Suggestions for practice lightsaber

I'm looking for a lightsaber to use for dueling practice. So I need a lightweight blade which isn't fragile, but also isn't really hard plastic. Does anyone make a lightsaber with a slightly more bendy, "soft" blade?

You didn't specify a budget but I'm always going to recommend ultrasabers: they're on the cheap side of things but their primary market is collectors. High quality work.

$55 - Initiate V2

Incidentally Ultrasabers would be the one manufacturer I would recommend most strongly against. From all the reports I ever read or heard about them, their customer support is nonexistent - there is indication of people being banned and contact discontinued after they had any sort of critical inquiry even about products that were faulty out of the box. Couple that with occurrences of an equally nonexistent internal chassis to secure any sensitive hardware, a wiring based on duct tape rather than soldering and optics based on glue rather than a lens (all of which are, granted, older reports, but seeing how it is still the same person behind it all, I wouldn't put my money down with them now either) and you got yourself as risky a deal as you get at their price tag. The only thing commendable about Ultrasabers is the compatibility of their parts with the TCSS MHS system. Now, it can be argued that TCSS holds a patent on their threading and for Ultra to reproduce it is literally illegal and he knows this and boasts about doing so anyway. But if nothing else, he does machine some decent and affordable hilt parts if you want to build a saber yourself. Whether you appreciate or want to employ his designs in particular, the DYI approach would overall be my recommendation. It's more expensive than the cheapest of Ultra's, but since you will have put in your own work into it, too, it won't ever feel like a waste of your money. And if you order your parts from people you can trust, most trouble you face along the way can be resolved, too.

Pretty much what Gist said, I built mine from pieces from the saber shop and though my final design is still not done because putting it together costs a ton of $, what I did do is created a plan, so I purchased just the bare minimum parts and pieces and built what I called as my "Training light saber" for as cheap as parts as I could get. Then the "plan" kicked in where I would buy a better part or parts depending on cost every other month or so as budget permitted and slowly upgrade/improve it as I slowly upgraded and improved myself so to speak. So you can work your way up to something really nice.

However the cheap pvc based lightsabers aren't bad if all your doing is actually training or dueling because they are cheap, if they break it won't be as much of a loss as say a lightsaber you have dumped between $300 and $1000 on in some cases. The more electornics in it the more things that can go wrong with it. In my limited experience, battery cases, and how the wires are connected to the sound board are the 2 most things that kill a lightsaber. Mostly because of the clashing, if your doing dueling where you actually hit, the batteries often being so much heavier then the case they are in, often wear the case out and batteries no longer connect as well. Which is a fairly easy fix its just replace the battery case. The other common more deadly problem is people sauder their wires on to the board, and the act of clashing causes two of the wires to short, causing it to fry the board because they are often stripped to far back, saudered on, and then not encased in epoxy or anything else to protect them from being torn off or from making contact with each other.

Or as gist pointed out some places just literall twist the wires and cover them with tape and you can have issues caused by that, the sound boards are the most expensive piece of that all system, they often drive the LED, and control the sound, as well as extra buttons and features and can range between $40-$300 just for that board. IF that board isn't properly secured and the wires properly connected to it in a way designed for shocks and impacts your just asking for problems using it in that fashion.

There are some decent youtube videos out there from people who have video'd working on their custom lightsabers and such who do a good job of securing their equipment, of course there are also some really bad examples too, but just think to your self, can you take that piece of the lightsaber and bang it against the wall without it breaking? Then maybe need to tweak that part?

I guess the best advice for DYI projects is read everything, plan everything before ordering anything. It was some thirteen different designs from my first "idea" to the first thing that looked remotely realistic, and that's not counting the different circuit concepts I had nor does it account for the few things that went wrong despite all of the careful planning. Try to think of everything, make sure nothing can go wrong, because everything that can most certainly will. It sounds a little unreasonable, but demand of yourself to be an expert first. Practice will surely teach the most, but your wallet will thank you if you know your theory first, and so will your clock.
I found it extremely helpful to take measurements and model a copy of your project on your computer. It helped avoiding risks, for one, but the most use it brought me was that I could use the model to design custom parts as needed. If you have access to a 3d printer, learn about it and use it. It is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to create some of the safest electronics holders (a.k.a. "sleds") and other accessory out there and you get to design them yourself to fit your needs precisely.

TheDude wrote: I'm looking for a lightsaber to use for dueling practice. So I need a lightweight blade which isn't fragile, but also isn't really hard plastic. Does anyone make a lightsaber with a slightly more bendy, "soft" blade?

In all seriousness....The toy lightsabers from Walmart in the kids isles are perfect training sabers. We used to use them at Jedi gatherings all the time (Until people complained about more "Realism" )

Gisteron wrote: Incidentally Ultrasabers would be the one manufacturer I would recommend most strongly against. From all the reports I ever read or heard about them, their customer support is nonexistent - there is indication of people being banned and contact discontinued after they had any sort of critical inquiry even about products that were faulty out of the box. Couple that with occurrences of an equally nonexistent internal chassis to secure any sensitive hardware, a wiring based on duct tape rather than soldering and optics based on glue rather than a lens (all of which are, granted, older reports, but seeing how it is still the same person behind it all, I wouldn't put my money down with them now either) and you got yourself as risky a deal as you get at their price tag.

Hooray for naysayers! Have you owned an ultrasaber? You see, I'm recommending ultrasaber based on my purchasing experience. Hell, they gave me store credit just for making a review video.

Gisteron wrote: The only thing commendable about Ultrasabers is the compatibility of their parts with the TCSS MHS system. Now, it can be argued that TCSS holds a patent on their threading and for Ultra to reproduce it is literally illegal and he knows this and boasts about doing so anyway.

Pretty sure Tim over at TCSS doesn't care, in fact I think he prefers that people make their sabers MHS compatible since it means people are going to buy those sabers with the probability of also purchasing stuff from TCSS.

A long time ago I built a TCSS saber and I hated it. The parts were fairly good quality, but I remember the pommel I got, which was supposed to resemble Obi-Wan Kenobi's lightsaber pommel looked nothing like the pictures on the website. But what really turned me off to TCSS was simply how expensive it was. I paid a ridiculous amount to build a basic saber and I had to put it all together, solder the electronics, etc. Unless you're into that, don't go with TCSS because it's too pricey and the work required to get the most basic result is quite high.

Barring all of this, one might attempt to make boffers. Surround some PVC with some camp foam (the blue, flat pads that go under your sleeping bag), about three layer's worth, and try that.

For solo practice, you can get a LOT of mileage out of plain PVC so long as you keep it out of the sunlight (it breaks it down), but it doesn't hold up safely to sparring or dueling without padding.

I do not own an Ultrasaber. Would you like to guess why that is? But I also seldom argue from personal experience as if it meant anything. However, it is not like I need to push people away from that shop or towards any other. As I said before, you can buy pretty good parts there for pretty reasonable prices.
Here is a report from a gentleman who had to deal with the product professionally:
http://www.forum.rebellegion.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=57063&sid=f5327b908a35018b4f988bbf864ab062
And matching that here are some photos of that grotesque monstrosity they call an LED module:
https://www.facebook.com/Ultra-Sabers-Lies-and-Deceit-239240936130636/photos_stream?ref=page_internal
Here is a list of things people had bad luck with dealing with Ultra:
http://forum.rebelscum.com/showthread.php?t=1105594
Here is a report about what their customer service looks like:
http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=150975
And according to this, it seems like he was one of the lucky few to get any response in the first place:
http://www.bbb.org/losangelessiliconvalley/business-reviews/toys-wholesale-and-manufacturers/ultrasabers-in-san-jose-ca-1000004988

Now am I saying that based on this everybody who has bought from Ultra has had a bad time? No, of course not: That is evidently not the case. Will everybody have it in the future? Probably also no. Indeed, seeing how Ultra is still in business in such a niche market it stands to reason that in some respects some things probably improved. All I'm saying is there is a legitimate risk with that manufacturer and you should inform yourself about all of your options instead of taking chances.

As for the MHS thing, I'm pretty sure I recall seeing at least some legal threats over this back in the day, but couldn't find the reference right now. I'm fairly positive Tim actually does or at some point did care, but the legality of it does not depend on him caring so that point is moot.
I'll say buy hilt parts from Ultra if they suit your wishes. There is little one can do wrong lathing and threading aluminium and according to most reports they are very decent parts at that indeed. They are also far cheaper than their TCSS counterparts and if custom paint or drill jobs is something you can or want to do yourself anyway, TCSS' only advantage are their standardized sizes.

As for the pricing, keep in mind that what you pay for is both the service and the quality. The licensed collectibles are around 100-150USD a piece and those are low-tier LED strip sabers with a crude motion detection hardware, a single hardcoded sound font and swappable batteries.
Now, any budget can get you something - go to your local toy shop and you can get a 20USD "cheap-o" right away. But in a market where the cheapest noteworthy products hover around 300-400USD and the fanciest are well in the four digit range, when you are offered "the best product on the market" for some 200 bucks you can be almost certain there is something fishy going on, and in this case we also have evidence that often times there is indeed - unless of course it is all but a conspiracy to defame the market giant and wizard smith that is Ultra.

I honestly practice with one of my lightsabers that i built at Disneyland. The are cheap ,durable and fun. However , i've also considered the children blade builders as a secondary shoto since the size is that of a child's. I've seen the $100+ ones but i couldn't imagine carrying one of those without worrying about damaging it. I'd maybe just have one as a wall decoration and duel with an extendable ,electronic lightsaber.

(side note: i'm 5'7 so the ones that you build at Disneyland are a good size , the older early 2000's Hasbro lightsabers are also very durable as the plastic blade is kind of thick )