20 Useless Things You Probably Never Knew About Star Wars
3. The Best A Jedi Can Get
The Phantom Menace wasn't exactly a poorly funded operation, $115 million is the rumoured budget for the film in total so you would think the props department could come up with an original design for most of the items they were tasked with making.
However, the smaller props did suffer a little and Liam Neeson was filmed communicating with Ewan McGregor using a ladies razor handle. If you look carefully, it appears that the blade is actually attached to form the microphone section in some scenes - was it a used item?
This thriftiness clearly carried over from the original trilogy given the lightsaber hilts were made from camera flashes. Not particularly cheap items but there were plenty around and about on set given the scale of the operation.
If Gillette razors showing up wasn't bad enough; Obi-Wan's lightsaber in The Phantom Menace was made from a Rolls Royce jet engine balance pipe! Was there nothing else suitable kicking around!?