In theory, sure, but that's not gonna be much help for people who want to cosplay or stage-fight with it. And what do you mean by "a circular pattern that extended and retracted"? If you mean a solid cylinder, it'd be hard to make that extensible. The principle here , I gather, is two flexible hemicylinders (or more than hemi) that wrap around each other as they extend. The trick is to make them flexible enough to roll and unroll, yet rigid once extended. Maybe a telescoping support rod in the middle?
Live, but not really visible on set. The spinning blades were always intended to be an in camera effect. Then they boosted the brightness in post production. Then they rotoscoped Vader's in red. Much like taking a flash photo of a reflective vest, it doesn't look like that most of the time, and the bright reflection only shows back in the direction of the light source. And of course the fighting blades were just wood dowels that needed to be completely rotoscoped.
Yes, I would naturally assume the blades were coated in Scotchlite or similar front-projection material, like the Kryptonian robes in Superman: The Movie.
Not really, it wouldn't be that difficult at all, very expensive to make, yes. https://www.deluxe.com/products/pro...VEY3ICh3XnQRmEAQYAyABEgKg7vD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds The collapsible travel cup, seen in the link above, would work as the base design. Collapsible ring sections made of a tungsten core with a titanium coating, could be extended and retracted using a motor attached to a tape. As the tape extends and pushes the first ring up, the ring would catch on the second ring, pulling it upwards and so forth until the blade is fully extended and locked into place. As the blade is extending, current is passed through the blade to make it super heated. Some cool down time would be needed before retracting the blade though. You could even change out the circular collapsible cup with V shaped sections that were made of an alloy that isn't conductive but is able to be laser sharp. Therefore you would have a very sharp edge followed by a very hot metal surface. So far we have the basics for blade and retraction/extension device, the biggest problem now that exists is reducing the size of the battery that would power the motors for the extraction/retraction gears which would be separate from the main power source and the main power source to produce enough electrical current to turn the blade molten red.
They've had telescoping lightsaber toys for decades, but they don't look like the "real" thing, precisely because of the collapsible design. That's the whole point of this innovation -- it's the first time anyone's come up with a lightsaber toy/roleplaying prop that both mimics the blade's appearance authentically and can extend and retract. Before, it was a choice between one or the other. Well, nobody would want a toy or roleplaying prop to be genuinely potentially lethal. If you want something that can do real damage for hobbyist purposes, then the video in post #3 shows a much more effective way than what you're suggesting.
Eventually the power supply for a light saber will be small enough to fit in the handle of the weapon.
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