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FX-Sabers Discussion - Including a Gallery of custom sabers. => Forum Gallery => Topic started by: Lord Bane on July 03, 2011, 11:38:55 PM
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This is one of my first builds I did a couple years back. I have an interesting story behind this saber but first I will include the full details of the contents in this saber package. This is a Hasbro Obi that has been fully converted with a US 2.5 soundboard, Royal Blue Seoul P4 LED, accent led in the gold button on hilt, purple jewel custom fitted to gold button, 3.7V Li-Ion battery with hidden recharge port inside pommel, custom switch underneath the red anodized button, TCSS speaker and conversion kit and custom cosmetic thumbscrews for hilt pin hole. I have had this saber for quite a while and decided to post it since I spent so much time on it, I'd let everyone else enjoy it too.
On with the story folks....
So two years ago when I was first getting into FX sabers I decided I wanted a personal saber to call my own. I wanted something elegant yet sturdy and bold. The Obi was exactly that and more. I figured that this saber was perfect for my costume and would suit me well for dueling and for show. So I found this guy on Ebay who was doing conversions on FX sabers. I hired him to do the Obi conversion for me for $200 and I paid him immediately. As we were emailing back and forth he told me about US boards and how he could install one for me for an additional fee. After investigating this new sound wonder on Youtube I wanted to break free from the typical boring force FX sound. I hired this guy to add the US sound for me and paid him another $200. He was going to add the accent led in the gold knob and do a Li-Ion battery with a recharge port, the whole works. Anyway 6 weeks later and after MANY emails to this guy, he finally sends it to me. First of all it was NOT tracked or insured. Why in the world would anyone do that after I dropped $400 for this transaction?. I opened the package and >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( I was really NOT happy. The conversion was totally botched and looked like complete crap. The emitter was all scratched up and repainted. The blade retention was home made with a jagged metal popping out the emitter. The side accent led was glued in after he bored out the purple jewel. the red anodized button was a plastic red button. I didn't get an internal battery with a recharge port, instead I got a AA sized Li-ion battery pack. When I opened up the pommel the wires were hanging out everywhere and this saber was a complete mess. I wanted to talk to this guy over the phone and he refused so we had to discuss the problem through texting, How lame is that?. I expressed my disapproval and demanded that he start ALL over and get me a NEW hilt and do it over again. He agreed, I waited another 3 weeks to get the saber back. So the second time I got the saber back it looked better cosmetically BUT it still had been repainted on the emitter section where the black ribs are. The accent led was now underneath the gold button and the purple crystal jewel was still intact so at least that looked better. He used a real TCSS kit but there was still a problem. He claimed he would do the saber better this time and change up the sound to make it better. Now I never complained about the sound before so why the petunias did he do this? He replaced the Li-ion battery pack with the stock battery pack. The sound totally sucked! The board had a really bad buzzing sound and sounded really low. I'm thinking because he was running the 3AAA battery pack with it, maybe that caused the problem or it was a bad board. He also put the red anodized knob back BUT this time with a slider switch so I had to manually create my own momentary action by sliding the switch back and forth on activation. Anyway, I was not happy and again I contacted him again and complained via text. He wanted to fix it AGAIN. By now my patients had been totally worn out, 9 weeks for a conversion, I was past the Ebay protection plan and I paid $400 for a piece of crap. I decided to take action and do the conversion myself. I immediately called my credit card company and got a refund for $200, I sent the board back to him and kept the hilt. I figured I'd be fair and pay him for the conversion process at least. He was very angry because my credit card company went after him through Ebay. I never spoke to him again after that and I successfully converted this now beautiful saber. It has been totally cleaned up with a BRAND NEW US board in it. It's bright, loud and looks absolutely fantastic. I haven't seen the guy on Ebay since and I hope I never will because he was a major scammer and butcher. It's people like that who bring a bad name to this great hobby. I guess I should be thankful because this experience has brought me to the forums allowing me to meet lots of cool people. My saber smith skills have come a very long way and now I can build my own personal collection. Anyway, enjoy and feel free to comment.
Thanks for looking,
LB
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crazy story bane.
i hope he is gone for good.
the end result is... incredible.
excellent work
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Sorry for all your trouble, things worked out in the end and you did a great job on the saber.
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That is a good conversion dude. Well done. 8)
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wow what a story! iam glad the saber turned out great in the end.
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Looks awesome bane ! I am glad it worked out in the end. You did a fantastic job cleaning that up.