I’ll add my magic to this glorious necro:
- the “regular” M@glites as far back as 2014. I mean seriously, in stock form they are pure cringe. You pay a bunch for a light with poor waterproofing (the competition has IPX-7 at least on their regular sale models), garbage plastic lens (no kidding, I swapped mine for a circular PET cutout from a soda bottle and it works better), HORRIBLE beam (because they can’t be arsed into designing a parabolic reflector, apparently). They feel really good in the hand, yes, but the good side ends there.
And no, the “MURRIKA” thing that M@glite fanboys preach up and down doesn’t do it for me, because I’m a) not some gullible fanatical patriot that doesn’t know most of the components are Chinese in origin, and b) not a yank to begin with. Worst of all, the 2AA Mini’s stock tail spring crushed the tail ends of my Eneloops. Gidouttahere with that &$#+!
- Fenix E11. Just plain poor design for an EDC light: Low mode is much too high, the optics it uses concentrates the beam far too much for indoors use (too much throw, not enough flood, and glare galore), and the switch is about as pleasant as removing a tyre from its rim barehanded (don’t try this at home). In fact, this light is exactly why I was wary of the 1xAA format and a Thrunite T10 - thankfully that little one taught me that 1xAA lights can be pleasant to operate and use even if your hands are large.
- some Cheapo POS claiming 78k lumens feeding on 18650s or 3xAAA carriers that I bought back in 2010/11, when I didn’t even know flashlight forums existed or what an 18650 was. After hearing of one of our fellows who had a battery in a C8 vent inside his car and burning it down, I couldn’t put the battery fast enough in the recycling bin - the light itself, in its rusted-contact and unpleasant-to-hold glory, I got so horribly disgusted by that I threw it out the window of my car into an entirely uninhabited area. I wouldn’t subject even trash diggers to think themselves lucky they have it. :rage:
Runners-up are a Thrunite Archer 2A v2 in NW that I sent back to Thrunite’s factory 3 or 4 times (lovely beam and good runtime, actually was my thrower for a while, but unreliable enough to make me give up on it), and an Olight S30 that on paper should be featured on the list because it doesn’t go farther than medium mode without flickering like a bad CFL and shining the low battery LED on the side switch, but I’m not bothered by it - I just stuck a low-cap battery in it and use its Moonlight and Low modes for utility. They’re not listed because these are bad individual samples, not bad models as a whole.