@slym: I hear you on the need for more flashiness.
@Mathias: slanted shine shape sounds good. (Above, all I did was flood-fill each letter white, then yellow, then orange, one by one.)
I'll have it flash earlier and continuously, like a siren light, yeah. I was wary of having the flash begin earlier because I didn't want it to disturb a still-spinning letter. As it stands, the G gets to exist for two frames before being lit up. I plan on having a thinner band of light do the thing, and have 2-3 visible at a time. I'll leave the still-spinning letters untouched at first...
For the fade out I'll have it fade to white and dissolve into triangles.