The Mandalorian is a global phenomenon and one of the best Star Wars things ever. Season 3 has started and our friends over at Fun.com have sent over the legendary Darksaber for review. The Darksaber was forged for force sensitive Mandalorians and while I’m neither I was very excited to wield the mighty blade. Hasbro has really outdone themselves with this presentation and is one of the best prop replicas on the market.

The packaging is interesting because this was clearly put into production before Season 2 as Moff Gideon is on the box as a reference to Season 1. (Spoilers: he doesn’t end up with it.) The sword looks to be a plot element for the new season but is just a super cool visual so I don’t care as long as I get to see Mando use it. The packaging does its job telling you what’s included and I love the shape of the box but it feels like it’s going to open like a case but it opens on the side which is probably safer.

Out of the box some assembly is required and for those of you interested but haven’t read a review or watched an unboxing video this point needs to be stressed. The blade doesn’t just pop in like Disney Legacy Lightsabers, you have to take the hilt apart in order to secure the blade. I appreciate this because it makes the blade feel very secure in the hilt. I don’t know how the blade works on the Disney Parks version of the Darksaber but I have handled it before when I visited the park and the blade felt a bit loose. I won’t make any further comparisons to the Disney Legacy Darksaber since I don’t own it but the consensus online seems to be that the Hasbro version is the superior of the two.

One thing that really impressed me was the stand. It’s very well made and while it’s suggested for just the hilt it seemed to handle the fully “lit” Darksaber pretty well. It’s made out of metal and enhances the display with its Galactic Empire wall fixture inspired design. Hasbro spared no expense it seems putting this together and they clearly had the collector in mind. I would say their emphasis was the collector over the cosplayer since the hilt doesn’t come with a belt clip and as mentioned before attaching the blade is a bit cumbersome (it requires an Allen wrench which is included but not made of Beskar).

Unlike traditional Jedi blades the Darksaber has a different shape and color so I imagine it was hard to work out how to make the blade light up. In most Lightsaber replicas the blade is a cylindrical tube that looks like a florescent light that lights up corresponding to the hilt typically in a primary color. How does one recreate a black beam of seemingly unstable plasma? I sure don’t know, Hasbro did the best they could since short of having LED screens on the blade it is a pretty hard look to recreate. They more than make up for it with their sound effects and button that helps make the blade look red as if in resistance to other blades, Beskar, or blaster bolts.

I think my review comes off as a bit restrained mostly so I don’t veer into hyperbole. Honestly this thing is amazing from the heft, functionality, display Hasbro has definitely set quite the standard for mass market prop replicas. I loved the Darksaber ever since I saw it on Clone Wars never imagining I’d one day add it to my collection. If you’d like to add this amazing piece to your shelf you can pick it up from Fun.com here. This is the way!