- Welcome back everybody.
Now, today I'm taking a look at three As Seen on TV Tactical products to see how they really work.
That's today's video. (introduction music) I love the As Seen
on TV Tactical products. In fact, if I'm not mistaken,
this is my 10th, 11th, and 12th Tactical products I've reviewed.
Let me see if I can do all of them by memory.
I did the Tac Light, the Tac Light Elite, Tac Light Lantern, Tac Visor, Tac Glasses, Tac Glasses Night, Tac Zoom, and the Tac Shaver. That's nine already.
So, this will be 10,11, and 12. I've got the Bell+Howell Tac Amplifier, the Bell+Howell Tac Wallet,
and the latest edition I believe, which is the Tac Pen.
I'm gonna have fun with these, so let me crack these open
and see what's inside. In no particular order,
let's start off with the Tac Pen. I bought this from the official website.
I got two of them. And, if my durability tests
don't go so well, I might need both of these. Let me crack one of these open
and see how it looks. Nice attractive display here.
Quite a bit of features to it. I'll give it credit for that.
Flashlight. Pen clip. Ballpoint pen. A whistle. A whistle? If I had screwdriver,
Phillips screwdrivers, bottle opener, safety hammer,
safety hammer cap. All right. Let's open this up. (upbeat music) I've got some instructions here.
The Tac Pen. Battery type. Three LR44. Come on, man. Not even rechargeable?
I got a whole bunch of warnings in here or something.
All of the stuff. Quick assembly. Do these first.
Arbitration agreement nobody cares about. Very large red font "Do this first!"
So, I'll do this first. To access the battery compartment,
turn counterclockwise, and it says remove. Okay. And, we got three batteries in there,
and just put them back in, I guess? I'm disappointed
this is not rechargeable, though. Oh, we have light! It just seems to be not very bright light. I'll test that out later on,
but okay. That was easy enough. I'm gonna read this instructions over
and get to my Tac Pen a little bit later on.
Let me get through the rest of these products.
How about the Tac Amplifier? High performance sound amplifier. Now, I did the Magic Ear
a couple years ago. I was very underwhelmed.
I'm hoping this works better. Oh, we just tore the box. Oh, man. All right. We have a quick guide,
and instructions. I have a collection
of these arbitration agreements. It's almost like I have
a pack of playing cards. And, the Tac Amplifier
also uses buttons. A312 batteries. Kill me with these batteries here, Emson. I look forward to them
coming out with the Tac package opener, because that's something
that I need after opening all of their packaging.
Wait. I only got one? Maybe I shouldn't have assumed.
I thought I was gonna get two. According to this quick guide,
it looks like I have to place this battery in the ear piece itself.
After the unboxing, I'll do that. Time for the Tac Wallet. (rock music) First thing that comes out
is another arbitration agreement. Very minimal packaging. There are actually
no instructions with this. Oh, it has to be the instructions, right? What's this? Okay. This is fire resistant.
Credit card protection, Money/change & keys safe, Strap latch secure. It looks like a pretty
standard wallet here. So, we got a place for you ID. 1 2 3 4 cards? 5 cards? 1 2 3 4 5 cards ID.
Cash. There seems to be a small pocket right there. There seems to be a lanyard
and a keyring as well. Let me read over the instructions
for the first two, and I'm gonna get started
with all these Tac products and see how they actually work. (rock music) All right. We've read over
all the instructions. Let's take a look
at the Tac Pen more closely. One thing that I notice
is that the instructions it has, this pretty easy to read font
on the side here. We have 2 3 4 5. On the Tac Pen, not so bright.
There's a number 4. I don't even know if you could see that. It's, it's very difficult to see.
Maybe I'm nitpicking, though. First thing, I'm gonna start
from the bottom. This is the- I guess the top of it?
Where the flashlight's at. Taking off the in cap here reveals the safety hammer cap
which you can supposedly bash into glass to open up. Now, if you take that off,
that reveals the battle opener which you can turned around
and put in there. I'll try that out a little bit later. That's the bottle opener. If you're using the bottle opener,
you just gotta hold on to your cap and hope you don't lose it. So, let's just keep
taking these parts out here. So, down here, we actually got the whistle. Let me try that out. (whistles) All right. Well, I guess it works.
It's kind of a shrill whistle. I mean I know whistle
was supposed to be shrill, this is shrilling for a whistle. I just got Bailey's attention over there. She's lifted her ears up. All right. So, let's keep going. I think I actually
missed something. Let's me see. Oh, there we go. I missed the screwdriver. We got the Phillips screwdriver, and, the flathead screwdriver. I'll try those out as well later. Then, we have the whistle. Then, we have the pen itself
which doesn't go onto the top, so you have to-
I guess just put it back into here. It's got this little cover on.
Let me take that off. Okay. It works. It works as a pen. As it should. Then, I don't think there's anything
else to take off on here, unless you want access
to battery compartment for the flashlight. So, we'll leave that as one piece.
This is actually two different pieces. So, that's really all
the different parts you're gonna take off
from the Tac Pen. It's quite a bit. It's quite a bit. And, in not all cases, just go back together,
so there's gonna be time where you're holding things
in your hands which that doesn't seem optimal,
but you know I'd, I guess that's a tradeoff
for having all these different tools in your pocket. So, let me put this back
together real quick here. Hopefully I can do it right. (upbeat rock music) They go together pretty easily.
Not too bad. So, now it's time for me to go out
and try this on some field tests. 'Cause using a desk
isn't really a good accurate use for it. Let's try it out on the field
and see how it actually works. That's next. Let's see how this Tac Pen
works as a flashlight. There's no adju-
high or low. It's just one setting and you can zoom in a little bit. And, that's pretty much you can zoom in. That's it. By the way, don't worry about
those weeds in my yard. That's just extra decorations
for this video. Let's compare to the original
Bell+Howell Tac Light and see how they compare. All right. Here's Tac Pen zoomed in. Tac Light on- Woah! Tac Pen. Tac Light. That's on high. You can zoom that in. You can zoom the Tac Light way in. This is Tac Pen, Tac Light zoomed in. That's medium. Tac Pen, Tac Light medium. Tac Pen, Tac Light low. Tac Light low zoomed in.
Tac Pen zoomed in. Let me try this lower Lumintop
which is 120 Lumens and see how that does. All right. So, we have Tac Pen
over here zoomed in. The Lumintop at 120 Lumens is still brighter. Nowhere the instructions
is the Tac Pen says how many Lumens it is.
It doesn't say in the instructions. It doesn't say in the website.
It doesn't say in the packaging. Nowhere. So, I'm gonna guess
it's less than 120 Lumens, 'cause- Tac Pen 120 Lumens. Lumintop. Tac Pen's less. So, I'm gonna say it's- I don't know, 60/70 Lumens maybe? All right. I've got my Tac Pen here and got my other Tac Pen here,
but I got this one in a zip lock bag
that's been sealed airtight, because I want to duplicate one of their demonstrations in the commercial. They show it being frozen to solid
block of ice. Now, the reason it's in
zip lock bags, 'cause I don't know if it's waterproof. They don't say that it's waterproof.
You know they do have it in a block of ice. I don't want to take a chance
to have the water ruin it. I just want to have
one variable effect in it and that's the cold.
They say they can withstand being frozen in a block of ice. I don't know if it can withstand
being in water, so I'm just gonna go with the block of ice and not the water itself. So, I've got a Starbucks cup
full of water. I got my Tac Pen in an airtight bag. Put the lid to keep it in place. All right. I'm gonna stick
this in my freezer and come back tomorrow.
I'll put it up and see if it still works. There's only a few reviews out there,
but someone actually posted an interesting question.
There's nothing about refills about the pen itself
on the Tac Pen instructions or the website. And, that person was wondering
if those refills are gonna exist at all.
It's a good question. All right. It's time for the classic car
running over the flaslight test. Oh, it actually che- Okay. Oh, it actually turned, hit the button, but it's still working. I give it credit. It's still working.
Awesome. I got my Tac Pen
and my frozen Starbucks cup. I'm gonna have to run some water over to get it out of this cup. And, then I'll take the ice,
smash it with a hammer, and see if the Tac Pen still works
after being frozen for 24 hours. All right. Here we go. This should be interesting. (grunts) Sweet. Look at this. How cool is that now? My Tac Drink. All right. So, I got to be careful
not to damage the Tac Pen. I just want to crack the ice. It's kind of off to this one side, so I'm gonna put it on the side so it's not gonna be on the top
or bottom. And, I'm gonna kind of hit in the center here. Hiya! (smashing ice sounds) I gotta be gentle. All right. The Tac Pen. Oh, ice got in there. Oh, no! Well, I guess I'll find out
if it's waterproof or not. Oh man! I thought I was being careful with that. Oh, but it worked! I'm actually more impressed,
the fact that water still got in there.
Either I didn't seal it properly or there's a hole in the bag,
but either way, not only did it survived
the frozen test, but it survived the water test as well. I gotta say the others
are not impressing me so much, but the Tac Pen is winning me over.
I'm quite happy with the Tac Pen's performance so far. It's getting better the more I use it. So, good job Tac Pen. Your block of ice test,
I would say was accurate. Now, I'm gonna try out the screwdriver feature of the Tac Pen. I always forget which one it is. That's not it. That's the pen. I got the Pen Pro as a Tac. All right. There's the screwdriver. You can't put the end back on there which I wish you could,
but you just can't. But, it's got Phillips and flathead,
and it feels magnetic in there. It feels like it
kind of grabs it. So, that's kind of nice. I've got four pilot screws
I put in here, just for four simple screws. So, in this side, I've got
flathead screwdriver. Very cheap. Very cheap flathead screwdriver. So, I figure this is gonna probably
on the low end, so I'm gonna compare it
to a cheap screwdriver. Let's see how just the regular
flathead screwdriver goes. (upbeat rock music) Looks fine. Nothing,
nothing groundbreaking. Let me try this one a few spins here. Now, the handle is not as good obviously, and I'm feeling this, I'm feeling this clip
kind of moving around. But, honestly it's not, it's not that bad. I can make it work. Another cheap Phillips screwdriver. All right. No problem as expected.
Generic cheap screwdriver. Let's try this one. This clip is in the way. Can I take this clip off? This clip is kind of a problem.
I couldn't- It's spinning into my hand
as I'm trying to use the screwdriver. I don't know if
I can take this off or not. Yeah. We can take it off. Good. I don't like the clip
when I'm trying to use the screwdriver. It's, it's a little bit awkward, but honestly in a pinch,
I think it would actually work. I'm gonna hate on the,
on the Tac Pen screwdriver function. I know it's supposed to be
kind of an emergency screwdriver, and for that, I think it does work. The handle may not be as good
as even a cheap screwdriver, and the clip gets in the way
and you're gonna have to figure out what to do with it
when you're not using it, but otherwise I think the Tac Pen
screwdriver function works pretty well. After drilling four screws halfway
into a piece of wood, I got worn out. I need something to drink.
I'm gonna call for my drink now. Let me see. Where's the whistle at? The whistle's in here somewhere.
Oh, not there. I'll find the whistle.
It's in here. Is that whistle? That's the pen. Where's the whistle at? It was stuck. All right. Here we go. Now, it's time for me to call
for my nice cool drink. (whistles) Pretty handy, huh? Now, it's time for the bottle opener. Where's the bottle opener? Now, I got to find the bottle opener. It's in here somewhere. No, that's the screwdriver again. I'll figure this out. Let me see. Oh, the bottle opener's down,
down by the, by the safety hammer. Oh, I see you have to take
the safety cap off, and then put it back in there.
It's not confusing. And, now it's time for my ice cold drink, 'cause I don't, I don't do hardest stuff 3:00 in the afternoon. Here we go. (upbeat rock music) Oh, it's working! Kind of. (upbeat rock music) (bottle cap sound) That wasn't the best
bottle opener I've ever used, but it worked. So, cheers to the Tac Pen.
Jack of all trades, master of none. (upbeat rock music) Time now for the Tac Wallet
versus the wallet I've been using for a while now
which is the Allet Wallet. Now, I've reviewed quite a few wallets
this year. This is the wallet that I've chosen
as my top pick. Well, let's see
how the Tac Wallet compares. Putting them side-by-side,
interesting, because the Tac Wallet's already thicker
than the Allet. And, the Allet is full.
I have all my stuff in here, so the Tac Wallet is already thicker. I'm gonna take all the contents
of my wallet out and move it here, and see how it works. The Tac Wallet has, this is for your ID,
these are some credit card slots. This I guess is another credit card slot. Money pocket. Keyring and a change pocket right there. I've never wouldn't have changed
my wallet, 'cause this- It just makes it too thick,
but I'll put it in there for this case. So, let me make the switch here. So, in the Allet, I have my ID and a Discover card. So, the ID goes in here. I'm not sure how easy
that's gonna be to get out of there. I'll have to find out. I'm gonna put my credit card
on the side here. Over here is an American Express card and this is my phone stand
which I actually use quite a bit. Over here, I have a tracker and a debit card. And over here, I've got
another debit card and some business cards. Back here, I've got some, a little bit of cash. That was all in here
and it was totally fine. Let's see what I can do
with these. I have a feeling this isn't gonna hold quite as much. Maybe should put it back to front. I want to just put the credit cards
in here for now (upbeat rock music) Well, they really don't go on
that easily. They're not jsut slipping right into the slots. I kind of have to manhandle it in there. (upbeat rock music) All right. (upbeat rock music) I've got few more things to put in here. Move my cash in there. It's still have these things
to fit in there somewhere. I don't know if I can fit this
behind the Discover card. I don't know. I don't know. Behind the ID? It's not gonna fit behind the ID either. How about back here? I mean I had to jam
the credit card in there as it is so now I can't jam this one in there,
'cause this is slightly wider than a normal credit card. I'll just put it in the, I'll put it in the money pouch. This, there's no way
this is gonna fit. This is pretty thick. It's a lot thicker
than a credit card. There's no way it's fitting in here. Oh. Maybe it'll fit in there. Oh, I got it behind my ID. I stand corrected. There is a way it will go in there. I guess I'll put my business cards
in here again. All right. So, I've got everything
in the Tac Wallet. I don't have a key in there. Look how thick that is. It does velcro shut barely.
It barely shuts. Let me stick it in my pocket. Feels pretty thick back there. All right. So, I'm gonna take
this out on the field and give it a shot. I might try to stick a key in there
at some point. Right now, it's way thicker
than the Allet wallet that I have. But, we'll see how it does. All right. So, when you have the Tac Wallet in your back pocket.
Like, I have it in my back pocket right now.
I know some people don't have it in their back pocket while driving,
but when I have my Allet in my back pocket,
I can sit on it because it's, it has two cards wide.
It's a little bit wider. Has such a low profile.
You'll not even realize you're sitting on it.
With the Tec Wallet, I feel like George Costanza
and off to one side. It's so, it's so thick.
It's like a brick under my right side. So, I understand what they're going for, but if you have more
and a couple of cards, the Tac Wallet is just so thick, it becomes too thick. So, I don't know. So, I was at the
convenience store last night. And, I thought I was gonna be all cool whipping out my Tac Wallet. So, I pull up my wallet.
Nobody was impressed. But, I was. But, the problem is I went inside
to get my card out. And, even still I'm having a hard time
getting the card out. In fact, it was so hard to get out
I end up just putting it back in the money pouch,
because I didn't want to have to deal with it again. Then, to close it,
you can't close it with one hand. I mean you have to use two hands
to close it. Unlike the Allet which you just flip shut. This is a two-handed close operation. And, it's really thick too. So, I don't know.
That really didn't go so well. All right. Here I am out
at the retention basing out in the middle of the boonies
outside of Las Vegas. And, I want to duplicate something I saw in the Tac Wallet commercial.
They show Nick Bolton or somebody shooting
through the Tac Wallet with a bow and arrow.
And, they shoot through a regular wallet. Now, when they shoot the Tac Wallet, it just bounces right off
like it's made of rubber. Now, when they shoot the regular wallet,
it pierces it. So, we're gonna see if
that's actually accurate. I got my Tac Wallet.
I got a generic wallet. We'll see what happens. Oh wait! In honor of the Tac Wallet, I gotta put on Tac Glasses. Well, these are Tac Glasses Blue.
Do you want Tac Glasses or the Tac Glasses Blue?
Which one you're gonna wear? How about the regular Tac Glasses. All right. So, I'm gonna let the archer
wear the Tac Glasses. I'm gonna have the Tac Glasses Blue on. I also emptied the contents
of my Tac Wallet out so I don't know pierce my ID,
my credit cards. We're attaching this target
and get started. All right. So, we got our Tac Glasses. We got our bow and arrow. We're ready to shoot the Tac Wallet
and see if it can actually hold up. (arrow piercing sound) Ooh! What did you hit? Well, the middle clip is definitely
arrowproof. Let's try the rest of it now. How about if I use my whistle
on my Tac Pen to, to signal when to shoot. (whistles) (arrow piercing sound) Uh oh. Did it graze it? (laughs) Oh no. - [Larry] Just a little bit. - Well yeah. I mean keep trying. (arrow piercing sound) Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! (slow rock music) It actually bounced off
just like the commercial. I'm in completely shock here.
I, I, I'm flabbergasted. Oh, they're not kidding.
That actually- It did bounced off! It actually bounced-
I'm sho- I'm actually totally shocked. Now, after the impressive
demonstration by the Tac Wallet. This looks like a lot
like the one they used for the comparison.
Now, let's see if this one does the same thing.
If it does the same thing, then they got some paper wallet.
If it goes through this one, then I'm even more impressed. (arrow piercing sound) - [Larry] It bounced off.
- Woah! (laughs) (slow rock music) So, maybe that wasn't
very fair comparison. It bounced off the other wallet too. Let's see if it damaged the other one
as much, you know? That could be a question. What did they use? A paper wallet for the, for their demonstration? - [Larry] I mean it didn't even
go through the next side. You know, just barely. I mean if you have it there
and someone hit you, you would survive.
- That's- Oh, you just start putting your wallet by your heart, I guess?
- [Larry]Either one. Yeah. - Yeah. - [Larry] Shirt pocket, you're good.
- Maybe in a bigger wallet, so just like I have more-
- [Larry] Just make a wallet out of your shirt.
- Wider, wider- Yeah. Wider space. All right. Well, I guess
I'm not really sure if that demonstration
really proved anything, other, other than their test really wasn't
as impressive as I thought it was. Maybe it's these Tac Glasses. It's the Tac Glasses, you know? Like, I think that, that may have affected the results a little bit too. All right. Well, I guess I'm just
gonna go home and, and wrap this thing up.
Thank you to Larry for helping me out. And, thanks to Jaden
for some additional camera work. So, we're back home
to wrap on this video. (upbeat rock music) And, finally let's get
to Tac Amplifier set up. I read the instructions on this as well. They already have a silicone
cover on there which I'm just gonna leave that one. First thing I'm supposed
to do is open this battery cover, and put the battery in there.
The battery is taped on the packaging. All right. So, it goes like this,
plus side up. And, then close it. And, then we close it. There we go. All right. Now, it says to turn it on low which I believe it's on low,
and then stick it in your ear. All right. The volume's all the way down. Let's see how it goes. I don't hear anything.
In fact, I hear less. Oh, I do hear something. It's sounds like when you hold a shell on up to your ear and hear the ocean.
That's what I'm hearing. Hello? Hello? Not so good. I've got about midway up now.
Let's try it out. Oh yeah. All I hear is (distorted buzzing sound) What I do hear is very mid-rangey
and echoey, actually. I don't like having it just
on one ear either. I don't know why they only sell you one.
I don't know why. I shouldn't have assumed it was two,
but I guess I thought it might've been two. I have it midway up.
I don't think I hear any better on my right ear. It's just
everything sounds very staticky and mid-rangey, and echoey. I don't feel like
it's amplifying anything, but the ambient noise.
I don't feel like my voice, my voice is so mid-rangey.
It sounds like radio static. That what it sounds like. Well, either way, I'm gonna take
this out on the field, and try this one out for an actuall field test
and see how it works. So, I got my Tac Amplifier here. I've got it all the way down. And, they say to start if off
all the way down, but you can't hear anything
all the way down, so I'm going to put it all the way up. All right. It's all the way up. They say it's discreet and nobody
knows it's even there. How discreet is that? Is that pretty discreet? So, right now all I hear is this kind of muddy mid-range hum in my right ear. But, I want to do is over here,
I'm gonna test out some music. I got some music that's
not gonna give me any copyright trouble that I licensed by Epidemic sound. I'm gonna try with and without
the earpiece in. (jazz music) Oh wow! (jazz music) I hear a lot more frequencies
without this. (jazz music) I plugged in my ear. (jazz music) All right. I feel like the, the,
the constant hiss almost drowns out what I'm trying
to listen to. When I take the earpiece out,
the music's clear. (chuckles) They say that it's supposed to be
clearer with it in. It's just a, it's just a bunch
of mid-range. It's just a bit mid-range hiss
the entire time. When I take it out,
I almost hear all the frequencies open up. Try turning it down a little bit,
that didn't really help. There weren't really
very good reviews for this, so I can kind of see why. If you want to amplify mid-range
ambient sounds, this is fantastic. If you want to boost important sounds,
high or low frequency, it may not be. All right. So, I think I figured out
a way for you to hear what I'm hearing with the Tac Amplifier, 'cause I want you to hear it. I want you to hear with all of its glory,
what the Tac Amplifier can actually do. So, this is my H1 Zoom Recorder
which I'm actually speaking into right now with this lapel mic. This is my lapel mic right here.
So, I figured out last night, if I take the lapel mic off
and put the Tac Amplifier just in the right spot, you can hear it. All I have to do is attach
this headphones so I can hear it. Just to make sure I'm getting it right. All right. So, here we go. I got to turn the all the way up. (ambient background noise) Welcome ladies and gentlemen.
How is the sound? (ambient background noise) All right. Well, this is probably not
very good, so let me turn it down a little more. (ambient background noise) I sound like an
old-school radio announcer. (ambient background noise) Hello ladies and gentlemen.
Welcome to YAWN Radio 1942. (ambient background noise) Special guest today is Bing Crosby. And, here is without.
This is- Welcome back to 2020 where you get the full range
of frequencies. All right. I have to turn it down
even more. (ambient background noise) It's still, it's still distorting.
No matter how far I turn it down. This is with the Tac Amp maybe about 50%. And, this is without the Tac Amp. This is with the Tac Amp
turned all the way up. (ambient background noise) And, this is without the Tac Amp. As you can see, it's, it's just (ambient background noise) it's just this muffled mid-range. (ambient background noise) It boost sounds but the background sounds. (ambient background noise) Isn't that a car in the background? (ambient background noise) And, my voice isn't any better. (ambient background noise) It's just, it's just not good. (ambient background noise) Let me turn it down some more. I think all the way down is off,
'cause when I do that, I hear nothing. So, that's the Tac Amplifier or the mid-range amplifier. All right. So, in recap,
I definitely have some mixed opinions about the three Tac products here.
I would say the Tac Amplifier is the one
that I'm least impressed with. It does amplify sound,
but a very narrow bandwidth of frequencies. You lose the high, you lose the low,
you get everything, including the ambient sound,
blasted right in the center. I'm not a fan of the Tac Amplifier. I'm not quite as impressed
with the Tac Wallet either. I mean it did hold up with the arrow test.
That was nice. Of course, the generic wallet
held up as well. I understand what they're going for. If you want a really compact
small wallet, this might be an option for you.
But, it doesn't really seem to offer anything than
the other wallets I've tried out does. It just seems to be kind
of a generic wallet. I don't really see a lot to it. If you want to add more
a few cards, it's really thick. If you take advantage
of the keychain or the chain holder, it's even thicker. Something like
the Allet that I usually use is a little bit wider and much
more optimized in space. I'm just, I mean I can see
how some people will like this. I'm not just one of them. I will say I'm kind of a fan
of the Tac Pen, though. Now, there's a lot of tactical pens
out there, and I, I don't have much experience with those, so the high-end tactical pen users may scoff at something like this. And, this isn't really advertised
to them anyways. This is advertised
to the average consumer. And, to the average consumer,
I do think that it has some merit. The flashlight isn't particularly bright.
I mean the, the screwdriver isn't
particularly effective. It held up all the durability tests.
I was surprised that it held up on the water
and the ice block, and it got run over. It's durable. It holds up.
I'm not sure how the things are useful as they make it out to be. The whistle isn't that great. But, once again, when you don't
have something and this is your only option,
it becomes suddenly very useful. So, that's all I've got.
It was a fun video to make. If you've tried any of these products,
tell me what you think in the comments below.
Or, if you have some alternatives, let me know what you think
of those as well. I appreciate you guys,
and I'll see you next time. (upbeat rock music)
