Utahns’ high-end lightsabers earn nearly $110K on Kickstarter

Utahns’ high-end lightsabers earn nearly $110K on Kickstarter

(Courtesy of Kyberlight)


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AMERICAN FORK — With 34 days left to go, a Utah team’s Kickstarter for fully-customizable lightsabers has already brought in nearly $110,000.

Shon Whitney, one of the three engineers behind the Kyberlight project, said he and his friends have been interested in lightsabers for years. They’ve even purchased several custom blades from other companies, but were frustrated by the quality and price.

“We’ve been tinkering around with lightsabers for a long time and we just thought, ‘You know what, there is a giant opportunity here in this space,’” Whitney said.

Whitney and his friends decided to engineer their own modular lightsaber from the ground up. It comes with a 12-piece customization pack so people can change the style of their hilts and choose from 20 different colors.

“I love that we can change colors just by pushing a button,” he said. “There are a couple of companies who have one you have to plug into like a circuit board and then change them on your computer, but ours you can do it on the fly while you’re fighting or playing around.”

Kyberlight’s campaign has far exceeded its original $50,000 goal, so Whitney said the team is moving forward with its production plans. Once the crowdfunding period ends, they intend to sell their custom lightsabers online and attend various events, starting with the Salt Lake Comic Con.

Photo: Courtesy of Kyberlight
Photo: Courtesy of Kyberlight

“We have big plans eventually to go international,” he said. “There are a couple of big shows in Japan and in Europe that are kind of like Comic Con.”

The three partners behind Kyberlight have been running the project as a hobby. Whitney said it has been going really well so far. His kids have even joined in on the fun.

“They have played with the prototypes and in fact, three of my kids are on the Kickstarter video,” Whitney said. “They’re in it, so they’re helping us out. They love it. They think it’s so much fun and are just having a blast with it.”

Kyberlight’s custom lightsabers start at $199 for the Kickstarter campaign. According to Whitney, high-end lightsabers typically run between $650 to $1,200.


Contact the author at ncrofts@ksl.com or find her on Twitter.

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