Why do people collect flashlights?

@Whiteheat: Concerning the billy club 3) in your post, it used to be and probably still is a felony to possess a weighted night stick in the USA except for LEOs. Just a heads up.

And my guns can be used to protect my family. I would argue that adds more to our safety than having lots of flashlights, even though the torches get used more often.

As has already been stated, I’m not just looking for the perfect flashlight, I’m looking for the perfect EDC light, the perfect camping light, the perfect headlamp, the perfect BOB light (need 6 of those), the perfect car emergency light, the perfect bike headlight, the perfect bike tail light, the perfect home emergency light, and on and on.

Sometimes I get it completely wrong and try again. In some cases, you just gotta buy it to find out what you really want or need. And sometimes I get a niche filled, and then something (ostensibly) way better comes along, and I have to try it out. I’m not a collector, I just need lots of lights.

Hi there. Thanks for that. I had heard a rumour that that might be the case but I heard it nth hand and nth years ago so I wasn't at all sure, but I am not surprised. However, this being said, I am reasonably certain that that particular law may not be strictly adhered too at all times in all places. I suspect that out in the deep woods or country, that rule may not be strictly adhered to. I am also sure that these specific torches are not illegal everywhere in the world either.

Moving the train of thought along, this illegality of carrying a night stick Maglite may just apply to this actual type of torch. Let me posit this idea. Suppose you carried the Imalent MS18 around with you. It is nowhere near able to be classed as a 'stick' as it is only 26.5cm long (or 10.4" in old money), which is not long enough to be classed as a swinging stick weapon. However, it could still be used as a kinetic weapon. It weighs nigh on 2Kg. Swing the butt end of that down on someone's head and blunt force trauma is sure to ensue. So, I can with some degree of certainty know that that law against nightstick flashlights is not and cannot be so universally applied to cover each and every flashlight that could potentially be used as a kinetic weapon.

This all said, it doesn't really matter as the point I was making was that certain torches of certain dimensions do give certain people a sense of defensive security, even though most collectors would be unwilling to use their flashlights that met this criteria (being long or weighty enough) to be used as a kinetic weapon. Would one really want to risk writing of a really expensive torch such as the MS18 when other 'weapons' would do a better job at a fraction of the cost?

A flashlight can’t kill you unless you deliberately beat yourself over the head with it, and only morons would do that. :wink: Of course, morons can also get into trouble charging lithium cells without knowing what they’re doing… An acquaintance of mine with many years of gun expertise dropped a gun, while momentarily distracted. Safety wasn’t on. Gun hit the hard floor and went off. Shot a bullet into his foot. Could’ve easily been an artery in his leg or a hole in his head. Even gun experts make mistakes.

Because flashlights create happiness.

Doing your psych thesis, are ya?

I don’t get the whole “prepper” connection a lot of people have concerning flashlights. Same with knives. People are so often in need of them, let they look at you as if you’ve got a .45 stuck in your waistband if you use/offer one.

I’ve seen our IT guys at work threading cat5 cable through drop-ceilings in the dark, else using their phones (or trying to) to get some light up there. :person_facepalming: The receptionist at the time asked me for a light and they used mine.

And just last week or so, grubbling around behind my machines to disconnect an unused kvm switch, in the dark, trying to go by feel alone. I used “ceiling bounce” on the bottom of the overhead cabinets to indirectly light up the area, and he was done in seconds.

Knives? I can slice open Amazon boxes or peel a orange so easily, when others are trying to use one blade from scissors to open boxes, or trying to hack away with a styrene knife and making a mess.

They’re just handy, and weigh next to nothing compared to the benefits of carrying them.

Love when people try to use keys to open boxes.
Rips it like a Beaver tooth.

Never get tired of seeing that one. :slight_smile: Needs the higher res version, though:

Oooooh! And now that you mention it as I forgot about it. I wouldn't say that owning a light sabre is ultimate 'thing' on any guys wish list, but I reckon it'd be close, especially if you're the only one of a select few to actually own one (fanciful thinking only - yes, I am aware they don't exist in a real deal form). See your cartoon there with the 'Fwoosh' effect is just about as light sabrish as any of us are going to get. So, here's another reason to add to the list of why people collect flashlights. At night, you can have your very own light sabre - minus the ability to cut people in half or cut through multiple inches of steel. How cool is that?

Unfortunately no. I am just a casual but acute observer of human nature and having thought about it, put those observations and ideas to paper. I bet there are a multiplicity of academic papers on why people 'collect' objects though.

Flashlights (as a thing that could light up the darkness) always fascinated me as a child, and I never got enough of them… only 2 flashlights (a silver 2C Energizer and a 2D angle light, the latter found by my brother in a feedlot, and it never stopped smelling like **it). Now I can get all the lights I want.

There is something sublime about holding a small object in the hand that can illuminate more than my vehicle headlights. And having a light so small it practically disappears in the pocket, yet is far brighter than anything I had as a kid.

Hahaha! Hilarious.

You seem a bit over analytical. Perfect. Buy a flashlight and before you know it you will have a collection :smiley:

Hummels, shoes, spoons, hats, you name it.

At least collecting utilitarian things like lights or knives have a function. :laughing:

’cause Melbourne gets dark in winter.

And also why people group, as they do… for certain causes or beliefs. To the point of “binding” their identity to it such that any challenge, no matter how logical, is treated as a threat and fought back with total blind stubbornness. Sorry, that’s “OT” for intent and just a general observation. But we need more experts to understand it… and come up with ways to address it.

I don’t believe I collect them, but my reason to as why I have so many is to test and find my favorite EDC, headlamp, lantern etc… so that I have the best light I can for every situation.

I’m wondering if I should sell the ones I don’t use, but then again I might want to try them out again, compare them to newer ones or suddenly I find a use case for them.

I love lights, been loving them all my life, and I’m quite interested in either CRI or output. For example having a LED flashlight that looks exactly like an incandescent light (e.g SST-20 2700K) is my kind of thing. I didn’t know about all these LEDs and flashlights before I joined the r/flashlight subreddit, but now I’m like a kid in a candy store trying everything out.