I would avoid those named SkyWolfEye or Vander. Quality might be to bad to be of use. E.g. those tubular ones (“S5”) have a loose pill, very thin tubes and poor threads. Models with side switch are often not that easy to modify. You should decide if you really want a zoomable light, it sounds promising but those cheap ones have their downsides. Even if you buy it only as a host, below 5$ it’s hard to find decent quality. Those C8 with an older Cree XR-E could be worth a try. Emitter and driver swap should be easy and deliver what you want.
Yeah, I figured the zoomable thing was a gimmick, I watched a variety of youtube videos and some lights would zoom alright and some would not or made rather loud clicks when doing so. Furthermore, apparently you can leak water into the unit and kill the light when doing that, at least with the cheapies. Still it would be neat to find something semi usable / moddable, it’s a bit of a shame that I came around so late when everything is now using the ‘lattice bright’ emitter so they’re all going to have that terribly dim pale blue light I imagine.
I received it. It’s similar inside like the light that vēer bought. It has a similar driver but it takes a 16mm MCPCB and just has a lip/ledge for the MCPCB to sit on. It has a Lattice Bright emitter just as expected in a light of this price
Don’t expect to make a hot rod out of it. It’s just a cheap 14500 light that needs a Nichia on Noctigon upgrade after pressing/Arctic Silver epoxy a copper disc in there.
Was wondering if these were still available for cheap. I went back through my ebay purchases and the seller i got these from orgionally dont sale them anymore. I gave all these away and sk68’s when the tornados hit around the Dallas area recently to friends and people without power.
Hopefully someone knows!
I see some on eBay, but the claims are a bit outlandish:
One, the cheapest I could find, for $3.99, with a “1500LM CREE R5”:
…while we know that the ones from last year were all shipped with ultra-blue LatticeBright XP-E counterfeits. Conveniently, the listing doesn’t show any photos of the emitter.
Thanks for the information, wish that we could the deals we got last year on these. Is there any other cheap ones that fill its shoes?
i just bought from xtar the wk21 for $11.10 thats 500 lumens from a real quality company.
Dont forget that its available to US buyers only.
11$ ? nicee
that’s a steal.
thanks for the head up.
Please let us know what you end up getting.
I think these may be the last of a stock with slightly different specs than the WK21 we all know.
I just got one that is pre programmed (soldered contacts) and the manual shows 400 lumens as the max output. They are waiting on a new shipment built from a new bin. Not sure when that will arrive or what the specs will be. Looking forward to it.
For the record, they handled the issue pretty well (read this as anything but a complaint please).
Just know that the great price reflects the now known issue with the stock on hand in CA.
Still a very nice little light for about $10 
OK, I am new here, what was their issue with this light??
Not trolling, just a newbie/mostly lurker trying to give a heads up from my recent experience. It’s definitely my first post so I guess that might look suspicious but the timing of my purchase and the post from Ronin42 prompted me to register and share.
BTW I’m not sure what you thought was negative, I said I like the light at that price but I just would’ve liked to do my own mod. Not to mention that I was pretty charitable in my post considering my irish temper. I went back a few times and “niced” it up a little so that it didn’t come off as a rant.
I think the main problem is their English writing skills. They also seem to “recycle” their descriptions which leads to less than clear descriptions of the product on sale or on hand. Add to that a warehouse in CA but eb*y store managed out of CHN and you get all of the usual (but well intentioned) communication problems. For instance some of the WK50’s on sale right now say free shipping in the subject but 2.60 shipping in the body. There are also only pink WK50’s pictured but one or two of them have the other colors mentioned just no mention of how to select one of the other two colors.
I’m an XTAR fan, I’ve picked up some great deals from this place but going forward I’m just going under the assumption that I’m playing the Chinese lottery like with some of the others (BG, GB etc.) Hence one of the reasons for my original post, if Ronin gets an unmodded light I’m definitely going to roll the dice again at that price.
Anyway, this is much too long of a post for a closet flashaholic.
Best Regards,
SMM
Plz post links.
Tarver, I pm’d the name of the ebay store. I didn’t want to post anything in the open in case my post is still perceived as derogatory.
SMM
OK, I RETRACT my statement, but I will ask again, what was the “issue” with this light.
Thanks GG, no issue with the way the light works. It’s not DOA or anything it just didn’t match the description they were using at the time. I got one with the contacts pre-soldered to limit it to low and high. I would have gone ahead and eliminated the flashy mode too but would have kept the mid. I was initially under the impression that it was used/returned but then they did some checking and told me that the 2 mode was all they had in stock. They made me a nice deal so it turned out to be an even better deal than the $11 they’re doing right now.
SMM
Thanks for the reply, I’m going to order one now!
its a cr123 light, or 16340, is that correct ? does it take 18350 ??
cr123 or 16340 work fine but the diameter is too small for a 18350
SMM