Firestarter (firebox.com)

Member Name: GuruOnAMountain

Product:	firebox.com
Date:	12/10/04 (1006 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Prompt Delivery., Good, unusual range of products., Unexpected free sweeties with order!

Disadvantages: Some of their products are slightly on the expensive side.

I'd ran across this site a few times on my internet travels, but it wasn't until I stumbled across it on ipoints again recently that I seriously considered buying off it. After all, I was aware that Santa's little reindeer were just jingling their wee bells not too far off round the corner, and there was definately some unusual gifts on sale here.

iPoints was offering points back on purchases, so following the links on iPoints, I made my way to Firebox.com. The sight is a loud orange colour, and has a layout and design that I think is meant to appeal to men. Most of the goods on sale are gadgety, more male orientated stuff, so this might be more one for the guys. There was quite a few things on site that I fancied myself, though, and I'm definately not male, so it's worth trying out.

A bar along the top of the page allows you to choose what category you want to browse eg. gadgets, games etc. or you can use the search facility to search for something specific or to search products by price. Searching by price came in very useful for me, as I wanted to buy Christmas presents for people without spending an absolute fortune.

There is a lot of unusual things on sale, although some are rather expensive. I was especially impressed with the marble racecourse, the adult sized space hoppers, the game of chocolate Russian roulette (one choc has a chilli filling, the others have praline!) and the fridgechess/fridgebattle etc. games which are magnetised so you can challenge a family member or flatmate to a game all via your kitchen equipment!

There is items available for under £10, so it is easy to pick up original gifts (or treats for yourself!) if you're on a budget, but they also stock items on the pricier end of the spectrum such as a skycar for £324,000...probably not one to buy for the mother-in-law's Christmas, I expect.

Eventually I decided to pick up a space hopper for £15.95 and a game of fridge chess for my dad at £9.95, I proceeded to the check out where postage and packaging was stated clearly before you'd provided your details. I usually hate paying postage and packaging, but since the products on this site are so unusual and would be hard to get your hands on in high street shops, I didn't really grudge the £3.50 p+p.

Then it was just a matter of sitting back and waiting.

I received the goods promptly and was chuffed to find they were really nicely packaged. They were in a bright orange shoe-box style package with Firebox.com splayed across the front in bold white lettering. The box was well sealed, but not so much so that I needed a degree in astrophysics to get into it.

I must admit, I am simple-minded, and took great pleasure from playing with the air filled plastic sacks that were inside the box to protect the goods! On the top of my goods was a Firebox.com catalogue and two money off vouchers for Lookfantastic.com and Figleaves. Unfortunately, the Lookfantastic voucher was only for a fiver off and required you to make an order of £45 or more, and the Figleaves was for £10 off, but only on an order of £40 or more. Still, I'll give them to my sis and see if she can put them to any good use. There was also a code on the back of the catalogue and a page that explained that the codes were for money off on Firebox.com and could range from £2 to £10,000 off your next order. I typed it into the site 30 minutes ago, but unfortunately only got the £2 off...oh well, still better than nothing!

So there I was, unpacking the goods when something pink and plastic dropped onto my knee. I picked it up and lo and behold it was a packet of Swizzels Matlow Fun Gum Jelly Rings! Well, I never...and just when I had the munchies as well. I devoured them with relish and decided that I liked Firebox...I liked them very much indeed!

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