I remember the first Star Wars movie I ever saw...well, bits and pieces of it.
I must have been about 3 years old when I first saw The Empire Strikes Back on TV. I vaguely remember Cloud City and Bespin and Yoda but that's about it until I was older and got to watch it again.
As I got older, however, I finally watched the entire trilogy on VHS. My parents had recorded it off of various channels whether broadcast or movie channels (HBO for a time showed Return of the Jedi pretty often and, as a kid in the late '80s/early 90s, it was my favorite!) and what always fascinated me wasn't necessarily the ships, the characters, or the planets...it was the lightsaber.
Ah, the lightsaber, "an elegant weapon from a more civilized time" said Ben Kenobi. I would build them out of my building toys or take the Fisher-Price T-Ball Tee, slide the blue ball holding sleeve all the way down to the base so it was like a hilt, and then pretend to fight Imperial Stormtroopers in the afternoons.
As I grew older, read the books, saw the prequels, and learned more about the building of a lightsaber and what it meant in the Jedi lore, I dreamt of being able to build one...and then it happened!
When Galaxy's Edge East opened in late 2019, one of the major drawing points for me was the opportunity to build my very own lightsaber! Not only did you need to make a reservation but it rang in at $199.00 plus tax to do so for a pretty high quality build plus the experience. I knew I was going to be going to Disney in February of 2020 (just before the pandemic!) and made sure to save my money to do so. My wife, mind you, did not like the idea of me doing it but she knew it was a dream of mine.
It was originally hard to find as all the locations are in the Star Wars written language of Aurabesh, but with some hints from cast members ("I'm not sure, but I know Savi has this weird shop over in that direction.") So there I was, the last reservation of the night for Savi's Workshop and I had a choice as to which theme I wanted to go with: Elemental Nature, Protection and Defense, Power and Control, or Peace and Justice. Looking at the trays of the different themes, I chose out my pieces to build my first saber: the first generation Protection and Defense, given a special pin to put on my clothes to allow the cast members to identify which build I was doing, and headed in. I picked out my crystal (blue as a Jedi Knight) and chose my two sleeves, my emitter, my end cap, and my activation switch. Assembling it was an amazing experience as the cast member walked you through the different steps and, as the 12 or so people building their sabers all ignited them at the same time, it actually brought a happy tear to my eye. It was as if a dream had come true for me and I couldn't have been more excited about waving it around and pretending to be a Jedi again as if I was a kid!
"Sounds amazing!" you might say...and it was! So much so that I said that this was MY lightsaber and I had no plans on building another one...that is until two things occurred:
1) They came out with new designs
2) Lawrence and I had planned our first trip...and we were bringing our friend, Greg, with us.
Now this is the important thing to understand: I loved the experience and thought it well worth the price. The saber hilt, while not as good as bright or loud as 3rd party companies where you may buy unlicensed versions of character hilts, is heavy and pretty durable and, again, was mine. The experience was an absolutely incredible one and while I would have loved to film Greg building his (pictured at the top), I wanted to experience it again and compare the two builds between the first and second generation parts. Disney had increased the price to $215.00 plus tax but the experience itself was no different. It was still a lot of fun and I still got goosebumps at the end.
Knowing how to assemble the hilt (as the design hadn't changed for assembly,) I assembled mine as though I were a Jedi Knight replacing a lost saber from battle. The cast member even noticed that I had completed my assembly quickly and remarked that I must have a connection to the force. Playing along, I mentioned I was replacing a lost saber and that, once again, the blue kyber crystal called to me as I choose to fight for those in need rather than use diplomacy; using terms like "Knight" and "Consular" for those familiar with the MMORPG "Star Wars: The Old Republic." It did make the experience much more immersive in that regard and more entertaining.
Between the two actual experiences, some of the dialogue had changed. The original cast member stuck to the script as there didn't seem to be much improvisational room when "performing." The second time, however, the cast member had obviously been playing the new Star Wars Jedi: Survivor game as he mentioned various things that occur in that game that had never been mentioned before. As I had been playing it, I did get excited when he mentioned the "Koboh Abyss." The actual difference in hilt, however, is where it gets interesting...
The original hilt had "evidence of damage" from having been recovered. There were purposeful dents and scratches in the various parts as to indicate an amount of time they had been lost until found by scavengers. The colors were dimmer to, again, indicate a sense of age around it. But the actual assembly was where I got annoyed. The parts wouldn't line up. Tightening any of them would have the emitter turned in one direction while the sleeve would end up in another. Same with the lower sleeve and endcap. Doing some research online I did find that using plumbers tape around the grooves for the emitter and the endcap ensured that it wouldn't wear those down. Furthermore, using 1 1/2" rubber plumbing washers that you could easily get from Home Depot or Lowes, cutting them in half, and then sliding the different pieces between activation switch and sleeve and sleeve and endcap/emitter would allow a certain amount of aligning to the point where they wouldn't easily come loose and it would look like they were assembled the correct way.
The new hilt, however, DID align better on initial assembly...to a point. One of the great things about these hilts is that they have a "crystal chamber" where you insert your "kyber crystal" into it for assembly. This "crystal" has an RFID chip inside that tells the polycarbonate blade to activate the LEDs inside for a specific color as well as telling the saber to have a certain sound for igniting and extinguishing the blade as well as the signature "hum" of the saber. However, this also leads to someone wanting to be able to change them out, thus the constant disassembly and reassembly of the hilt. Doing this so many times did result in my emitter becoming slightly misaligned. So back to the same alignment fix I went. With this fix, the pieces definitely tightened down and made it easier to spin it and such.
The other thing about the new pieces of the hilts is that they lost some of that "vintage" luster.
The pieces are more polished and vibrant so it takes away from some of the feel that the cast member presented. During the experience, they mention that they've had searchers looking for pieces in all of the scrap planets, garbage dumps, etc. of the galaxy just to find pieces to build sabers. Unfortunately, these pieces don't have that same feel and give it more of the "Huyang taught me how to build this one out of brand new pieces" feel. And while the feel of the parts are much more sturdy, I do miss the feel of the "roughness" of the "found" parts.
That being said, there's something to be said about both builds. Wielding them together or even putting them together as a staff with the new coupler that came out earlier in the year does make it more fun to play with. But, word to the wise, these are not meant for actual dueling. The blades can hurt if you hit someone with them and will show all kinds of dents and scratches on them. And while you can order replacement blades or pick up new ones in Galaxy's Edge, it's not really worth the money to do so if you can't make it there.
The entire experience is considered somewhat of a luxury and definitely a pretty penny, but if you (like me) always dreamed of having your own lightsaber, then the experience can be well worth it. And sharing the room with those who have never done it is always a lot of fun. Greg's face when he held his up is one I still grin at...because I know that feeling.
Andy Edelheit is the co-founder and trivia master of The Mouse Dads
If you want to make the reservation for Lightsaber Building at Savi's Workshop, it's best to make it within the 60 day reservation window as you may not be able to get one while on your vacation. You can do this in the My Disney Experience app or from the Walt DisneyWorld Resort site. The age requirement is ages 6 and older and you may bring one person to observe for each reservation that is made