Seems Massdrop is getting heavier into EDC flashlights lately. There shouldn’t be any problem getting 20 people interested in the Astrolux S41S (18350/16340 tube only) at $36.99 plus $3.75 shipping in the US.
If they want to hold their own against other Massdrop offerings from Jetbeam, Maratac and Reylight, the owners of Astrolux will have to up their QC/QA game.
It is going to be interesting to see how their average customer responds to a hand warmer unable to operate on AA batteries, and how well they handle the learning curve.
With limited heat management, some people are going to be in for a surprise purchasing a serious 4 LED lithium fueled stainless steel tube light with a mostly hollow copper head.
I trust my alumnium S41 to handle unguarded turbo with the BLF-A6 driver (automatic stepdown after 40 seconds), but it will become bleeding hot. But I expect the S41S to fail in that, let’s hope the fail will just be something disconnecting, and in case of a battery short that the springs will collaps and the electrical contact is broken.
Considering we can already get the light for slightly less than that (see here), I don’t know how much attention it will draw from BLF. Perhaps those individuals that don’t like ordering from China, but would prefer to order from the US.
But I can definitely see non-flashaholics being drawn to it. Like you guys said, hopefully any “failures” happen in a somewhat “safe” manner.
Now that they have their own Massdrop Brass AAA Lumintop Special Edition Light,
they should have introduced an Astrolux S41C, or S41B, Copper or Brass version of the Astrolux S41S.
Copper would be heavy for an EDC, and I like the looks of the Stainless, but if they wanted to offer something exclusive, they have an opportunity with Brass (to go with their Brass AAA Lumintop SE).
I have never purchased from Massdrop, but it would be hard to pass up….even a bare Aluminum version would be better.