We just got around to trying out and reviewing the Limelight Frolic Thermal Extractor. We have historically been late to the party when it comes to picking up and trying out some of the more niche vaporizers from outside the US. Besides the logistics and risks involved in taking on a completely new brand from across the pond, as a small shop, we’re very busy with day-to-day operations and making sure customer’s needs are being met.
And trying to hire someone qualified to review vaporizers – Trust us, we’ve tried. It’s a lot harder than it sounds. Most applicants are unable to provide genuinely honest, informed feedback and comparisons, and even more turn out to be mediocre copywriters or outright flakes.
We also do like the gauge what the community thinks about a new vaporizer or brand before jumping in ourselves, rather than relying on a handful of paid talking heads who are incentivized to call just about everything good.
This was the case with vaporizers such as the YLLVAPE Angus, Tinymight 2 and Tafee Bowlee. We looked at them and were kind of put off by the design and we could not have been more wrong. These vaporizers hang with the best of them. So when we got a handful of inquiries on the Limelight Frolic we figured this was one to try out and shortly got it listed for sale after the fact.
The Limelight Frolic is a portable, hybrid-heating dry herb vaporizer made by Limelight, a company based in Serbia. The Frolic is mega sturdy and offers both session and on-demand modes, as well as a plethora of other features that make it a dry herb vaporizer aficionado’s dream.
This is a solid portable vaporizer that I wouldn’t necessarily recommend to a beginner or casual user, but rather to someone who enjoys customizing their sessions and likely already has a collection of other dry herb vaporizers.
Price
The Limelight Frolic is tad expensive at $399 and is rarely on sale. However for all the features it offers, its nearest competitor in the Tinymight 2 is only $50 cheaper at $349 and that also rarely goes on sale or is discounted. In my opinion if you are a casual user you will enjoy the straight forward function of the Venty (which is only $359 after discount code S&B20) or the Solo 3 which offers session and on demand vapor at only $239.99. The other thing established brands have on their side is history where you know you can expect your vaporizer to last for a few years. if the Frolic can keep going for 10 years on average then the price is more appropriate but that is to be seen here.
The Frolic does have alot of features and uses quality inputs. That does not come cheap. If you want the best deal on the Frolic you can get the best deal using the link below where you will also get a 60 day trial period and lifetime trade ins.
Packaging & Unboxing Experience
For $399 you are kind of left wanting a better unboxing experience. The Frolic comes in cylindrical cardboard packaging that is sufficient. However one would think for the price tag you are getting you’d get that Apple-esque design. This was a facet we have been writing about for some time and packaging design & quality has declined over the years in the wake of falling vaporizer prices and rising costs on packaging. PAX and Firefly had some of the best unboxing experiences back in the late 2010s but they were also making 100% more margin on the PAX 2 and PAX 3 than they are today with the PAX 4 and Flow. I don’t think the packaging is a reason to not buy the Limelight Frolic and doubt anyone who is in the market for one cares that much either.
Comes with
- Limelight Frolic Thermal Extractor
- 21700 5000 mAh Battery
- Silicone O-Rings
- Screen Set
- USB – C Cable
- Cleaning Brush
- User Manual
I feel Limelight should include a water pipe adapter given the high price they charge. Other than that it comes with everything you will need to get going and keep you up and running for the next few months.
Build & Design
Part of the reason the ideal Frolic customer would not care about the packaging is because the design is equally as odd. This thing is not winning any beauty contests. It looks like a prototype James Bond device my cousin would make with his 3D printer.
However, for all that it is very very sturdy with quality craftsmanship and I could see this thing lasting for years to come.This is probably one of the most physically dense vaporizers we have reviewed in the last couple years.
The Limelight Frolic utilizes PEEK construction throughout the vaporizer. The body is a high performance premium heat resistant Ultem (PEI) and PEEK. These two thermal grade/ engineering grade materials ensure the unit does not get hot to the touch while protecting the internals of the vaporizer. The Limelight Frolic is powered by a 120W stainless steel heater and utilizes a removable 5000 mAh 21700 battery. There is machined aluminum disc atop the unit which acts to dissipate heat away from the cooling unit. The ceramic coated chamber copies the design of the Venty and Mighty+ and is compatible with Storz & Bickel screens and dosing capsules too.
I was not a fan of was all the moving parts. The Frolic Cooling unit alone breaks down into 5 different pieces. Then there is the battery screw off lid which when these things get lost are such a pain to replace and will render your vape useless while you wait.
The main control button sits on the black heat shield and on the bottom is the USB C port, OLED screen (showing the features we will cover later) and the two control button.
Usability & Getting Started
Even with extensive knowledge with herb vaporizes, the Limelight Frolic is still not the most intuitive. If you have none you will want to go through that user guide and do some step by step sessions. I like to open these up and just have it to see how user friendly it is and the Frolic ranks pretty low for intuition. This ultimately is a testament to how many features the Frolic Thermal Extractor offers.
You got this heat sink that dissipates heat from the cooling unit but I thought that was the airflow control. You need to press the button three times fast to turn it on then to go through all the features on the screen ( session, temperature , time) you need to press the plus and minus buttons at the same time. Then press the power button one more time to get started. Not to brag but I was actually able to do all this without reading any of the directions but I have been using herb vaporizers since 2008 so don’t try this at home kids ;). If only that was something to be proud about and not a huge source of disappointment to my parents.
With alot of moving parts and many features, such as the adjustable airflow, you will need a few sessions to get over that learning curve.
Sessions
The 3-4 second heat up is amazing. You are not waiting around to get going with the Frolic and with on demand mode you are off to the races pretty fast. The one thing I will say about on demand here as with most on demand herb vapes is there still is , what I call, a runway time where the heat transfer needs to transfer into the herb and produce vapor. This is generally about 20 seconds before you are getting noticeable hits. The Firefly 2+ and Ghost MV1 (now both discontinued) were the best at cutting this runway time down and giving you fast on demand vapor but that was their main and only design, whereas with the Frolic you can do session mode and share with friends, get heavy hits through a water pipe, microdose a small amount with a dosing capsule and yes get a quick hit with on demand mode. Currently on the market, the Limelight Frolic is the quickest on demand (mainly convection) herb vaporizer.
I did say that this thing provides a wide array of customizations and it does. But it shines more as a heavy hitting herb vape with the air flow opened wide. This was best in the session mode at higher temperatures but that was not the vapor for me.
Over long sessions, the tan portion of the Frolic (which isn’t protected by the heat shield) gets very hot. And you can get some really long sessions out of this vaporizer.
In session mode, the Frolic has a 500-second (roughly 8.3-minute) session timer. This timer can be reset mid-session to 500 seconds by simply pressing the home button again.
In theory, you could continue your session until the battery dies, but I ultimately triggered the overheating safety shutoff after approximately 14 minutes while using the Frolic at 410°F.
During the sessions I tried messing with the airflow and it was hard to find a happy medium with the airflow dial. It goes from too restricted airflow to way too open airflow. With open airflow you can get some serious clouds.
Add water. I generally do not like to use the vaporizers through a water pipe adapter. I like to enjoy the vapor and with an expensive unit you are paying for quality that gets lost when run through water. If you like vaping with a water pipe, just get a budget starter vape like the Arizer Air SE or POTV ONE. However with the volume the Frolic Thermal Extractor pumps out this one can get you some hits on par with bongloads. We did a write on herb vaporizers that can emulate smoking (which we need to update) as many customers are trying to get that feeling of combustion bong rips but their doctors are saying grab a vape instead for healthier consumption.
For my session, I found a full pack worked best. Being mainly convection heating too, you can pack this thing and come back to it over the course of a few sessions. The Frolic has a chamber that can comfortably accommodate .25 grams of herb. On a full pack I was getting 12-15 hits in both session and on demand mode before calling it quits and disposing the bowl.
Vapor Quality
Robust but airy and was choking me up at the same time. It was good but I cannot say it was my favorite. I had to dial in on demand hits at the lower temperatures and control my draws to get the vapor I prefer. Overall The Frolic delivered a mouth-filling volume of vapor, but the vapor itself felt light, airy, and almost hollow (lacking flavor) despite its density. I think this has to do with what I experienced in having difficulty dialing in a preferable setting on the airflow. Very open airflow or sucking a milkshake through a straw.
The Frolic’s 25 L/min advertised maximum airflow is impressive, but unrestricted airflow isn’t automatically an advantage for flavor. The Venty also offers a more refined air dial saying you can get 20L/min which I never use at that open of a level.
With the Venty you get that cool pine feel and flavor. I did not get that with the Frolic. It was still very mouthy and lacked the cool texture I desired while the huge hits really were too lungbusting for me.
One of the best features of the Limlight Frolic Thermal Extractor’s vapor was the consistency. This is one of the best for having that first few hits have the same texture and taste as hits 7 to 9. So while it was not knock my socks off flavor it kept the same profiles whereas many others are amazing for draws 1-4 and then really fall off in taste.
Portability
The Limelight Frolic is portable but not something, at over 4 inches in height and 9 ounces in weight, you are throwing in your pocket for a night on the town. Most quality herb vaporizers do not fit this bill and if you are looking for an herb vape on that level of portability it is pretty much only PAX.
Specs
| Spec | Limelight Frolic |
|---|---|
| Height | 4.25 in10.8 cm |
| Length | 2.5 in6.35 cm |
| Width | 1.35 in3.43 cm |
| Weight | 9.3 oz264 g |
| Temperature Range | 104°F – 428°F40°C – 220°C |
Battery Life
The Frolic uses a 5,000 mAh 21700 battery, which is substantially larger than the 18650 battery used in some competing portable herb vaporizers. I was able to get a whole 80 minutes of run time in session mode and at 410 °F too which is impressive.
You can charge with a USB-C Cable and certain ones will charge faster than others but for the fastest charging we recommend taking the battery out and using an external charger to power up your batteries quicker. The bonus with removable batteries is you can always have a back up on hand.
Warranty & Trial Period
The Frolic comes with a 2 year manufacturer warranty. This should be a bit longer given the price you are paying and then all the issues which can arise from the heating element to the screen. If you do purhcase your Frolic from To the Cloud Vapor Store you get peace of mind with the 60 day trial period and lifetime trade ins not offered at other online retailers who will leave you stuck with you Frolic should it not be for you.
Overall the Limelight Frolic is keeping with the trend of artisan herb vaporizers produced by new and smaller companies, many overseas. Manufacturers like Limelight are pumping out vaporizers like the Frolic Thermal Extractor for love of the game and don’t have dollar signs in their eyes. They are making these vaporizers cause these are the devices they themselves want to use. Here you have a device with a removable battery, can do on demand or session mode, is ¾ convection but adds a conduction component to round the vapor out. These are many of the features dry herb vaporizer nerds have been asking for in online forums. And the Frolic is one to pick up if you like the range it has to offer accompanied by the myriad of features.
