Master Replicas - my lightsaber rediscovered

Master Replicas c.2002-2008

 

The first official lightsaber was produced by Palitoy in 1977 as an inflatable toy. It's surprising that George Lucas didn't take full advantage of the demand and licence more versions. This lead to a bootleg called the 'Force Beam'. 

The Force Beam was being advertised openly throughout 1978, even though it was not an officially licensed toy. 

I didn't know anyone who had the inflatable version but I had a green 'Force Beam' and my brother had a red one. These looked pretty good in the dark. Not being able to use the term lightsaber, they called it a 'Force Beam' which was a clever alternative name. During a house clearout in the 1980's I got rid of them. One had a corroded battery terminal inside so that went into the rubbish and the other one went to a charity shop for some lucky child to find.

 

The original Star Wars light saber toy by Palitoy 1977

 

I believe the Palitoy light saber was being sold in the UK for about £2.50 around that time. Today a mint example like the one below would be worth 100 times that. 

A very rare unused Star Wars Palitoy light saber

There's surprising few of these bootleg Force Beam light sabers for sale considering hundreds of thousands were sold. I can only assume most suffered battle damage and ended up being thrown away.

When I moved house in 2011 I had a big clearout and sold off most of my Star Wars collectables. It wasn't an easy decision, but I no longer had the space and they were either gathering dust on shelves or hidden away in storage boxes.

At that time my collection included three Master Replicas lightsabers, Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker IV and Luke Skywalker Return of the Jedi (ROTJ). All of which I had purchased directly from Master Replicas when they were first issued around 2003-2006 . These were the first decent lightsaber collectables to hit the market and I just couldn't resist them. During those few years I noticed that the packaging on the later versions was a little more lightweight, but the lightsaber itself seemed to retain the same solid quality of the first versions. 

Master Replicas FX Lightsaber - Luke Skywalker ROTJ

UK retailer Battle Orders catalogue extract 2002

My attraction to lightsabers goes back to 1978 when Star Wars hit the big screens in the UK and my father came home with two toy ligtsabers called "Force Beam". One was red and the other green. Being children, the fact that they were unofficial didn't concern us - we thought they were great! In fact, it wasn't until I searched the web that I realised they were not licensed toys, despite the dubious "Force Beam" name. A house move in the late 1980's prompted my first big toy purge and Star Wars was among the casualties. I recall that one of the lightsabers was discarded because all the metal battery connections had corroded away. The remaining good one was donated to a charity shop for some lucky second generation star wars fan. It was a good time to buy old Star Wars toys! These do occasionally come up for sale on eBay but realistically only appeal to the hardcore Star Wars fan.

Here's some information I found on the unofficial "Force Beam" lightsaber: http://theswca.com/index.php?action=disp_item&item_id=51113

Anyway, back to my Master Replicas FX lightsabers. I decided to sell all three on eBay, as they were still holding their value back in 2010. All three had all the original packaging including cardboard shipping containers.

Fate would have it that the ROTJ sale didn't go through so I ended up keeping it and putting it in storage for about 7 years. It's only now that I've re-opened it once more. My Stepson had become an avid Star Wars fan and was very interested when I told him I still had one of my Master Replicas lightsabers in storage. So, I promised he could have it when I finally managed to retrieve it from long term storage. It turned out that the perspex stand which came with the lightsaber had never actually been opened from new. We decided this would be a good opportunity to make an unboxing video for Youtube (still not finished). Yes, there are already plenty on eBay but I liked that idea that we were opening the stand for the first time in 12 years, which gave it some additional interest. The lightsaber itself had certainly been in and out of the box several times over the years, as can be seen from small pieces of damaged polysterein packaging. However, it also still had the original cardboard shipping container which I understand is now quite rare.

I had an 'interesting' experience selling the lightsabers on eBay back in 2010. One sale went through fine and I think I received about the same money I paid for it. When I came to sell the other (can't remember which), I kept receiving messages from a potential buyer who seemed obsessed with the condition of the boxes. I even went to the trouble of sending him some extra photos showing the condition of the boxes. It was becoming a pain but I thought if it increased the sale price then why not. Eventually it sold to that same persistent buyer for the going value at that time (around £80 I think). Perhaps a few weeks later I received a message from that same buyer including a link saying something like "you might be interested to see how much I sold your lightsaber for" I checked the link and it opened a sold listing. It appeared that he had re-sold my lightsaber for an absurd amount which was something like around £300-£400. It had a totally over-inflated description claiming it was a rare 'warehouse find'. I was a little bewildered but also found it quite amusing that he felt the need to share this. That certainly explained why he had been obsessed by the condition of the cardboard box. He obviously wanted to be sure he could get away with such a ridiculous description. Still, unfazed by this I sent him a replay along the lines of 'good for you', not feeling the need to display any displeasure. You could say it's good salesmanship or just plain dishonest, depending on your point of view. It was a bit strange he contacted me to highlight such a dubious sale. eBay is no different to any other market place whether online or a traditional high street market - buyer beware. It's still rather surprising that some unsuspecting buyer was willing to pay an obviously ridiculously over the top price. Still, if you have an unlimited budget then you probably don't care.

Common sense tells you in most cases that buying on eBay only re re-sell on eBay for profit is not going to work as the value is already established in the sale price. There may of course be rare opportunities when someone has unknowingly listed something valuable on a low fixed 'buy it now price'. Which is why if you don't know the value of something you may as well let the auction run and find out. If it has an accurate description and is listed in the correct place then it will sell for the 'going rate'. Genuine bargains are hard to come by on eBay and even items incorrectly listed usually get discovered by more than one bidder.

Anyway, the third ROTJ light saber was listed on eBay and the auction ended with a winning bidder. The bidder subsequently contacted me to apologise and explain they no longer wanted to buy it. I wasn't too bothered about this and could have offered it to the next lowest bid or even re-listed it but decided to keep it instead. I'm actually pleased I did keep this one for my Stepson since he's into Star Wars more than me and old enough to appreciate it. Lucky for him anyway!

I've been aware that you can still buy Disney versions of the FX lightsabers and they seem to be pretty identical to the Master Replica versions. I imagine in the time that's passed they may have better lights and sound, but I'm not sure. There's certainly lots of Master Replica light sabres on eBay with a fairly consistent selling price similar to the newer versions.

All in all, the MR version is nicely made and pretty accurate even compared to a prop replica, bearing in mind some concessions were necessary for it to be made into a functioning version.

There's also now a huge market of prop replica lightsabers. Those which have no functions but are intended as display items. Master Replicas were the first to produce full size versions which were well made and accurate.

Since then companies have taken prop replicas to a whole new level. They've replicated the original screen used prop using authentic components as per the original. This would make them indistinguishable from the original screen used examples. Something for the true enthusiast with deep pockets!

Black Diggers or Grave Robbers?

 

Latvia: German rifle grenades, a boot, drinking cup, mess kit lid, and gas mask recovered from a trench.

Photographer: Reinis Hofmanis for Bloomberg Businessweek

Black Diggers are people who visit WW2 battlefields and search for wartime relics using metal detectors. They can also be viewed as grave robbers since they plunder what are essentially war graves to find anything of value. Interest in wartime memorabilia is high and collectors seem prepared to spend significant sums on certain items. This has fueled a 'black market' for almost any WW2 relics.

Treasure hunting with metal detectors has been a popular hobby for many years. I can understand the excitement in finding a long lost Roman coin or even ring. However, in searching more recent conflicts such as WW2 there's always a possibility that a battlefield could contain human remains.

Since all soldiers carried identification in some form it may also be possible to identify them and arrange a subsequent burial. In such cases the authorities should be informed so they can perform a professional excavation to preserve evidence of identification. Artifacts found during that process can be properly catalogued and passed on to a museum who can preserve them.

I have seen many videos on Youtube (mostly Russian) which document finds made by diggers. Many relics are in remarkable condition having been preserved in clay. I find it fascinating to see such items being found. However, It's very disconcerting to see the items being handled roughly and cleaned in a very clumsy manner. For example perfectly preserved wooden or metal boxes are hastily forced open using a spade to reveal their contents. Such items should be carefully cleaned off-site. Some videos are supposedly from 'official' groups who are searching for human remains. From what I can see they are more interested in the relics they find. It seems pretty obvious that the discovery of personal items indicates the potential presence of human remains. In addition, some of the 'official' groups wear military style clothing and can even be seen 'playing' with some of the relics. This does not strike me as being professional or 'official' behaviour.

Whilst I do like to watch these videos, I also feel uncomfortable with how bones are dealt with. Surely there should be a professional excavation as soon as it becomes apparent there are human remains.

I understand that the Russian government has recently made it a crime to go digging for wartime relics. This sounds like a step in the right direction but I do wonder if some of these groups are digging under the auspices of 'official' war grave diggers. Do all these finds go to museums? I suspect many are kept in private collections and others are sold.

Apologies to those who have good intentions but I don't think this kind of work is for the amateur. Locating sites and passing information to the authorities would be sufficient. I've heard some say time is running out because the longer time passes the evidence deteriorates. Well, it's already been several decades so a few more would not make much difference if it meant the difference between identifying the individuals or losing the evidence forever. Better to take the time to do it properly than rush and risk losing vital evidence.

The other thing is that I'm almost shocked to see the amount and variety of live ordnance being casually handled including mortars, grenades and even anti-tank mines which are filmed being opened. Is it really that safe? It's all about risk and it only takes that bit of bad luck for a terminal outcome.

The Guardian newspaper 6 January 2016