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Lightsabers: the greatest chopsticks ever

You might have seen these on Think Geek before. While the beloved nerdy online store sells them, they’re actually made by Japanese toymakers Kotobukiya. I visited the company’s booth at Toy Fair in February and got a sample of the chopsticks, a double pack of chopstick sets based on Luke Skywalker (his first lightsaber) and Yoda’s lightsabers.

I’m not a chopstick connoisseur, but these are ridiculously sweet chopsticks. For their size and price, the hilts are accurate and surprisingly detailed, and the blades are a very nice translucent plastic that both look good and sit well in the hand. Each pair of chopsticks also comes with a clear acrylic chopstick rest with the Star Wars logo in the same color as the blades. The chopstick rests only come with the double packs, though; if you get single pairs of lightsabers, you'll have to rest them on something else.

They’re not entirely perfect, though. Since Yoda’s lightsaber blade is shorter, it doesn’t feel quite as comfortable. Of course, that only applies with Yoda’s lightsaber chopsticks; every other lightsaber chopstick is longer and much easier to use. Also, as awesome as they are, the chopsticks would have been a thousand times better if the blades lit up. Still, these are minor quibbles, and who wants Yoda’s lightsaber anyway? Considering how cheap they are (ThinkGeek carries them for $13 a set), they’re great chopsticks.

Kotobukiya has even more chopsticks on the way. A second wave of lightsaber chopsticks are scheduled, including Darth Maul and Mace Windu’s lightsabers. Darth Maul’s chopsticks even connect into a cool-looking but utterly useless double-bladed chopstick. The company is also producing a series of katana chopsticks with hilts and handguards, inspired by famous Japanese swordsmen. Yes, in the future your food fights might include Jedi versus samurai action.