Reaction: Lightsaber Flashlight

When I was little, a technician at the Ontario Science Center shined a laser into a dust cloud to show how it kept its thin directed path. The crowd all gasped because, well, it was kind of like seeing a real lightsaber. I held up an aerosol can to a flashlight in an attempt to replicate the demo at home. This didn't work so well, but in my 8-year-old mind, it was pretty close.

Twenty-five years later, somebody finally did what I've been waiting for: an actual flashlight fashioned to resemble a light-saber. It seems like the most obvious idea ever.
The flashlight uses 4 LEDs and a slide-switch on the to light up blue or green. Interestingly, this "hilt" has something we haven't seen before: clear panels along the side. They unfortunately don't light up as seen in some promotional materials. I'm not sure if it's meant to be a particular character's saber, but it kind of looks like a cross between Obi-Wan's and Anakin's.The hilt is very toy-like and even has a printed "Clone Wars" logo. Four AA batteries go into a compartment on the side. This means that there are unsightly seems near the end of the hilt where this panel is located.

Whether or not this is a functional flash-light depends on if one accepts that everything will be illuminated in a shade of blue or green. The reality is that the switch powers only a pair of the LEDs at a time: the two blue ones or the two green ones. While fairly bright, one can't help but realize that compact LED flashlights powered by a single battery are commonly available at local dollar-stores. Given that, this lightsaber flashlight is reduced to a whole lot of "flash" without substance.