Wannabe Jedi drool over potent laser 'lightsabre'

I am a little curious

as to what uses, other than destruction, would the general public put this device to?

A laser pointer that permanently marks the screen, and anything in between?

from wicked lasers:

"Our average Wicked Laser customer is a laser hobbyist who wants a laser to use for entertainment."

Ah I get it now.... cue The Jam

High power lasers for the general public? Not a good idea

I like dangerous toys as much as the next guy, but this is going too far.

All the dire warnings from Wicked Lasers will do is encourage criminals even more in buying the device for nefarious purposes, and I hardly need to list what those nefarious purposes might be.

It's worrying how easily available this gizmo is. It is possible to make a burning laser at home, yes, but the difference is you need some technical knowledge and determination to to do that. Also the CD burner diodes rarely go up to 1 watt, which is a scary amount of power by anyone's standards.

This laser is, IMO, more dangerous than a knife, sword or other contact weapon due to the 'danger range' of a collimated 1 watt beam. This is practically mil-grade equipment, which is (incidentally) banned under the Geneva Convention if used in a battlefield situation.

Next time you want to light a barbecue, just use matches. It's safer.

Lawrence Alexander

I bought one

Apparently it's gonna be at least another week before these things ship out from what their support people have told me. I believe part of the reason why they are allowed to get away with selling it is because it's actually not quite 1W (it is even marketed as "<1W"), at least here in Canada any laser under 1W doesn't really require anything to own.

Industrial laser? Heh, the diodes for these things came out of a cheapy Casio projector meant for home entertainment.

I have drawn up a practical list of what the average person can and cannot do with this laser:

Things it can do:

Detach retinas at 200+ meters

Light cigarettes

Make the annoying dog next door go away, permanently

Pop balloons from a distance (hehehehe)

Cut cardboard/paper/cloth

Light campfires from a safe distance

Many many more fun things! Get one for your kids! (j/k)

Ignite thermite

Cook your dinner

Melt just about anything made out of plastic or rubber

Fish (it's waterproof!)

Cauterize small wounds

Things it can't do:

Blow up Alderaan

Cut open Tauntauns

Cut metal (but it will heat it up)

Take the hobbits to Isengard

Your laundry

Babysit

Finally.

A decent laser for the hobbyist.

Mines ordered.

Oh come on!

Didn't your mother warn you that playing with that thing will make you go blind? Hand icon for obvious reasons.

I'll pass.

I like my retinas. I'll stick with my Glock 36. Its WAY safer than this. I had to train to get a permit and show a spotless record. But anybody with money can get this.

Can you picture whats going to happen the first time someone decides to bring one of these to concert or takes a poke in the face at a politician with one? If you want one, get it NOW. No way this will last.

These would be fine in the hands of sane, trained and rational adults, but I'm betting they are NOT the target market.

Take a reality check

It's not a Lightsaber, it's a laser.

As such you can't see the beam unless there is smoke in the beam's path.

So the potential Jedi is going to have to carry around a bottle of smoke with them. Hardly cool is it?

Here Kitty kitty...

Is it my imagination or is there a LOT of blind cats around these days....

Title? I don't need no stinking title!

My vote for the quote of the day to Lawz for

''I like dangerous toys as much as the next guy, but this is going too far.''

The farce is strong with this one...

NO NO NO...

This should not be on sale, and I say that as someone who is colour-blind from owning my own laser light show in high school, and having two accidents with the same eye. Thankfully it was a moving beam, and I managed to keep most of my vision.

HOWEVER - I can see one use for this that may be legitimate. Sailors and boaters ARE desperately looking for a signalling device that can replace parachute flares. One of this, with a beam dispersal setting or beam scanning device may be just the ticket..

On the other hand, for the price of this you can buy an PLB or EPIRB....

Hmmmmmm

Sounds too cool to be true but I wonder if this could be used as a self defense weapon instead of buying a gun?

This way if my home does get invaded then all i need to do is point this at the criminals nuts.

Try try this in Oz

"An ultra high-powered hand held 'lightsaber' on sale to anyone with a spare $230 could land would-be Jedi Knights with a $110,000 fine from Australian customs or severe retinal damage."

$230 = $198 US

Immediate response

Me and my mate both had the same response - Want to get one now before they are banned, using a "Neutral" address and payment info of course just in case...

Neither of us can think of anything to actually USE the damn thing for....we just want it...

Sure you can use it as to light cigs, the problem being you'd have to be 100 meters away and a bloody good shot, maybe using a lesser red pointer to aim the big ......wait....I've just had an idea.......