Is Everything. This is a forum for flashaholics. Quite simple, isn’t it? Everyone here has gone beyond the norm and wants MORE! But, is this anywhere near average? We are a small percentile of the people. Don’t believe me? Tell anyone you know, or any stranger for that matter, that you just spent $150 on a flashlight. (Did you just spend more than that?) See what they say? We are not normal. This discussion is preaching to the choir.
I have no idea what people do in other countries. Heck, I don’t have much idea what people in the northeast of my own country do. But in the South, here in America MagLight is King! Take a poll, go door to door, ask folks what flashlight sits on top of the refrigerator. Ask how many times a month it’s used. Then ask about the panic that ensues when the lights go out and someone forgot to put the Mag back on top of the fridge when they searched the drawer for a certain sized washer.
Average people want a light for insurance. The best insurance policy is MagLight. Corner store, drug store, convenience store, WalMart, Target, you name it they’re easy to find. Have been for as long as I can remember. Nix that, my memory is horrible! There’s been a black 2D MagLight in the house since they came out with em. The lights before that were truly horrendous! Black plastic head on a yellow body with a single candles worth of light that fell out the front and collapsed like a dying horse. Huge boxes of metal with a rotating head on top that took a monstrous square 6V battery that always seemed to be just about dead, with a feeble glow from the element that defied logic as the cell was known to have been bought right after the great flood.
MagLight revolutionized handheld flashlights in America. Pure and simple. In my house right now, there are 8, with one more in Old Lumens hands for a revision. Only 3 of those are still sporting their incandescent bulb. Such is life. We all grow up, or out, or simply die. When I go, my favorite flashlight will probably still be my most modified…A brilliant red 2D MagLight cut down to 1 cell by JayRob and carrying a 32650 protected Li-ion with 5500mAh capacity. Shining a stunning Cree XM-L T6 at 1000lumens out of a ChicagoX modified ribbed head and doing so through a 45mm TIR. I love looking at it. I love how it feels in my hand. The sheer weight of the thick walled aluminum head is reassuring. And it now has teeth.
What light do I use everyday? My little Titanium CoreTi from MBI, hanging on a titanium curb chain around my neck and boasting a whopping 5 lumens…use it to check the temp at 4 in the morning, the time at 2 AM, find that tiny little bugger of a screw that fell under my desk, read the oil on the dipstick in the garage and every other little thing that comes up where some light is needed. But almost never is that need for 1000 lumens. That’s just for play! And I can do that in quite a few different ways now, yes some of those thanks to China.
Long Live The King, Mag Lights Rule!
And please, people, remember that I cannot and do not try to speak for everyone. I speak from my own personal experience and what I’ve heard from others all my life, right here in Central Texas. What I say doesn’t work for you? Guess you don’t come from my neck o the woods!