That 's "Master Jedi Geek" to you....

This was another project that was in flux for years that I finally got around to finishing.
Completely useless but oh-so high in the geekness factor.... ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the Lightsaber! Not as clumsy or as random as a blaster. An elegant weapon for a more civilized time. It has full sound effects and a LED on the side that lights up and changes color depending on the sound effects chosen.
Everyone asks why there is no illuminated blade, simple.... that is too damn cheesy!! What is the point of a plastic blade anyways? Beside the fact that it isn't real.... you digitally edit the blade in anyways! Duh!
I've wanted to build one of these for years.... but it wasn't until I found a vintage Heiland flash unit at a thrift store for 3 bucks that I was re-energized into completing it. For years I have been collecting the spindles from dead hard drives thinking that they would make great emitters for a lightsaber. The top portion of the LS is constructed from to HDD spindles and the tape head of an old VCR which have been mounted together. I was hoping to get the HDD spindles to spin up when it was turned on but they are stepper motors and would require a controller to activate and run them... too much trouble.
The guts are a hacked up "StarWars Clone Wars Ultimate LS" kit that had the ability to display either a blue, green, or red blade with different sound effects for each. I kept the orginal sound board and wired a three position switch with a tri-colored LED that allows me to select between the 3 sound banks with the LED lighting up to the corresponding color.
I kept the original flash trigger and internal switch mechanism which required some crafty modifications to run all the wires through and have it still operate. All in all it turned out pretty cool although the crash sensor still needs some more work, will probably custom build a new one that is a bit more sensitive.
I'll post a video soon of it turning on and off and the different sound effect modes to give you an idea of how rad it truely it!
May the Schwartz be with you......