Slashdot Mirror
Fake Light Sabers Making Real Cash
jdedman4 writes "The fanfare over Episode II brings with it absurdist prequel theories as well as this article from the Houston Chronicle detailing one fan-enterpreneur's success. In eight years, Forney, Texas resident Jeff Parks has made himself a millionaire by making customized light sabers for collectors. "My goal is to be the best light saber designer in the world," quips Parks."
Doesn't he have to be a licensed Star Wars toy distributor?
Supply and Demand continues to be an economic principle!
*waves hand*
"This isn't the company you're looking to sue"
"move along lucas"
.
I felt a disturbance in the force as if all of parksabers.com's 56 kilobits of uplink all screamed at once and then died out.
The replicas' silent operation gives you the opportunity to make the appropriate sounds yourself.
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
An interesting note on lightsabers; They are actually flash handles from 1940s press cameras. What bearing that has on copywrites, I'm not sure, but I think it'd be hard to licence a garage sale part for your movie, personally. Maybe this guy's calling them "lite sabers". Of course, you see dozens of toy replicas made in Mexico in any toy store... "Galactic Laser Swords inc." If you can get away with that level of duplication, then it can't be too hard for this guy. More power to him. Now he just needs to make a working one ^__^ "Batteries not included"
You need a FREE iPod Nano
Well, at least they acknowledge where in their customers' psyches the deep-rooted need to own one of these things stems by naming one of their top models Malestrom as opposed to Maelstrom. I wonder if any of their customers notice this subtle dig?
More worringly, I wonder what a Femalestrom would look like?
The sabers need special materials for them. The Obi-Wan saber needed a rare British grenade, a shower head, and a few other materials. All the other ones (from the original movies, at least) need camera attachments for flashbulbs, with wiper blades and little electronic bits attached, for the most part. The camera attachments are reasonably expensive now, and are moderately rare.
So how did this guy find all the rare goodies to make all these things to become a millionaire off of them? He must have been awfully rich to begin with.
Anonymous Coward: (n.) 1. nerd at school or library. 2. karmawhore in training. 3. embarrased prep.
The 33-year-old resident of Forney, 20 miles east of Dallas, makes custom light sabers,
Huh?
weapons used by Jedi knights in the Star
Wars films.
Ohhhh...
Also, on Parks' website, you can get a utility belt! I thought it was funny that it lists it as The DefianceTM Belt, Adjustable to fit sizes 32-40. I think he's grossly underestimated his clientelle...
"Now gluttony and exploitation serves eight!" - TV's Frank
One million in eight years is $125K a year which isn't bad but he has two employees (dad and fiancee). Instead he sounds like a hardworking guy.
Hey,
Minichino, who bought his Arc-Wave in 1999, also likes the touch-sensitive button that turns on the light panel and blade.
Yeah, they are the best type.
(You see? It's funny!)
Michael
"Goodness me, how unlike the FBI to abuse the trust of the American public." -- The Onion
of forcing the public to become customers by new legislation
Parks makes the replicas to look faintly like versions used in the movies. They are typically aircraft aluminum, and are very, very tough and scratch resistant. Some are designed for a blade, others just hang on your belt and make people ask if it works.
The item I have is based on Luke's first/the Graflex design. It serves its purpose well enough for the costume during the occasional con or costume party. If you want a "lightsaber" of your own, Jeff does a good job.
Lucasfilm generally does not chase down anyone who avoids the use of trademarked names and likenesses or is otherwise obviously capitalizing on his vast empire. Otherwise, people who make costume templates and accessories, especially the stormtrooper stuff and droid parts, would be sued immediately.
Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
Another possible hack would be a focused laser. This seems more like what the lucas lightsaber does; remember it's based on a laser and has some kind of crystal which is (ostensibly) pumped by a normal laser. There's also a beam splitter. It is possible that you could aim and tune several lasers in such a way that they would seem to terminate at a fixed point.
As for the "point" a poster makes about not being able to see a laser unless there is dust in the air; This is not true. High-powered enough lasers actually cause reactions in the gas molecules which comprise air to throw off visible light, and god knows what else. Thus an EXTREMELY high-powered laser could quite conceivably be visible.
The plasma-type sabers are most common in Anime; They actually curve when swung fast enough, and seem to sputter and elongate, indicating that the bottle has an open end, but the plasma normally expires as it reaches the end of the bottle. Swinging it quickly causes the plasma to be slung from the bottle, but ostensibly at the cost of concentration.
Now, aren't you sorry you asked?
Incidentally, the reason we don't have them now is primarily because of a lack of power sources which are dense enough. You can't get enough power for that kind of reaction into any battery a human can carry. You might be able to pull something off with chemical lasers, which are probably responsible for the death of the gyrojet project; As many of you know the gyrojet pistol was invented some time ago at JPL, and produced a working weapon, but it's really no good except as a low-recoil weapon for space use. Lasers are great in space because of the lack of air to absorb the energy, and chemical lasers can put out pretty intense amounts of energy. That's just my paranoid guess, though.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"