marimba

I built close to 800 of those things when I used to work for Parks...but I only kept one. Obi-Wan from Ep. II.

Yes, we started w/ replica mausers, but used actual decomissioned sterlings. The first 5 or so of the stormtrooper blasters had actual working scopes. After that the real scopes became very hard to get. So we began to machine replica scopes out of aluminium billet. these were hollow, so you could see through them, but had no lenses. We also machined the flash hiders for the mausers by hand at first, but it took so long (about 5 hours for each) that we had a local shop machine them. I used to cut the scope mounts for the Han blasters out of solid aluminum then shape and bebur them. I would drill and tap directly into the mausers to mount the parts. At that time we were having a custom rubber extrusion made for us th fit on the barrels of the sterlings at enormous cost to Jeff. Drad is correct about the colors, but the time that I worked for Jeff was during the actual prototyping phase of the illuminated lightsabers. It took about a YEAR to come up with an inverter design that was stable and provide a bright enough lightsource to appear good in a darkened area. Some of the early designs made a high-pitched sound that made them unsuitable. I really have to hand it to Jeff, these products consumed his life. Some of them were VERY difficult to produce. I polished aluminum tubing in a lathe by hand. Each piece could take 30- 40 mins to polish. When he said hand-made he ment it! They came about due to his hard work and determination. At one convention we had the guys from ICON tell us that our product set the standard. They then purchased our sabers. Only then did you start to see other illuminated metal sabers.

At the time that I was building them, the brightest, most real color was the blue green. After Jeff and I built the prototypes, Jeff and I had a mock battle with them in my front yard after dark, which literally stopped traffic. Some of you may even have a saber that I built! The red seemed a little washed out, but now that he has lowered the frequency, a more pinkish color is nice, but did not seem to be as bright to me.

I used to work for Jeff Parks, prior to his move to the Dallas area. I was his padiwan learner! I spent 1 1/2 years building lightsabers and other starwars related items, stormtrooper blasters, Han Solo blasters, and going to fan conventions to sell them. Jeff is a great guy and I can tell you for a fact that his lightsabers are the best quality that is humanly possible. Jeff spent literally ALL of his time working to improve his product over any other. So please, if you are considering buying a lightsaber, look at his products! He also does custom work. Just as a side note Jeff is a huge startrek fan, loves the Aliens movie, The Fifth Element, but for some strange reason loves the movie Tucker. Thanks, marimba AKA Jedi Master Christopher