The balloons were not as neon during the day as the other decorations, but I looked in several places and super bright neon balloons don't seem to exist. These worked out well though, they looked cool under blacklight, I was pleased. Yes, they have a smell when you open the bag, but to me it was like being in a Party City or something, just the plastic-y balloon smell. We used an air machine to blow them up so no one has to get anything in their mouths, and only one popped even after assembling and hanging the arch.The sign was bright with and without the black light. We had one 7 watt blacklight bulb in a chandelier at the same height as the sign, and a smaller, maybe 1ft, blacklight bar beneath the balloons. The hanging stars were sturdy and very bright, we hung those outside and the wind stretched them out a bit, but I can still reuse them if I wanted!The packaging to ship them in was perfect, it was vacuum sealed so nothing was bent or worn. Tons of balloons, too, so overall a very good value for the money paid.