LED Saber B-day parties... :)

[Novastar]

I made a different Y-tube ID for this so that parents wouldn't have to wade through a sea of my wacky videos to either A) see their child's party on video... or B) watch footage of what I've done in order to decide whether or not they want me to come do a party.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-KkIZUNYkE

Anyhow... it's nothing big, just figured a few of you with children might get some cool ideas (or just laughs) from it. The way I see it... it's always worth brightening children's lives with this sort of thing if you have the resources (read: 15+ sabers), a costume, and some ideas of what you'd show them before they go hog wild... :)

I'm CERTAIN that LDM has more than enough sabers for this sort of insane endeavor... :D

[Master Dru-Er]

I'd like to do this in IL. Its all about the kids and positive role models. Great job Nova. They were going nuts, but pretty attentive.

[=CharlieAstro=]

Wish i hade that when i was 5.
Thats awsome

[Lord Maul]

That's sweet Nova. I wish I had birthday parties like that, so much fun :cool:

[Novastar]

Exactly--NONE of us would have had this when we were 5... or even 10! :)

So... there ya go... in addition to me posting the video--I'm challenging others to get out there and do something like this if you have the entourage of sabers... the opportunity... and the wherewithall... :)

Granted, I realize that some people are better setup for this than others... I mean... I could see Ultra having this kind of thing go on... and folks with like 20+ sabers, heheh.

It's a great test of saber too--if it can handle 20 kids for a few hours, it can handle a stage performance!! :)

[Angelus Lupus]

Truly you are an inspiration, and a great guy, Nova.

[annon]

The code, remember the jedi code; only one apprentice at a time you naughty Jedi. ;)

Great job Nova, you seem like a great teacher.

[Darth Leximus]

I'd like to do this in IL. Its all about the kids and positive role models. Great job Nova. They were going nuts, but pretty attentive.

I'm totally with you Dru, we could hook up and tag team these and put on a little duel for em too.

Nova as always, you'z da man

[Master Dru-Er]

Hell yea swingin sabers at kids AND getting paid :rolleyes: ahh.

[Darth Leximus]

The timing is a little off though, my daughters birthday is today and something this would have been awesome. There's always next year!

[Novastar]

lol, the timing is off for... well... probably 1,000 others too, hahahah!

But certainly it's the kind of thing that takes preparation. You need:

* Probably 15 to 20 LED sabers
* Hardy, durable switches and tips that CANNOT fly off (even though they still will)
* A costume
* Some kind of "combat system" and/or concepts to teach them
* Focus on safety (although they're gonna be excited... :)
* Extra batteries or freshly charged cells
* Some entertaining ideas / games

And you're set! :)

[Angelus Lupus]

I just watched the video again. I think the kid at the start sums it up "This is awesome!" :D
I love how the sabers look in the half light with the smoke machine. And that Lux V blue just rocks!

[Obi-Dar Ke-Gnomie]

Dude, this rocks! Best birthday party EVER!

By the way, was that Princess Leia watching from the deck?

[MaverickJsmith]

Yeah! Go Nova :D:D:D

I might drag you to my next birthday :wink:

Maverick 8)

[samurai_rob]

I could have died happy! Man, when I was a little guy, I had to settle for broom sticks and whiffle ball bats. Kick @$$, Nova! That's gonna be something those kids are gonna remember forever! :D

[DizzyKungFu]

Awesome idea! I may have to steal it. ;)

[Novastar]

Dizzy, you SHOULD "steal" it. The whole point is... uh... I can't exactly be in 7,325,341,138 places at once. At least not without rupturing some major muscle groups and violating several export laws in multiple countries...

I only ask that you give me 30% of your earnings... plus 70% when the party is done. :D :D (totally kidding)


Dude, this rocks! Best birthday party EVER!

By the way, was that Princess Leia watching from the deck?Surprisingly--it is. Granted, since Carrie Fisher declined to make the trip to the party, we dejectedly settled for the b-day boy's mom to make the jump to hyperleia.

She avoided the saber combat (as would any Princess), for fear of ending up with two hot-cross buns.

.
.
.
.

:D

[987654321a]

Hey my birthday is coming up in a month... hehe. I live pretty close to you nova...We have free beer.... :)

[Kant Lavar]

She avoided the saber combat (as would any Princess), for fear of ending up with two hot-cross buns.

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/8066/fryseewhatyoudidtherescyx5.jpg

[Novastar]

Hey my birthday is coming up in a month... hehe. I live pretty close to you novaReally? I have met very few people close to my area who are interested in sabers in general. Where are you.


...We have free beer.... :)Ohhhhhhhhhh! :) I'll be sure to tell Ali Fakir... hehehe

[987654321a]

Well by close I mean like 600 miles close, I live in San Diego.

[Novastar]

BTW (for anyone doing this)... I'd be happy to open up a "collaborative" Y-tube account where people would ALL have access to the account and be able to post videos of their "birthday shenanigans"... :)

Might be a fun little project. :)

[Obi-Dar Ke-Gnomie]

Man, that's tempting. I think it would be a scream!

[Novastar]

Yet another one...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoKsKLnhVe0

More coming. Just takes a while to deal with all of the footage!

[Novastar]

Yes indeed... more footage posted...

Part "2" of Tag's party...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACGRuAGVMjM


Russell's party...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOFqzLO-_rc


I'll have one up that includes a lot more traditional saber fencing from the kids (since that was the request) as well...

[Novastar]

Ok... so... I haven't posted any more footage, but:

A) I'm WAAAAAAY behind in getting it all edited and up on the http://www.youtube.com/user/greytalenovastar thingy...

B) A THRONG of b-day parties are coming in (seriously, it's becoming a monster, and I only have so much energy & strength... and Li-Ions need TIME to CHARGE!!!)

C) Does anyone have anything to say about this??!? What'll I do if the footage gets overwhelming (almost there...)...??!??

I guess I needs me an assistant someday... and/or at least a video editor, hahahah

[gundamaniac]

It is insanely cool to see so many lightsabers lit up and waving at once...I haven't seen that many since CIV when I attended the nerdiest dorkiest dance EVER (we made an arch of lightsabers and people danced under the arch....crazy nerd fun =P)

[tullfan81]

I was thinking about a way to jazz this up a bit so I started to think about things in this world that are good for whackin' and I came up with the single coolest non-food item to come out of Mexico...La Pinata. Its perfect. The PolyC blades can handle the action and there are plenty of Star Wars themed Pinatas and party items out there.

I'd love to get this going since I lost my day job before christmas, but I only have 3 LED Sabers and a baby on the way.

Nova, you've got a PM coming...

[Novastar]

The pinata idea is a good one! Thanks for that... I might suggest it to one of my parents and see if they'd like to go for it, heheheh

[Novastar]

I still have to think about incorporating the "pinata" idea one of these days, but... in the meantime:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XENM7q3vaxE

...ya get both LED sabers... AAAAAAAND sport saber fencing. :) Well... sort of. They ARE (after all) just kids... and pretty much all of them were having their first go of any kind of fencing, lol.


EDIT: VIDEO REMOVED DUE TO PARENTS REQUEST.

[duncan29793]

I just used this concept for my 4 yr old's party, with a twist. It was a blast.

I didn't use LED Blades though... to much of an expense that I can't afford right now. What my brother in law and I did was go down to Lowe's (he works there... discounts, lol) and get a bunch of PVC pieces. 1 inch PVC for the hilts, 3/4 inch for the blades and several couplers and end caps. We cut the hilts and blades to size, dremeled and cut the end caps and couplers to make different pommels and emitters.

For the blades we first did a layer of wrapping paper, then a layer of celephane for the shiny look.

Lastly I went to Micheal's and got a bag of decorative glass pieces that are used in vases and such to use as focusing crystals.

At the party the kids got to pick out the pieces to build their own sabers. Now I admit having LED's would have been cooler, but the kids still had a blast.

Once constructed I taught them basic strikes and blockes and also the Shii Cho form that is floating around youtube.

At the end of the party we had a pinata and the stick used to beat it was decorated like a lightsaber.

I had a blast building the pieces, and of course as a first run I figured out better ways of doing it for next time... some of the parents and kids already want me to do their parties.

Here is a pic of the pieces. Nothing too special, but loads of fun.
http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/2811/lc13b6ecc0da2497c84b339nc9.th.jpg (http://img240.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lc13b6ecc0da2497c84b339nc9.jpg)

http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/962/l0077e019eb664a318a3b76hg1.th.jpg (http://img240.imageshack.us/my.php?image=l0077e019eb664a318a3b76hg1.jpg)

Oh course no pics were taken of the completed sabers =/ I didn't have the camera and was having too much fun to think about it.

[Novastar]

That's the spirit... :)

Good work!

[Novastar]

Oops... I never released the link to this video before:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ehHr7g622E&fmt=18

Tori's b-day part 2. This you have to see... it's AWESOME to watch her dad running around all "powerful" for a while... until the girls pretty much gang up on him and hand him his arse, hhahahah!

OWNED... by the dark side of the b-day girl & her cronies! D'OHHHHHHHH!!

[cardcollector]

That's awesome....

I thought that one girl who got smacked in the head was (probobably not funny at the time) pretty funny.:D She gave up her saber and left. I'm surprised she din't try to smack the other girl back. Since that's what girls do...:rolleyes: