“Thunderdome Saber” – Inspired by Mad Max 3 Beyond Thunderdome

G’day Cobbers……this be the telling of a man, a myth….a Max. The man was Max Rockatansky also be knowing as “The Sky Captain” who came to our space after the big explosion and the black gold ran out. He was to save us and return us to the big shining Tomorrow-morrow Land. But first Max had to survive a journey….through Bartertown and the THUNDERDOME! Yes today folks we travel “down under” to Australia of the near future and the world of Max Rockatansky. Max was a former police officer whose family was killed by a rogue biker gang that prowled the wastelands of Australia after a nuclear war. Max set out to bring his own form of justice onto the bike gang and hunted them down, earning the name the “Road Warrior”….then later he came upon an outpost town named Bartertown. Here he tried to get more “Juice” for his vehicle but fell foul of the trading post’s traditions and ended up fighting in the Thunderdome.

Well, back in reality my friend The Vintage Toy Advertiser (his site: https://thevintagetoyadvertiser.org/) “challenged” me to design a saber (or two) inspired by Mad Max and this is the first of three designs I have accomplished. This saber is inspired by and modelled on the infamous “Thunderdome” fighting arena seen in the third movie. The dome was a metal cage which two combatants entered and fought to the death to settle arguments and disputes. The dome had two rules…Two men enter, one man leaves, and the second rule was “There are no rules”. Inside were a variety of weapons as well as Bungy-cord harnesses which allowed the fighters to jump and climb about the inside of the locked dome – and allow them to grab weapons hanging from the roof. Well that brings me to the first gallery of pictures….prepare to enter “Thunderdome”!

This saber is based on my previous “Rapier” designs I made for Inigo Montoya and Zorro and I used the “basket handguard” to replicate the Thunderdome itself. The dome was made of metal grating so I created a half sphere then added a Modifier to turn the sphere into a “Wireframe” mesh which I then thickened the struts to form the cage structure. I then added the single (and locked) cage door on one side. To give the dome an old frontier look I applied a texture of flaking painted metal. The dome protects the users’ hand and covers the activation switch module that I shaped to look like a coffin (morbid I know, but it does represent the rule of only one man leaves the dome). The leather handgrip is reminiscent of Max’s jacket and the clothing worn by his adversary, the Master Blaster. But more about Master Blaster in a future post, for now I will present the second batch of images and some closeups of the details.

In the first image you can see how the dome would look if it were a freestanding object. You can also see the “doorway” that I added which is highlighted silver. The second image shows the “coffin switch” and leather detailing. The switch is basic but the whole Bartertown and Mad Max setting is dystopian and kinda apocalyptic so I didn’t want a fancy activation box…just something that looked thrown together and functional. The leather I am really pleased with as I am getting better at setting the texture up to show off the details – I have nailed the function which creates the illusion of “bumps and ridges” known as Bump Mapping. This makes the stitching on the leather appear to pop out (and the grain also looks as if it is rough). Finally just as a reminder of the rules of Thunderdome, I added the text around the pommel which reads “Two men enter….One man leaves” in a metallic silver to match the doorway. I managed to find a suitable background image that looks like the post apocalyptic outback too.

This is just the first basic saber I did to get me in the mood and I have TWO more Mad Max themed sabers to showcase in future posts but I also have news of a new arrival at “Tyeth Towers”. I mentioned a week or two ago that I was awaiting a parcel from America…well it arrived and here is a sneak peek at what that parcel contained….

My new saber…a beautiful gift!

You might recognise this lightsaber as it is modelled on the one owned by Luke Skywalker in Return of the Jedi. This is a fully working replica and was gifted to me by an extremely generous member of the saber community as thanks for my designing. I will have a special featured post showcasing this hilt more coming soon.

And that just about wraps up this edition, thanks so much to The Vintage Toy Advertiser for his newest challenge to me, and thank you to all my viewers/readers. You are all very much appreciated and I hope you enjoyed this post and will call back to check out my new saber and all the new designs I have coming up (the Mad Max trilogy and a new collection of “Phase Two Trooper” lightsabers). I’m off to visit Tomorrow-Morrow Land…….Till next time…..

“Thunderdome Saber” is a For Tyeth Editions design inspired by the movie Mad Max 3 Beyond Thunderdome. The design, 3D model and renders were created by For Tyeth/FTSabersite and are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2022. “Mad Max 3 Beyond Thunderdome” is a Warner Bros/Universal Pictures movie directed by George Miller and George Ogilvie. “Mad Max”, “Thunderdome” and all other names, logos, images and related material are Trademark/©Copyright of Warner Bros/Universal Pictures (1985).