Star Wars Lightsaber : Toyologist Review

Review by The Beesley Buzz.

Two excited boys with the Lightsaber.

Well, Daddy and the two boys were very excited to see the Star Wars Darth Maul Lightsaber arrive in our household! We were so looking forward to acting out the scenes from the films armed with, as the box describes, 'the ultimate weapon of power and skill'.

Demonstrating the lightsaber.

After Mummy spending 20minutes trying to work out to install the batteries, we found it didn't need any at all!

This is a double-bladed red lightsaber. The two blades can be easily flicked-out, and you can pose with either one blade or two, although they do have to be flicked at some speed to get them to stay in place. At full length, the lightsaber extends to 1.5m long - pretty impressive for a young Jedi master like our six-year-old. He demonstrated how to use the weapon with amazing acrobatic skill, managing to avoid hitting both himself and the pictures on the shelf, and he thoroughly enjoyed being Darth Maul for a few short minutes. Retracting the blades is supposed to be quite easy, too, by simply pushing them back into the handle although they did get stuck out a couple of times and require a bit more encouragement to back into place.

Everyone knows what a Star Wars lightsaber should look like and sound like. Sadly, though, this lightsaber doesn't light up and it doesn't have the characteristic hum that all Star Wars fans know and love. So, rather than a huming, light-filled futuristic sword, we have a bit of red plastic.

The front of the box has the words 'Double-bladed' translated into six languages for an international audience. Sadly, the French version sums-up this toy in a rather American way 'Double Lame'.

For a true die-hard Star Wars fan or collector, this might be of interest. But for the three boys in this household (and yes, that includes Daddy, who grew up with the original trilogy) the lack of light or sound makes for a rather disappointing and short-lived experience.

Other lightsabers, which include motion-activated light and sound effects, are available from ToysRUs but cost considerably more, and other basic models vary in price - make sure you know what you are getting before you buy.