Saber Reviews No. 2: Damiensaber NEW Released XRGB 3.0 Bluetooth Lightsaber

    Welcome Back to BlazinBlue's Review! I hope everyone's been doing well. Last time, I started testing the waters with expanding the content that is covered. And it was pretty successful. It also helped me realize that there was a small part of the lightsaber community that wasn't necessarily being covered to its greatest extent - written reviews. If you look on Youtube and enter Lightsabers, you'll find a huge amount of video reviews. Those are nice and all but I know that there are some people that would rather read than just check out a video. 

    This brings me to today's review. First off, this review wouldn't be possible without Damiensaber. I reached out to a few different companies to see if they'd like to work together. After seeing a couple 'no' or not hearing anything back, I was a bit defeated. I thought that maybe this wasn't something that just wasn't going to work. But then, there was hope. Damiensaber reached back out to me and was interested in collaborating together. 

    When that happened, I will admit that I was so dang excited. This was one of those cool moments that just feel like they don't happen often. Whenever I have the awesome chance of catching a screening for a new movie or manage to score an interview, I get that same feeling. It's pretty dang cool and makes me realize how lucky I am to get to do this. 

    So, they gave me the option between two different sabers. There was no. 112 and no. 115. Now, that might not mean much. But when I looked between the two options, I went with the one that called out to me. 

    Look at how cool that saber looks! Every time that I've had the pleasure of receiving one in the mail, it's been awesome. However, this time felt absolutely different. This was like Christmas Morning all over again. Let's get into it, shall we?

For those that are already interested, you can find the link here:

https://www.damiensaber.com/lightsabers/fx-dueling-12-sound-fonts-custom-saber-no115.html

(Preface: I would like to take the time to say that I was sent this saber from Damiensaber. So, thank you for this opportunity. This will be a complete unbiased review about the saber - no. 115. )

With this being my second official saber review, it's just mind blowing as to how many different options that people have available to them. When I first started looking into lightsabers for my son and I, I was overwhelmed. There are just so many out there. 

In my initial research into things, Damiensaber is a company that is at the forefront. It's one of those names that when someone asks for a good place to buy a saber from, you'll probably hear someone say Damiensaber. 

After receiving this saber - the no. 115, I can honestly say that their products are pretty solid. Above, we have the image from the product page over on Damiensaber's website. But sometimes when we receive something in the mail, it may differ. Did that happen here? Check out this picture following the unboxing of it. 

This is such a beautiful saber. Lately, I've been starting to dive into the High Republic era of Star Wars. From what I've seen in the comics, this honestly feels like it's pulled out of that era. It has the two teeth in the emitter that give it a snake like appearance. It's an extremely distinct design. For those wondering about how many retention screws it uses to keep the blade in place, there are three points. After putting the screws in, it holds the blade in pretty well and very snug. 

The grip is extremely smooth. Some may think it's a bit basic. But it's the beauty in its simplicity. It allows there to be a lot of room for hand placement. This is something that is extremely effective when dueling or spinning your lightsaber. When compared to other sabers, this was very refreshing. For those that wish, one could add a leather wrap to it. 

One small nitpick that I've had with the grip is during dueling. With it being so smooth and bare, it can slide through the hand a little too easy sometimes. 

That brings us down to the pommel. When I first started looking at it, something felt very familiar about it. I just couldn't quite place my finger on why that was. Now growing up, I had seen the Original Trilogy quite a bit - SciFi channel marathons being a big highlight. I also had the pleasure of getting to go see Return of the Jedi Special Edition in 1997 - big shoutout and happy 40th Anniversary to Return of the Jedi. So when it was announced that we were receiving the prequel trilogy, I was stoked. It was beginning of my Star Wars trilogy essentially. My favorite character in the film was Obi-Wan Kenobi. Once I thought back on Phantom Menace, it hit me. The reason that this pommel felt so familiar is because this is essentially a slimdown version of Kenobi's Episode 1 lightsaber pommel. And that's just fantastic. 

Hilt Score: 5 out of 5

As for the electronics that are featured in this Damiensaber, I didn't look at it closely on initial look. I haven't been collecting sabers for very long. So, I haven't had a lot of experience with the variety that's available. My personal experience has been with baselit sabers. So, I haven't seen many of the fancy features that a pixel one would support. So, I was a little bit underwhelmed at first. 

But then, I started realizing what was powering this saber. It's a xenopixel 3.0 board, or it helps to refer to it as the XRGB 3.0. I did a bit of a double take with it. This was something new. 

What does this mean? Well, it means that this helps bring you one step closer to what you can imagine a lightsaber would be. This is a board that blows everything that I've previously dealt with out of the water. Honestly, it was a few months ago that I found myself wondering why can't baselit sabers get a board that would support SD cards. Why couldn't us that love to duel have something that we could customize to our hearts content? Make it more seem like our saber. 

I can absolutely say that with this board - those thoughts have been answered. This features 16 sound fonts with the ability to add more through an SD card.  It supports smooth swing with some beautiful accent swings. Each font can have its own color and blade effect. 

In the past, you would have a one button system that would handle all the heavywork of cycling through the various features. With this incarnation, it can be handled through a bluetooth app (Xeno Configurator on iOS and Android). Immediately, I was flabbergasted. 

(Above are some images from the Xeno Configurator app. This should help illustrate what to expect from the app. Right now, it's an app that's continuing to evolve. But so far, it's pretty intuitive. There are some features that will be added at some point.)

After spending time with the app, all I can find myself saying is "This is the way.". It's so intuitive and so easy to change features on the fly. If you want to change your sensitivity for your gesture controls, you can do that. If you want to change the timing of your powering up and powering down of your saber, you can do that. If you have a certain color that you had your heart set on (to the point of knowing the color code), well you can do that. You wish to change the sound to a softer volume, you can. 

Literally this just kicks down the doors as to what you can do now. Literally you can make it your own. 

Electronics Score: 5 out of 5.

    Having a variety of sabers now, it's interesting seeing the saber fonts that are available. With this saber, I noticed a good variety in the selection. One of the coolest thing was seeing the variety of Fallen Order fonts, especially a Vader. I've seen Vader fonts before. This one is definitely different and really cool. All of these are incredibly beautiful.

There are probably a few different fonts that feel missing. But with that SD card, it won't be too difficult to add it to the library. 

The Saber Fonts are as follows: 

The Dark Sword (Darksaber), The Chosen (Anakin Skywalker), Double Agent (Revan), The Princess (Leia), The Son (Luke Ep. VI Return of the Jedi), The Protector (Obi-Wan), The Knight (Kylo Ren), The Fallen Apprentice Magenta (Cal Kestis)

The Master (Qui-Gon Jinn), Truly Lost (Dark Cal Kestis), The Dark Lord Order (Darth Vader - Fallen Order), The Third Hunter (Revan from Obi-Wan), Dark Empress (Dark Rey), The Wanderer (Malicos from Fallen Order), The Assassin (Asajj Ventress). 

Sound Score: 4.5 out of 5

    With the hilt and sound out of the way, that brings us to the light show portion. That's honestly the best way to phrase it for covering the colors. From what I've seen of other sabers, it hasn't disappointed thus far. Each one delivers a solid job. With each new saber, I've begun to notice a trend. Each one is a step up from the last. I'd say that would showcase a solid job of the way that products are evolving. 

With the No. 115, the light does continue to impress. One of the biggest evolution I've seen is that each of the different saber fonts can have its own color. That's pretty frigging cool. I didn't even know that was going to happen till I powered it on and started cycling through. 

At first, I was like well it sucks to see that the colors aren't remembered. But with the time I've spent with the saber now, it does remember the color that you set for each font. With each font, it'll also remember what blade effect you apply to it (Unstable, Stable, and Pulse). There may be some features that are not immediately available. But with some tinkering, it may be easy to find them waiting to be unlocked. 

Originally, I had a few different pictures showcasing the different colors. But I thought I'd try something different and include a small video that showcases the infinite color changing. 

Color Score: 5 out of 5      

Now as those who may be wondering what else I could possibly cover in my review? Well, in my opinion, there's the most important feature that a lightsaber has to have. The ability to duel. I mean come on, who doesn't want to recreate a good lightsaber battle that you've seen in the Star Wars films or The Clone Wars and Rebels tv shows? 

The blade that comes with this Damiensaber is the standard 36". It's highly durable like the one that came with my Dark Wolf saber. My son and I took the saber out yesterday and had a few rounds with it. It held up to some severely strong beatings that it took. So, his training will begin as the duels have only just begun.

Duel Score: 5 out of 5. 

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Hilt: 5 out of 5

Electronics: 5 out of 5

Sound: 4.5 out of 5

Color: 5 out of 5

Duel: 5 out of 5

Overall: 4.9 out of 5 (Highly Recommend)

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Overall, this would be a fine addition to anyone's ever growing lightsaber collection. It is pretty outstanding seeing some of the newer features. The ability to have a color/blade effect for each color is pretty outstanding. For those that are just starting out on their lightsaber journey, well I'd highly recommend this one. It is sleek and elegant, while also being solid for dueling. It's large enough to be able to use two handed comfortably. 

For those that are already interested, you can find the link here:

https://www.damiensaber.com/lightsabers/fx-dueling-12-sound-fonts-custom-saber-no115.html

If you are interested in other lightsabers, you can always check out https://www.damiensaber.com/. 

You can find BlazinBlue's Review on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Update - 4/10/2023

     Hello everyone, Matthew still here or as some may know me as BlazinBlue. When I first started this blog, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I really had a few different ideas in mind. But I knew one of the things I wanted to do was cover horror movies. It's a genre that is just so near and dear to my heart. My family got me started on horror movies when I was a bit young. By today's standards, it was a lot younger than most parents would probably do today. But you know what, it's okay and I turned out okay. 

    The thing that kept me from turning this into something real was myself. I kept doubting myself. I kept saying that I wasn't good enough. I kept asking myself 'Why do you want to do this? You didn't go to school for journalism.'. And it took someone very special to me to help show me that if I put those ideas to rest, I could do this. This was something that was possible. 

    And then I just jumped in one day with a review for a small indie horror film, Weird Fiction. It then began to become something more. Was it going to pay the bills? Sadly, no. But it allowed me to finally be able to express myself and talk about things. Could this turn into something more? Honestly, I have no idea. However with everything that's happened so far, the sky's the limit. And I've had a few awesome things that I never thought I'd get to do. 

    What are some of those things that I've gotten to do? Well, I have had the pleasure of being able to cover some pretty awesome films. One of the biggest ones being Slumber Party Massacre '21. That was just absolutely bananas. Sadly at the time of the actual press junket, I couldn't participate in the audio interviews. Primarily the only thing that kept me from that was I was recovering from dental surgery. Another awesome thing that I've had the pleasure of was getting to attend a small theater screening of Addison Bink's Psycho Ape. Sadly, I couldn't stay for the showings but I was able to get hold of a dvd copy. So please stay tuned for that review that's in the pipeline. Another thing that I have gotten to do was actually interact with some amazing people in the industry, Adam Marcus and Vincente DiSanti. I honestly could never thank anyone enough for being able to have these experiences. If this is all that I've gotten to do, that's entirely okay. 

    As you may have noticed, there's been some gaps in content. I apologize for that. But we all know that life happens. Thankfully, things are a little less chaotic now. Things are still underway for our home renovations and having a small farm (3 goats and 50 chickens) can be a bit much. But it's allowed me to take some time and regroup while I did that stuff. And I am happy to say that I'm not going anywhere. I am going to keep doing this because it's something that I love. 

    With last week's Lightsaber Review, you may have noticed that things are changing a little bit around here. While I love horror films and we are in a bit of a horror boom, there's more to this than just the horror genre. I have decided to take a step forth into a much larger world. Oh wait, that sounds like Nick Fury at the end of Iron Man doesn't it? With this, I've expanded what I can talk about around here. If we would like to talk about horror movies, we can. If we would like to talk about props, toys, and collectables, well we're going to. 

    As you can imagine, I will also be diving further into the Galaxy Far, Far, Away with more Star Wars stuff. I can happily announce that there will be another lightsaber review, courtesy of Damiensaber. So, stay tuned for that one. I will also say that we will get to check out a LeMarchand Box. That's pretty friggin great. And then, I have something hidden by a big metal door of a certain Mezco variety.

    To kick things off, I am happy to say that we have finally evolved - New Name and New Header to be more fitting with the way I'd like to take things. 

Thank you everyone that's been part of this. Thank you everyone that's checked out things. Thank you everyone that's been so damn supportive of this crazy idea I had. 

Review: TXQSaber Simplified Anakin Skywalker Saber

Alright , a few months ago, my son broke his elbow. It took some time for him to recover from that. I talked to my partner about maybe surprising him with some lightsabers. They agreed. 

After dealing with an experience, we found our way over to Dark Wolf Sabers. Had no idea what to expect as we opted for the mystery sabers. 

When they arrived, my son had finally gotten his cast off. His Physical Therapy had said that they were thinking of getting him into sword fighting. By that point, we had already been dueling. Turns out it helped him bounce back super quickly to full recovery.

My birthday came, Happy 35. I saved some birthday money up and found a Simplified Anakin TXQSaber over from 1977SaberFeast on Aliexpress. 

I was so stoked. This was a saber that I had hoped one day that I could get. When Master Replicas were available at Best Buy in 2005, I had tried to talk my Dad into getting one. But he pointed out that it was just the hilt and couldn't actually use it. That was a pretty valid point. So all these years later, it was nice to finally get it. I opted for the RGB cause I'm terrified I'll break a neopixel so easily. 

The day came for its delivery, I was like a kid on Christmas Day. I was super pumped for it. That day, it took its time arriving. But it was incredibly worth the wait. 

This saber is different than my Dark Wolf board. It features 16 fonts, 12 colors, smooth swing. The one I had ordered had originally the two button set up. The shop I had purchased from (1977SaberFeast) quickly let me know that version wasn't available anymore. To make up for it, they sent a saber plug. It is one of those little things that makes the experience even cooler. 

For those interested, here is a list of the Saber Fonts in no particular order:

- Cal Kestis

- Dark Saber

- Darth Vader

- Anakin

- Obi-Wan

- Yoda

- Leia

- Palpatine

- Dooku

- Kylo Ren

- Luke

- Ahsoka

- Ben Solo

- Starkiller

And 2 fonts that can't recall at the moment. 

For comparison, my Dark Wolf saber has only 12 fonts. There was a bit of overlap, but that was not a hindrance at all. The thing that I was super surprised by was the fact that it also features 3 music tracks that can be played. It was really cool to hear Duel of the Fates, the Star Wars theme, and the Imperial March playing in the background during some duels. The speaker on the saber is also incredibly well designed. One small drawback is that the charging port is in the bottom of soundboard - so it requires you to unscrew the bottom half to access it. Small little nitpick. 

Now to talk about the colors that can be used. While the Dark Wolf has the infinite changing feature, the 12 colors used for this saber are solid. The way that the light from the hilt emits into the blade is nice. It is pretty vivid. If I had to compare it to the Dark Wolf, I'd give the TXQSaber the point. It just seems like its brighter and more vibrant.

Here are some examples of the various colors available:

Now for those of you wondering about how the blade, I can say that this is very well made. It's the standard polycarbonate blade. The length of it is about 36 inches. It's held up so far to a lot of heavy dueling between my son and I. The more that we use them, the more I grow to love this hobby in general. But after about 8-10 duels so far, it's faired extremely well. For some of the blades, there's like a filament inside of it to help the light illuminate it. But these ones I've noticed have a plastic tube inside it that helps distribute the light throughout the blade. 

As I mentioned before, I can't say how the Neopixel blades fair. All of the blades that I've gotten so far have been for RGB sabers. The reason being that they are extremely durable for dueling. I have heard some say that neopixel blades are cooler for displays and medium dueling. Maybe some day but the way that my son and I have been dueling, it's far from the medium dueling. It's kinda the go big or go home attitude about it. But the best thing of these duels is that they are definitely moments that my son will always remember. 

If you have a chance of being able to pick up a lightsaber, I would absolutely highly recommend it. There is no cooler feeling than holding the saber in your hand with it ignited. It just brings back that feeling you had when you first experienced Star Wars. Now some may say that this hilt isn't exactly Anakin's and that is true. This was what they called the Simplified Anakin saber. For the most part, it is a solid take on it. It isn't a straight up replica. And that is perfectly fine because it feels like a mashup of the Skywalker saber overall. It contains elements from Anakin's and Luke's. 

This was a saber that I will never regret buying. It's from a different brand than what I had previously been used to. But that's the beauty of this hobby, it allows you to branch out and try different ones. I should also say that this isn't like a standard LGT/VHC saber where the parts can be swapped out. If you wish, you could add maybe a piece of leather around part of it if you wish for a Reforged Skywalker saber feel to it. It's a beautiful product that is well made. It blew away every expectation that I had. And it has held up extremely well to all of the tests that it's been put through. And yes that includes spinning it like Anakin did in Revenge of the Sith. That is one of the coolest things that I have been able to pull off during a duel. 

If you are looking for a solid entry into Lightsabers and want something replica inspired, this is without a doubt a good choice. If you want a proper replica, well this may not be your cup of tea. And if you are looking for a lot of customization, well this isn't it either unfortunately. 

HILT Score: 4.5 out of 5

SOUND Score: 4.5 out of 5

COLOR Score: 5 out of 5 (It's not Infinite Changing, but it doesn't need to be.)

DUELING Score: 5 out of 5

Overall Score: 4.75 out of 5. (Highly Recommend.)

If you wish to find it, check it out here on 1977SaberFeast's Aliexpress.

You can find BlazinBlue's Review on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.