Site of the Month: Saberforge

Ok, I'm late putting this one out. August was really busy for me getting ready to go back to work after a year on leave. I've been thinking a bit about this and by far the site of the month for me is:

http://saberforge.com/

Mat and I are Star Wars fans, I mean clearly.
In the last few years, we stumbled across people with the most amazingly realistic sabers when we were at Cons, so Mat looked into it and found this little gem of a business. They started out on Etsy (in fact the store still exists on Etsy if you want to check that out too), but the website I've linked allows you to essentially customise a saber of your own.

Mat ordered one last year and when we got it, I mean wow. The thing is just so damn amazing. We got a green coloured blade and a soundboard. When the saber is on, the soundboard emits the standard lightsaber hum we all know, BUT, when you "battle" with it (swing it around, strike it against something) it is so responsive and the sounds emitted are just spot on movie accurate. There is also an added sound if you press the on button while the blade is on, which sounds like when a saber deflects a blaster shot. AMAZING!!!

Connor was super impressed with it too.

The site had a special on a few months ago, so I scored myself a saber. It hasn't arrived yet but I'm super excited. I got two light options for mine though: plain white (like Ahsoka) and then a multi colour one that will allow me to switch between colours.

The hilts are exceptionally well made, and as heavy as you would expect a lightsaber to be. Since Mat's one had the exposed crystal though, we must warn you, while it looks awesome, the crystal can get quite hot and it is a bit cumbersome to hold and swing the saber with the crystal chamber in the way. Still #noregrets

They are on instagram and YouTube as well if you want to check out some of the designs, but the website is very comprehensive.

But Jamie, I hear you say, I don't have a lot of cash to burn on this and they are so expensive!
Look, I know. It's a LOT for what some people would see as a toy. All I can say is that these are handmade excellence. They are customisable, and there's a lifetime guarantee on the blade component (within reason, pretty sure if you took a belt sander to it, they wouldn't replace it). This is an investment, but we have been really happy with what we've seen from them. Plus you don't have to buy the absolute top-of-the-line one.

I just want to note as well that this is in no way a paid endorsement. I have no affiliation with the brand at all, I just like their stuff.

ok, now that disclaimer is over, I'll attach a few pics of some of the sabers.

As always, if you like our blog, please subscribe via the little email box on the top right of the page, or leave us a comment letting us know you exist. we'd love to hear from you.

May the force be with you, always,

Jamie :)

Wow Star Wars Celebration

At the moment, somewhere in the world Star Wars celebration is going on and I am loving all of the extra footage, Trailers and stories coming out of it.

There seems to be more info and announcements coming out of the Star Wars celebration than the last couple years of San Diego Comicon, we're especially excited for the season 3 of Star Wars Rebels.

A continuation of all the greatness that has come before, We've been fans of Rebels since day one and it looks like we'll be getting even more of what we love.

The Rogue One celebration reel shows us it'll be a different kind of Star Wars film than we're used to, but that isn't a bad thing, it looks good to me.

An unexpected treasure we loved hearing was the Ahsoka's untold tales panel, which gave us more of the girl we enjoyed so much in Star Wars the Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels. We got to hear about the stories they wanted to tell but never got the chance to for some reason or another.

There's soo much content from the Star Wars celebration I couldn't possibly include it all, these were just some highlights of ours. If you want to check out all that was on offer be sure to visit the Star Wars Youtube account to get all the gossip.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZGYJFUizSax-yElQaFDp5Q

But I guess that's enough from me about it, the Star Wars celebration has just been a major focus for us this year, we wish we had a chance to go.

                                                                                           MAT

Oh and if you're like me and can't get enough of your Rebels fix here's a couple extra clips from the celebration.

Clothing Site Of The Month - We Love Fine

www.welovefine.com

First Things First... this is NOT an ad. I haven't been paid to write this, I'm just genuinely a fan.
In case you haven't heard of this site before, let me give you the run down.
This is just as they say in the logo, it's by fans, for fans, which means that while they stock a lot of clothing for different fandoms, they are technically not "licenced" pieces.
That said, one of the great strong points of this site is that they allow artists to submit designs and they can be voted on to create a collection for a given fandom.

We bought a whole lot of t-shirts from them a few months back, but they have become the "site of the month" for their EXCELLENT customer service.

But on to the merch. Here's a few of the pieces we bought.....

For Mat... a lot of Transformers

For Me... 

in women's sizes. It's a fitted tee so I go a Medium (i.e. I size up so it fits better).

Got this one in a medium too so I could wear shirts underneath. It's a sheer fabric so...but how AMAZING is this design. I wonder if I could get away with wearing it around the office. Hmmm...

For Connor. Yep, they have Onesies and Kid/Toddler tees.

Sooooooooooo cute!
As you can see, they have some excellent designs. In the case of the Transformers shirts, there are a lot of "obscure references" as we call it in our house, which are the kind of shirts we like. A shirt that only a true fan of the series would fully understand (the sharkticonado shirt with the Quintessons is a perfect example).
Besides the design excellence and the HUGE RANGE, the customer service is unreal.
Mat wore the Sharticonado shirt once and when taking it off it tore around the collar. Not just a little bit, I mean a "no way we can repair this" kind of tear.
So I sent the photos of this (as shown) to the customer service team, just to let them know that they might have gotten a bad batch of shirts. I honestly wasn't expecting anything from them.

To my surprise I got a response within 12 hours which said the following....
"Hi Jamie,
We greatly apologize for the inconvenience, normally replacements/refunds are done if the item is returned within 30 days. We will go ahead and issue a replacement for the damaged item as a one time exception. Since you are located in Australia, the cost of returning will surpass the item cost and is not worth it, please discard the item as you see fit. Once your replacement shirt ships, an email with tracking information will be sent. Please let you know if you have any other questions or concerns, we remain at your service"

Wow. Seriously Wow. Lets face it folks, shipping from the US to Australia at the best of exchange rate times is like US$25-$45, so for them to do that for us was amazing. 

For that alone, they deserve this high praise on the interwebs.

ok, enough of my carrying on.

Happy T-shirt shopping my friends!

Jamie :)

May the fourth be with you

It's star wars day again, time tonight for another Star Wars movie marathon (like we need an excuse).
I stole this viewing order from 'The Big Bang Theory' , but it does work - start with episode IV and episode V - then watch episodes II and III as flashbacks after finding out Darth Vader is Anakin Skywalker - then round the story out with Return of the Jedi.

But now we get a new addition though, The Force Awakens, it's going to be a long marathon. The best part is that we don't watch The Phantom Menace, even though there is some parts to like about it (namely Darth Maul).

If you're looking for another Star Wars fix,  especially waiting for Rouge One to come out, I strongly recommend Star Wars Rebels. (watch it, watch it, watch it). I've been hooked since day one, and the second season just knocked everything up a notch......... BAM

But seriously watch it, if you enjoyed Star Wars the Clone wars series there's a lot of nods and easter eggs for you as well.




                                                                                                 MAT