Thanks for the review texaspyro. With a 10 out of 5 star rating, $1.00 price tag and genuine plastic used through out there only remains one question. Do you think we could start a group buy and perhaps if we get 239 members interested we may get this absolutely fantastic flashlight for 99 cents.
Alas, at Dollar Tree everything’s a buck. No discounts for bulk purchases. It’s not even listed on their web site where they only sell things in bulk… for a buck.
Now, if I can only find one of those 5 emitter monster lights, my life would be complete.
Lucks in. Maybe we can get this down to $64.50 with a group buy. If the shipping to Aus is under $200.00 I may just get one at the listed price. The write up on these lights is unbelievable and I dont want to miss out.
lol That first pic of the triple emitter/leds made me think it had promise for a sec.
This is the funniest review I’ve read so far!
I like!
Any idea where can i get the cheaper chinese clone?
When the give-away?
YEP, got it at Dollar Tree, 5-6 years ago. The only TRUE dollar store left - everything is still a dollar. The day I bought this there was a Scoutmaster there buying all they had for a camping trip his troop was going on. He actually described this light as having “good throw” Up until then, I had never heard the term, but I knew what he meant by it. He was right, it would throw clear across the room!, better than the other 6-8 LED shower heads that were also available at the time. Of course the 6-8 LED lights were “flooders” I remember giving them out as stocking stuffers that Christmas and was everyone impressed!
A closeup of this triple emitter looks impressive but wait ’til you see the scale of it is in context.
I have been gifting LED lights to family members ever since, and every year they are impressed at how much progress there has been in the technology. I still find it amazing that a light this small, with but just 3 emitters us able to throw so many photons all the way across a room.
Is yours made of genuine plastic?
i’d guess bakelite
I believe it is, although it was never stated as so on the packaging, only that it was double-insulated.
Almost all things in this world are made in China. lol J) Of course, this all about quality-issues. Well, welcome to the Era of Globalization.
3.62lm/w, is this better or worse then a candle?
Better, I think… aren’t candles around 0.1 lumens/watt?
Wow! Found a great selection of these at my local Dollar Tree! I just couldn't decide on a color, so I chose not to buy any at all.
-Garry
I couldn’t decide on color either, so I closed my eyes and happened to grab purple. A few weeks later I wandered into another Dollar Tree and wouldn’t you know, they had purple also, but a different shade of purple Now what do I do? I find myself going to all the DT’s looking for new shades.
Additionally, I moded mine using Monster Cable oxygen free copper wire. It doesn’t look any brighter but the quality of the beam just seems better. The wire cost more than I would have liked, but I’m glad I did it, it was a good investment.
Luxy bastards! My usual Dollar Tree only had the one light. I was at a different Dollar Tree today and forgot to check for more.
Oh woe is me! Deep dark depression, excessive misery! My Lampe de Poche has screwede the pooche. :_( One of the CREEp XPU/ke emitters has died. One is now hogging all the current and is very bright, the other is quite a bit dimmer. Maybe time to do an emitter downgrade and put some Nichia 219’s in this poche.
I took apart poor Lampe’s head and found a problem de poche. There is a 5 ohm current limiting resistor on the very sophisticated driver board (it’s the only part on it). Unfortunately it is not connected to anything! The + battery wire should go to the resistor. The LEDs are driven directly from the battery pack. Time to break out the slobbering iron…
Sorry to hear of your loss, but in all things bad, there can be some good! Your tale of woe inspired me to push on, trying to get 1 more lumen out of this fantastic light. You had stumbled onto something and maybe you didn’t even realize it! I have tried every thing on this light to get the most out of it. First I cleaned the contacts, thinking that internal resistance was the problem. Then I dedomed those 3 awesome emitters that are afixed directly to the driver board. Talk about efficiency!, soldering the emitters directly onto the driver board eliminates any extra resistance in the wires to the triple LED array. The engineering team that designed this thing were definitely thinking outside the box. So far I had lubed the plastic threads, tried the Eneloops, even replaced the wiring with the Monster Cable “oxygen free copper wire” All this and no improvement in the brightness! I should of known, a light this good, because of the superior engineering that went into it could not be improved. Then it hit me, THAT 5 OHM RESISTOR. Could it be that this my opening, my chance to improve this light even further, to out do the R and D lab that designed it? Direct Drive is the answer, or so I thought. I took it apart and by-passed it, connecting the lead DIRECTLY to the battery pack. I hurriedly put it back together, making sure the plastic threads everywhere were screwed tight, made sure the eneloops were fully charged and turned it on. Oh the Glory of it!, for an instant, it seemed like a few seconds really, it was brighter!
Then it happened. First I noticed my finger got a little warm, then the smell. I immediately turned it off. Right then and there I knew my mistake. I should have trusted the builders of this great light, they had done the work, had done the testing and had already brought it to the ragged edge. In my vain attempts, I had pushed it over. Here is a pic of the result. I only show it because in a round about way, through no genius on my part, but blind luck really, it ended up with slightly better throw! Believe it or not, it still works, but now instead of merely being able to throw clear across the room, it now reaches out into the hallway! The only thing I can figure is that when the plastic reflector melted the 3 led’s are now slightly misaligned and actually focus together at a sweet spot a room and a hall away!
Now the pic
,
This will now be my EDC. When I take it out, by the looks of it, EVERY one will know this guy has been through it, don’t mess with him, he’s a tough guy!