Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Weapon Review: Warlord Sports OMNI

Edit: These weapons were purchased about 6-9 months prior to the release of this article. Since that time, WLS has dropped off the face of the earth and the website is down indefinitely, so these weapons are unfortunately no longer available.

We have not done any reviews yet so here is my first. I am going to give you 4 categories; Style, Functionality, Durability and Value, then I will give the weapon a score out of five based on the average of the 4 categories. Without further ado, I give you the Warlord Sports Omni.





Between Bill and myself we have purchased four of these swords. I purchased two of the 33" swords, one regular and one light. They have a few different handle varieties, I ordered the cast rope. When they got to my porch, they were professionally packaged. I was impressed with that because the company is fairly new. I am not sure about the rest of you but I get super excited when I get new kit, I called Bill pretty much right away so I could beat on him.

Style: These swords look like foam baseball bats or clubs. They are not the most stylish weapon in existence. The translation from foam club, to magic sword of epicness is one that larpers get used to fairly quickly in the game so they looked good to me. Professionally built, excellent stitching on the covers, the foam was all tight and there were no rattles. Style is pretty subjective but with real looking latex sword on one end and duct taped PVC on the other I can safely give these a 3.5 on style.

Functionality The functional use of a foam sword is to hit your friends. These swords have dense foam which seems to break down very slowly. The cores are well buried on all sides and the cap on the top( Which appears to be marine foam) is really thick. I can see myself beating my friends with these two swords for at least a year from purchase. The weapons are very well weighted, they have the balance point about half way up the blade. The cast rope handle does not slip even when the air is wet. The foam appears to be somewhat waterproof as the sword does not get significantly heavier in the rain. For functionality these swords get a 4.5 they are really a 5 if you play only Amtgard or Dagorhir, a 4.5 for NERO because you need to do some convincing every time you use them that the marine foam cap is safe to stab with.

Durability I generally get about 12 events out of a latex sword before I deem it unsafe, I have already used my Warlord Sports sword for probably 20 events worth or practice and it shows no signs of deterioration( Apart from the cap of the cover coming off because I do a tip drag on a low feint) For Durability these get a flat 5 no questions asked one of the most durable weapons I have ever owned.

Value For 25$ these are an excellent value. You get a bunch of customization options and color choices. You can choose from light, normal or heavy weapons. It is strange but buying these is probably cheaper than making your own sword of similar quality. I give these a 5 on value as well.

So for an over all score you take the 4 categories
Style 3.5
Functionality 4.5(5)
Durability 5
Value
5
Total 18 /4 = 4.5 (4.625 if you play Amt or Dag only)

4 comments:

  1. As a note, you will want the weighted version of the WLS swords for Dag or Bel, as they are the only ones that meet the min weight requirements.

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  2. you know what we got nothing but the worst swords and bad shipping for these people. we received a shipment 3 months late and one 5 months late that we had paid the shipping and handling for and they charged us cash on delivery for what the hell. the
    shipment we received first was about 5 to 6 swords 3 of which had bent handles and even one broken one. then the small bunch shield we got had a broken handle after 1 use. warlord sports should be ashamed. I am a member of Amtgard in Alaska in Anchorage and now a guild master of engineers as some one who has had to fix this stuff then the site just up and is poof gone im pissed

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  3. I have noticed that as of recent they have been unreachable, haven't posted on E-Sam, and the website has been down.

    As a note, the weapons that were reviewed were purchased approximately 6-9 months prior to writing the review, back when WLS was highly responsive.

    It is a shame that the site is down, because the website was a great resource for foam fighting with or without the gear.

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  4. It is back up and operating now with a wider product line and less waiting

    ReplyDelete