LED lightsabers for your 6-inch action figure collectables? What is going on?! Seriously, if the late ’70s and early ’80s were as an amazing time for collecting toys, right here, right now, must be otherworldly. Seriously, Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader with LED lightsabers.
Well, not exactly, but close enough. Kotobukiya has a line called M.G.S. Modeling Support Goods that they use to supply their Frame Arms line and other lines with all sorts of extra weaponry. Most of the support goods are made for 5- to 6-inch action figures, which covers your average 1:144 scale Gundam model, or Frame Arms model.
Kotobukiya recently release LED swords that can be used with Frame Arms, Gundam, or Star Wars (either SHF, MAFEX, or Hasbro). There are a number of sword types that can be used, clear swords and colored swords. The sword packs are sold in sets of green and clear, red and clear, or blue and clear. Each set comes with a set of hands (Frame Arms) for holding the swords. The hilt is a battery that contains an LED light. The light is activated by pushing the clear plastic sword down on the hilt, and can be turned off by pulling up on the grey connector. These are a little fidgety and I can see collectors with clumsy hands having fits with these.
To get a visual of how they function and to hear Robo’s thoughts on these, check out the video review:
For the purpose of this review, I am focusing on the Star Wars-compatible swords. These are basically just solid clear plastic with no bumps or sculpting in them, pretty boring. Kinda look like Jolly Rancher sticks. I bought a set of each and then realized that I didn’t have SHF Jedi Luke, so Obi-Wan will have to deal with it. The swords do not fit in the hands very well; the hilts are too thin for the SHF hands and Bandai Model Kit Vader hands, and you will have to use scotch tape to thicken them up. I use scotch tape since it is “invisible.”
The hilts are generic and not really made to look like anything specific. Part of that is the ability for these to be used universally and partly because the design. While they can probably get these more compact and work out a better on-off mechanism, these are about as close to perfect as they can be. I know customizers will jump on these and figure out ways to make them perfect for lightsabers, maybe even incorporating them into lightsaber hilts. I’d love to see that.
While not shown, the SHF clear plastic cannot be placed on the Kotobukiya hilts. The SHF pegs down into the hilt while the Kotobukiya pegs up into the clear plastic sword. One note, you cannot mix and match the swords and the LED lights to attain other colors, so sorry, no purple sabers yet.
These swords are a lot of fun, and for those of you that are more talented at taking dark photos, you’ll have a blast on Instagram with these. These are definitely worth the money and you should pick up as many as possible. You can get them at these fine establishments:
