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New Fidget Spinners Are Catching On Fire (newsweek.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the Samsung-envy dept.

An anonymous reader quotes Newsweek's latest story about fidget spinners: In a development that now seems like it was inevitable, the three-pronged toys are starting to catch on fire. Gizmodo on Thursday pointed to two recent instances of Bluetooth-enabled fidget spinners going up in flames while they were charging. In Alabama, a fidget spinner owned by the son of Gardendale woman Kimberly Allums caught fire after being plugged in for less than 45 minutes. In Fenton, Michigan, Michelle Carr said her spinner started smoking after charging for less than half an hour. "He noticed that it burst into flames and he just started screaming," said Allums of her son and his spinner. "I was downstairs and all I heard was 'fire...fire,' and the fidget spinner had literally, It wasn't smoking, It was in flames"... The fidget spinners in question were Bluetooth-enabled so that they could light up and play music as they spun.
Friday CNET ran a column titled "Fidget spinners exploding? Of course they are." It concludes with a warning that "if you choose a powered off-brand tech item, you better pay close attention when you plug it in."

2 of 110 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Perhaps I'm just old, but... by Calydor · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I am reminded of an old comic strip in which Mickey Mouse on one of his many adventures got tossed into the future, around year 3000 or so. Among other things, exercise bikes now came with an engine so you wouldn't over-exert yourself.

    This is kinda like that.

    --
    -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
  2. Sounds more like... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    jumping the gun on when to patent it, and when to market it.

    The fact that they became so popular 12 years after it was 'surrendered' and 20 years after it was patented indicates either a failure to market it correctly or a failure to wait to patent it when the market would bear it.

    Either way it would have been out of patent this year so she wouldn't have made back the licensing fees anyway.