Building a Lightsaber at Hollywood Studios
Anne asked me to share my experience building a lightsaber. When it was announced that one of the experiences in Galaxy’s Edge was going to be building your own lightsaber in Savi’s Workshop, I was a bit skeptical. Here were my first initial thoughts about the experience:
Theme park experiences are often too rushed as the cast members go through the motions for the millionth time that day.
Theme parks aren’t known for the quality of their wares.
$200+ is a big ask for any toy/prop for most people.
I had been doing some research on well made lightsaber props before Anne recommended doing one of the building experiences at Galaxy’s Edge (the other being the building of a customized droid at Mubo’s Droid Depot that goes for around $100). I know that an entry level saber of decent quality goes around a $100 - $200 price point, so if I was to go ahead with Savi’s I was depriving myself of the more popular brands for maybe a not so stellar replica from a theme park.
I’m glad I took the plunge.
When you walk up to the workshop, you’re given the option of 4 different saber hilt types:
Peace and Justice
Power and Control
Elemental Nature
Protection and Defense
Each type has unique lore and design elements attached to it, that I won’t go into, and they have multiple components for each part of the hilt so you can truly make this your saber hilt. You get a unique pin depending on which path you pick as well.
You’re allowed to bring one guest along on the experience with you (Anne of course), so you don’t have to worry about taking pics or videos. If you have a good buddy along, they’ll have your back.
Once inside, Savi gives you a little of the background of lightsaber lore and brings you up to speed on famous wielders in the past up to the newest wielder of Ray. He explains what the different colors represent. In the experience you’re offered Blue, Green, Purple and Red, but Gold and White are available to purchase in Dok-Ondar's Den of Antiquities around the corner after the experience. You pick the color that “speaks to you”, and things start moving pretty fast from there. The assistants move in and walk you through building the hilt component by component and eventually you hand your hilt over, it’s stuck into the “forger” and out comes a fully formed lightsaber with the blade glowing vibrantly in the dark in the color you picked.
The hilt itself is very well built and solid. You don’t feel like you’ve been conned out of your money for the “Disney experience” of it all. I would have been happy pumping the money into an online or convention based business for this quality of blade, and I’d bet if I looked into it a little harder, one of the more well known brands is the actual supplier for disney’s parts. The ceremony itself is very fun and checking out what other people are building and which colors they’re choosing and why is a big part of the fun. We hung out next to two younger kids who definitely made my experience more fun, as the little girl and I became Purple saber buddies and high fived.
I would definitely recommend this piece of Galaxy’s Edge for the Star Wars fans in your life. You can’t help but feel a part of the universe when you go through this. It has the vibes of the Wand Ceremony at Universal’s Diagon Alley, but this time EVERYONE gets to be chosen, and you can avoid the awkwardness of some poor kid’s parents not buying the wand that chose the kid, because everyone’s already paid to be there.
