Wii Rage Guitars Recalled, Cause Chemical Burns

[Nathan Meunier]

Wii Rage Guitars Recalled, Cause Chemical Burns

What's more rock-n-roll than shredding along to loud music on a fake plastic guitar? Being burned by one.

You might want to venture into your living room and take a close gander at the pile of plastic instruments strewn into the corner. Yesterday, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a voluntary recall [http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09019.html] of Rage Wireless Guitars for the Wii, after one consumer reported receiving chemical burns from use of the peripheral. The units in question may contain a circuit board defect that causes the controller's AA batteries to leak if not installed correctly. Needless to say, battery acid is not a friendly thing.

The blue or white Rage Wireless Guitars, containing LED-lit fret buttons on the guitar neck, were made in China and distributed nationwide from June 2008 through September 2008 for about $40 to $60. California-based Performance Designed Products [http://www.pdp.com] received a single report of a user being burned and initiated a mass recall of about 57,000 units of the guitar controller.

Anyone with the wireless guitar controllers should stop using them and return them to their place of purchase for a refund.


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[Lvl 64 Klutz]

Defective products coming out of China? Whoa... shocker!

 

[Anton P. Nym]

That's what happens when you co-brand your rock controllers with The Who.

It breaks my heart to see those stars/smashing up perfectly good guitars...

-- Steve

 

[ReverseEngineered]

Whoa, whoa, whoa! Installing the batteries incorrectly may cause them to leak? This causes a chemical burn? A single incident causes a massive recall?

I'm sorry folks, but this is almost as bad as sticking a hot cup of coffee between your legs while driving. The electrolyte in a dry cell battery is not that corrosive -- not that I'd leave it on my skin for a prolonged period of time, mind you, but you can get it all over your hands and still have time to down a Big Mac before you wash them off.

The batteries would only leak because they were installed incorrectly. This implies that the guitar wasn't even functional!

So person accidentally installs batteries incorrectly. Leaves them this way for quite some time (batteries don't just leak instantly -- it takes a lot to trigger that). Presumably replaces now-corroded batteries and leaves the fuzzy electrolyte on his skin long enough to cause a chemical burn?

Sorry, but there's only so much you can blame on a product. Even the best-made battery-powered products will have their batteries leak after time -- that's why they come with warnings to take the batteries out if they won't be used for a prolonged period of time. We can't blame this sort of thing on Chinese manufacturing; it's a problem with anything that uses dry cell batteries.

It's important that companies be held liable for making faulty (even dangerous) products, but it sounds like somebody panicked here.

 

[Johnn Johnston]

When it comes to the degree of the burns, they're lucky that this one doesn't go up to eleven.

 

[Damien the Pigeon]

"... but it sounds like somebody panicked here."

Unfortunately, companies have to panic when stuff like this happens. If people can sue for their coffee being too hot, they can sue for anything. The world is sue-crazy, and corporations have to do everything can to save their butts. I agree with you that companies should be responsible, but they do have to take their caution to the next degree nowadays so that nobody can blame them. And people would blame them, too.

 

[Sirisaxman]

To be fair, though, the lady that sued McDonalds for spilling the hot coffee on her lap recieved 3rd degree burns on her legs.

 

[Robyrt]

Think of it from the cold, heartless corporate perspective. No matter how much money you lose from the recall, you would lose more if a big-time lawsuit got started because you didn't recall.

 

[Ronmarru]

If some idiot hurts themselves the company has to accept responsibility and recall the product. It's better to pay for the new controllers than to call the consumers idiots and suffer the public relations hit.

 

[Jumplion]

What's with all the recalls nowadays?!?!

It seems that one person, one person, can completely screw everyone over just by complaining.

What is going on?

 

[LiquidSteel]

What's with all the recalls nowadays?!?!

It seems that one person, one person, can completely screw everyone over just by complaining.

What is going on?

It is all to do with people realising that company names can be damaged by 'normal' people. So I have decided to sue Konami for disturbing me and warping my mind as a child with Silent Hill, and Capcom for Resident Evil! Now all I see is...dead people, but there is no real way to prove it!

 

[Pebsy]

with the media these days, and the sheer greediness and eccentricity of some people, its better for a company to recall than take the risk of losing good publicity, gaining bad publicity, losing millions in merchandising, and losing millions in law suits.

you add it up...

 

[DavidTanis]

Imagine the glory if you played through the fire and flames with chemical burns though!

Rock god-dom.

 

[dthree]

Talk about hot licks!

 

[Loderian]

they just need to gather the recalled guitars and repackage them for the Wii Guitar Hero, Metal Edition. Nothings more metal than playing blood boiling metal songs, while skin boiling battery acid eats you alive.

 

[Somethingfake]

"... but it sounds like somebody panicked here."

The world is sue-crazy

Correction, America is sue-crazy.

 

[SecretTacoNinja]

*Snort*

Oh sorry that's not nice for the people who got burns...

*Giggle*

 

[SimuLord]

Well damn. Made in China, and it's a hazardous product? What are the odds?

China: Taking over the world, one cheap plastic toy at a time.