Hello Everybody, sadly as the title above says I am going to be offline for a while due to technical issues. My laptop battery has died and I haven’t a backup laptop to use I’m using a mobile phone to type this announcement! I will do my best to get things fixed as soon as possible but I am still here and will return to posting when I can
Thanks for understanding and May The Force Be With Me for a speedy resolution.
p.s. I think I can access email if anyone needs to contact me ok.
Hello Everybody and Happy May the Fourth to you all! I hope you all have a great day and if you’re lucky enough to have Disney+ then you’ll hopefully get to see the new show “Kenobi” soon. I have to apologise however that this post is a little bit rushed as things in For Tyeth Towers hasn’t run smoothly this past week or so and all my plans for something big to celebrate May 4th went awry. But I took the opportunity to give a big shout out to a fantastic member of the lightsaber collecting/Star Wars community. That person is a member of the Ultrasabers fan forum and is called Kaiser Sosay. I post my designs on Saberforum.com and Kaiser is a regular viewer of my work I post and sometimes commented or offered suggestions. Well just before Thanksgiving in the USA Kaiser tried to contact me but due to technical issues couldn’t reach me but eventually I managed to log onto the forum and received his message. That message was that he had admired my designs a long time but didn’t comment as much as he thought he should and wanted to make up for it. He had read my comments on the forum saying I liked Qui-Gon Jinn’s saber and I hoped one day to own one from Ultrasabers. To make up for his lack of support he wanted to gift me an Ultrasaber Qui-Gon Jinn replica he owned (he actually had two). I was speechless, as here are a few product pictures of the hilt from Ultrasabers’ website….
This is an awesome saber and of course is modelled on the hilt of my favourite character Qui-Gon….and Kaiser wanted to give me his spare one as thanks for all the effort and contributions I make to the community. I was hesitant at first to accept his gift but he was insistant that I take it as he had no use for it and it needed a good home. So I gratefully accepted his offer and he arranged to have it sent to me. And when it arrived I couldn’t have been happier…as you can see here….
The first image was the picture I posted on the forum and the second shows the saber lit up in all it’s glory, because I forgot mention above that this saber was fully installed with light and sound…worth over £200! Kaiser had even “made some modifications” himself adding the beautiful red activation switch just like it has in the Phantom Menace and inside he swapped the electronics so this saber had sound AND could change blade colours! Obviously I will keep it in green to match Qui-Gon but I have the option if I want to swap colours for display purposes. I took a few images of the hilt for you to take a closer look but as I said above things haven’t run smoothly this week and after transferring the images they seem to have become distorted but hopefully they will still show how great this hilt is….
Now you may have noticed that the end cap of this saber is different than the pictures above off the manufacturer’s website because Kaiser swapped it for the slightly longer chromed pommel so again I will at some point buy an original pommel so I can swap between this look and the canon version. And I can do this because the hilt is modular and breaks down into pieces – even the shiny silver shroud comes off so the saber is plain black!…
As this is a special Star Wars day, this generous act is also very special and actually resembles an event in Star Wars history involving Mace Windu. In-between the events of “The Phantom Menace” and “Attack of the Clones” there was a battle and Mace Windu and another Jedi named E’eth Koth were involved. During the battle both were caught up in an explosion and lost their lightsabers, however in the confusion they each picked up the other Jedi’s saber but instead of swapping back they used their comrade’s weapon until it was safe for them to swap back. This was a sign of utmost friendship, trust and respect known as The Concordance of Fealty. And by Kaiser gifting me this saber I feel I have performed the act of Fealty with him. He is a great member of the Star Wars community and has my heartfelt thanks. This saber has a good home forever here.
That just about wraps this post up, again sorry it is slightly rushed and not as polished but my original plans fell through….however I feel this story is important enough to be told on May 4th. I hope you will return on Saturday the 14th to see my next post (I’m gonna take this weekend off as I posted this article early) to see what else I have in store. I have more Katanas, more starfighters, and more blasters and hopefully some costuming stuff. So thanks for checking this post out and Till next time…
MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU AND TO KAISER SOSAY!
This post is ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2022. The Ultrasabers Consular and it’s images are Trademark/©Copyright of Ultrasabers LLC based in Texas, USA.
Hello Everybody, today I bring you another Katana design inspired by a character from Hasbro’s toy line of G.I. Joe. Way back in the 80’s there was a comic book that chronicled the adventures oand missions of an elite force known as the G.I. Joes and one character in particular I took an interest in, That was the elite commando and Ninja known as Snake Eyes. Not a lot was known about this mysterious, silent (literally) covert operations expert, except that he served in the US military in south east Asia where he was injured in combat but saved by another soldier of Japanese descent. This soldier risked his life to retrieve and carry Snake Eyes back to a chopper and rescue despite being ordered to leave Snake on the battlefield. Upon returning to the US and recovering from his injuries Snake discovered that his family had perished in a car accident. So Snake travelled with the Japanese soldier that saved his life and joined the soldier’s family clan….the Arashikage….a Ninja clan!
Snake Eyes went on to study the martial arts and became a black belt in 12…yes 12 martial arts along with his now adopted blood brother who became known as Storm Shadow. Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes would later fall out after Shadow was inadvertently framed for the murder of the clan master. The leader of a group named Cobra blamed Snake Eyes for the death of his brother and sent an assassin to kill Snake but that assassin killed the clan father by mistake using a stolen arrow belonging to Shadow. Shadow fled and Snake returned to the US and the military joining the elite squad G.I Joe.
Snake’s problems didn’t end here however, as during a mission he received serious facial injuries whilst saving a female soldier named Scarlett, an accident which scarred his face and severed his vocal cords leaving him mute. He somehow survived and completed the mission and afterwards donned a mask and mysterious black body suit. Storm Shadow on the other hand…ended up joining the secretive criminal group Cobra in a attempt to discover the identity of the killer that killed his clan master. As an expert in Ninjitsu, Snake Eyes used bladed weapons such as “Knuckleduster Knives” and the famous Ninja sword or Katana. Today I showcase my lightsaber Katana in honour of this mysterious warrior, here is “Snake-Eyed Saber”
I took my recent Katana design and elongated the handgrip and Tsuka Ito wrapping, recoloured the hilt to match Snake’s stealthy black and silver colour scheme and added a glowing Arashikage clan symbol (if you look cloely to the image of Snake above you can see a non illuminated version of this logo on his Katana blade too.) This saber was difficult to get right because as I’ve mentioned before, trying to have two objects that are the same colour (or black in this case) is hard to make them appear and stand apart. But I worked hard to get the leather texture of the hadngrip wrap just the right shade and I’m pleased with the result (the leather really has a 3D look to it). I also liked how the whole saber looked, but enough chatter again…here are a few more pics in Gallery Two….
I added a second Arashikage symbol on the pommel, replacing my initials from the original Katana model. The complete symbol is actually a pair of symbols from the I-Ching, a form of divination or fortune telling, stacked one atop the other . The two symbols are Lí (the lower three lines) meaning “Flame” and the upper three rows are the symbol Kǎn meaning “Water”….the equal and opposite in all things. And what else has an equal and opposite in Star Wars? The Force of course! Light and Dark.
And as with Star Wars, there was bound to be conflict and it would transpire that Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow’s paths would cross again but that is for a future post where I will showcase Storm Shadow’s tribute. But before I finish I do want to show you how far my designing has progressed since I started….some viewers/readers may recall waaay back that I did a tribute to these two G.I.Joe characters and created a hilt for them using the old software I had access to…if you don’t recall then here is a quick glimpse of an old design!
Wow! I’ve come a long way since….wait for it….May 4th 2017! Yes five years ago! If you want to check this hilt out then you can find it here: https://ftsabersite.wordpress.com/2017/05/04/snake-eyes-fire-and-water-lightsaber-a-ninjas-lightsaber/
That just about wraps up this tribute to the silent Ninja Warrior, Snake Eyes and his new lightsaber Katana. Thank you so much for checking it out. If you liked this one and my old design please have a look round at some of my other content. I will, as mentioned return to showcase Storm Shadow in a future post along with a set of FIVE katana hilts for a colourful bunch of Ninja teenagers, plus I have some starfighter inspired saber designs too. Oh and I may post on May the Fourth….you know….Star Wars Day! Once again, thanks and till next time….
“Snake-Eyed Saber” is a For Tyeth Editions design, modelled and rendered by For Tyeth/FTSabersite in Blender 3D. The model and images are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2022. It is inspired by characters from “G.I. Joe”, created by Hasbro Toys. and is Trademark/©Copyright of Hasbro Toys. The G.I. Joe movies are Trademark/©Copyright of Paramount Pictures, Spyglass Entertainment and Hasbro Toys.
Hello Everybody, today I bring you a second design which I had secreted away in my “vault” but have decided to let you all have a look at it. Two weeks ago I showcased the saber “Sith Concept” (which you can see here> https://ftsabersite.wordpress.com/2022/04/09/sith-concept-saber-an-ft-update-of-an-ultrasaber-aeon-v3/) which was a heavily modified version of an existing lightsaber manufactured by the company called Ultrasabers (their saber is called the Aeon V3). I came up with a design with a “Grenade Grip” handle similar to that seen on Obi-Wan Kenobi’s saber seen in Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars (A New Hope) but as always once I made one modification I went a step further and came up with a second version. This second version had slightly more differences and here are my initial “Mat Cap” models I came up with…
This particular hilt I really like as had just gotten to grips with using curved surfaces and used them to create a beautiful (I think) sweeping emitter. I also felt that upon modelling the “Grenade Grip” on the original, that it was a little “blocky” and I wanted a more sleek streamlined grip so I kept the idea of raised blocks but I elongated them to be rectangular rather than being squared. Elongating the blocks makes the saber’s handgrip look longer but it is the same length…clever huh? As you can see these pictures are just the test renders to see if the shapes of the model work so now I need to show you some Glamour Shots, so here is the first gallery….
As this was a further modification of my first “Sith Concept” design I stuck with the black and gold colour scheme and of course Sith red blade…but I still think this looks like a totally different saber – and I just love how the emitter turned out. It’s fairly basic with just a sweeping curve to it and a simple raised edge to add trim. I say the emitter is basic but modelling the curved edge was complex as I had to curve the part in all three axis. You can see a closer look at the emitter in this next batch of pictures…Gallery Two….
These images really show off the inlaid gold bands and the contrasting raised ridges that make this hilt stand out. I am really pleased how this one turned out and I just wish Ultrasabers’ owners had organised a promotional design contest as I would have loved to have entered this hilt (or my first Sith Concept…. or both!). I might have had a good chance of winning. Anyhoo…. alas they didn’t so I guess that just about wraps up this design. Time to put it back in the “Vault”.
Thank you so much for taking time to check this saber out, I hope you enjoyed it. I promised to get back to lightsabers after my recent Nerfing posts, and the good news is I still have TWO collections of Katana designs (with a total of 7 sabers) and I have new variations of my Mandalorian inspired “Quartermaster” saber. All that plus I have a review of my Qui-Gon Jinn replica I was gifted, some more Foam Dart Flinging blasters to show you and……I have a new mask! I hope you will call back to FTSabersite to check all that out in future posts. Remember whether this is your first visit or you regularly call in to my site, I appreciate it very much. Till next time….
“Sith Concept – Slant” saber is a For Tyeth Editions design, modified from an Ultrasabers Aeon V3 hilt. The 3D model and renders were produced by For Tyeth/FTSabersite and are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2022. The “Aeon V3” lightsaber is manufactured by Ultrasabers and it’s design is Trademark/©Copyright of Ultrasabers.llc.
Hello Everybody, you may recall a few posts back I mentioned that I had acquired a Blaster? A Nerf Havok-Fire EBF25 minigun style foam dart flinging toy? Well I said that I got it because I thought I could modify it and make a nice “Star Wars-y” cosplay prop out of it – the only problem was that it was in such perfect condition I didn’t want to deface or destroy it turning it into a prop. So I figured I’d set up an online shopping account with that big “secondary market” website and I would look to try and buy a second cheap Havok-Fire that wasn’t in such good condition. Aaand….yes well that plan worked out well. I found another Havok-Fire and made a bid for it and again WON! Here is my Stormtrooper door sentry accepting delivery of my latest package…
I think he was hoping the item I bought was a “second hand” to replace his missing one…sadly not. But this package supposedly had my second Havok-Fire in it so I was excited at least. I took my trusty Stanley knife/box cutter and opened the box up and wow was it well wrapped and packed…
Plenty of paper and bubble wrap on this blaster…I could only just make out it was a Nerf blaster! But it was and when I freed it from the packaging I discovered a problem….it too was in PRISTINE condition! Not only that but it was a slightly different version to my original blaster. I found that I couldn’t bring myself to mutilate this example either…I mean look at this…
Now some of you may be thinking…”Hang on this is the same blaster you showed me three weeks ago Tyeth!” but I promise you it isn’t. If you look closely at the barrel you can see that it is slightly shorter -more snub nosed than the original blaster I got and the legs of the tripod are plain grey and not accented in yellow. Here are two pics to show the differences…
Hopefully you can see in the picture with my saber in, that the barrel is a bit longer and the tripod has yellow “socks” on the tripod legs. Otherwise the two are exactly the same and both work perfectly in single shot spring powered mode and the battery powered mode. The two blasters had no corrosion in the battery compartment or any sign of real wear and tear. I just can’t modify these, And I know you still think that the two blasters are one and the same….OK here’s a another pic
I think they just look too awesome together and I definitely wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of a barrage of darts from these! And in true Star Wars style there’s only one thing I can say about this…
I really hoped that this second blaster would have had issues so that I wouldn’t have felt bad modding it but as I say and you can see it is perfect and the really ironic thing about this blaster? I said that I never saw Nerf stuff available to buy in my town….well this second blaster was from a seller that lived in the same town as me, I could probably have walked to collect it rather than have it couriered to me!
So I still haven’t converted any Nerf blasters into props yet but my collection is getting bigger….as is my “problem”….I also saw these available at a local “Bargain Superstore” at a great price and I kinda turned to the “Dart Side of the Force” and bought them too….
These are some really cool “Ball Blasters” that fire soft spongy red ammo balls – at a speed of around 100 feet per second (almost as fast as 12 Parsecs!) They are made by the second big company that make foam blaster toys – Zuru X-Shot. These are also a lot of fun to target practise with and I’ll post a review of them in an upcoming post. I really have caught the “Foam Flinging Bug”.
That just about wraps this post up, thanks so much for checking it out, I seem to be veering away from lightsabers so next week I will be returning with some more unseen saber designs from my Vault – I hope you will return to check those out (oh and I still have around 6 or 7 Katana style hilts too to show off). Whether you are a first time visitor or a regular caller to FTSabersite I appreciate all the support. Please leave the usual likes, comments and even subscribe if you like what you see here – it keeps motivating me to carry on designing and posting. Till next time….
This was a For Tyeth Foam Flinging episode and all images were taken by For Tyeth/FTSabersite and are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2022. The video clip from “The Phantom Menace” is via YouTube and is Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/Lucasfilm.
Hello Everybody, I am back and at 100% after last week’s slight off par performance. Thanks for the get well wishes. So today I am showcasing a design I did back in 2019 for a friend of mine from the Ultrasabers forum named Karmack. Karmack owns several Ultrasabers brand hilts and is well known for repainting them in his own “Clan colours”. Anyhow, he and I were chatting on the forum and the topic of what Ultrasabers new Version 5 wave of sabers might look like and it was suggested that I attempt to come up with a possible update to an existing saber. I chose a hilt that Karmack owned called the Aeon V3 and set to work modifying the design. The Aeon is a nice lightsaber already, solid and durable with great ergonomics with plenty of places to grip it allowing the saber to be used for many styles of combat. It looks like this…
As you can see it is sleek and curvy. So I had to come up with something similar but different and I decided I wanted to incorporate an acknowledgement to a classic saber, the one owned by Obi-Wan Kenobi. The saber we see Obi-Wan use in the original Star Wars film had a distinct handgrip that featured a turreted block pattern similar to a hand grenade – and it won’t come as a surprise but the actual prop was constructed using a real World War 2 rifle grenade body. The grenade grip style I thought would give the Aeon a totally different look and feel. I set to work and came up with this base model….
I took the basic outline of the Aeon design and I replaced the Ultrasabers’ handgrip of engraved rings and added a grenade block grip (sometimes called a “Pineapple”). I also felt the emitter/blade holder was a bit plain so I cut a slot down the middle of the emitter to produce a “forked” appearance.
This model was created when I was having my “MatCap” madness moment – MatCap is a method of creating a virtual “clay model” in Blender 3D to view how a model will look using a single texture or material hence the term MATerial CAPture. But this design would need to have proper textures and as the design was more aggressive I went with a Darkside colour scheme….time for a Glamour Gallery….
As you can see I went classic black and gold, using the gold to accent lines of the hilt around the switch section to break up the plain black coating. The Sith red blade blazes out through the slotted emitter giving it an almost crocodile-like mouth look. I also added an Anti Vandal switch instead of the plastic switch seen in Ultrasabers’ official product image above….AV switches just look sleeker/nicer to me.
The Ultrasaber line up of sabers did have one feature that some folks didn’t like quite as much and that was the design of the pommel end cap. Now for some sabers that produce sound you need a hole to vent that audio so Ultrasabers gave their hilts a pommel with a hole cut out large enough to vent sound but small enough to prevent the saber’s electronics slipping out. This led to basically a doughnut (do-nut) shaped pommel with an open hole which exposed the speaker (which concerned a few people as damage could occur if an object found it’s way through the hole) so I added a speaker grill that also acted as decoration. Time I think for Gallery Two….
I think this designs works and gives an existing design a totally different look. Ultrasabers do have a “Darkside” version of the Aeon V3 called the “Doninix V3” but it is just coloured black instead of silver. My design and images have never been posted as I kept them just between myself and Karmack because other members of the forum tried to convince the owners of Ultrasabers to hold a design contest and I would have entered using this design. Alas the contest was never realised and this saber has been sitting on my hard drive for THREE years now…so I figured I may as well showcase it today.
That just about wraps up this “Sith Concept” saber. It was fun to build way back when I was only really starting out with Blender. I hope you enjoyed a belated look at it. I also hope you will return to FTSabersite for future posts as I have more to show you all…including more Katana styed lightsabers, more Nerfing fun (yes more blasters!) and maybe some more costuming and LEGO content. So thank you for calling in today, all your support, comments, likes and subscriptions mean a lot to me and really do inspire me to keep designing and posting. So new or regular visitors, thanks so much. Till next time….
“Sith Concept Saber” is a For Tyeth Editions design inspired by the Ultrasabers Aeon V3 hilt. It was modelled and rendered in Blender 3D by For Tyeth/FTSabersite and both the model and rendered images are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2022. The Ultrasabers Aeon V3 and the product images are the property of Ultrasabers.
Hello Everybody, I am sorry but today (and this past week) I have felt a bit below par so I don’t have as big an offering as I normally have. The reason is that I suffer with a long term medical condition that requires me to take some seriously strong medication to control the symptoms, and for the past two years due to COVID restrictions on hospital appointments and access I have had to reduce the number of tablets I’ve been taking (cos I couldn’t get refills) and in the past 6 months I have had no new meds, I have just this past three weeks gotten a new prescription and the medication is just getting back in my system – and the meds are a little bit nasty in their side effects! Nothing a Jedi can’t handle but I have slowed down a bit. SO…I just have a “re-wrapping” of the Star Wars Visions inspired Katana hilt to show you today. I did promise I would tinker with this hilt anyway and now I have a few renders in much better lighting so you can see the details a bit better. OK enough chatter, here is the Sith version of the Katana…
I changed the background location to a more light friendly outdoor scene. The changes to the hilt include a new blade colour which is now obviously on the Darkside of the Force Sith red. I also tweaked the colour of the leather Tsuka Ito wrap to be a nice “dried blood red” leather much better suited to a Sith Warrior’s weapon, and peek beneath the wrapping you will see that the actual handgrip has been changed from a green wooden handle to a now red and black marbled Ivory handgrip. The new exterior location for these pictures also help you to pick out the etching detail on the gold parts and the blade. The pommel and Tsuba handguard have delicate carvings on that didn’t quite show up as well in the dark moody images from the original seen here in comparison.
Actually, now that I am looking at the two the original images weren’t quite as bad as I thought, it just depends on the angle they’re viewed from. You can see the big difference changing from the black and green to the new red colour scheme makes, again it has a regal/noble or dare I say “Bling-like” look now – very high status.
Finally I just wanted to try and get some full length shots of the saber and I wondered if the background image with the lake would make a difference so I put the saber out over the water to see what effects it had…
Well, I figured why not have two sabers? The Sith have been known to enjoy overindulgence. Whilst taking these pics I did have an idea on what I could do next to this design and I may have 5 or 6 new versions I can work on as I recover.
And that I’m afraid brings me to the end of this post. I hope to be back 100% next week as I want to showcase my new Qui-Gon Jinn replica saber I was recently gifted, plus I have been digging in the hard drive of my laptop and found some designs that I never posted (I kept them because I hoped to submit them to a manufacturer should they ever hold a design contest but they didn’t). SO thank you all for checking out this “Re-wrap” design and I hope you enjoyed it. Please do call back to FTSabersite to see more in future posts. You are all much appreciated and remember to comment, maybe leave a like or two and if you really like what you see here…subscribe so you won’t miss a thing, Till next time….
“Sith Katana – FT Visions Katana” is a For Tyeth Editions creation and was modelled and rendered in Blender 3D by For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2022. The design, model and renders are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2022.
Hello Everybody and welcome. Today I have something completely different than I normally post and in this one I will be showing you my “fully operational battle blaster” the Nerf Havok-Fire EBF 25 foam dart firing minigun. Now Obi-Wan Kenobi famously disliked blasters and was quoted as saying, “Blasters….(ugh) So uncivilised!” as he used one to finish off General Grievous in the film Revenge of the Sith. But….I recently got into Nerfing and foam dart shooting and it’s great fun. I have always enjoyed doing target practise and as a youngling had an ancient “weapon” called a Bow and Arrow that I used to fire at tin cans and targets hung on trees, then I got projectile firing toys and eventually progressed to firing an air powered gun now and then. And I got pretty good. But as I got older and moved to a high rise tower block I didn’t have anywhere to practise. But now I have gotten into foam dart flinging fun!
Last year I did obtain some Nerf blasters that I intended to modify and turn into Cosplay props but I haven’t gotten round to doing any modifications as I couldn’t get spray paints and supplies etc due to lockdowns….unfortunately in that time I have sort of gotten attached to how the blasters look as they are and kinda want to collect them normally. So back to today I want give you all a full look at my latest acquisition the Nerf Havok-Fire EBF 25. This was a gift from Mrs Tyeth, who found it in a Salvation Army Charity shop (aka a Thrift Store in the US) in the village where her mother lives. Mrs T thought it was complete but it did have it’s ammunition box missing (fortunately I found a reasonably priced replacement one online). It was otherwise in immaculate condition and awesome. SO enough talk here are a few pictures…
This thing is a BEAST of a blaster, based on a chain/belt fed heavy machine gun. The foam darts are stored and loaded via a flexible chain link belt that has 25 cylinders which each hold a dart (hence the abbreviation EBF 25 – which stands for Electronic Belt Feed 25). And once loaded and blaster primed it is FULLY AUTOMATIC. It keeps firing and reloading for as long as you pull the trigger and have ammunition to fire. Here are a few close up pictures and images of the blaster and it’s ammo box…
In the first pics you can see the handgrip section with the trigger and if you look above where the trigger is you will see what looks like a switch – well this is the fire mode selector. In the OFF position the blaster is idle but you can load a dart one at a time by pulling back on a lever bolt then pull the trigger to fire one dart – then repeat the process. This mode doesn’t require batteries (it takes a whopping SIX D-Cell size batteries which weigh a ton)….BUT flick the mode switch and it will….hang on I have something to show you later! The last pictures show the ammunition box and ammo belt that clips onto the side of the blaster, and there are two orange handles (the cone shaped bits) that are the loading/cocking levers. OKAY….OKAY….Enough talk….what happens if you load this blaster with 25 darts, pull the lever back, aim and fire?….THIS IS A FIRING TEST!>>>
That my friends was the Havok-Fire shooting 25 foam darts in 9 secs or at a rate of 3 darts a second! It is an amazing bit of fun and bear in mind this blaster was produced and released in 2008 so it is 14 years old and still functioning! Some Havok-Fire owners modify their blasters by installing more powerful batteries so it fires even faster and connect 2,3,4 and even more ammo belts together to feed more darts. If you were to face this in a Nerf Foam War it would be intimidating! As you can tell I kinda love this blaster, and you can even take the tripod off and attach a sling belt so you can carry the blaster just like Rambo or Dutch in Predator…and spray your opponents with foam darts!
FOR TYETH FUN FACT: NERF is an acronym which stands for Non Expandable Recreational Foam which describes the material that the blaster’s darts are made from! Nerf and Nerfing later became the terms used to identify the hobby as a whole and not just to describe Hasbro Toys products.
So basically I have been bitten by the Nerf Bug (well I suppose it’s better than catching COVID). I still plan on modifying some of the blasters I have because now lockdown restrictions in the UK have been relaxed I can get out and obtain the parts/supplies I need. This particular blaster though I am keeping original…though if I can find another one cheap on Ebay then I might be tempted to give it a “Sci-Fi look” makeover. You will have noticed that just in front of the blaster I had a lightsaber on display too….just so you don’t think I have been turned to the Nerf Side of the Force ok! That lightsaber will feature in a post here very soon as it is extremely precious to me.
That I think just about wraps this post up I have run out of darts of information to share with you about it. I hope you enjoyed the slight change of pace and subject matter, but I wanted to show lightsabers and blasters can exist and live together nicely…Thanks so much for checking this post out and for all of your support. New viewers or regular visitors you are all appreciated. Please call back for more saber designs, Lego creations and now Foam Flinging Frolics in future!….Till next time…..
“Nerf Havok-Fire EBF 25: For Tyeth’s Foam Flinging machine” is a For Tyeth/FTSabersite article and all images/video were created by For Tyeth/FTSabersite and are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2022. “NERF” and “Havok-Fire EBF 25” are Trademarks of HASBRO Toys.
Hello Everybody, today is a slightly better day for me as I have been having fun with my new saber and blasters I showed you last week. Mrs Tyeth bought the big “Minigun” style blaster from a charity/thrift store and thought it was complete, unfortunately when she managed to bring it home I found that the “Ammo Box” that clips to the side to hold the ammo belt was missing. Luckily I decided to set up an online shopping account and found a cheap replacement Ammo Box and placed a bid….and I won! So now I have a “Fully operational battle blaster”! I will feature it here next week so stay tuned for some “For Tyeth Foam Flinging”. But I need to show you my latest Lego creation and this one is a stretch.
I have been working a series of models based on Airspeeders and transports and today I expand the collection. The first speeder I built had one engine, the second had twin engines so doubling up again this week’s build has….FOUR engines. I have been watching the Lego Star Wars cartoons recently and in a few episodes we see the Padawan learners of the Jedi Temple on adventures in their “school bus” and I thought “Hey, I could build a transport vehicle a bit like a bus that holds multiple figures”
so I set to work starting with the engine…..
I began with one engine and a single control vane, then made duplicates as I knew one or two wouldn’t be enough for this slightly more bulky vehicle. I struggled at first wondering how to arrange the pods but then I remembered a ship called the QuadJumper seen in The Force Awakens (the QuadJumper is the ship blown up by Tie Fighters that are attacking Rey and Finn on Jakku before Rey decides to borrow the “piece of garbage” we know as the Millennium Falcon!). So I built a couple of assemblies that positioned four engines in two stacks that fit either side of the vehicle. The last image shows a Starboard (right sided) engine assembly. Next I had to build a fuselage big enough to accommodate a few minifigures. I took the Commando Speeder and stretched it, along with adding a sealed passenger compartment then attached the two engine assemblies to either side….this was the result, the QuadBus!….
I was extremely pleased with this as it had the same sort of look and vibe of the many shuttle transport buses seen darting around the skies of Coruscant during the Prequel movies. I planned to make this a bus, however while putting it together it felt more like a high end personal transport for two or three figures so I had a Chauffeur Pilot in the cockpit section and two “passengers” in the aft compartment.
This gallery shows off the lines of the ship from various angles and a few close ups of the detailing including the opening cockpit canopy and passenger compartment window/doors. With the four high powered engines I don’t think this “bus” would have any problem nipping in and out of traffic and would be quite a comfortable ride….much more comfy than the original BikeSpeeder I built that started this series of models!
So I had fun practicing my “Target Shooting” and swinging my new saber about, plus I came up with a new Lego design but….back in the real world the current situation in the eastern Europe and Ukraine has gotten worse and as I feared the war seems to be becoming an “entrenched” battle. Casualties are mounting and needless suffering is growing with more people leaving the country if they can. And here in the outer rim of the UK I feel frustrated still that there isn’t much I can do in real terms. However I can send out a message to let the people of Ukraine know I am wishing for a swift peaceful end to the suffering they are subjected to and I had an idea how I could show support…by rebuilding the QuadBus…in the colours of their national flag!
I think this works!
And that brings me to the end of this week’s post – thank you so much for checking it out. I am having more and more fun creating these Lego designs and will hopefully have more for upcoming posts. I will also have a full feature on my latest and greatest Nerf blaster, the Havok Fire I showed off last week. So please call back to FTSabersite to see all this and more in the next few weeks. Thanks again and remember you are all very much appreciated, I couldn’t run a blog without you, Till next time….
“Commando Speeder: QuadBus” is a For Tyeth Lego Forge design. It was designed and modelled in the LEGO Digital Designer software and the screenshot renders were produced in Blender 3D. All model designs and artwork are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2022, The “Lego DIgital Designer -LDD” belongs to the LEGO corporation and is Trademark/©Copyright of the LEGO Corporation.
Hello Everybody, today I have a saber based on a famous starfighter that was a multi-role spacecraft and very durable. This space ship was the equivalent of the famous A-10 Warthog fighter/bomber aircraft of the American military – both could take a beating. Anakin Skywalker had a Y-Wing fighter during the Clone Wars but his was brand new and looked much more streamlined due to the panelling and armour plating – whilst the Y-Wings we usually think of look much more skeletal as most of the bodywork was scavenged or lost. You will have seen Y-Wings during the original trilogy movies, especially during the two Death Star battles.
You can clearly see that this version of the Y-Wing has seen some action…and you can easily see how the ship got it’s name. The fuselage and cockpit forming the stem of a letter “Y” whilst the engines stretch out to form the arms. Now I can’t remember what I was doing that inspired me to model this as a saber but I did and I think it’s about time I revealed my Y-Wing Saber….Gallery Time…..
I started at the front with the cockpit section – seemed a good idea. As this was going to be a saber I didn’t add the two small laser canons in the nose as they would get snagged up as you tried to handle the blade. The rest of the cockpit is there and looks fairly close, including a small laser turret at the rear (the gun barrells being able to be folded down out of the way). There is “Greebling” details on the side to try and replicate bits of mechanical parts where panels are missing. The long thin neck section is the handgrip and is adorned with some pipework and brackets to again represent possibly fuel lines etc (these are a little more flush with the fuselage so don’t get in the way and provide a bit of grip). Following further down the hilt we get to the main structure which acts as the switch section for the hilt. I added a lit activation switch disguised as part of the pipework (the junction fixture). If you zoom in REALLY close you can even see the bolts that I modelled to hold the plumbing in place! The main blade’s emitter is situated at the rear of this fuselage section and is flanked by the engine outriggers that house the secondary blades. There is more Greebling details on the main fuselage and on the outriggers. A close-up of the panels can be seen in the last image,.
Now this saber is based on a spaceship so I should really show you how it looks in space, so here are a handful of “in flight” images!
Well, it sorta looks like a Y-Wing and I like the engines and the side blades. With the elongated neck section the Y-Wing takes on a sort of Trident shape but I feel it is still recognisable.
Now that just about wraps up this homage to a workhorse spaceship that helped save the galaxy more than once. But it isn’t quite the end of this post…I have some news of new arrivals! This week I received a present or two, first I got a few new NERF blasters so I can keep practising my sharpshooting (Safely)….and if you look closely at the picture….you might see a saber…
Yes I have succumbed and got some blasters or two, the Nerf Havok Fire EBF-25 and the Volt SD-1. The Volt is a single shot pistol that you load a dart, pull the orange drawbar to cock it then pull the trigger to fire, Simple. The Havok Fire…well that’s a beast! It is loaded by using a belt of cartridges – each with a dart in – and when in full automatic mode it fires all 25 darts in about 3-4 seconds! The rest of the blasters you may have seen in my previous posts. And the lightsaber? That is absolutely amazing… a gift from a member of the saber forum I use who liked my designs so much and thought I contributed to the community that he wanted to give me the saber. He read comments that I hoped to pick one up and he had a spare so gave me it . It is a Qui-Gon Jinn replica made by Ultrasabers but the member upgraded it a bit. I will do a full article showing the new blasters and saber very soon.
But I am now nearing the end of this post and I’d like to say a big thank you for checking this Y-Wing inspired saber out. I have much more coming up in future posts (as you can see^) so I hope you will return to see those posts too. Whether this is your first visit to FTSabersite or you are a regular thanks so much. I am now going to practice my target shooting at some cardboard cutouts! Till next time….
“Y-Wing Saber” is a For Tyeth Editions design inspired by the BTL A4 Y-Wing Starfighter seen in Star Wars Clone Wars and movies. The saber is designed and modelled by For Tyeth in Blender 3D and is ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2022. “Y-Wing”, Star Wars and all other names, logos, images and related materials are Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/Lucasfilm.
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