Big Lots Color-changing LEDs

Date: December 2010
Store: Big Lots
Price: $20 (20 cents per LED)
LED Color: changing
LED Size: 5mm
LED Lens: inverted wedge
LED Count: 100 leds.
Bulb lead material: steel, subject to rust
Rectification: half wave
Power: 16.8 watts

Notes:

Using a function box with 8 switch positions, these lights switch back and forth between cool white and one of five different colors. Apply power one direction and they light cool-white. Apply it the other way and they light with the given color. These should have been awesome but they turned out to be a half-wave set that flickers nastily like all the other half-wave sets. How the heck did they build a function generator that delivered half-wave power in two different directions? Oh well, maybe now that someone has done it, someone else will do it well next year.