I recently picked up one of the officially licensed ZhongDong Toys Lightsabers for about 30 USD, the Yoda variant. I got it because the smooth ignition/retraction caught my eye and the fact that there were 4 SKUs with different blade colors - my theory was that they were just using the same RGB LED strip in the blade to cut costs. And lo and behold, a month later I got my hands on it and it is indeed a 150 (75 on each side) LED RGB strip in a (thick!) polycarbonate blade.
That, combined with the fact that it includes a rechargeable battery (with integrated killswitch) means that it’s practically a drop in conversion, with one big caveat -
The plastic hilt is solvent welded together, which means getting into it can be a pain. I ended up using some acetone on the inside, and cutting along the seams with a craft knife until it finally separated (with some… newfound weathering).
After that, it was a pretty simple task of designing a few 3D printed parts to allow for easier mounting of the proffieboard and securing of the hilt back together. The speaker is surprisingly loud and decently clear (a bit tinny, but it’s a toy).
(Ignore the ratsnest of wires :p)
I’d recommend using a battery protection circuit because I’m sure the cell included isn’t meaningfully protected (and there’s plenty of space inside the hilt for one) but for my build I’ve just elected to remove the battery when not in use.
Since the hilt was glued together, there’s no meaningful way to secure the bottom of the hilt back together (the top of the hilt has two screws that secure the blade, so it’s not an issue there). To mitigate having to glue it back together and not being able to access the board, I designed a small ring that slides over the bottom of the hilt to clamp it shut.
It’s certainly not up to the standard of a hobby-grade dueling lightsaber, and the hilt feels really flimsy and light in the hand, but it’s a fun little project that does net you a fully-functional pixel-blade proffie lightsaber on the cheap!
You can find the 3D print files I’ve used here.
(It might be hidden behind the three dots menu).
