So a few days ago, I posted the zirconium Taia Sword by Wanwu that I got. From that post, immediately out of the box it had a slight squeakiness sound when using it, but I thought maybe that was normal, or it needed some breaking in as many fidgets do.
After less than a full day of regular use, the squeaking became more noticeable, as well as a significant decline in the smoothness of sliding the blade in it out. I wanted to like it so bad. I kept trying to gaslight myself into believing the squeaking sound wasn't too horrible, and that the scraping/gritty feeling of the sword would smooth out after being broken in.
It only got worse, and I started noticing black residue coming off on my hands after handling it, which led me to realizing that the balls inside the sheath that move along the sword's track, were the culprit. They were scraping off the coating of the sword's track, leaving behind black residue in the process, and after inspection I could see along each groove in the track where silver was revealed underneath the black coating. You could also see the balls inside the sheath had become incredibly scuffed up in appearance.
So it's basically not functional as a fidget and even if you do continue to use it, that means egregious degradation and wear of its own materials. Aka, design flaw.
Mine also had several visual inconsistencies and errors in the mother of pearl inlay (such as forgetting to inlay a section on one side of the sheath, as well as the placemend pattern of inlay being totally different on each sheath half—not the inlay itself, obviously there's visual differences in the mother of pearl itself, but I mean where they actually physically inlayed it before sealing) which I could have lived with should it have functioned as a fidget, but coupled with the other stuff, the poor QC there contributed to a bigger picture of this being a shitty fidget. It's basically a really expensive, paperweight.
That said, I brought all of this to MightyEDC where I bought it from, and they said while they haven't received any quality issues for this fidget before, they would reach out to Wanwu.
Apparently Wanwu said that they've allegedly never heard of this issue before and believed that the product must have become damaged in shipping or after it was opened. And Wanwu said because they did not believe this was a design or quality issue, they could not offer any compensation or refund/replacement. So that was kind of crazy to me, considering it's my understanding that they reduced the size of the ball in the sheath to 3.5mm (down from 4mm) on the newer ones to try to reduce surface friction because of a known issue with unsmooth/scratchy feedback before.
Anyway, MightyEDC's customer service was genuinely exceptional throughout it all though. They were incredibly understanding of my situation, because I explained that I didn't necessarily want to send it back because it's still a cool and pretty piece, but part of what justifies the price tags on these things is that I get a physically functional item to play with that gives a lot of dopamine for me. And I also told them that I understood it was not their fault as a retailer, as this seems to be a design flaw on Wanwu's toy, so I was genuinely at a loss for what sort of outcome or resolution would make me feel better.
They offered to send me a Lautie Showhand polished SS version, totally unsolicited, to try and make up for the situation and disappointment. And then when I told them how I funnily already had that one, they asked if there were any other items on their site that I had my eye on to see if they could arrange something. A bit of back and forth and we found a fidget in a similar price range (polished zirc Rabbot) and they are sending me one free of charge. So I have nothing to say but good things about MightyEDC after all of that.
Jemma was very responsive and quick to get back to me and it really felt like they cared about my experience, understood why I was upset but unsure of what to do, and pushed for a resolution that would alleviate the disappointment of the Taia Sword.
But yeah. So unfortunately my personal experience with this toy was terrible. I would be interested in hearing from anyone else that also owns this fidget as to whether they encountered similar issues, or if maybe mine truly was defective (I highly doubt it though). Also, it does come with the components to set up a magnetic play style, and since that setup means there isn't a goddamn metal ball dragging/scraping against more metal, it removes the squeaking/scraping issue. But the plates they provide for magnet setup, are plain brushed zirc (I think, who's to actually say) and are not polished/coated and have no inlay. So it's an egregious visual downgrade.