Giving a man of any age a powerful laser is like giving a bear an AK-47: it’s in his very nature to point it at things and look menacing. Thankfully, the bear is rarely able to do any damage – no trigger finger – but the man, be he 16 or 65 or 33, will definitely aim it at something that will inevitably reflect the laser back into his own eyes, rendering him temporarily blind and making him freak out thinking that he is now sightless. I speak, friends, from experience.
WickedLasers makes, well, wicked lasers. Instead of the standard red-dot laser pointer you buy at Odd Lots, WickedLaser imports amazingly powerful and expensive lasers for the home hobbyist.
So read on, laser troopers, for a bit more info and a contest.
The model I tested is a Elite 125 plus green pointer. It comes in a discrete black box and is clad in copper-colored metal. It takes two AAA batteries and when the batteries are fresh it can cause enough heat to be noticeably painful on bare skin.
These things are essentially high-power laser pointers. You can use them to point out stars in the dark and pretend you’re the Terminator by hitting objects hundreds of yards away. Case-in-point: we were able to hit the Verrazano Bridge from 96th Street in Brooklyn. That’s about a half mile. It’s that powerful.
A word of warning: don’t look at the scattered light. It hurts and it causes excellent visual artifacts that could be retinal damage.
Clearly you need a special case to warrant spending $499 on a laser but for hobbyists and folks who love crazy lasers this thing is amazing. We were able to char tissue paper and, given enough patience, you can use this to pop balloons and burn electrical tape. When the light scatters it’s like a supernova and the folks at Wicked Lasers – and I – recommend you wear protective glasses when handling this monster. Also do not aim it at airplanes like my neighbor did.
Now for the contest: I want you guys to tell me what you’d do with this laser if I send it to you. Put your reasons in the comments and the best one, as judged by me and maybe some of the CG guys, gets this laser and a pair of protective shades. Get cracking. This thing will make a hell of a laser pointer at your next company retreat.