Review on Blue FX12BL Firestix Light-Up Drumsticks by Trophy by Felicia Gonzalez

The good news is that these sticks do what they say: they glow when hit. The lights are bright and beautiful to look at - a bit like lightsaber drums - but there are too many issues with these sticks for me to enthusiastically recommend them. First, these sticks are made of acrylic, which doesn't have the same reaction as wood or metal. You bend so much that it seems like you are playing with a rubber band. They have a spongy attack and their tone is rather dull. If you enjoy flipping sticks and playing with their ends, you must be extremely careful as the locking screw will stick out and DAMAGE your eardrums. But by far the worst thing about these sticks is the build quality. When I received them, I found that the batteries were already partially discharged. Also (I ordered four pairs) they are not the same in brightness: some barely light up, others light up with the slightest movement. Once you opened the ends to change the batteries (be prepared to spend as much on new batteries as you did on the sticks themselves), the backlight mechanisms popped out. They were very thin, and the decorative foil and circuit board on some mechanisms came off immediately. Since they were meant for a special occasion, I had no choice but to refurbish them as best I could (Bye Bye Revain Return). The actual circuit was very simple, but rather inferior in assembly. A small spring enclosed in the board vibrates when the sticks are struck, and the vibrating spring completes the circuit. The current is stored in a capacitor, which dissipates the current and allows the LED to glow evenly. Clever in concept but imperfect in execution. The spring is very fragile and can easily get stuck in a position where it doesn't vibrate enough to complete the circuit, or get stuck in the always-on position. The circuit board itself is connected to the batteries via a fragile trace that runs the full length of the face. It will almost certainly break if the mechanism is out of the stick, as some of mine have. I was able to modify the connection with conductive copper tape, but balancing the springs on the failed rods was almost useless. When reassembling sticks, reinserting the locking screw into the end of the screw is difficult, if not impossible. So after all my modifications and adjustments, I'm stuck at four pairs of these Firestix. I suppose I can re-do the board with a more reliable trigger, but I'd rather have a quality product from the start. This is not a product that I can recommend in any way.