So you might remember how I got some power tools to review. A starter kit from Black & Decker, to be specific. The VPX starter kit, even.

Well the kit comes with three tools and a battery. The other tools will get their own reviews later on. Right now lets focus on the flashlight and the battery itself.

The battery looks like any other rechargeable tool batty pack. It’s all fancy colored and shit but it is a rechargeable battery, ya know? The charger though is large. It’s larger needed, frankly. That annoyed me some. They sell a dual pack charger that looks to be the same size as the single, which would make sense. This block has more than enough wasted space.

It does, however, have a separate cord attached so you can daisy chain up to four charger blocks off one power cord. That I really do like. Some of the VPX line takes two batteries at once, and if you have a bunch of tools in the line you might need to use two at the same time in different tools, anyway. So that is a nice touch.

Oh, no pictures right now. Just didn’t take any. Long story. (No it isn’t, I just didn’t take any.)

Moving away from the battery itself to the flashlight I have a few things to say. First of all, inserting the battery is a bit of a pain. The battery locks in in such a way you almost have to slam it home to get it to lock. I don’t know if that is the case across the board but, it is with the flashlight. Not a big problem, except the battery only fits one way. There is no marking on the unit itself to let you know which way you should put it in. You can’t really peer in well to see for yourself. So if you can’t get it to lock and you think “Oh I just have to slam it in” and you’ve got it in wrong, will it break?

I don’t know. I don’t want to find out. But it worries me. A simple etched arrow would have made all the difference here. Battery release is simple though, but not simple enough you would do it by accident.

The flashlight itself is hefty and solid feeling. Its LED so it is nice and bright and the top swivels down 90 degrees, which can be useful.

For those who want to know: it is not bright enough to see through my hand. There’s that.

It has an annoying wrist cord on it as well. The cord is looped through the hard plastic of the unit itself, and there is no way, short of destroying it, to remove it. So it dangles, stiffly, from the unit and annoys me. Damn you cord of annoyance! Damn you to hell!

The unit also has a little plastic clip so you can hang it from a belt.

Now for the real tests:

* The light is bright enough that my cat will chase it, but it doesn’t narrow so it ends up too big to be chased well. My cat then sits and whines at me. So not a good cat toy.

* The flashlight is not big enough or heavy enough to club someone to death.

* The button is a bit too small to be able to hang off your belt, quick draw and go PEWPEWPEW as you quickly turn it on to blind your enemies effectively.

* The three LEDs in the flashlight leave me seeing spots for ten to twenty seconds if I look into it and turn the unit on, and then quickly off.

* With its rectangular, yet curved, shape, the flashlight will not be mistaken for a sex toy.

* Could be used as a prop for a CW teen angst drama set in the future.

* The flashlight does not come when I call it. Also, it does not return to my hand when thrown.

* The flashlight passed the “being thrown and dropped” test.

* My cat does not want to lick it.

So there you have it! My review of the Black & Decker VPX system battery and flashlight! Coming soon(ish) a review of the saw and drill!