Durabeam (1982)
Until 1982 a torch was a torch. It was either a dumpy box held like a watering can, or a cylinder held like a club.
The Durabeam changed this. It was the first torch to be held like a walkie-talkie or a Star Trek-style communications device and it flipped open like a Zippo lighter. Originally intended as a promotional device, for the Duracell company, the Durabeam’s novel design was thought sufficiently exciting to market it as a consumer product.
The design may have been Germanic in it’s aesthetic but it was actually the work of British designer Nick Butler and his BIB design partnership. A reimagining of what a torch could be, the on-off function became integral to the torch’s use. Rather than having a push-switch, the physical act of opening the torch triggered the switching mechanism.
With the torch light beneath the hinged edge, the beam could be directed tangentially from the position in which it was held. The unfussy shape was injection moulded with parts in polypropylene and polyethylene.
Although made by a US-based manufacturer, the Durabeam was held up as a symbol of British design innovation.
Launched in 1982, Durabeam became the market-leading torch brand in just two years. But, while the brand name lives on, this iconic design does not. Now it’s a museum piece, in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Its designer, Nick Butler, passed away in 2012.
There were two versions made, the double AA and larger double C cell.
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In it’s original form with incandescent bulb
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The Durabeam Flip CRX style 
Nichia 219C on sinkpad
14500 cell
TP4056 micro USB charger board
Red laser dot, momentary side switch
Around 220lm
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Some build pictures
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Here it is with something else I dug out from the same time period, a lego spaceship I made about 33 years ago when I was seven 
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Thanks for having a look :+1:
