Having already been banned by the Met for use on anything but private property (telegraph.co.uk, Oct. 2015), I guess it’s the “gift” that never was….
Get rid of your hoverboards now, Amazon tells customers (telegraph.co.uk).
“Customers who bought hoverboards as Christmas gifts have been urged to ‘dispose’ of them and accept refunds after three of Britain’s biggest retailers suspended sales. In an email seen by The Telegraph, internet giant Amazon has asked customers to take the self-balancing, two-wheeled scooters to a local recycling point for electronic equipment. John Lewis and Argos also said they had stopped selling hoverboards after reports emerged of the popular Christmas gift catching fire and exploding.”
More a gyroscopic keep-up-right thingy more related to the ill-fated Segway than anything Marty McFly hopped on in Back to the Future. For sure, I wouldn’t fancy trying to keep gyroscopically upright tranversing one up Chadwell Hill either. For sure, something foul must have really be in the pipe if, as it seems, they are recommending you just dispose of it at a recycling point for electronic equipment rather than send it back in to claim your refund.
I guess you could gift it to that old fella on the moon instead though. (If you are not in Blighty the annual John Lewis Christmas ad has since 2007 raised the bauble adorned bar for Xmas TV advertising, becoming something of a cultural institution. And perhaps all the better because born old and only getting older High Flying Angry Birds/used to be Oasis grumpy Gallagher hates it: Noel Gallagher disappointed John Lewis ad song “forever linked” to Christmas (news.yahoo.com).
Updated 30th December 2015
And if threat of the damn thing exploading while charging isn’t enough to put you off…
Argos recalls Nevaboard hoverboards over electrocution fears (independent.co.uk).
“‘If you have a Nevaboard product, please stop using it immediately,’ Argos said. ‘The mains plug and transformer do not fully comply with the required technical standards and could pose a risk of electrocution.’”
But indeed, a lil’ electrical hair-curling won’t stop those with a calling…
“A Filipino priest is condemned by diocese authorities, after video of him gliding around church on a hoverboard during Christmas Eve mass went viral. Video courtesy of Novus Ordo Insider.”
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