Ok- curiosity got the best of me and I grabbed one of the 2AA Armormax.
So far - construction seems on par with the description of the 3C Thrower, and what people are saying about the 3D AM in this thread. Nothing fancy, but nothing feels flimsy or cheap. The tail switch has a good feel, although it might be a little sensitive for my tastes.
Despite the flats milled onto the tail housing - the light rolls on a flat surface, even with the rubber “Armor” installed. A little work with an exacto knife on the rubber could fix that.
Size comparison with the Defiant 3C XM-L Thrower, 3D Mag (XM-L), the Defiant 2AA, Ultrafire 502B (XM-L), Surefire G2 (XR-E P60), and one of those cheap little 9-led lights you see at the cash register just about any hardware store. (they’re horrible, and infinitely useful, little lights - I always manage to have like 5 functional ones floating around)
Firing it up with the included AA’s - beamshots were so unremarkable that I’m not going to bother posting them. My Surefire G2 XR-E outgunned it easily.
Opening it up I immediately notice this isn’t an XM-L in this light. edit: After some digging, I realize this is a Cree XT-E in this light. That’s good news, cause it appears to be way underdriven to be rated at only 70 lumen, and to be having a XR-E outrunning it.
Link to the full size pic - http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8389/8542714934_ea769bdbc3_o.jpg
To answer the rest of the questions about the host itself, and if it would make a good modding platform:
The emitter MCPCB is thermal pasted (I hope) to a pill that appears to be threaded into the reflector housing/head assembly. The driver appears to be the standard 17mm affair with a big spring - I didn’t remove it:
Reflector is ~27mm diameter, and 21.32mm tall
Plastic lens is 29.53mm
The battery compartment is 14.72mm
As far as using this as a modding base - I dunno. I’m fairly underwhelmed in stock form, considering I can pick up the XM-L 502B in my pics for less than $12 shipped on Amazon, and I have a pile of 18650’s to go in them.
If I were using this defiant as a modder (edit - now knowing that the emitter is an XT-E with some possibility) - I don’t know enough about throwing a pair of series 14500 like Cateye did - I’m just afraid that much voltage for long is going to cause some form of issue? Wonder if there’s a way to parallel them inside the body?