-Levi Peterson
What comes to mind when you hear the phrase “movie prop”? Probably images of various firearms or magical macguffins spring to mind. Chances are one of the most iconic movie props in recent history will spring to mind: the lightsaber! Since that fateful day in 1977 when Luke Skywalker first activated it, the lightsaber has been inspiring imaginations across all types of media from video games to animation.
It went through many variations and changes before we finally arrived at the unique designs such as Darth Maul’s double-bladed saber or Kylo Ren’s claymore inspired cross guard saber.
Originally George Lucas had intended for lightsabers to be a fairly common close combat weapon in the Star Wars universe. Some of the early Ralph McQuarrie concept art shows proto storm troopers walking around with lightsabers on their hips. But as his ideas evolved, they went from a common weapon, to a specialized tool used almost exclusively by the Jedi and their counterparts, the Sith. Another aspect that changed was the Idea of lightsaber combat. In A New Hope, the first ever lightsaber battle between Darth Vader and Obi Wan Kenobi was a slow and kind of clunky affair. It was inspired from older samurai movies that George Lucas took quite a bit of inspiration from.
Early lightsabers were thought to be very heavy and extremely powerful so they required a two-handed grip to control them. As the series continued that idea changed. In Empire Strikes back, they had an actor who was proficient in fencing play Darth Vader in the Climatic duel between Vader and Luke in Bespin. The prequel trilogy also introduced the bow staff style of fighting for Darth Maul. Sir Christopher Lee was also proficient in fencing so that reflected in Count Dukoo’s style as well. But not just the dueling styles changed, the design of the light sabers themselves was open to variation!
As the franchise has progressed, we have seen possibly hundreds of unique sabers, many from the franchise itself or inspired fan builds. However today I would like to focus on the one that started it all: the Skywalker lightsaber! As of now there are probably about five different variations of this lightsaber. You have the lightsaber Anakin carried in the prequel trilogy that uses a different belt mount. Luke carried two different variations, one in A New Hope and another in Empire strikes Back! And in the newest trilogy Rey carries another variant as well! The one that caught my eye the most, and that I replicated, was the Empire Strikes back version. So, let’s get into the breakdown below!
Lightsaber Base
The following information is simply all that I had gathered during my research process for this build! I am by no means an expert on this prop, but I will do my best to help provide a basic guide to help identify this beautiful piece of cinema history! The very first Lightsaber from A New Hope was built from a Graflex camera flash handle. Ever seen an old school mobster movie? The reporters carry around those large flash bulb cameras. The handles of which became the first lightsaber!
George Lucas had given the prop department an idea of what he wanted, but like most props from the original movie it was off the cuff modeling. The prop supervisor handed it to George and he reportedly just gave a small chuckle which meant he liked it. Sadly, Original Graflex flash handles are becoming extremely rare due to Star Wars fans grabbing up these pieces of history and cutting them up for movie props! Unfortunately, that has been the cause of some frustration in the vintage camera collecting community. So, most people who want to build one of these lightsabers use a replica of the flash handles, which is what I had to do in this build. As I did not have $1000 on me to buy a vintage one! The Graflex is used for all variations of this lightsaber across the series, however they are probably using replicas now as well.
Grips
Another factor that separates the different variants is the grimp configuration. All of them use the same hard rubber T track grips, though the A New Hope version does NOT have the cut outs seen above with rivets.
This change was implemented in Empire Strikes back and onward. I preferred this style because it is visually more interesting than a simple straight up and down piece of plastic. Also, the rivets help keep them on better than just plain old glue.
Circuit Board
A small detail that can also tell them apart is this mini circuit board piece. In A New Hope, this piece is actually a small plastic fragment with several bubbles on it, taken from an old Texas instruments calculator.
Quite a few iconic props are made with random “greeblies” like that! Basically, just small parts added to a prop to give more details or visual interest. This was another piece that was swapped out in Empire going forward. Oddly enough, it is not made clear if this small red button on the back of the lightsaber is the “activation” button. Again, I felt this was more visually interesting a piece of clear plastic with some bubbles on it!
D Ring
Now for a change that was mostly for function instead of just aesthetic. Before the production teams moved to the covertec grips which are small circles with a groove along the sides that can easily slide into a belt clip. Lightsabers used D rings to attach to the actor’s belts. The D ring from A New Hope was a much smaller rig. It attached to a thin plate and held together with a single rivet, but it was prone to breaking.
In Empire Strikes back they moved to a style which was much hardier as it had two rivets and a large block attached to the D ring. It does add some weight to the bottom of the prop, but it is overall unwieldy anyway!
These are by no means the only callouts and differences between all the many variations of just this ONE prop! Nonetheless, these were the ones I found most interesting to me. It is hard to think of a prop that is more iconic and influential than the lightsaber. While a humble design, basically just a metal pipe with some bits added on, they can be incredibly diverse and intricate pieces of art. Going forward I’m sure more designs will be added to the official Star Wars universe, and I know for a fact this is not the only one I will be building!
Who wielded your favorite lightsaber of the series? Tell us in the comments below.