The Spyder III, the World's Most Powerful Portable Laser, Is a Real Life Lightsaber

Built with the blue-laser diode of a dismantled Casio Green Slim projector, the $200 Spyder III is the world's most powerful portable laser. It can permanently blind you and set your skin—or anything else, really—on fire almost instantly.

"With greater power comes the need for greater responsibility." That's actually what Wicked Lasers, the mad geniuses behind the Spyder III, wrote to us in an email describing this terrifying piece of technology. They wanted to make one thing very clear: this is not merely a laser pointer, and it's certainly not a toy. What it is, really, is a weapon.

The diodes in Casio's new mercury-free Green Slim projectors apparently allow for unprecedentedly powerful portable lasers, and Wicked Lasers has gleefully harvested them for the 1 Watt Spyder III. Comparing it to the $2000 Sonar, the company's reigning portable laser powerhouse, Wicked Lasers explains that the blue Spyder III laser is 2000 times brighter to the human eye, and, at $200, 1/10th the price.

Wicked Lasers is throwing in a free pair of safety glasses with the purchase of a Spyder III, which might make wielding one marginally safer, but just writing this post has left me terrified enough to stay as far away from these things as possible. For a few weeks, anyway, until our review unit gets here.