Sometimes you start your Jedi training...

I love Star Wars. Back when Episode I came out, Paco and I got toy lightsabers of the plastic variety, something like these:

These would set you back about $20-$30 at the time. I think mine, the Qui-Gon one was $20, and Paco's Darth Maul one was $30. 

Where the blade retracts, but not all the way, and they are really fat at the emitter and get thinner and thinner as the blade progresses. And they were fun! We would duel all the time(and break them) and I really enjoyed having them. So I thought that's pretty much where lightsaber toys still were. I was wrong.

It turns out, there is a whole world out there of more "serious" lightsabers. Metal hilts! Everything from unlicensed movie replicas, to licensed metal hilt replicas, to just standard looking lightsabers, to incredibly complex and exotic ones. And since I never really grew up, I totally want some.

So I've been looking for a lightsaber for a while now. I've been scouting specials and prices at ultrasabers.com, saberforge.com, the Force FX replicas, various smaller custom sabersmiths, ebay, etc. I've contemplated buying it ready made. But as of late, I had been leaning towards buying an empty hilt, and just building it myself from parts. Basic components are an LED, power supply, speaker, and the circuit board, and it turns out there's tons to learn there as well as far as options. I've been reading forums, blogs, reviews, etc. Watching tutorials, comparisons, you name it. I rather like it.

So, like part of any proper Jedi's training, I've decided to build my own. Recently, I found some here in craigslist and close to me. So I got them at a good deal. One is working, one is not. Got both for $50. Neither had sound. So I plan to gut both and install brighter LEDs and add sound. I will also be messing with mine as far as appearance goes. Here are the 2 sabers I picked up:

Sophie picked the one with the silver details, so the black one will be mine. Sophie's is the one that works, and it is white, but we have color discs to change the color, like so:

Using the color discs is cool, but it dims it a bit. 

So I'll be working on these for a while, I am sure. I still have to decide what parts to order and then figure out how to do it all. It will be fun. I am looking forward to it!