Welcome back everyone!

It's time for my first review of this blog! I received my lightsaber this week, the Caliburn MK11 Masters Saber from JQ Sabers! Yes, I know, it's not an exact replica of Lord Vindican's saber, it's not even a double-bladed saber, but as I posted before, the current popularity of Star Wars makes it hard to even find new lightsabers now.

The ordering process was very smooth, but the delivery was a little chaotic. DHL didn't recognize my address and put my saber in a warehouse for me to pick up myself. This wouldn't be such a big problem if the warehouse wasn't an hour drive to get to!

1. The packaging: the box it came in was very sturdy and filled with protective material. The hilt had another layer of cardboard around it to make sure it was well protected. The package also contained: a 34" display blade, a covertec belt buckle, an instructional note on how to operate the saber and an Allen key to secure or remove the blade.
2. The hilt: It has a nice weight to it, feels great in my hands and is beautifully painted. You can feel the duel grade quality when holding it. It contains a 9W RGB led and a Crystal Shard 2.5 from Plecterlabs. The microSD card inside contains 3 soundfont banks. Personally I prefer the third bank because it sounds like the curved lightsaber of count Dooku, and I always loved that sound. There are 7 pre-installed colors for the led, all of them very bright. I don't know if I want the hilt to be worn or not... Maybe I'll give it a try if I have some time left.
3. The blade: the 34" display blade has a bullet tip with a mirror on the inside to reflect the light coming from the led, to give the whole blade a richer light. Not much to say beyond that.
4. Overall conclusion: Very nice saber, feels great, has a good looking finish to it. If you know how to use the Crystal Shard inside, you'll have a lot of fun with this duel grade lightsaber.

Be sure to check in tomorrow when I'll be showing of my black cape and the progress on my DIY shoulderpads! 

Welcome back!

Great news for my build blog, I just got my red-and-yellow lenses! I forgot to mention in my previous posts that I ordered them but now that they're here. Let's check it out.

I found these lenses on this Dutch website, and received them a week later. The unboxing process was a little scary. The small ENVELOPE that contained my order was completely screwed up and the only protection I found inside was some bubble wrap. But the content, two flasks containing the lenses, was OK.

Now let's move on to bracers. At first my idea was to make these myself. But while looking for inspiration I came upon these magnificent artisanal bracers on Etsy. His name is TrollMartelletCorp, and the stuff he makes looks amazing! 

The amount of detail that goes into making these products is unreal. But of course, this is only based of the pictures shown on his page, but the reviews are encouraging.
The day after I ordered them I got a message from the maker, asking me if I was in a hurry to get my order. He had a list of orders and understandably had a hard time keeping up.

When I told him about my deadline he ensured me my order would be ready on time for my convention. I applaud people who go the extra mile to make their customers happy. 

I know these aren't the exact bracers Lord Vindican is wearing in the trailer but couldn't pass up the opportunity to get these.

That's all for now!