With the current ones, you have 3 modes, basically.
Just the hilt (with the blade removed. just push and twist and it’ll come out). I think they sell belt clips so you can carry it around this way.
The hilt plus the blade, but unlit.
Hilt plus lit blade. There’s just a little switch on the side. When it’s lit, it acts like a real lightsaber - with all the appropriate sounds when you come in contact with something.
It was SO FUN to do with the kids. DO IT! I’m a little sad that I didn’t get my own, but dang, they’re expensive.
The experience was fabulous. We did ours after park close, so walking out to an empty GE was neat. On the other hand, we didn’t get any cool photopass shots with them. And some of the photographers had some great lightsaber ideas.
Like the calculus problem that goes something like: "If one keeps stepping halfway to the door, will one ever actually reach the door? (limit at x approaches 0…)