Nixie StarNixie Star Tube Clock with New and Easy Replaceable IN-14 Tubes - Motion Sensor - Visual Effects - Gift Idea - Premium Gift Packaging

Do you have a nerd in your life? I’m not talking about your garden variety geek, I’m talking about a real nerd’s nerd- someone so hopelessly beyond remission as to find the discussion of old Soviet technology an appropriate dinner table topic. If you know a nerd like that- or, like myself- *are* that nerd, this is the gift for you.I never would’ve anticipated spending $200 on a small decorative clock. In fact, even if you had explained what this was to me and told me that it was well worth the price of admission, I probably still would’ve scoffed at the thought. Let me tell you, this thing is worth the price.I have been casually searching for a good nixie clock implementation for a few years now, but was always disappointed to see that anything in this price range usually contained a partially or entirely plastic build. I figured if I was ever going to spend the money, I was going to do it right. I added the popular PastIndicator to my wishlist and moved on with my life.When I randomly decided to pick up my search again a couple of months ago, I was enthralled to find this option on the market. Handmade, pretty, affordable? What’s not to like? I’m always a little bit skeptical of Amazon’s ability to be an effective middleman for low quantity, delicate gadgetry like this. It would’ve been super disappointing if Firefly (which is seemingly either a small team or maybe even just one guy!) went to the trouble of building this thing and then it got smashed on the way across the pond.Luckily, not only was this not the case, I was shocked to find the product packaged in a custom wooden box almost as beautiful as the clock itself. It even came with multiple layered foam inserts formfitting around each tube to make sure that they didn’t get jostled around in transport.The clock was entirely plug-and-play, after re-seating one of the tubes because it had started to drift in the socket during shipping. The seller even went to the trouble of figuring out my time zone and pre-setting the time and date, which is an incredibly nice gesture considering how easy it is to do myself. Little touches like that speak wonders for the care that’s taken in the rest of the product manufacturing, and instill a lot of confidence when buying something like this sight unseen.There’s two similar listings on Amazon right now, one priced at $180, and one priced at $200. They look to be the same other than this one, the $200 one, appearing in the photos to be manufactured with slightly darker wood. I was a tad bit disappointed upon opening the box to find the wood was lighter than I expected, but the grain was beautiful and the clock itself impressed me so much that I can hardly dock a star for that. I’m glad to pay a $20 “tip” to support something this cool.There are plenty of settings that you would expect such as being able to modify parameters surrounding the “slot machine” mode and motion detection to avoid cathode poisoning. You can also choose to show the date every couple of minutes, 12 versus 24 hour time, blue LEDs lighting up on the PCB (Yuck! Lol, glad it’s turned off out of the box...) and much more. The motion detection itself I have not had a chance to try yet, but I will report back if it doesn’t function as expected.Overall I really could not be more impressed with this thing, and if you’re on the fence about it or comparing it to more expensive nixie clocks I would definitely give it a shot before forking over a kidney for the PastIndicator, as beautiful as that thing looks.Highly impressed. Buy it while it’s still being made!

Works great and looks awesome!

A friend who never asks for anything let it slip a while back that she wanted a nixie tube clock. I had to look them up. For Christmas I ordered this for her. She was overwhelmed!She and her son were able to set it all up. It came pre-set to local time, which would be an awesome courtesy if that was on purpose because it was shipped from Ukraine to the USA. She was able to set all the other parameters she wanted.If this is your kind of thing, I think this is a good one to consider.

This is an absolutely beautiful clock that would make the perfect gift for anyone that loves antiques.The only downside is that there are only 2 buttons for controlling the clock so it can be confusing to set the clock

Nixies are never cheap, but some you look at have been chintz'd up with 'remotes' and phone apps and other silly things that you know won't work for long, or won''t work right.We were replacing one of the mechanical flip clocks that got lots of attention, but it finally died, so we wanted another interesting clock, this fits the bill.This guy comes in a nice wood box, that alone would make it a great gift, it's a nice presentation.The wood frame of the clock itself is nice, it is lighter than it looks in the pictures, I think because the lighting when photo'd is low to show the numbers more, and that adds to my only complaint.It's not as bright as I thought it would be or a few other Nixies I've seen. I took away one star, maybe a half. I did see this in the description:"The Vintage Nixie Clock was designed to work below its operation point to ensure the tubes last longer for you." So that probably explains the lower brightness.The instructions are simple and good, the options for having the time change, and the blue light are good, my kids really enjoyed deciding which was best.I'm going to see if I can rub a little darker wood oil on the frame to get the color closer to the pictures.All in all, it's a great piece, we're not disappointed.