Tony Maglica was born in New York City during the depression. His mother took him back to her native Croatia as a small child. He returned to the US in 1950, speaking no English, and worked hard to learn English and save enough money to buy his own lathe. He worked making his own design flashlight in his garage in the LA area. The rest, as they say, is HISTORY. Contact ā Maglite
Anyone with enough saavy to turn depression era into success has got my respect. And I have many of his flashlights, including a 2D that works like the day it was new some 30 years ago. Sure, I mod some today, chop em, modernize em, create monsters from em. But I do that to virtually any light made, including my own designs that I too make with my own lathe right here at home.
Own many Maglites, just added another yesterday.
The 2 cell AA models have been my go-to lights for years doing A/C repair work. They always workedā¦.
Got into the newer flashlights and yes, they are brighter, smaller and fancyerā¦.
But will alway have Maglites as my back-ups.
Dale, Tony M. did well- no complaints there. But heās trying to sell an outdated product. and I fear that marketing strategy will take back the success he worked hard to achieve.
I just got my first LED Maglites from Dchomakās relentless bargain hunts at H.D. and Lowes. Iād seen and used some before but never owned one. The 2AAA Pro (111 lum) has a nice beam profile and good power for itās size- I like it. The 2AA Pro (272 lum) is OK, off-centered poorly focusing beam and not much brighter in actual use. Itās gone into my B.O.B. simply for battery compatibility reasons. The 2D is easily outdone by a C8 clone. Good to keep in a car console for use as a club maybe A Maglite still wonāt let you down but donāt expect much from it as a flashlight.
What struck me most is the warranty. Excluded is āLED Burnout or LED Module Failureā. I did a WTF? on reading that. No coverage for battery related issues, modding, or abuse (sensible) so essentially as far as breakable parts go the warranty covers the switch and nothing more Iām sorry but you can get better than that from Chinese Mega-Stores. I remember the old days when a couple guys I know got new lights because of leaky batteries, no questions asked. Iāll always have at least one Maglite- an incan one as theyāre EMP-proof
These are dark and sad times for Maglite. I think of what could have been and I almost cry.
Hmmā¦ Iād think that everything BUT modding and battery leaks would be covered. It isnāt Magliteās fault we left alka-leaks in our 3D Maglite for 16 years waiting for the Y2k apocalypse. On the other hand, if they are confident in the quality of the LED emitters that they are installingā¦ and the drivers that they are making (or having made), then those should be included in the warranty. Otherwise, what the hell else is there to cover? Cross threaded tail caps?
IMO, itās pretty clear that M@g gave up on quality, service, and innovation a long time ago. Theyāre now just trying to make some bucks before they completely drive the company and name into the ground.
Well, to be honest, it was a Mini Mag 2AA that started the whole flashlight thing for me! So that makes for a pretty nostalgic and positive bias I have towards them
I also like the way they aesthetically āageā with scuffs that gradually reveal the gbare aluminium underneath the polished surface. They look cool well beaten, canāt say that for me let lights.
I had in my hands a newer āproā led model once and it was a fine light, I gifted it and it was appreciated.
I also think I can get more for the same money, stuff that has become important to me like NW tint and a clickie switch, bit thatās mostly ābecause of the internetā and would not complain about Maglite lights as an absolute matter.
Magās Mag-Tac rechargeable pretty much checks those boxes, actually. They went with LiFePO4 chemistry so runtime kinda sucks (dumb 2-level mode regime doesnāt help). Itās a bit safer and survives many more charge/discharge cycles than LiCo though so I can see their reasoning.
I donāt know if Iād consider a 3xAAA light to be up to date. Thatās just the standard config for most cheap direct-driven Chinese lights. Granted, this one probably has some (typically poor M@g) driver, but I think youād do better with a 1xAA light from a modern brand. Zebralight or Manker 1xAA lights will blow this away.
Today, with help from information on this forum, i repaired an old black baton 3D maglite that had been corroded out by the alkaleak cell. Years ago i think Costco sold this in a set with the little 2AA light and a cloth holster. They were so much better than the plastic body lights of the day that i bought several sets and everyone got one for xmas too.
i had taken the tail and lens off of it many years ago and set them aside in a box. i couldnāt figure how to dismantle it to get the switch out in order to really clean out that bore, so it sat around in a box for a long timeāuntil today someone started a thread about finding old parts in a box and trying to remember what it was. And that sparked me to action. Got it cleaned and working āgoodā as new (what a miserable anemic beam). Maybe iāll cut it down and make a hotrod or something like Dale now that i know about the T8 torx set screw holding the switch and the locating snap ring with the holes sheared off. i guess Mr. Mag thought he was really clever with all his useless tricks.
i have 25 year old mag lights beaten to hell that still work. that's great, and for nostalgia purposes i havn't passed them on, but they never come with me any more.
I have several āDā cell Maglites and a few 2xAA variants as well - to me, they simply represent the past. I really donāt understand why Maglite allowed itself to fall so far behind in the field; perhaps there was a manager somewhere who was/is simply āstuck in his waysā.
Basic cool emitters and sub 1k lumen outputs simply donāt cut it anymore. Sooner or later the Walmart / Costco / Home Depot outlets will shrug them off in favour of āhotterā cheaper Chinese product and that will be the end of Maglite. If the West stagnates, one canāt blame the East for filling the demands of the marketplace.
Hi everyone, Iāve found this thread interesting so Iāll write my first post on these forums and add my 2 cents :).
I bought 2xAA Maglite Mini in 2000, obviously the incandescent version. After using really cheap and trashy torches for scouting and mountain hiking for many years this Maglite seemed like a luxury and prestige - Iād never been particularly interested in quality of such equipment so this was my first āqualityā torch, which was much praised by my friends. It had very good build quality, it had zoom, it could act as a candle, was waterproof, had a spare bulb in the tail cap and looked elegant. However, with time it turned out that I was more and more reluctant to use it mostly because the simple action of turning it on and off was a pain: I had to use two hands, I had to adjust the zoom each time and I had to be careful not to twist it too much so that I donāt unscrew the head completely. I preferred using cheap no-name torches that I could turn on with a simple press of a button. Moreover, after some time the twisty switch started having problems with electric contact so the light often dimmed randomly and I had to twist it back and forth many times to restore full brightness - Maglite advertised that this was a self cleaning switch but in practice the cleaning part never worked well.
So now this torch is still working but I donāt use it at all. Iād be happy to get a new 2xAA Maglite Mini but I donāt want to go back to the twisted switch and apart from that the beam and the light emitter are not what would satisfy me. Indeed, there has been little progress in Maglite apart from switching to LED technology - but to be honest they had no other choice otherwise they would go bankrupt immediately.
What I like about Maglite is that they still make torches for primary batteries. But still, I donāt know if itās deliberate or a sign of stagnation on their part. I got interested in torches recently and I am fan of using ordinary batteries but unfortunately for me, most of development occurs in rechargeable models. Iād be interested in getting a 2xC Maglite but I can see it has many flaws: ugly beam with halos and donut blackhole, people reporting problems with the electronic switch and so on. Iād like to buy a quality Maglite but for me they donāt produce such products. Sturdy and elegant body is not enough.
There arenāt many upgrade kits left for the Maglite Mini-AA but if youād want to upgrade yours for sentimental reason there is one pretty good looking kit still available from Litt Industries in the US.
Although with the added cost of postage from US to Poland it wouldnāt make economic sense when there are much better value lights like the recently released Sofirn SP10Pro.
Yes, Maglite is known for their heavy club lights. I agree they have enormous potential but will they use it? They need some fresh minds that will introduce good emitters, reflectors, convenient UI, get rid of halos, dark spots, etc.
Interesting that I can upgrade the Maglite Mini but I donāt want to go back to the twisty switch anymore. Plus as you say, the shipping costs would make this completely not worth it so I need a better replacement. Sofirn SP10Pro sounds like a nice and sophisticated light but for now Iām waiting for my new Convoy T3 to arrive. As for direct 2xAA replacement of the Maglite Iām considering Fenix E20 V2.0 unless I find something better.
I was thinking of E12 V2 because of the wider beam but I already got the Convoy T3. Interestingly, the single AA T3 at 10% brightness is brighter than my 2xAA Maglite! Sure, itās not a fair comparison with an incandescent bulb but it shows how much progress has been made in lighting efficiency in the last two decades. BTW, when I look at video reviews of the current LED Mini Maglites I feel a cringe inside when I imagine that Iād have to operate various modes with a twisty head - maybe there are people who enjoy it but itās a big no-no for me.