If you told me that a “Power Saber Energy Blade” would be the best lightsaber toy that hit the market, I’d be skeptical. If you then told me that Hasbro had the rights to this technology but never released a product to the public, I definitely wouldn’t believe you. According to reporting by The Verge, it’s true–and an interesting story. But I was more interested in the toy than the process.
For years I’ve followed The Verge’s coverage of what they call the “holy grail of Star Wars toys”: a lightsaber that automatically extends and then fully retracts back into its hilt. We’ve all played with sabers that have plastic blades that you have to flick out to create the effect of its blade being extended. And it wasn’t until ten years ago (or so) that they made blades that fully retracted into the hilt.
I remember wielding my plastic saber as a kid and wondering, “Why can’t they make a better lightsaber toy?”
I got my hands on both of the Power Sabers–right before my local stores sold out. When I first saw the packaging, I was surprised just how brazenly the makers of the Power Saber were going for that Star Wars look. The outside of the box touts its automatic extension and retraction feature but also tries to sell its 30” length, motion based sound effects, in-hilt LED and
its ability to “Flash-On Clash.” According to the back of the box, I only need 4 AA batteries to power this bad boy.
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Interestingly, it has instructions on how to unbox the thing printed right on the box . It even has clever little tabs that attach the saber to the packaging–and that attachment also works as a display stand. I loved this–there’s way less wasted plastic.
Outside of the box, the Power Saber’s plastic looks and feels a little cheaper than I was hoping. It's obviously aping a lightsaber so closely, I’m surprised there aren’t any lawsuits yet. It might dodge those lawsuits by looking generic, but that ends up also looking boring. The saber’s controls are simple, with a blade control switch and a power switch. Pushing forward extends the blade, and pushing back retracts it. There’s a small clip you can use to clip to your belt–if your belt is as thin as paper. You can even take the clip off and possibly attach something more robust.
As for its heft? This thing is chunky. I have big hands, and while it’s comfortable for me to hold, it’s definitely going to be too big for small kids. It’s marked as aged 6+, but you know smaller kids will want a chance to play with this thing.
The Power Saber’s marquee feature is the ability to extend and retract the blade automatically–and it does this just fine. The mechanism is pretty loud, but the sound effect it emits mostly covers up the noise. Even so, hearing that thing extending and retracting repeatedly gets annoying. But sacrifices must be made for something this cool. Because honestly? It is pretty damn cool to have a plastic lightsaber that works so much like the real thing.
While the blade is extended the speakers emit a continuous energy hum that is, again, not quite a lightsaber sound effect -- but it's so close you’d probably guess what it was just from hearing it. Waving the blade around activates its motion sound effects just fine, but contacting objects or another blade doesn’t make the saber clash noise consistently.
The blades themselves are pretty sturdy, but I do worry about the mechanism breaking under rough play. However, there are some safeguards in place. If the blade extends into an object, the mechanism doesn’t force the blade out. Instead, it’ll just get pushed back into the previous segment–like the lightsaber toys of yore. In fact, you can push the blade most of the way in without resistance. However, extending the blade into something like a cup of water isn’t enough to stop the blade, and the blade has enough force to easily push small objects off of furniture.
Once powered on, the saber will automatically shut off after it hasn’t been handled for a few minutes–saving battery life. And while it needs 4 AA batteries to power, the battery life seems decent–we were extending and retracting our sabers for hours with no signs of dying batteries.
I’d be surprised if Power Sabers didn't turn into a hot holiday item, and a go-to for cosplayers. It really is the Holy Grail of lightsaber toys–and I can only see iterations of this in the future that improve on its design. We’re finally entering a new era of more realistic lightsaber-like toys, and at least to me, that’s exciting.
Want to see the Power Saber in action? Check out our video review of this amazing toy!
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