Originally Posted by
TuxedoCartman
I think the best that's been done regarding retractable blades, is the system of using blades that consist of a chain of LED's linked in a ladder formation inside a polycarbonate tube. The electronics can be configured then so the blade lights up in a way that makes it look like its extending/ retracting.
As for a whole blade that extends and retracts? No, I'm 99.999% possible no one has figured out how to make one. Not only does physics make it unlikely, but we're a community of copycats and thieves (but in a good way! ^_^), so if anybody had figured out such a method, it would have spread like wildfire throughout the saber community.