Oh, is my Skyray 7LED from GearBest fake too? That was purchased in 2016 for measly $20
By the way, I paid close to $60 for my first Luxeon direct driven 3AA Legend (based upon Brinkman host) from Hawaii. More than triple digit number of lights purchased after that but never paid that kind of money for any of them. But I always admired all those McGizmo lights and drooled when saw the pictures.
I have been reminiscing about a decade on this site. Never went for the other site as budget means something 
(Granted for what I have spent over the years I could have probably been fine with a couple of “good” lights. Where is the fun in that?) Happy that so many came from that other site and brought serious knowledge to this site without making it into another version of the other one!
Good old times? Well it was pretty cool to get over 600 lumen OTF with some of the P60 hosts. My little TrustFire R5 was a great little light. My first C8s were pretty cool for the day. However, the good times were really yet to come. Between technology improvements and the collaboration with this forum and manufacturers the lights we have today are just so much better as a whole that I have no desire to see anything I had in the day come back. Convoy, Sofirn, Wurkkos, are simply making fantastic lights today. Sure some premium brands may actually make better but not even close in the value equation and this still is the BUDGET light forum! Hats off to SB and all the wonderful people who make up this community and the manufacturers that work with us! These are the good old times and while I may indeed back off again as I have went way over my budget;-), I look forward to what will be coming up in the future!
That’s the one I was talking about. Claimed 8400 lumen with the famous XML T6.
But mine is a very nice flashlight now …
Wasn’t into flashlights, I was part of the laser community back then instead.
The laser community is full of bitter, easily-annoyed people who have an extremely dangerous hobby that attracts people who are ignorant of (or who simply ignore) safety precautions.
So almost every thread goes like this:
Anon 1: helo everyone how I buy maximum sterngth lazer? I am 14 yars old and wan lazer for show my frands
Anon 2: OMG WHAT ARE YOU DOING YOU WILL BLIND SOMEONE OMG BAN THIS PERSON NOOOOOOW
That’s how “we” say “hi” over there.
I’m much happier here.
That’s the one! “SkyRay Cree XML T6 8400Lm Compact LED Flashlight - Black”
Until you told me, I was quite happy with it! Of course, I have rarely used it as I find it NOT exactly suitable as general purpose light except showing to others just for fun.
I had no idea those XML were all fake.
Yeah DQG Tiny is very hard to find, a few of them still around but hard to find.
The technology improved but things are different. I also miss some of the posters from back then, Match, Foy, Dchomak and many more.
I also missed many threads about how modern drivers work, back when i was learning it was tail switches and linear drivers.
Ha, those Skyrays do still exist! Found them at aliexpress, they simply don’t name it “Skyray” anymore.
Still using XML T6, and outputting ten thousends of chinese lumens.
Perhaps I’ll choose a golden one this time …
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32621303808.html
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32787218355.html
LOL yea, I had my share of those conversations. Even when the green pointers first came out but you could “hack” them beyond 5mw so they had a nice visible beam at night, there’d always be some kid running up to me “OMG I NEED THAT!!”. Not “I want…” “NEED!!!”. I stopped when ppl shining lasers at planes and such started making the news. Just not worth it. (I never, ever, did anything like that)
Came here to get the BLF GT/GiggleMonster. I’m even scared to use that.
AZJ
Ditto for me. I never posted there but some amazing things to learn. The knuckleheads around here used to flash planes and there were reports of dummies flashing choppers from Fort Bragg. Very unhealthy
I’d kick a puppy for an M43.
I bought a manker mk35 II (sbt 90.2) and then a weltool W4 and they were basically like socially-acceptable mega-lasers, so I set my Sanwus and so on upon a shelf, and I never looked back.
Hello good morning sir, wat is this you are linking
Why thank you, beautiful stranger.
Relatively new flashaholic here. Thanks for the awesome thread! This is a tread to read through.
What was Hank doing 10 years ago? Did he have another brand before Noctigon/Emisar?
That SkyRay 7 LED light sure looks an awful lot like Q8. Did SkyRay become Thorfire and then Sofirn?
I think everyone had a version of Q8, some called it something else.
12~13 years ago all my info on flashlights came from a Brazilian forum (maybe some from another American forum), and one thing I remember is that a LOT of people loved the p60 standard, and scoffed at proprietary formats. How things change…
PS: I do miss Solarforce and regret not getting more products from them, and while more hosts would be nice, getting a clip for my L2T is on top of my bucket list.
Had to goggle it for the dates, but I got my first “real” flashlights, a pair of Quark 2AA-Xes (at least I think that’s what they were called) back in 2013-2014 or so.
But I did like the River Rock (Target house brand) lights, the 1×AA and 2×C beasties.
