hasbro vs MR FX

[dbraxton9]

aside from price, how different are the sound units in the MR FX sabers from the Hasbros? I know they vary according to model, but overall, are the MRs necessarily better just because they cost 10x as much?

"Look at me! Judge me by my size do you? And well you do not! For my ally is the force, and a powerful ally it is!

[Protein5000]

I got a Hasbro sound board from the generic sith and jedi saber and my brother has a Vader FX.

Personally I think the power-up and power-down are very similar but the humming on the Hasbros is a bit louder - FX is way better on this part I reckon coz it's more like the movie. The clash on the Hasbro is pretty rubbishy - kinda like static and I find that with the WHOOSH on the Hasbro, straight after it doesn't "fade" in very well to the HUMM - it's kind of abrupt.

I think the Habro sound is a bit "stronger" if you know what I mean? When I installed it in my saber it was louder than the FX - you need to have a good echo chamber.

You know when I first heard my sound module I thought it sounded exactly like a light-tech sound module - but I went and had a look - it is a bit different but I think if you wanna find out what a Hasbro sounds like - the generic ones anyway - go to light-tech industries and have a listen. [:D]

[dbraxton9]

Lighttech is where i found out about these saber props in the first place. their sound unit sounds really good to me. but they want way too much for it. my friend has a Build Your Own Lightsaber and it totally SUCKS! it sounds like CB radio static, i can't tell a 'clash' from a 'hum' from a 'woosh' and it seems very flimsy in construction. i don't know about the electronics inside, but i wouldn't count on it lasting more than 6 months to a year. i have a MR FX anakin on the way, per someone's recommendation somewhere on this site. the display model at the mall looked like it had been through vietnam. half of the LEDs were out (i asked about selling it at a discount as damaged merchandise, the idiot at Spencer's told me, no joke, "the lights all work fine, it just needs time to warm up"), the grips were coming off and the batteries sounded weak. I got a 'damaged' one of ebay for $27 (still wanted $120 + tax at the mall. screw that.). when it arrives I plan on converting it to a luxeon. i still have not heard one of the recommended models (sith, i believe, right?) of the hasbros to compare the sounds. my next project will be a scratchbuilt saber possibly employing a hasbro sound board. the MR FX units aren't available separately are they?

"Look at me! Judge me by my size do you? And well you do not! For my ally is the force, and a powerful ally it is!

[Protein5000]

The sith and jedi generic are the same I think. Someone on the forum said the Vader ROTJ is the best.

Don't think MR sells sound seperately.

I'm trying to buy a damaged FX on eBay but few will ship to Australia[:(!]

[GeluKhanGharr]

I was the one that stated Vader ROTJ was the best. However, I have learned that there are more than one kind out there, not all good, so that statement becomes invalid.
The new $8 sith/generic are pretty decent if it wasn't for that flash so many of us hate. Beware Malwart also sells an Obi ep.I for 8 bucks. Stay away from it. It sounds like a broken CB radio.
I like the MR sounds way better than the Hasbros, but that could be a matter of personal prefference. Anyway, loudness was mentioned. I say it is due to the size of the speaker. Hook-up a Hasbro speaker to an MR board and it will be just as loud.

Born of Sith, seduced by the light.
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[Darth Frieds]

I have a working hasbro darth vader lightsaber from ten years ago when the special edition trilogy first came out. at first when I fished it out of my closet it didn't work because i had left two C batteries in it which corroded over the years. i opened it up and cleaned it out and the damn thing actually worked. i gutted out the sound board but its soo old its kinda falling apart. i'm keeping it in a plastic bag till I can figure out what to do with it.C:\Documents and Settings\Jonathan\Desktop\DCIM\100_3060\30600010.J PG

I have surrendured to the ways of the darkside. Fear is my ally

[GeluKhanGharr]

If this is the model with LEDs instead of a bulb, then do your best to salvage it. These are the best. The sound is awsome, there is a motion sensor/whoosh and they don't have the start-up/shut-down/clash flashing. Good luck!

Born of Sith, seduced by the light.
http://www.saloncatalina.com/images/signature.jpg

[Devilstar2k2]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by GeluKhanGharr

Beware Malwart also sells an Obi ep.I for 8 bucks. Stay away from it. It sounds like a broken CB radio.
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Crap... Thats the one that I've already taken apart to use... :sigh:

Seeing as how only the red works on my sons Anakin color change saber, maybe I should just gut that one too?

[dbraxton9]

I'm continuing my obnoxious "woosh vs woosh-woosh" thread here from the Anakin conversion thread. How many total sounds does the Hasbro sound board make? My MR Anakin has 6: power up, power down, hum, woosh, woosh-woosh, saber clash and laser deflect. I only want it to hum and clash, the wooshes are out of control and wooshing at random. Stryder said somehting about 2 sensors, i bet one is for the wooshes and one is for the clashes. The hasbro appears to only have 1 sensor. how does it compare to the MRs in terms of sensitivity and accuracy (does it make sounds when it feels like it or only when swung/struck?)? I hate to keep harping on this one point but it's driving me nuts that the MR wooshes when it's just sitting on the couch.

"Size matters not. Look at me! Judge me by my size do you? And well you should not! For my ally is the force, and a powerful ally it is!"

[GeluKhanGharr]

Hasbros come in many flavors. In my personal view, the best of them are still inferior to MRs. For starters, the quality of the sound is much lower. Alright, some Hasbros have achieved a decent power-up/power-down sound that is comprable to MR. The rest of the sounds, however, are horrible. A good one will not "whoosh" just sitting there, I admit, but when you swing it it will "whoosh" way too fast. In other words, the half second sound is over before you have a chance to actually swing the saber. I say that makes it worse than the MR. Keep in mind the MR Anakin 2005 sounds different than MR Anakin 2002 and verry different from the 2005 MR Vader which in turn sounds different from 2003 MR Vader. Mace sounds different as well. My personal favourite is the 2005 MR Vader. It is simple and concise. Clear and sharp. Only 4 effects: p-u, p-d, whoosh, clash. That's it!

Born of Sith, seduced by the light.
http://www.saloncatalina.com/images/signature.jpg

[dbraxton9]

very helpful info there, gelu.
sounds like a hasbro is not the solution to my problem.
so the MRs don't have the same sound module in all of them, huh?
maybe one of you electronics geniuses can figure a way to cannibalize a Casio SK5 sampling keyboard into a sound module for a saber. i bet it's not too hard.
I'm looking into one of those damaged vaders on ebay. I only spent $27 on my damaged anakin so i'm hopeful.

"Size matters not. Look at me! Judge me by my size do you? And well you should not! For my ally is the force, and a powerful ally it is!"

[scaarmor]

My Anakin does not give the GHOST woosh. It acts like normal, only wooshing with movement. However I do agree that the sounds are way to fast. The Hasbros with motion sensors give a good decent length woosh (my opinion), but after the woosh it takes a second or two before it will sense another woosh. I posted long ago that the hasbros will give a ghost woosh if the motion sensor is not mounted correctly, but mounted the right way they woosh only with motion. My only real problem with the hasbros is that it takes a pretty considerable smack to sense a clash. It could be all in the mounting as with the motion sensor, I am not to sure as I have only put sound into 2 sabers. However, all in all, I love the hasbro boards. Sure I would like the quality of the sounds to be a little better. But they are pretty easily found, cheap (expecially when compared to MR), easily disassembled and reassembled into something usable, sound good, and can be tweaked with, repaired, and otherwise reworked. For all that you get I can overlook the less than perfect sounds.

Cain

***It is now that we battle.When you die, await my arrival in the afterlife where we will battle again.Perhaps there you may have the ability to defeat me,but not here,not now,not this day.So let us part with words and embrace the blade.***

[GeluKhanGharr]

scaarmor, maybe one of these days I'll post a picture of my 60+ hasbros [:D]
Don't get me wrong, for the price, you can't beat them, even at 22 bucks a piece, but we're talking about what we think sounds best and why, so that's how I came to putting in my 2 cents.

Born of Sith, seduced by the light.
http://www.saloncatalina.com/images/signature.jpg

[Protein5000]

My brother's Vader 2005 sounds awsome - very intimidating. How do the Anakin's compare? As tough sounding?

[scaarmor]

Gelu,
I understood. I was just throwing my two cents in as well[:)]. I think the two are comperable to each other in my opinion and it is because I am a cheap bastard[:D]! The hasbros costing less makes them sound better to me, but again "Cheap bastard" so my opinion might be a little jaded...

Cain

***It is now that we battle.When you die, await my arrival in the afterlife where we will battle again.Perhaps there you may have the ability to defeat me,but not here,not now,not this day.So let us part with words and embrace the blade.***

[Pirate King]

I've canabalized one of the color-changing sabers, it doesn't woosh, but I'm not going to be picky with my first project. I kind of like one of the clashes on it, there's the impact then a pseudo woosh. The only real problem with it is the recovery, after the pseudo woosh it takes a second to be able to make the other clash again.

I've also got one of the Build Your Own sabers, and the sound isn't great, but it's not terrible if you have the blue crystal in it, I think. Yes, the crystal does make a difference; each color is a different size and it presses a button in the little compartment. The sound board is probably too much trouble to take out and use for anything else, though.

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[scaarmor]

If I remember corrcetly, all of the hasbros when sensing a clash take a moment before it will sense another one. The amount of time it takes to sense another one is not bad or very long, but if you make a couple of strikes real fast it will only clash on one or two. I think when they designed these they made them with a second of no sound after the clash, meaning with every hit there is a spot of recorded time with no sound that must play before it will clash again. It is the same with the ones that sense motion as well. As opposed to the MR boards that if another clash is sensed it will stop the clash sound already in effect and play the new one from the begining of the recording. However, I guess we cant get to picky for 8-20$ sound[:)].

Cain

***It is now that we battle.When you die, await my arrival in the afterlife where we will battle again.Perhaps there you may have the ability to defeat me,but not here,not now,not this day.So let us part with words and embrace the blade.***

[Pirate King]

So I got bored and took the sound board out of my build-your-own saber,and I discovered something which may or may not be a problem: The byo's are wired to light up a flashlight bulb, and they use C-size batteries. will there be any problem with connecting it to a LED, and using smaller batteries? the different sound options are easy enough to fix

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[xwingband]

There is not problem at all. The lightbulb and LED work the same. A resistance is applied to make it light up. The battery size doesn't matter either. All the standard batteries (D, C, AA, AAA) have the same voltage. A C would just last longer.

There have been threads on using just the sound board to light the LED up. The problem is that annoying clash...

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[Pirate King]

I kind of like the clash on two of the settings, I'll just get rid of one of the buttons... or something, probably just duct tape it down.

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