2010 Hasbro Darth Vader Electronic Lightsaber

[Boj-Vaati Mau]

I was going to title this as a disassembly but it doesn't turn out that way. You may be able to use a solvent instead of cutting but, potentially, it'll melt the butt cap & shroud anyway. As it is, proceed at your own risk.


I had bought this for the sake of its guts for my Sentinel saber. It's a good looking piece & was hoping to keep the shell as a model as it seems pretty accurate. As it stands, with the way Hasbro assembled it, it may not work out that way as the shroud & butt cap/speaker grill are cemented to the hilt. I'll have images later in the show but let's get started.

Remove the few screws there are, starting with the "blade retention" screw. It really didn't seem to do much.


Remove this non-functional blade retention screw & D ring.



Remove the two screws from the activation box.


Then the battery cover. This can be left on if you don't have batteries installed.


Now for a bit of a struggle. The bottom of the activation box opens easily enough but the switch side dosen't. I'd separated the bottom as far as it would go which did provide me space to get a #2 Xacto blade into one end of the box. I wiggled this a much as possible but still had to tap the blade into the other side to work it lose. Once I got that as far as I could, a standard screw driver popped it loose. Damage, of course, was done to the plastic in the process. This is how the hilt looks post removal.


Next, I tried to remove the emitter shroud but was foiled in my efforts. I tried to tap it with the butt of a screwdriver. Then I banged it on the edge of a shelving unit (the corners of the shroud are good for this). I went to a hammer after failing at the shelves. No go on hammer & more damage to the finish.



At this point I figured that I'd messed it up enough that I'd just try the butt cap. This didn't unscrew or pop off so I got medieval on it with a razor saw. It complied after the frist bit was broken off.


This is when I finally know what they did. They held the cap on by using a liquid solvent (I believe).


So this means that the shroud has to be held on in the same fashion, so I got medieval on it with the Dremel & a cut-off wheel.



With the shroud & butt cap off I could use the trusty #2 blade to prise the hilt open. I started at the back & worked forward.



Once I had the sides apart I could see what I was up against at the shroud end. Quite a bit of solvent (white coloration) and, I think, a bit more spread than originally intended.


For our troubles this is what we get, yes! .


The control module with 3 red LEDs (not all that powerful really).



The activation switch, may be useful as an accessory.


The swing sensor.


The speaker probably isn't too much use in a saber but it is functional..


And finally the clash sensor. I'm thinking that this could be removed from the board and relocated via extension wires. Possibly attach it to the bottom of the Rebel Star mount?

So, overall not much useable outside of the guts. Been contemplating fitting the area around the swing sensor into an MHS piece but that's still a bit in the future. Also, I'm not sure yet how the bubble strip will work on a Graflex, MPP, or TCSS Box 7, but I aim to find out.


Now all that is left is to desolder a few joints and these guts can inhabit a new body!