At the risk of reopening old wounds, I'd like to put forth the proposition that this version of Darth Vader is much more of a badass than the version of Darth Vader presented in Revenge of the Sith.
Which brings me to the following conversation between me, Meli, and a Borders checkout clerk, slightly edited for clarity:
Meli: [Indicating the light saber replica behind the counter.] How many of those do you actually sell?
Clerk: We actually just got a bunch more of them in.
Matt: [Mistakenly mistaking the color white for purple.] Looks like you have the Mace Windu one back there. Nice.
Meli: That's Darth Maul, honey.
Matt: No, look. It's purple.
Clerk: [Turns on the light saber replica, which begins glowing red.] I wish we had the Mace Windu light saber. That's the one I want. The most popular one is Luke's light saber. And the second most popular is Anakin's.
Matt: But wouldn't those be the same?
Clerk: No, no [you idiot], Anakin is Luke's father as a young man.
Matt: Yeah, I know, [I've seen the fucking movies,] but Obi Wan gives Luke Anakin's light saber, so the two should be the same.
Meli: No, honey, Luke makes his own light saber, remember?
Matt: After Darth Vader cuts his hand off, right?
Meli: Yes.
Matt: So for the first two movies he has Anakin's light saber.
Meli: Yes, but his light saber is the one he makes.
Matt: Well, that's dumb.
Clerk: If you buy two Darth Maul light sabers you can stick them together.
One of my roommates has all four (five?) of those. I think he wants to make a special display wall.
Despite the hefty ($100-$150) price tag, we actually sold hundreds of these things at the Borders I worked at before Episode III came out, depleting the supply months before the release. When all the fans were heading to the midnight shows on opening night (with the big hoopla at the Arclight), many of them came in to purchase anything we had left, with no success, since there were none left to be had.
Many Borders' now have giant stockpiles of light sabers due to the fact that they dropshipped cases of them to the stores hoping the DVD release would sell more.
Again, they were wrong.
i WANT that Darth Vader outfit.
I think Hayden Christensen is the only girl allowed to wear a Darth Vader outfit.