“The openx one is supposed to be pretty good. “

I bought four of them to give out for gifts a few years ago. When they arrived they were too dull to open an envelope let alone a blister pack–and I almost cut myself on the “starter” knife that pops unexpectedly from below. I pictured my relatives trying to use OpenX to open blister packs on their laps with the starter knife and cutting themselves in bad places so I threw all four OpenXs in the trash rather than let someone get cut.

A big, big Wrath of Khan “Nooooooooooo!” for OpenX.

I now use a pair of Fiskars spring sheers for blister packs. Way better than OpenX.

The more functions you try to add to a tool, the less it does any of them well.

And yes, I have small kids around the house — we keep the cutters well out of reach.

My only criticism would be the screwdriver, which seems a bit flimsy.

I really like mine. So much so, in fact, that I bought several more for Christmas gifts.

here’s a pic: http://tinyurl.com/377rxd

they’ll cut just about anything and i got mine at the MIT Flea for 2 bucks.

If you want a scissor-y thing and have committed to spending $US10+, though, you might as well go to the discount store and get a pair of Chinese tin snips. Unlike the OpenX, they’ll be able to cut a practically infinite amount of plastic without going blunt.

I note that OpenX have added a couple of other cutters to their lineup, too, including some pretty funky looking multipurpose scissors:
http://www.myopenx.com/trio_order.htm

Personally, I’m waiting for a knock-off of the Swissors…
http://www.swissors.com/
…to turn up. They look pretty fantastic, but cost about as much as a decent oxy-acetylene torch, which I’m pretty sure will cut stuff even better.

Personally when i have one of those clamshell packs and no scissors i just bend the plastic back and forth a bunch of times and it turns white and eventually breaks open.

cheers,
Tom