This one's a matter of opinion, I'm sure. But I had a seller on ebay just tell me that an EL blade running at 18v "IS" brighter than the 4.5v MR sabers. I'm thoroughly confused now. I thought LED was brighter than EL by a noticeable amount, even the strip LED's in the FX sabers? I'm foggy with electronics, but I do know that the battery size doesn't necessarily indicate how bright the saber is going to be. Is there something I'm missing here?