Today many things are made of plastic. Things that you would never have imagined. This includes soda/water bottles, engine parts, gun parts, and yes flashlights.
How do you feel about this? Do you perfer more standard materials such as aluminum, steel, iron, etc?
I used to be against pastic but now I see it can be a superior material.
Plastic can be a good material.
I don’t like plastic flashlights, though.
They tend to break easily. 
Which plastic flashlights have you had that broke on you.
This is an example of a plastic flashlight:
SureFire G2X Pro Dual-Output LED Flashlight with click switch, Black Amazon.com
I think you will agree, this is stronger than most metal flashlights.
Every keychain flashlight with a partially plastic or full plastic body (that I have owned) has broken where the plastic is.
Now, I generally avoid flashlights with plastic bodies. 
So you are saying every keychain flashlight that you have purchased that was made of plastic has broke.
Let me ask you, did the platic crack, or did the electronics fail.
What made them fail, did you drop them, did you submerge them in water.
What are the specifics of the failure of your plastic flashlights.
The plastic cracked.
I did not drop them or submerge them in water.
In terms of building materials, the word “plastic” is far too general!
It is general. Meaning non metal.
Valve covers used to be made of metal, now most are plastic.
Even many radiator parts are made of plastis.
Many gun parts are also made of polymer, a form of plastic. Most polymers are considered plastic.
Nitrolon, the material Surefire uses is a ploymer.
Tooth paste tubes used to be metal, now plastic.
The list is edless.
For an enthusiast hobby, the topic of plastics used in the flashlight manufacturing industry should make for many interesting discussions!
For instance, Surefire only describes the GTX Pro’s body as being made of a polymer, but don’t specify the type. There’s an important distinction to be made here in that while every plastic is a synthetic polymer, not every polymer is a plastic.
And how do you feel about this.
“How do you feel about this? Do you perfer more standard materials such as aluminum, steel, iron, etc?”
I don’t have any particular thoughts or feelings about plastics per se, only that prior to you raising the question, I realize that I hadn’t given the topic nearly as much thought or attention as I had with the variety of metals used in manufacturing of flashlights!
I think of plastic and polymer parts as being synthetics and wood or metal parts as standard. I have a love-hate relationship with synthetics.
I very much detest things like throw-away, single-use water, and soda bottles. Even more, I detest the people who toss their empties out of the car as they drive down the road, but that is another topic.
However I also like the benefits we have with electric tools made with polymer or plastic parts. That provides us with electrically double insulated tools which are very safe for us to operate. Much better than the older all metal tools that I do remember getting “tingles” from at times. Yes, I am that old.
I also do not like seeing so many parts of things made from plastics which are very much non-recyclable. Stamped steel valve covers were easy to recycle, for example. Or a stamped steel childs wagon with metal wheels instead of a molded plastic wagon with plastic wheels. One is very recyclable and the other is pretty much guaranteed to end up in a landfill or be burned creating pollution I don’t want to breathe.
On the other hand, the molded polymer table top and side panels on my table saw were much less expensive to produce that machined aluminum or iron castings. It has been durable and economical to purchase. But then we’re back to what happens to it at its lifes-end?
I don’t own any plastic flashlights; I believe they are all machined aluminum.
My first rifle was a Remington Nylon 66, Apache Black. Birthday gift from my father some 55 years ago. Dupont Zytel (plastic) stock. I still have it. So yeah, I like plastic.
Good point about plastic power tools.
Is anyone old enough to remember when all power tools were made of metal?
Its unbelievable how strong the plastic is on power tools, Dewalt, Makita, etc.
My Dad had a 3/8" drill with a cast aluminum body. Even the switch was a metal stamping. His table saw was 100% metal, mostly cast iron. And he had an all cast iron and steel floor mount drill press. Big old metal toggle switch.
There are cheap easily broken plastics and others that are incredibly tough.
How about car interiors… the dashboard was all stamped steel with maybe some wood pieces. Cast metal medallions.
The first plastic parts I can remember were bakelite. Electric sockets. Radios with the case molded from bakelite. Some kind of moldable material was used for steering wheels (molded around a steel core) back in the 30’s and later.
Good point, car dashboards used to be metal.
To the point here one of my most used lights is a single AA plastic super lightweight headlamp with 2 hi cri 3400k 5mm and a red 5mm emitter. I’d like to dump the red and lower the secondary one emitter mode to a lower low mode . Two emitters are probably 25-30 lumens all flood and the nice part besides weighing nothing is it vampires old alkaline batteries down to almost nothing . When you see the light putting out 7 lumens ??? It’s time to toss the cell because it’s toasted . After a lifetime of alkaleaks destroying nicer lights it’s payback upon their entire race to see them die a more honorable death .
I’m a huge fan of smaller lightweight plastic lights .
I would love a modern emitter, simple efficient driver, waterproof, fiberglass-reinforced-nylon flashlight that ran at 10% of the output of its aluminium counterpart to dodge the thermal issues with nylon.
I’m serious. Ultimate tool light. More abuse/drop tolerant than titanium or aluminium. Lighter. LED efficiency is good enough now that you could easily get a couple hundred lumens out without thermal issues, which is plenty for real-world use.
IMO.
It is simply a matter of choice in each specific application. What are benefits? What are downsides? Both always exist and any good engineer designing something has to take that into account.
There are plastics which are better than metals, for example, in multiple ways in very unexpected places.
For example small low load gearboxes tend to operate better (less noise, less wear, better longevity) with plastic gears than with metal ones. As long as appropriate plastic is used. The same can be true for bearings - ball bearings are great, but often stuff like POM can offer better characteristics given appropriate conditions.
Another interesting example would be windows. Metal is way, way too thermally conductive. Wood has its charm, but is ultimately less practical. In cold climates plastic is pretty much the only practical choice here…
For flashlights… good thermal conductivity is a requirement, so any relatively powerful light inevitably ends up with large metal parts. Also electric conductivity makes things easier for battery tubes, tailcaps and such…