Krayt Dragon Pearl - Warrior Heirloom
Updated: Dec 16, 2021
From the endless sands of Tatooine comes a priceless heirloom, passed down among the strongest Tusken warrior bloodlines. Each pearl, retrieved at great risk from the fearsome Krayt Dragon and set in handcrafted precious metal facets by the Raider that claimed it, is as unique as the beast the formed it, and only the rarest are imbued with echoes of The Force.
A long time favorite from legends long ago. This was out first passion project and was set to be a 'later' release among a KOTOR line. The Force willed other turns of events. As the design was being finalized, we watched the premiere episode of Season Two for The Mandalorian. The whole time I'm thinking, "there's no way they'll do it!". Surely this largely famous show wasn't going to complete a call back to a storyline in a 17 year old game.
And then they did.
Thanks to countless hours spent playing a game in my youth and an undying love for retro RPG, we were able to launch the first unibody "Krayt Pearl" to the custom crystal community shortly after the episode aired. Others had existed but required an additional piece to fit into the hilt for use. This set us down a path to push the design themes, avoid the over used shapes from the parks and integrate lore into our products from the very concept.
Originally the Pearl was a hand poured resin product. A mold was made using an FDM printed 'prime' that was then molded with Silicone. These molds were mostly successful but chip placement would prove to be tricky and had a pretty high loss rate. Bubbles were also a concern. The shape was not conducive to venting and lead to some design adjustments. Eventually we decided to migrate to resin printed pearls. While some depth was lost by not being able to have a shimmering translucent look, we found a close match in creative paint layering. This was huge! We could bulk produce our pearls without fighting with humidity or sunken chips. While it's changed shape and design a few times since debut, the Krayt Dragon Pearl Warrior Heirloom will always be special to us as it kick started us to where we are.
The Krayt Dragon Pearl remains our top seller to this day.
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