Wanna start a fire, get this for your kid:

[Duglite]

I know this isn't a flashlight, but it does generate light in it's own way, and I'm so mad that I want to share this with everyone. I just saw one of these for sale in the Sunday ad for Target. It's a Razor scooter with a spark-generating device in the back. Apparently being sold by Walmart, Sears, Sports Authority, Toys R Us, etc. as well. http://www.razorama.com/razor-spark-scooter.html
Look at it in action on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38iDD0i1wN4

Who wants their kid riding one of these across a gas station parking lot, or down a street in a brushfire-prone area in California? How many STUPID idiots did this get past in order to be on the market and readily available in this country? Please, someone make some calls or write some letters!

 

[Illum]

if its not a flashlight based topic, then don't start it in general Flashlight discussion but in the Cafe instead

 

[Duglite]

Right you are, Illum. Thanks!

 

[Illum]

send a PM to DM51 about moving your thread to an appropriate subforum

Grinding sparks won't start a wildfire...but with accelerant vapors around, the thought makes me shudder

 

[Duglite]

"Razor has modified the Razor A Kick Scooter by adding a foot controlled sparking mechanism (the Spark Bar) with a Spark Cartridge containing 5 flint pads."

IIRC, people bring flints with their other camping or survival gear, in order to start a fire when matches are wet or unavailable. I can see the conditions being favorable for ignition of brush at certain times of the year.

I'd guess it's covered under Defective Product laws. "A defective design claim alleges a mistake or oversight in the design of a product, which makes that product dangerous when used as intended, or when used for another reasonably foreseeable purpose.
(from http://www.attorneys-usa.com/products/products.html)

 

[LukeA]

The circumstances that would have to arise to make this a hazard are pretty unlikely.

At a gas station on a still day the kid would have to get up a bunch of speed and cruise through a flowing stream of fresh gasoline right from the pump to cause any damage.

Dry brush would have to be so dry that it would probably already be on fire from someone throwing a cigarette out the window.

 

[TedTheLed]

Razor Scooters cut feet, slice tendons! Well, duh.

http://www.babycenter.com/204_3-wheeled-razor-scooters-recalled-following-injuries_10219965.bc

I don't know why these people don't mind broken limbs and skulls being cracked open as much as getting your feet sliced open -- not a design defect, I guess.

what idiot parents hate their kids enough to put wheels under their feet? at least if the scooters rendered the user unable to reproduce we might get an increase in the average national IQ, for all you Darwin prize fans, but noooo..
I lived in a trailer park for a while and dozens of kids had these scooters, EVERY DAY there was a falling accident, and screaming kids in agony, until the park banned them..

google "paraplegia" --

and now they make sparks!? someone is out to get us, one way or another..

 

[ZMZ67]

I kind of wondered how they got past the lawyers with that one.:thinking: Somehow I don't think this scooter will be around very long.Boys being boys I can imagine them trying things beyond what the original designers had in mind.:shakehead

 

[Benson]

I kind of wondered how they got past the lawyers with that one.:thinking: Somehow I don't think this scooter will be around very long.Boys being boys I can imagine them trying things beyond what the original designers had in mind.:shakehead

Now how could you possibly think boys would attempt to make oil-trail dispensers -- and then move to gasoline when the oil didn't catch very well.

 

[jtr1962]

The part that really annoys me is that the whole Razor Scooter trend is yet another style over substance thing which unfortunately seems to be all too common these days. Now the primary point of any human-powered wheeled conveyance is to multiply a person's inherent speed and/or distance, not to make an f-ing fashion statement. I'm not against jazzing up your set of wheels, but the rule should be no designs which compromise safety, and unfortunately the Razor Scooter has a bunch of those. It's inherently unstable to boot. Seems to me we've already had something much better which kids could use to go further or faster. It's been around forever and it's way safer than a Razor Scooter. It can even be really cool in its own right. Yep, the good old bicycle. It has much bigger, more stable wheels, is way more comfortable, and it has this novel feature called a brake which actually lets you stop quickly when you need to. Forget the fashion trends and what it's "cool" for a kid to be seen on. These things are retarded for lack of a better word. I blame the parents more than the kids for giving in. Maybe this latest "feature" is a good thing as it'll finally wake a few people up. Funny how local legislators ban those "dangerous" bicycles from our sidewalks, yet it's perfectly OK for kids to ride their Razor Scooters there, ploughing into pedestrians with impunity. Ban these things for anyone under 18. Better yet get rid of them altogether. They're dangerous not only to the rider, but to those around them.

Of course, if that doesn't happen, which it probably won't because somebody makes lots of money selling these, you can always have some truth in advertising. Something like this perhaps: "Give you kid a cool Razor Scooter and he'll end up with an even cooler set of wheels (cut to a picture of a wheelchair)".

 

[Duglite]

It's really true about boys being boys, thats' for sure. There ain't no Flame Spewin' Barbies!

As far as design defects go, a kid can fall off of the scooter, but the purpose of the scooter isn't to eject the rider. The purpose IS to emit a shower of sparks.

The problem for the company is that if gross negligence is determined, the corporate veil could be pierced.

I think back to all the cool toys we had as kids that would never pass muster now. Slip N' Slides, Water Wiggles and their ilk have all been either eliminated or watered down (no pun intended - honest!) to the point of being admittedly safer but probably not as fun. This scooter looks like a pre-lawyered version. Maybe the post-litigious model will spray confetti rather than sparks.

Luke, I think that a large part of the problem is that, just as a large enough quantity of monkeys typing will eventually, randomly write a television script, a number of kids will plow through enough dry brush in the gutter on Santa Ana Wind-blown days that something will happen. I agree that many bones will be broken and knees skinned in the interim, but they've finally outfitted this attractive nuisance with the same device that is used to ignite the butane from a lighter. What next, as Benson (or is it Ronsonol??) implies.... an accelerant dispenser rigged to the back of the scooter? Or will these in-like-flint devices next appear on jtr1962's trusty bicycle?

 

[Steve K]

It's really true about boys being boys, thats' for sure. There ain't no Flame Spewin' Barbies!

but there used to be Barbies with roller blades that made sparks! It's been probably 5 or 10 years ago that they were briefly on the market. The results are fairly obvious, but it must have slipped by Mattel's laywers.

I suppose this sort of product is invented when the toy designers are facing a deadline to do something to improve sales. Add flashing light? Add a shower of sparks??? What could possibly go wrong?

Steve K.

 

[Illum]

Now how could you possibly think boys would attempt to make oil-trail dispensers -- and then move to gasoline when the oil didn't catch very well.

I've seen kids around here strap on Estes rocket engines on RC-cars thinking they can reach the 35 mph speed limit...it only takes one well documented kid who thought it would be cool to strap on a WD-40 Aerosol can to his scooter and roar down the street to cause a nationwide panic...otherwise products like this are unregulated and reckless:shakehead

 

[greenlight]

When I was a kid I wanted a kickplate for my skateboard. My dad insisted that he could make a good one out of some kind of epoxy which he attached to the deck via a couple of bolts. I quickly ground thru the epoxy down to the bolts, which made a nice spark effect like the above product. Cool.

Where do I get something like this for my bike to take to burning man?

 

[matrixshaman]

Crazy! As far as gas stations go there are many times I see gas spills on the ground around filling stations that sit for a while. All it's going to take is some delinquent minded kid to see the opportunity for what I'm sure he thinks will be fun.

And I'm sure some kids will figure out that spraying aerosol canned things (light carb cleaner) with a modded foot activator will do even more impressive things. :shakehead

 

[LukeA]

Crazy! As far as gas stations go there are many times I see gas spills on the ground around filling stations that sit for a while.

Gas that sits out isn't gas that catches fire easily. The vapor disperses very quickly.

 

[binky]

All I can say is that my kids went nuts when a neighbor rode his sparking Razor scooter over here. They were all trying it in the driveway. I certainly didn't think about the sparks being any danger. I guess I'm not that good at that part. Hehe. It certainly was popular with my 6 & 8 year old. My 10 yr old had no interest at all.

I've always wondered about those teeny scooter wheels, though. Wow they're so small they can catch on anything, especially the frost heaves in the New England sidewalks around here.

In the end, it's at least a good heads-up and I'll discuss it with the scooter owner's parent.

 

[WadeF]

Might be unlikely one of these starts a fire by accident, but knowing kids, they will probably TRY to start things on fire with them. Like make piles of dry leaves, etc, and blast through them showering them in sparks. Then all it takes is one of their fires to get out of control.

Hopefully these things some with warnings and cops should arrest kids and fine their parents if they are using them in areas that are under high risk of fire warnings.

 

[Crenshaw]

I suspect the bigger danger will be kids trying to look at thier own sparks, and not looking where they are going.....

:duck:

Crenshaw

 

[McGizmo]

Most of us have survived some toys and activities that were by no means safe. I remember in the late 50's getting a trike from a neighbor. Now I was too old and way too cool to be seen ridding a trike when everyone was riding Schwinn StingRays but messing around with it, I inverted the handlebar and front wheel and ended up with this super low slung thing that I could really have fun on and within weeks a number of the neighborhood kids had done their own mods to abandoned trikes. Your butt was just a couple inches off the ground and your CG way low. Low profile was really unsafe in regards to any cars on the road!! In retrospect, I wonder if someone from Matel saw these or perhaps other kids in other towns came up with the same mod I did? At any rate, we had real metal "HotWheels" years before they were introduced. When I was even younger, we took the steel wheels from our rollersaktes and put them on 2x4's and made skate boards. Talk about instant pitchpole! A grain of sand would stop the board while you continued forward! :green:

Dangerous? yes. But you never learn your limits or appreciate the need to proceed wisely without visiting and testing your limits on occasion.

I am not saying I am a proponent for these sparks and I am also surprised this has been added to these scooters but it may be that a new generation needs to learn first hand that some things are kind of stupid and don't really make sense?!? If I had a young son today, I would rather see him making sparks in the driveway while improving his motor skills than watch him make mushroom clouds on a video game in the living room!

Dry brush would have to be so dry that it would probably already be on fire from someone throwing a cigarette out the window.

Unless a bunny with a pancake on its head was there beforehand.