Golden Child: Goldenness 1st Generation Official Fanclub Membership Review

2018 has been a big year for Golden Child fans as we've been officially given the fandom name Goldenness on May 4th. Then beginning on August 9th, open recruitment began on Melon to be an official first generation fanclub member. Initially the recruitment period was supposed to close on August 26th, however they extended the period to September 13th.

Ordering the membership was fairly straightforward using Melon's international website, as it was all in English. I recommend triple checking you enter your name correctly, as it will be printed on your membership card. The membership itself was 40,000₩ and EMS shipping to the US was an additional 47,000₩. Shipping price and carrier depends on your country.

On September 17th, Woollim tweeted something along the lines of those who have ordered a membership of being able to change your shipping address if necessary, possibly indicating that shipping of our official first generation would begin soon!

Those in Korea (and probably who ordered on the Korean Melon site) received their official goods around October 10th, in time for the Goldenness Founding Ceremony fanmeeting on October 14th. The lightstick (named 룬봉 (runebong) because 골 (Gol) upside down is 룬 (rune), like how we have to hold the lightstick upside down) was also sold at the venue for 35,000₩. Also the ending VCR in the fanmeeting listed all official Goldenness.

I received a shipment notification and tracking information via text from DHL on December 7th. Some of my American Goldenness friends received their text notifications a few days before me, and some a few days after me. My package finally arrived on December 10th!

The inclusions of Goldenness first generation came in a cardboard box with dimensions 15.625" by 8" by 6". My friend who pays good attention to detail noted that "10.06.2018" is printed on the exterior label, indicating that our Goldenness packages were already packaged up in early October. From word of mouth it seemed like international shipping was delayed (by 2 months >.<) due to the lightstick battery. Also I heard some packages that Korean Goldenness received had defeats such as missing photocards or photocards not cut correctly. With such a delay for international shipping to begin, I was hoping there would be greater quality control. But so far I haven't heard of any international Goldenness receiving defeated goods. As a side note, my tracking stated that this package weighed 1.8 pounds.

Goldenness first generation includes the lightstick, personalized membership card, photocard set, letter, and tote bag. Opening up the package reveals the membership card and all other contents inside a plastic bag. The membership card isn't secured and could have slipped through the box; luckily mine remained inside the box.

Here are the contents of the package. Bonus points if you can identify the poster in the background^^

The membership card was placed inside an unsealed soft plastic sleeve. The card is hard plastic like a credit card with a metallic beige hue, and the front has the unique ID number and name printed in black. The sleek gold design is embossed on the card. I love how our Goldenness logo matches the Golden Child logo and even says "SINCE 2018".

The backside of the card has a spot to sign. The alternative Goldenness logo is printed at the top. The Woollim authentication seal is at the bottom left, and general information is printed in black.

Inside the plastic bag are the remaining inclusions, placed inside the tote bag and then rolled up.

Unraveling the tote bag reveals the lightstick (which I already took out), letter, and photocard set.

The photocard set was also placed in a sealed soft plastic sleeve, containing one card per member, in age order from Daeyeol to Bomin.

The backsides have each member's printed autographs and messages. These photocards have a matte finish and have the same dimensions and roundness of the corners as the photocards from the albums Goldenness and Wish. Here you can tell that the cards are a bit curved due to being placed with the lightstick inside the tote.

The letter is made of thick paper. It was wrapped directly around the lightstick box, making the letter curled. This is the flattest I could get it after flattening it for 3 days. This letter is a bit big (too big to fit in a regular binder) with dimensions 11.875" by 10.625". The front side has each member's printed message.

The backside of the letterhas a cute design of Golden Child's logo mixed along with bowling pins and bowling balls; I love how they're using this similar style again, from Golden Child's 2018 Season's Greetings.

The tote bag is a nice heather beige hue and seems quite durable. The front has one of the Goldenness logos printed on top while the back is blank. There are no pockets inside. The tote is quite roomy with dimensions 14.5" by 15.875" and hangs comfortably around the shoulder with around 9.75" between the top of the straps and the lip of the bag.

The lightstick box was placed in a clear plastic bag. This box is about 3.5" in diameter and just under 11.5" tall.

The lightstick box is a cylindrical cardboard tube. The design on the box and lid matches the backside of the letter and is slightly embossed, creating more depth. The Golden Child logo and wording are embossed with a copper finish.

The bottom of the box has the product information and authentication sticker.

The lid is held securely by a Golden Child sticker. It was a dilemma deciding whether to peel the sticker off or slice it at the slit to minimize damage; in the end it was cleaner to slice the sticker.

Lifting up the lid reveals the contents of the tubed box.

Inside is a packet containing the pamphlet and accessories, along with the lightstick.

Inside the lid is a 3D cardboard cutout to secure the lightstick. Inside the bottom of the tube is a foam liner to also stabilize the lightstick. They really thought about maximizing the protection of the lightstick, which I'm really happy about especially since they had to ship these all over the world.

The accessories and pamphlet were inside a plastic bag and taped off.

Inside is the lightstick strap and mini USB cable. The strap is like a thick ribbon, with "GOLDEN CHILD" printed on top. I wish the quality of this were better, like Infinite's lightstick where the strap was made of a thicker woven material (but the downside of that was the logo and wording wore off easily).

The lightstick was placed in a plastic bag and taped off at the bottom.

And finally, here is the lightstick! Like many Goldenness' initial reactions, I was a bit hesitant with a bowling pin as a lightstick, but I've completely fallen in love with it now. This lighstick has a lot of neat features that make the runebong very unique and top of its class, all of which I'll go over. First of all, I like how the lightstick can stand on its own since it has a base. The side with the buttons also has the Golden Child logo upside down (but right side up once you're holding the lightstick to cheer). Oddly enough there are two black dots inside the runebong around the logo (and I'm not talking about the dots to the sides of "SINCE 2017"); it's a minor flaw but a bit aggravating to look at sometimes.

The runebong is over 10.5" tall and is 1.5" wide at the base. Notice that I've turned the lightstick 180 degrees from the previous photo - on this side (without the buttons) the Golden Child logo is right side up when the lightstick is standing up. The handle is made of a smooth white plastic. Next is a navy silicon strip with embossed stars. Then there is the lighted part of the runebong, which is on the opaque end of the transparency spectrum.

The very base is a smooth navy plastic with "GOLDEN CHILD" embossed.

At the top of the handle is the slot to plug in the mini USB cable. Another nice feature is that you can charge the lightstick rather than using batteries. The package includes the mini USB cable to charge. The large dot will light up red when the lightstick is charging and the light will disappear when finished charging. On the side is the slot to attach the strap. And toward the base of the handle is the unique QR Code, which can be used to pair with your phone. I discuss this more further down.

The provided pamphlet is entirely in Korean, though there are a few key English words. One side of the pamphlet explains the functions of the lightstick. Honestly I just keep pressing the buttons and hold them for various lengths of time until the lightstick does what I want.

There are two buttons: a smaller one with the power symbol embossed, and a larger one with the Golden Child logo embossed.

Pressing the power button once turns on the lightstick to a solid red.

Pressing the power button again switches to Reaction Mode, where it cycles through all the colors while "reacting" to sound. Here's my runebong rocking out to "It's U"! I also made a quick video of the runebong on Reaction Mode with no sound and with "What Happened" playing here.

Anytime while the lightstick is on, holding down the Golden Child button for a few seconds turns on the spotlight. Press and hold down this button again to turn off the spotlight. This is personally my most favorite feature; I've been using this as a flashlight to get around my home! And last night I had a power outage, which was the perfect time to really test out my lightstick!

The other side of the pamphlet explains how to pair your lightstick with the app. I'll give a brief tutorial here:

1. Go to the App Store (for iOS) or Play Store (for Android) and download the app "Golden Child Light Stick".
2. Make sure your phone's Bluetooth is on.
3. Open the app and press the "Scan" option.
4. I'm not sure if your lightstick needs to be on or not, but I had mine on so I could see if it worked or not.
5. Make sure your lightstick is standing up (so the handle is at the top) and use your phone to scan your QR Code. Have your phone just a couple inches away from your QR Code at the most.
6. The app should say that it has connected!

Features of this app:

• Search Light: turns on the light at the base of the lightstick. The icon turns from white to yellow when on.
• Light: Light Up, Flash, Party, and Candle features. This page has a color selection circle where you can simply tough any color of your choice. Underneath is a bar indicating how much light you want emitted from your lightstick (left is no light and right is full light). These two functions are for Light Up and Flash modes. Light Up mode simply displays the color and amount of light that you selected. Flash mode is similar to Light Up mode, however it flashes the color and amount of light selected. Party mode flashes through all the colors. Candle mode uses a warm yellow and lightly flutters like a lit candle!
• Reaction Mode: sets your lightstick to Reaction Mode by cycling through the colors and reacting to sound.
• Image: two Golden Child group photos from the Golden Day fanmeeting photoshoot that you can select as the background of the app. You can also add your own images here to use as the app background image.
• Scan: scans the QR Code (as used in the above tutorial).
• Battery: indicates the lightstick's battery percentage.

Here is a closer look at the Light page of the app and runebong on Candle mode. It emits such a beautiful warm glow!

Goldenness first generation is my first time officially joining a fanclub, and it truly feels like an honor to be a part of one! The shipping cost seemed ridiculously high at first, but knowing that the membership includes the lightstick makes the price much more reasonable. I'm so happy to be an official Goldenness and to have runebong to cheer for Golden Child!