While I understand why some folks appreciate the service, I don't usually have a subscription to Amazon Prime: I don't make enough Amazon purchases to warrant having one at the current pricing, and I've found that when I do have Prime I order *way* more things than I want or need simply to justify paying for the service. And when I do need to order things from Amazon (especially with what action figures cost these days), it's not hard for me to get my total over $25 to qualify for the free shipping. It's not 2-day shipping, but I'm rarely in that much of a hurry to get my stuff.

Yet every year, as December 20 approaches, I remember that I've not yet ordered certain Christmas gifts -- which means I end up getting a 30-day Amazon Prime trial so that those arrive on time. And then, for the next 30 days, I order more things than I want or need in order to take advantage of the service while I have it -- though I was super good this year (by which I mean I was too distracted to pay attention) and mostly failed to do that.

As a final Amazon Prime purchase, however, I ordered a pair of UV black light flashlights. I've wanted some for a little while now, a desire that was intensified a little over a month ago when I bought a glow-in-the-dark figure that apparently *only* absorbs UV light, which at time of purchase made it a kinda lame and not at all a glow-in-the-dark figure. I kinda doubted the UV light would make much difference, but for $9 and a thing I could use in other contexts (I've got some 3D glasses that respond to blacklit objects, so that's also a thing I could play around with), I figured I'd give it a shot.

And OMG Y'ALL THIS IS PRETTY AMAZING. Not only does it make this particular figure glow, but other figures that glowed only weakly before are practically radioactive after being hit with the flashlight for only a few seconds. A couple of customs I made using glow-in-the-dark sealant -- which I assumed didn't glow that powerfully because it lacks whatever toxic-when-wet gitd materials are in factory-made stuff -- glow brilliantly. I feel inspired to make more gitd figures just to look at them. I had also been pondering trying to paint some images that looked neat when viewed through the 3D glasses -- since the glasses don't require UV light in order to have some effect (at least depending upon the color of the objects viewed) -- and now after seeing how things look with the UV light I'm even more motivated to do that. I buy a lot of things that I like, but it's rare for me to get this much of a charge out of a purchase. AND I've got a spare? Holy shit. Worth it.

Also, interestingly enough, some folks gave these flashlights low reviews because the flashlights didn't work well for their intended purpose: locating pet urine and other soiling. While I hopefully don't have much of that in my space, I'm also definitely not a deep (or any) sort of cleaner and partly expected to see all manner of horror under the revealing eye of the UV flashlight. And... nope. Nada. Not even spots in the crotch of my underwear. Just toys looking pretty (even non-gitd toys are having some neeeeeeeeat responses to the light) and glowing toys holding their charges magnificently and inspiration to make more cool things that look pretty when I light 'em up. Which works JUST FINE FOR ME.

Yay.