On Monday, December 18, my dear son and I were among the lucky first to visit the new Build Your Own Lightsaber feature at Once Upon at Toy, in the Downtown Disney Marketplace at Walt Disney World. The Cast Members on site seemed enthusastic about the new display, and more than willing to help my son with a few tricky odds and ends. They also seemed somewhat creeped out by my level of geeky excitement, and by the fact that I’d seen the press release the previous week, and blogged about it . . . but hey, I’m forty years old, I’m used to being a geek by now!
They backed away nervously when I took out the camera, and I merrily snapped away. So, here are a couple pictures for those of you who might just be weird enough to enjoy them.
The main display sign, woo hoo!
Seen from another angle, with Jedi and Sith alike working away, side-by-side.
Instructions are given, step-by-step. Some of the pieces are a bit tricky to put together, though, and the CMs are very helpful.
The first section of instructions, including (of course) the price: $19.95. Is this a better or worse buy than the standard Hasbro Build Your Own Lightsaber kit that you can get at Target? Better, IMHO . . . especially if you’re a Disney pin trader.
And finally, my darling padawan poses with his new creation.
After you finish building your lightsaber, you checkout at the regular counter. They’ll give you the appropriate batteries, plus a “Jedi” or “Sith” Disney trading pin. Contrary to earlier reports, there’s no “lightsaber testing” to determine which side you’re on . . . at least not yet. The CM at the register takes your word for whether you follow the path of fear and hate.
Broke Hoedown 
Thanks for this great information- my kids are so looking forward to visiting Disney for the sole purpose of making their own lightsabers:)
Amanda, I’m glad you enjoyed it. Have a fabulous time at Disney! 🙂
I Went July 6 ,2008 i went shopping and i went in a toy store called Once Upon A Toy Store at Downtown Disney and i went inside for no reason what so ever (bc i was bored) and i saw a Build Your Own Lightsaber thing and i was shocked bc i never expected this and i am a huge starwars fan so i decided to build my very own lightsaber and i was so excited 🙂 The Disney Castmembers were so nice. And after i made my lightsaber i started to run around DD (jking) But overall it was pretty cool.
I think that making a lightsaber is fun to play with and make for all ages. If you make one you get to pick alot of things like chooseing if you are bad or good and your color. If you make one you get your own jedi pin + become a jedi. At home I fight with my sister but she dose not have one so it is not very fair and even though she is a girl she is one of the biggest star wars fans ever and she wants to make one. that is how much fun you can have with it.
I am Caden’s siter. yha i am one of the biggest fans. and i want one so so so so bad. But i have to wait antill we go to disney.
My son built his own lightsaber at Disney as well and now it needs a new bulb. Any ideas on where to get a replacement?
I have a question, is the blade of that kid’s lightsaber yellow? How did he make a yellow one, are you given the option to choose yellow?
My lightsaber is green. They don’t have the option of yellow, because that only appears in fanfics. Sometimes the lighting makes it yellow if the bulb is on, which it usually isn’t
(Eronth, The Whatchiamacallit is the kid holding that lightsaber that looks yellow.)
Alright, thanks for your help. It struck me as odd that they might have a yellow one.
My sons want to do this for our upcoming Disney trip, but I am worried we will not be able to get them home on the airplane. Can you de-assemle them to fit into your suitcase?
I’m not sure if you’d want to de-assemble them, though you probably could. More likely though you’d just want to telescope it back down into its smaller state (ie, if you look at the lightsaber in the final picture you can see the lines where it telescopes in/out of itself to be shorter or longer).l
i almost screamed the first time i saw this, it was so awesome. the only thing is that i dont know where to replce the batterie when it goes out.
Hay mine is purple and i am like one of the biggest fans of starwars ever! so ya i really liked this, and the People were so nice. my little cousin has one(im a pre teen) so we fight now and then. his is red. i totally almost fainted when i saw this. and after it was over, i ran around DD screaming and waving mine in the air. also theres a jedi training academy and i did that with my lil cousin and when the guy was like “None of these students would ever join the dark side” my cousin slowly raised his hand and i facepalmed myself and shook my head. lol
I have one of those lightsabers and was messing around with it. There is a compartment on the side of it that has a blue chip, a green chip, and a red chip in it. I know it doesnt do anything to the color of the lightsaber so why are they there?
changes the frequency of the humming and some sounds
wow this is so much better than the ones they have now