Sean Looi Says

The MR (Masterreplicas) Pre-toy Fair 2005 have revealed the new FX Sabers for the year 2006 - Darth Maul (Episode 1) and Obi Wan (Episode 3). The following links will show photographs of the lightsabers and also numerous and various products that has already been, or has yet to be released:
http://www.rebelscum.com/gallery/mr-pretoyfair-05/
http://photos.sirstevesguide.com/showgallery.php?cat=4433

Here is a picture of the Obi Wan FX from Revenge of the Sith. The neck is fatter than the original prop because it is not possible to incorporate the slim neck and still ensure the durability of the product:
Here is what is Steve (from Masterreplicas) has to say about the Obi Wan FX:
"You guys KNEW it was gonna have that obnoxious neck! I don't like it any more than you do...believe me. However, until we can defy the laws of physics, we can't put a one-inch blade into a half-inch neck. Since this is a semi-mass item, we HAVE to make sure it follows numerous federal and international guidelines for safety. If we make the necks too thin, they could break when little Johnny whacks the willies out of his sister and we would then get in trouble.Bad JuJu. Everyone screamed about the neck when the Luke ROTJ came out, but we sold so many that we had to put them back into production after we retired them. I guess people got over it."

And here is a picture of the Darth Maul FX, which looks very good and true to the movie hilt:

"Again, you are looking at a prototype. Of course, the finish will be much better on the production units. It is almost exactly 1:1 scale with the LE (maybe a TEENY bit bigger in some of the diameters) and all of the details are pretty-much identical to the LE, so it is not "off".The Maul and the Obi have "Next Generation" electronics. Better impact resistance on the blades, Obnoxiously loud, improved sound range with new speakers and pre-amps, better power management, etc.I have swung the Maul around and if you use it indoors, you can't play with it without hitting a [insert noun here] eg; wall, priceless antique, cat, wife, child, etc...It is 7 1/2 feet of Sith goodness. There is not much we can do about the knob alignment as the threads can't be "indexed" for the entire production run. We are currently looking at possible solutions for that. The coupling is steel for durability and we have beat the CRAP out of the test samples, with no breakage. That is a good thing.Since each half will be identical, once you connect them, you will have a spare adapter and two end caps, and one covertech clip to set aside. We may provide a plug for the one resulting covertech screw hole. Not sure yet."

So far, these are only prototypes and will be released next year. There will be changes for the better (hopefully). I'm not too sure how true this is, but the Darth Maul is scheduled to be released in February 2006 and the Obi Wan FX is scheduled to be released in May 2006. Releasing is one thing, ordering and receiving it is another - which will probably take around 2-3 months.

Once again, do take a look at the links and see the various toys available. There will be various products from the Star Wars series including Jedi Robes. There are also stuff from X-men as well. Cheers!