I purchased the Windu FX saber today after reading the great reviews of the Ep. 3 version. People said the color purple is actually better than most people reported and the sound is far better than the AOTC version. Upon opening the box, I agree with the others that the hilt is beautiful, but horribly oversized. I am not gripping in general terms about it being oversized, as I know all of them are. However, the parts of this saber that are oversized detract from the "coolness" of the prop Sam Jackson uses. The top portion of the hilt and the bottom are the big trouble areas. Where the film prop is thin at both places, on the FX saber they are both fat and round.
Then I noticed the blade. I put in brand new Energizer Max batteries and the blade is definitely purple, but I would say it is more lavender than the deep purple of Jackson's color. The red sides didn't bother me as bad as it did others, but I must say one side is lavender, and the other side is blue. While you are swinging it around, it looks light purple, but it drove me nuts to just sit and look at it. Another thing people said is that this saber didn't have the blotches in the blade that other sabers had. I disagree, my Mace had numerous blotches. I also tried taking photos of it in hopes that it would appear purple, as others here have done, and the xxx thing looks blue on the photos. It has the cool white core look on the photo, but I want to see purple, not blue.
Next the sound: I agree with people when they say the sound effects sound like they were recorded in a tunnel. It sounded loud, but it was very muffled compared to the Anakin Ep 3 saber.
I compared the Anakin Ep 3 saber to the Windu saber and the Anakin saber is far brighter, and the sound is much more clear and crisp.
If I was going to collect all of the FX sabers, I would purchase this one last. It is a cool novelty to have as the hilt is my favorite design of all the hilts in the Star Wars films, but the FX hilt just doesn't live up to the film version. If you were only going to purchase one or two FX sabers, I would get the Anakin Ep. 3 or the Vader ESB.