"The Avenger" - MHS build for a 10-year-old kid

[The Grey Elf]

(Right click and "view image" to see full resolution pics).

So some dear friends of ours have a 10-year-old son who, like many boys his age, loves Star Wars. He's been enamored of my sabers for years, now, and made it a point to get his dad to bring him to Free Comic Book Day last year so he could see me troop in my Imperial Knight costume.

Now these folks don't have a lot of money, so they were thrilled when I offered to build the boy a saber for Christmas. They kicked up what they could towards the cost, and my wife also pitched in. The final build was nothing fancy--a basic MHS build with the following specs:

Anakin Episode III Force FX sound board
Cyan Rebel Star LED
running on a 4AAA setup.

I chose cyan because I couldn't decide between blue or green for the kid, so I went with kinda-sorta-both.

When I put the original build together it looked a bit plain, even with the addition of two black o-rings to offset the silver:

http://www.elflair.com/images/saber/avenger0.jpg

My original thought was to paint the indents on the grips black, but a quick experiment with that (which I neglected to photograph) proved inadequate. I quickly grabbed some acetone and cleaned that off.

It then occurred to me, I had some black faux leather laying around, so I quickly improvised a leather wrap around the switch area. It's a very simple design, but I find it very elegant and am so pleased with how it came out that I may in fact adapt the design to do one of my own.

I owe thanks on this one to Lendo Avery, who helped me out with the elctronics (this was my last crash course before I tackled my Luke Skywalker ESB Graflex, shown elsewhere on this board (http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com/showthread.php?16291-Finally-finished-my-graflex!!!)) and even donated the sound board when my Vader RotJ board turned out to have gone bad somewhere along the line.

Anyway, without further ado, here's the final product.

I call it

the Avenger.

http://www.elflair.com/images/saber/avenger1.jpg

http://www.elflair.com/images/saber/avenger2.jpg

http://www.elflair.com/images/saber/avenger3.jpg

http://www.elflair.com/images/saber/avenger4.jpg

http://www.elflair.com/images/saber/avenger5.jpg

http://www.elflair.com/images/saber/avenger6.jpg

http://www.elflair.com/images/saber/avenger7.jpg

http://www.elflair.com/images/saber/avenger8.jpg

The kid loved it--there is a photo of him on facebook wielding it but I didn't want to cross post pictures of someone else's child. I presented the hilt to him in a presentation box (just a painted-up cardboard tuck box I had) which was emblazoned with the logo of the Jedi Order. Sadly, I forgot to photograph the box, too...

I'm told his dad played with it for quite some time when he got home from work that night, too.

[Yoshi-Taka]

Not gonna lie, when I saw "The Avenger", I was expecting some kind of Marvel Comics crossover.

I like it. Strange to see that particular power switch, as it's almost never used. Kinda refreshing. I like the d-ring, and the cyan. Good choice there; the pictures give it a nice sky-blue shade which I highly enjoy. The "leather" looks good too. Great saber overall. Good job! Keep it up.

[Mandalorian]

That's an awesome backstory to this saber. Love it.

The simplicity of this saber is great. That leather really added the extra touch it needed. Added some separation to the saber that I think makes a big difference. And the color choice for the LED was awesome too. Great job, and I'm glad the kid (and dad apparently) are enjoying it. :D

[Silver Serpent]

I agree. It's always amazing how the details are what make a saber go from "meh" to "wow!" Good job, and great choice on the leatherwork.

[Starwinder]

Yeah the leather really does make it 'pop'! Again, really awesome of you that you did this for him.

[The Grey Elf]

That's an awesome backstory to this saber. Love it.

The simplicity of this saber is great. That leather really added the extra touch it needed. Added some separation to the saber that I think makes a big difference. And the color choice for the LED was awesome too. Great job, and I'm glad the kid (and dad apparently) are enjoying it. :D


I agree. It's always amazing how the details are what make a saber go from "meh" to "wow!" Good job, and great choice on the leatherwork.


Yeah the leather really does make it 'pop'! Again, really awesome of you that you did this for him.

Thanks! Yeah, I really kind of dig the cyan. I may actually swap out the royal blue in my ESB graflex with a cyan. Love how bright it is. The leather wrap was really easy to do--I just measured around the hilt, then cut an appropriate size of the faux leather to match. then I measured to dead center of the wrap, and marked a hole using the switch nut as a template. Cut the hole out just a bit smaller than the nut, which allows the nut to hold it down. Then I pulled it tight and epoxied it down with Loctite.

[Mandalorian]

Thanks! Yeah, I really kind of dig the cyan. I may actually swap out the royal blue in my ESB graflex with a cyan. Love how bright it is. The leather wrap was really easy to do--I just measured around the hilt, then cut an appropriate size of the faux leather to match. then I measured to dead center of the wrap, and marked a hole using the switch nut as a template. Cut the hole out just a bit smaller than the nut, which allows the nut to hold it down. Then I pulled it tight and epoxied it down with Loctite.

Very cool. That's a great idea for securing the leather too. Thanks for sharing. Swapping the RB for Cyan in your graflex would be cool. IMO, would fit better with how it is in the movie. Speaking of which, I think it's about time to sit down and watch that movie again. :D

[jedimastergarcia87]

I really like this saber and I'm glad the kid does too. That leather grip does look nice. So cyan is in like a sky blue shade right now? Cool.