Hoo, boy. I am extremely happy that it came today, and that I don’t have to sit in on a three hour organic chemistry lab! I guess that means I will sit down here instead and talk about Bonificata! :D So, get comfy, because I have a fascinating story to tell. It’s quite a travesty. :D
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The Beginning of the Project and Back Story
I’m going to take a second and rewind back to about… February of this year. I inhabit several different forums within the Star Wars lightsaber community. On one of the forums, I had a fit of whimsy and I randomly was looking for an old MHS empty, as I was peculiarly interested in the Spark by Naigon’s Electronic Creations. I don’t know why, it was a rather reckless decision at the time.
Well, anyway. One of the members on the site had an old MHS empty laying around, and I rather liked the design on it. I talked with said user about a possible Spark installation price, and he quoted me a value, which I decided would be fun and I paid him the next morning. It was the usual for me… lighted switches, some light powder coating, and flash on clash, which the Spark was capable of handling.
Some weeks into the project, I remembered talking about the project with the guy, asking how it was going, and somewhere in that conversation, he asked me this really randomly off question. I remember he asked me how devoted I was to getting a Spark set into the build. I responded offhandedly that I wanted to try something new, and then, he’s like, well I have this Crystal Focus 6 laying around…. Wait, what?! And right then and there he offered to swap out the Spark and basically gave me his Crystal Focus. Now, this guy was generally very nice to members, and always did what he could to help the less fortunate ones. Nice guy, he is.
This is where things got iffy. Throughout the first several weeks, he was always stellar in his communications. Any delays or DRL issues were always promptly reported. I felt kind of bad for this guy. I offered to chip in more money to help him at least make his money and time worth it, and that if he wanted to call it quits he had the right. I told him this several times, and he always told me he was ready to take it on. And then, there’s a period of like a month where he goes completely dark, AWOL. I couldn’t reach him for weeks. I panicked, and I was messaging him asking if things were okay. I got no replies, and I’m starting to get a bit annoyed. Don’t go brawling with an angry Ewok, it’s never gonna go well! It’s suicide! :P Randomly, I got one random message from the guy, saying that the project was shipping soon and that he got caught up in a small DRL issue. That’s no problem to me. That was the last message for quite a while, and three more weeks or so pass. No replies… /sigh
At this point, I’m starting to get really concerned. At this point, it’s almost July. It’s almost five months at this point and I had no idea of the progress. I decided to take action and speak with the website staff regarding the issue, and they made an effort to contact him, which was strangely replied to within about 24 hours… And he gets back to me, swears up and down that he was sorry, and proceeded to refund me the project, basically, and then shipped it to LDM Custom Sabers.
LDM and Onwards
I have no idea what to expect. I didn’t even know what I was going to receive at this point. As it turned out, what was supposed to be done, well, it wasn’t, sadly. I recall LDM revealing a new custom saber at the time, Sugo Sa (?) and I made an offhand comment saying that my project might look something like that, and then, I got basically slammed, as it wasn’t what I thought it was. And then, a few days later the pre-build shots arrived.
I’m just going to say that the work was not well executed. It honestly scared me a little bit, and it looked like it needed a miracle to come out and work again. There was something akin to battery acid on the pommel, and the blade holder was scratched and damaged. The choke extension piece had some “minor†mangling in the switch area. It looked rough, sadly. Thankfully, the Crystal Focus was still intact. I felt so crappy for making Marc go through with this project. Sure, I squeezed a build log spot out of him, but I felt incredibly guilty that I was actually gonna make him go through with that project. I feel like the only saving grace I had was that I told Marc, well, you can do whatever the heck you want to it! Please revive it! I basically gave Marc a vague checklist, and free license to do whatever he wanted, save for a few small elements, like no weathering. :D
Two weeks ago, LDM asked me a few build related questions. I gave him the green light, and let him do his job. New PM a few days later said he was going in a newer direction, and that the project was going to be badass. xxx yeah, I like the sound of that. :D He gave me no pictures, but I was already scrambling images through my head, based on what he was telling me. I was expecting some good stuff at this point. I’m drooling, eager to see what’s up. And…
Finished Project
Oh my Lord. This looks incredible. A broad way to put this is that I have both worlds of Kylekus and Cuprisium in this one saber, but with uber good specs. :D That unveiling of the project was the most excited and positive I had felt in months. I was tempted to quit Saberlanding after this build. I was so ashamed of what I had to put Marc through. I felt even worse that I kind of tee’d off on the other guy a little too hard, as well. I didn’t want to show my face too that much. I felt like “that guy†that everyone is nice to, but talks badly about behind my back. It wasn’t the happiest time of my life, that’s to say the least. In the end, though, I was blown away, completely, by the depth and detail of the finished product.
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Bonificata Specifications
Box-o-parts challenge
CFv6 (stock fonts)
TruPurple (RBW) Tri-rebel LED w/White FoC
14500 (7.4V) Li-ion
PVC Chassis
LDM 26mm HO speaker in Machined resonance
3mm LED (PCB) bargraph
TouchPlate Activation
Custom copper-film card
Copper and black texture Powder coating
8 tons of machining (no un-retouched parts)
Modified to accept new style heatsink module
Detailed Thoughts
The design here is absolutely incredible. Every single part of the saber looks like it took hours to do. Every piece had been finely machined to erase the prior damages that the saber sustained. The copper powder coating really stands out. The TruPurple LED is sexy bright. Probably would make the brightness geeks proud. :D
Onto each part of the saber, and the first part is the blade holder, which was heavily modified from the standard MHS style. The detailing is intense, and it’s got its own little strip of copper powder coating. The blade color and the Flash on Clash are spectacular. Not to mention, this is my first ever Crystal Focus, and this thing is ballsy loud. It blows the Petit Crouton out of the water, and the quality is a step up.
Moving down to the clamp and ribbed choke area, you’re going to think, this thing looks purely custom. I like how the black powder coating that you can kind of see beneath the clamp gives you the answer that hey, this thing is an MHS piece! I couldn’t tell, and I honestly thought Marc had swapped the part out for a pure custom. And that switch is fantastic. TouchPlate Activation was never on my queue of things to add (xxx, I completely forgot about that feature) and the copper film card is intricately detailed with a circuit board motif, with a sweet bar graph underneath. I have Clark Kent’s addiction to blinkies and lights. :P I am a blinky whore, I admit it!! :D But I didn’t even come close to expecting a bargraph!
This next part is a doozy. The grip is fantastic, and gives the hilt a really unique look and feel. Not to mention, this also was an MHS part. It was originally one of those double fluted female extensions (God, I don’t even remember…) but it was the one with all of those little holes in the extension. So, anyway, Marc went ahead and basically upended the standard design and added the black grip and this honeycomby structural portion of the grip. It pops out right away in the pictures below. I’ve never seen it before, and it’s awesome. It’s so intricately detailed. That’s the thing I really like about Marc’s work. The devil is so very much in the details. When you look at the black mat video or his initial photos, it looks really cool, but when you get the product itself, it’s a whole different ball game.
And that pommel… oh man. That thing was caked in battery acid or something nasty… That ended up getting nicely polished out, to remove most of the damage. The pommel got bored out a little to make room for a Machined Resonance chamber. Another thing I didn’t even ask for. :D Man, Marc, you really get me, you really do. ;) I remember being saddened when hearing that I might have to have it weathered, but you somehow made it mesh enough so that I didn’t have to get it like that!
Overall, the saber has a fantastic heft to it. It does not have that thick feeling of MHS parts. They’re so well machined that it has actually become thinner in appearance, similar to the Vader’s Vault stunt line. Its intricate detailing and unique powder coating scheme are one that I find works very well in the saber. Some of the parts still have very negligibly minor traces of the previous damage, but if anything, it gives Bonificata a bit of well-kept charm. ^-^
Was that too long, and you didn’t feel like reading? I’ve got tons of photos down below, and the basic gist of the project? I had a box of borked MHS pieces get turned into a fantastic saber.
GALLERY SHOTS
Concluding Thoughts
Man, I don’t even know what to say from here. I am really really glad that I chose Marc to sit in on this project… even if he didn’t want to initially. :D I felt pretty bad asking him to do this, I really did. :P Heck, now though, I feel like this experience has told me that the only guy I’d be willing to work with on a serious project is this good ol’ droid. ^-^ The finished product, on hand, is absolutely brilliant. It’s totally me. It has a refined and regal look to it, which I kind of feel is similar to me. I’m a little too refined, lol. There’s so much to ogle at. I’ve always been jealous at those who are like, OMG I found my unicorn. I think that right now, it is very safe to say that I have mine. It’s why I like customs over movie props or movie-esque sabers, no offense to any of the movie saber/prop collectors. I just like having a piece that screams “me,†that no one else has. Selfish, huh? :P But it really is something, knowing that you’re getting that special item that’s been tailored specifically to you.
I’ve never been on thousand dollar saber runs. I’ve never really had the privilege/opportunity of getting insane high-end sabers… until now. I admittedly had a small bout of cardiac arrest when I saw the price quote in the beginning, as it was slightly out of my intended budget, but it was so well worth every penny. This saber is fantastic, and again, Marc, I cannot thank you enough.
Topic: Bonificata - From Travesty to Redemption (Read 6625 times)