*Cue Imperial March*
I have it folks, the Victor Limited Edition Darth Vadar Star Wars racket and bag. And OMG is it ever awesome.
This was not an easy racket and bag for me to get my hands on. They made only 1500, which put me in a tizzy because I’m a child of the 80’s when limited edition Star Wars stuff was really obscure and hard-to-find unless you had an in at a comic book store or something. It was also not available in China or America. Taiwan and Hong Kong had it, but shipping between those areas and Xiamen is “international” and I would be required to pay high taxes. (I was willing actually but the stores didn’t want the hassle and refused to send it.)
I was ready to pack my bags and go to Hong Kong to get it myself when Azhi, my Taiwanese partner, said he was going back to Taiwan to visit his family.
“You can pick up the racket and bag!” I said excited.
“Oh, I didn’t even think of that,” he said nonchalantly.
“It’s not out yet, but you should call a store and reserve one so you will be sure to get one. It’s limited edition!” I said. “Call a store now and make sure they will get it when it is released.” With only 1500 available every store wouldn’t have one. I wanted conformation, and hard evidence, that it would be available.
“Well…” he said. “Actually….I already did that and bought and paid for it. I didn’t want to tell you.”
He was getting it as a surprise for me, and I totally ruined it. *Headsmack*
“You know I’m too excited and nervous about these things for me not to be sure,” I said.
“I know.”
When he went to Taiwan I was bothering him everyday asking him where it was, and when it wasn’t arriving asking him to contact his friend, the store, anyone who could tell him where it was. When it finally arrived he sent me a picture of the box, the racket and bag. You would think it was a lifesaving medicine or some medical innovation prototype the way I was carrying on about it. It’s not those things….it’s even better!!
This isn’t some prequel trash…this is the OG Star Wars. Darth Vadar! Empire Strikes Back era Darth Vadar, not dumb moody Anakin. The racket has awesome details with Darth’s name all over it and “Come to the Dark Side” written on the racket head.
It has “Darth” and “Vadar” on the inside of the racket. It’s hard to see when strung but a super cool detail.
It also came with a bag which is awesome and looks great too. So much so that my club members (who “kinda know” Star Wars but don’t know the original trilogy) threatened to steal the bag from me.
“Can you help me buy one?” They asked.
“Sure, pay for me to go to Taiwan and I’ll get one for you!” Heh, heh.
It’s not overbearingly Star Wars but subtle and classy.
It has Star Wars on one side. The inside of the bag has some cool Darth stuff too. They didn’t skimp on details on this thing.
The thing this bag is missing is a shoe pocket, but aside from that I love it. My old Yonex bag was falling apart so it was perfect timing. This bag has a nice structure and feels good carrying it around. One problem is the racket pocket was made for 1-2 rackets and carrying 4 makes it a big clunky on your back.
As for the racket, it’s a real racket and no, it doesn’t light up or make noise (as cool as that would be, it wouldn’t be practical for a racket you can actually use.) It’s a Victor Jetspeed racket and by all accounts quite good. I’ve been really getting into my Adidas racket but this is a good racket when I need to give my arm a break. It is very light (sometimes too light for me), but suitable for mixed doubles. It also looks great and I say all manner of quotes in my head as I play. Darth was never my favorite character in Star Wars (that would be R2-D2), but now I feel more of a connection to him because of my racket. And if the dark side of the force can help me play better, well, “what is thy bidding, my master?”
I kept harassing the stringer as he was stringing it the first time. Between each game I kept asking “you done yet? You done yet?” I was sooo annoying.
Now if only they would release a Lord of the Rings racket, with a gold racket head and inscription written in black speech on the inside all my nerd dreams would come true!
And since were on the topic, please enjoy this classic badminton clip of a 4 jedi’s playing badminton.
I’m an SW and LOTR fan here as well! May I know how much tension you had for this? I was wondering if we could max it out at 27lbs? May the force be with you. Thank you!