Quick reviews of some lesser known Chinese flashlight brands (Jin Heng, Starfish, Pioneman, etc..)

Thanks for doing this. To me, looks like _Jim Heng_and Pioneman are worth a look.

I think they specialize in machining but get drivers from Convoy. Their hosts are different than Convoys and probably are of a higher quality.

I got my 2 JKK (Jin Heng) from Banggood last year — JKK03 and JKK36R.
It’s often out of stock, and only appears occasionally.

I believe JKK is also listed in AliExpress (although since the pandemic, shipping fees are sometimes listed much higher there).

I was interested in JKK’s powerbank feature since it has 2 USB-A female ports, so basically it’s a flashlight and a powerbank (can detach the battery carrier from the flashlight head so it’s now a powerbank although the batteries may be exposed)

You can find some of these JKK (Jin Heng) flashlights in the LHT Flashlight Store (I think this may be KaiDomain’s store in AliExpress), eg this one:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32811889881.html

Compared a convoy on my desk to one I saw in the pioneman shop

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001792092356.html

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000439719681.html

That is the same flashlight :stuck_out_tongue:

Ok you could say they changed the external machining.

But these are actually the same:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003588058354.html

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003536044048.html

Yeah, I’m not sure what the relationship is between Convoy and Pioneman. By the way, I recently learned that Manker and Mateminco are the same brand.

just quickly looked, but thanx for your efforts!

Thanks d_t_a for the link on Ali Express. Interesting. But I could not find the JKK90 that fogofwar mentioned in his informative review above.

Spent all my savings on quite a few purchases during Black Friday. Now will have to wait until Lunar New Year to raise new funds for new flashlights then. :person_facepalming:

What light in this photo, please, and how many meters to the peninsula?

I don’t think Manker and Mateminco are the same brand…

Possible relation is that the Astrolux brand made use of Manker flashlights several years ago (based on the readings I did here in BLF), but more recently, most Astrolux flashlights are rebrands of Mateminco flashlights. I’m not very sure if Manker and Mateminco used to be related before though.

Astrolux is more of a brand, based on my understanding, selling mainly to outside China (international).

Many early Astrolux flashlights were made by Manker, but based on what I read here in BLF, it seems there was some kind of a fallout somewhere, so Astrolux now mainly uses Mateminco manufactured flashlights, with a few other exceptions (eg. the Astrolux EC01/03/06 appear to be made by Sofirn), and the Astrolux FT04 appears to be made by Haikelite.

I recall seeing a message by Simon (Convoy) that he is a friend of or knows the Pioneman brand; so its conceivable that they may use similar suppliers of parts (like maybe those that manufacture flashlight body tubes, etc).

It does look like the Pioneman K45-C and the Convoy M21E are identical, at least based on the pictures on the link you posted. And also even the usage operation appear to be identical…

[quote=d_t_a]

Mateminco’s Taobao chat name was recently renamed to mankerlightchina… so who knows

Jin Heng JKK90 with the SBT 90.2 and it’s almost exactly 200 meters to the outcrop.

fogofwar, is it possible to find out how many factories are in China producing flashlight bodies? Are there a lot of machining shops which can produce a huge production of flashlights?

I have a feeling many China flashlight brands either 1. Own their own factory and manufacture/program their own driver or 2. Outsource production but design/produce their own drivers

I wonder if Manker maybe bought out Mateminco

The flashlight market can’t be very big and unfortunately most brands in China don’t know how to target or market outside of China to be successful whether due to work culture, language barriers, etc.

Great info! Does anyone know of a turbo runtime graph for the jkk90?

I’m sure it’s possible. Manufacturing something like a flashlight should be quite easy. You can just go to Huaqiangbei (the electronic markets in Shenzhen) and probably have someone design a driver for you. Then you go a few shops down and find someone who can machine the aluminum host.

I got two new lights which I can add to the statistics above.

1) Mateminco MT35 Mini with San’an SFH55:

160560 candela, 10032 lumens, 27.0A at turbo. I paid 262 CNY.

2) Sofirn IF22A with Luminus SFT 40:

118530 candela, 2277 lumens, 9.2A at turbo. I paid 145 CNY.

It’s a long story, but Neal (from Neal’s gadgets) used to work for Banggood and got fired over the CPS Italia Cometa fiasco. Neal was the go-between for BLF, Manker, and Banggood. Manker was making the lights for Banggood. The BLF A6 was on of the early ones. Still one of the best flashlights IMO. Manker was the OEM for the BLF lights, and totally ripped off the Jaxman Z1 design for the Cometa. In fact, they were ordering lenses from Jaxman and lying to them about the use, which were going into the Cometa.

Here’s the Cometa and the shitstorm, in case you’re interested My COMETA is a POS - does not connect with tailcap spring - burned my finger [Hobby Ending - Enough is Enough] and here WARNING: Cometa – read/fix BEFORE inserting battery

Anyway, the whole thing blew up, Neal got fired, and Banggood found a new manufacture (mateminco), and started the Astrolux brand. That was not without major f…up’s either. Astrolux is owned by Banggood.

One of the early “astrolux” lights with the wires soldered on backwards because the MCPCB. board was made backwards where the screws would short out. And what was banggood/astrolux’s fix? plastic washers… lol.

Random side note is that bugout actually d2 steel?

Well I don’t know for sure, but D2 steel is pretty cheap so I think it’s reasonable to assume that the specs are accurate. Overall, I would wager that the quality is as high as a genuine Benchmade knife.

thats true by any chance do you have a link for it? i wouldnt mind swapping scales on my bugout

I bought it on Taobao and you might be able to find something similar on Aliexpress: https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=633834093026