Funky Anakin...possibly a knockoff?

[Matt Thorn]

So I bought a used/damaged 2005 Anakin. Turns out the battery/speaker pack was damaged by battery meltdown. Easily fixed. I start to take it apart for conversion, and start to notice odd things. I've probably done half a dozen Anakin conversions, but I've never encountered an Anakin like this one.

The first thing I notice is that it seems light. Really light. Then I notice that the rabbit ears are a bit loose. Never saw that before. I don't give too much thought to either of these things.

Then I go to pry out the metal Graflex-style pins...only to discover they aren't metal. They're molded plastic. What's more, the discs they are on are glued on the the main plastic chassis. Okay. That's pretty weird. Some variation I had never heard of?

Then I open up the saber, and things start to get really weird.

What the...?
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-yhxl9r_tnvI/TeHJRt_Vb3I/AAAAAAAAHJc/Qth75mQ-FyY/s640/DSCN1230.JPG (https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/QlETKDv3Ax9Y6J5HLKwfwg?feat=embedwebsite)

What's with this..lid?

I start to take pictures, because it's so odd, and continue to dismantle.

Now here's the kicker:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-kpPD6zE-mDI/TeHJN6hX4TI/AAAAAAAAHII/qwBFS1sYD_U/s640/DSCN1234.JPG (https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/N7eyWeOwmCls-Zrn8tUmgA?feat=embedwebsite)

Yeah, that's a standard 8-pin plug and socket. And it's not some hobbyist's experiment. I looked for signs of customization, but there's no doubt in my mind that this whole thing was manufactured in a factory.

So, it's removable...?

Well, no. See the holes in the blade? That's where the pins go that hold the blade in the chassis. So the plug and socket are pointless, since the blade cannot be removed anyway (unless you remove the pins, which requires dismantling the saber).

I check the metal hilt tube again. Yeah. It's definitely much lighter than a standard 2005 Anakin. I believe the standard Anakin is cast metal, and weighs a ton. I suspect that this tube is pressed and cut, not cast, though cosmetically it is pretty much identical. A standard Anakin hilt tube (with the grips and aluminum pseudo-clamp) weighs 474 grams. This one weighs a mere 220 grams. Less than half!
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-JNk39Ht1rDQ/TeHTZCyw0BI/AAAAAAAAHJw/ENcOjYuT-7c/s640/DSCN1237.JPG (https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/7yRL0_5jvZXeNLdelpf3HA?feat=embedwebsite)
Standard Anakin above, funky, ultra-light "Anakin" below.

I don't recall what a standard Anakin soundboard looks like, but here's the one that's in this mutant "Anakin."
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-L2HTrwnwJ5k/TeHMcNRU6wI/AAAAAAAAHI8/cs_3ALmjbMA/s640/DSCN1235.JPG (https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/fXVDrInRVDQJuJySm7NuKA?feat=embedwebsite)
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-WNfg6y1BRTU/TeHMc5cYyvI/AAAAAAAAHJA/Ki2aJV45wuo/s640/DSCN1236.JPG (https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/zlOhqPLy7B2fZAEM2lE9yg?feat=embedwebsite)

So, what the Force have I got here? An elaborate knock-off? A legitimate variation?

The oddest thing, of course, is the plug and socket. It's a removable that isn't removable, and certainly isn't Removable™ (in the 2010 Hasbro sense).

Has anyone else ever encountered a Force FX like this one?

[beggarsoutpost]

What you have there is there first run of the ROTS Anakin 2005... that one and the Empire Vader where sold first at Celebration III... MR's original plan was to have removable blades but at the last minute Lucasfilm nixed the removable option... I have both and have them set up as removable... I have also rebuilt an extra MR green blade and added one of the din plugs so i can switch out all 3 colors..

[Matt Thorn]

Wow. So this is a fairly rare and historically interesting model. And I went ahead and destroyed the copper-colored button on the bottom side in order to get at the screw, and also pulled the plastic Graflex pins off. :p Oh, well. It didn't come with the original box or anything else anyway.

Are you using standard-issue blades and the original plastic blade holders? I really want to do something with this din plug, preferably with a bright LED string and a sturdy aluminum blade holder. It seems a waste to do a basic Luxeon-type conversion.

[beggarsoutpost]

Just the standard blue and red MR blades that came in each... Then I used the din plug blade from another Vader that I converted for a friend and replaced the red LEDS with a strip from a ROTJ Luke....

[Matt Thorn]

Thanks. I'll give it some thought and see what I can come up with.