that it is a MPP or Heiland flash. with a graflex you would have to get rid of the bunny ears and do all of that extra work to get it to look like that. i may be wrong though ;)
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Here's part of the article about the ROTJ Vader:
Eagle eyed fans will notice however that the Dark Lord of the Sith's lightsaber has altered since its last appearance in the saga. The prop used in the previous episode was no longer available, so the resourceful prop department took the similar looking Luke Skywalker stunt lightsaber from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, added a collar and changed the coloring at the top of the lightsaber to recreate the distinctive black emitter shroud of Vader's weapon. The fighting blade was cut down, leaving a protruding rod, and the mid-band altered to recreate the black activator panel. Further details were added to the neck area resulting is a similar, yet quite distinct representation of the last lightsaber ever wielded by Darth Vader before his redemption. © 2006 Lucasfilm Ltd & TM
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Also, here's a link to an Vader ROTJ LE for sale on ebay. If you look at it sideways, it's seems like they shaved off the "bunny ears" like Aluke had stated, and added an emitter shroud to go over the end tip.
Anyone have clarification on this?
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Yes, the Vader ROTJ is based on a Graflex and not the MPP flash. Here is a link that has some great pictures of the Vader ROTJ.
http://p082.ezboard.com/fpropreplicasfrm42.showMessageRange?topicID=11.topic&start=21&stop=40
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here is a guy making an EL vader "style" out of a graflex
http://www.elvistrooper.com/dvrotj/default.htm
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That EL came out great looking. Do you think there's enough room inside the hilt for a Luxeon version? When it showed the inside view of the hilt, it seemd like the nuts attaching from the outside to the inside take up a good amount of room in there.
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if it is based off a graflex then just get the tcss conversion kit and then do the necassary coloring and cut off the rabit ears ;)
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Kind of weird Aluke. I was reading through that website link about the conversion the guy did. He didn't cut the ears, he heated the metal and was careful to bend them. He even made mention to be carfeul about NOT breaking the ears.
Pretty odd.
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The Vader ROTJ is by far my favorite Vader saber.
Another good site to read about the pieces used in constructing this saber is The Parts of Star Wars (http://www.partsofsw.com/dvjedsab.htm). As its been pointed out, it was made from a Luke ESB stunt saber. It's basically a Graflex tube with a few added greeblies. It shouldn't be too hard to add electronics to one if you attach the hex bolts differently. Maybe just cut off the heads of the bolts and glue them on.
Now comes the fun part. Getting accurate pieces to make one is not easy. I own a fan built one that can be seen in my showoff thread, but I have been slowly aquiring parts to build one myself. Elvistrooper isn't making his kits anymore and it's almost impossible to find an accurate ball catch. No one really knows what the plug in the bottom is, but a chrome tire valve looks pretty close. I've been lucky enough to find two emitter shrouds (one aluminum and one resin), an aluminum D-ring "post" for the top of the saber, and a resin control box. The grips and Kobold (rear) D-ring can be purchased from Blast-Tech.
If you're a DIY kinda guy, here's an execellent tutorial (http://www.sitharchives.com/other/vrotj_tut.htm) by WadaYado, the guy who built mine.
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Yes those are all excellent places to find info on doing the Vader ROTJ ;)
The only real issue with doing the Lux conversions with the 1inch blade, are the top
2 Black beveled screws.
They pass into the socket and actually need to be glued in place.
Yes I have one here I've been tinkering with a bit, but I'm waiting till I have more
time so I can do it perfectly.
Will it be an offerend saber? not sure yet, but I'd think it's main popularity will arise
for celebration 6 so I have time to work out the issues with it ;) :D
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i haver always liked the vader ROTJ.....IMO, it kind of has a dangerous, almost painful look to it. very distinct weapon to the wielder.
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I saw around somewhere that they made the Vader ANH out of a graflex too. They just modded it a bit more then the luke
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The ANH saber actually had four seperate designs, if memory serves me correctly. I'm not sure exactly (I have it on my bookmarks somewhere) but I believe one was a MPP flash, one was a Synchronar, one was a Graflex....can't remember the fourth. :-\
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I know... so many versions and only one hook to hang them from ;D
I think the last one you may be refering to is of the Sabers that has been on exibition tours.
There are a few parted out Vaders like the Lukes that have missing buttons etc...
Theres a few updated picts over on partsofstarwars.com under the ESB vader ;)
You'd think the prop people would have been a little more careful, but then it reminds me
how even now in ROTS, Obiwan and Anakin endup holding the wrong sabers during a scene on mustafar :D
at least GL's prop managers lack of consistency is consistent after all this time :D
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In reality it's supposed to be the same saber through out all three films. ;D :P
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You'd think the prop people would have been a little more careful, but then it reminds me
how even now in ROTS, Obiwan and Anakin endup holding the wrong sabers during a scene on mustafar :D
What? What sabers were they holding?
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If you look, when Anakin has Obiwan bent over and is choking him out using his cybernetic arm, Anakin and Obiwan are holding their respective sabers.
The scene cuts away, and then back to Anakin bending him over, but Anakin is holding Obi-wan's saber, and Obi is holding Anakin's.
Apparently, this happened A LOT in Episode 3 where people picked up the wrong sabers and it wasn't caught.
Apparently, if memory serves me correctly, there was a cut in the scene and when the action recommensed, they picked up the wrong sabers accidentally.
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when mace and the other jedi go to arrest palpitine you can see palpitine is holding anikan's saber too.
you can see a lot of blunders such as these at the lightsaber .com (http://www.thelightsaber.com/IndexFolder/index2.htm) ;)
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Well the stunt saber that Ian McDiarmid had definitely was one of Anakin's stunt sabers. The guys knew this right away and that's why they painted it gold and gave it a red blade because the original Palpatine saber would have probably been too small for him to duel with.
Actually from reports during the making of Episode III the whole sequence between Mace and the Jedi arriving at Palpatine's office was completely different. Anakin was all ready there standing next to Palpatine when they arrived and Palpatine used the force to call Anakin's lightsaber to him (hence why he had Anakin's saber) and that's how he was able to surprise the Jedi. Infact I think the whole fight sequence between Mace and Sidious was a bit longer than was shown.
During the pick-ups and re-shoots during post production is Lucas and team realized that the original scene that I just mentioned didn't play out right because the way how Anakin was in the Jedi Council Chambers before then suddenly in Palpatine's office. Infact GL mentions this in one of the behind the scenes documentarys on the 2nd DVD of ROTS if I recall correctly. I don't remember which one but I remember watching about it.
I wished they had put that original scene on the 2nd DVD as an alternate sequence.
Edit: BTW Vader, Obi-Wan was the one who did the saber switching. Anakin never had had a saber when he was choking Obi-Wan, it was just Obi-Wan the whole time... but some how Ewan kept ending up with Hayden's Lightsaber.
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The only real issue with doing the Lux conversions with the 1inch blade, are the top
2 Black beveled screws. They pass into the socket and actually need to be glued in place.
Yes I have one here I've been tinkering with a bit, but I'm waiting till I have more
time so I can do it perfectly.
I would love to see your completed project. I sent back Luxeon parts because of the issue of the 7 screws. Elvistrooper made that nice EL with the link above. I am still trying to convert my Vader ROTJ saber. I make most of the parts
http://pastorjedisabers.com/swpics4.htm
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Well folks... i just completed (today) a Vader ROTJ Lux V with MR sound board 1 inch blade!.
I drilled through the graflex socket an tapped the holes, the trick is to cut down the alen bolts thread as shor as posible but still be able to screw it on. I left one of the bolts a tad longer to secure the blade in place.
I know you want to see some pics! Ill try my very best to post some tomorrow.
BTW the sound board is fed by two AAAs and the Lux V is fed by four AAA separately! I wanted to do this configuration with AAs but THAT wouldve been a HUGE challenge.
I made two pretty big holes in the bottom of the hilt, thouse holes are hidden underneath the D-ring holder, so the sound is coming out nice and the holes dont show.
The solution that i am so very proud of coming out with was THE SWITCH, i installed a slide switch so the "metal eye" is pushed forward to tur the saber on. Yes people that means when the saber is OFF, the "metal eye" is centered with the hole (where the glass eye should be) and when the saber is ON the metal eye is off-centered just like it is on the original prop
Cant wait to post some pics, although after i have them on my PC, how do i post them?
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The way I do it is after you write a reply, before you press Post you first click on Additional Options, than click on Attach and search for the picture on your computer.
Than on the right of the search-button you can click on More Attachments and put another, and so on.
The only downside is the pictures showup below and you cannot put words between them.
It will be like this:
http://www.fx-sabers.com/forum/index.php?topic=10764.15
You can click on the pictures to enlarge them.
If you like to make a nice review with the pictures between them, most of the time you can send the review to a Moderator after sending them a PM first, and they will do it nicely for you.
I'm VERY curious of the pictures myself.
Goodluck.
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Here they are! Although ill try to use a better cam next time
Check out the two cool features i mentioned.
The hidden holes for sound can be seen in the pic were i illuminated from inside. But if you want even more sound, you can change the d-ring position to expose the speaker.
The slide Switch, OFF: you have a centered metal-eye / ON: you have a off-centered metal-eye just like the original prop!
The soundboard and the Lux V run on separate sources, the front AAA pair feed the SB and the four AAA at the bottom feed the Lux V.
If you take out the front AAAs the saber just lights up.
The comparative pic shows stock MRs Luke: ROTJ & ANH.
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You're a real Jedi now.
Or shall I say Sith.
Thats a very good workmanship.
Congratulations, I
'm sure you feel very great right now.
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Woah. :o That's one nice saber! I've heard of people making emitter plugs/covers to recreate the sawed-off rod that was on the prop saber. When they want to light it up, they just pop the top and screw on the blade. You think you might do something like that?
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Here they are! Although ill try to use a better cam next time
Check out the two cool features i mentioned.
The hidden holes for sound can be seen in the pic were i illuminated from inside. But if you want even more sound, you can change the d-ring position to expose the speaker.
The slide Switch, OFF: you have a centered metal-eye / ON: you have a off-centered metal-eye just like the original prop!
The soundboard and the Lux V run on separate sources, the front AAA pair feed the SB and the four AAA at the bottom feed the Lux V.
If you take out the front AAAs the saber just lights up.
The comparative pic shows stock MRs Luke: ROTJ & ANH.
(https://www.fx-sabers.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi157.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Ft45%2FDarthMorbius1977%2FSmilies%2Fwas.gif&hash=e387283d14c4e06e7e491453e370a6f003e39132) VERY NICE!
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Woah. :o That's one nice saber! I've heard of people making emitter plugs/covers to recreate the sawed-off rod that was on the prop saber. When they want to light it up, they just pop the top and screw on the blade. You think you might do something like that?
It is in deed a great idea to make this baby perfect. Although to make it truely acurate with that echangeable part, i would have to machine the tip of the aluminum socket (and have it re-anodized black) so it could fit a complete 1 3/8" disc with the sawed-off rod.
I made a pretty acurate Vader ROTJ like 4 years ago and that sawed-off rod was 5/16 in diameter. We asume that it was a rod for fighting scenes BUT 5/16" isnt a bit thin? I know it was a short rod to hold an aluminum tube-blade but i find it still to thin.
Thanks guys (and gals), glad you liked it! ;D
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:o AWESOME !!! :o