Lightsaber Build

One of the prop making groups I belong to, The PropTarts of Punished Props, put forth a challenge. Build a lightsaber using only $20 worth of materials bought from one store and only using small hand tools to build it. Above is my finished lightsaber. Below is how I built it.

So I chose Dollar Tree to purchase my stuff. I actually made two trips. The first time I went, I picked out mostly cylindrical objects without having a clear plan of what I wanted. That served to bite me in the ass because when I got home and plotted out my lightsaber, it just looked kind of boring. So I went back to Dollar Tree and purchased more items, this time picking things with textures.

Collectively, I spent $17 including tax. And I didn't even use everything I bought.

Using a plastic bat as my base, part of a solar spike as the bottom, plastic walkie-talkie and space gun parts for greeblies, tire caps as knobs, and kazoos as power tubes, this was my version 1. Ultimately the tubes running down to the bottom made the prop awkward to hold.

So a slight redesign brought me to this tri-tube design which is what I settled on.

Spray painted with black primer. 

Painted with metallic acrylics.

The lightsaber emitter is the top of a small flashlight, and the lens is from a party favor ring.

My lightsaber was looking a little too much like a sonic screwdriver (from Doctor Who) so I wrapped the hilt with this purple ninja mask trying to simulate the way a samurai sword hilt is wrapped. The appropriate word here is "trying."

A look at the backside.

A closer look at the top.

All in all, I only ended up using about $10 worth of the stuff I bought. The paint job is a little sloppy as I didn't use my airbrush, but I think it turned out okay for a quick and cheap build.

Hopefully, there'll be more of these challenges to come this year!