I like to be the guinnee pig sometimes if it is a novelty light, just to test it, take it apart, fix/improve it and make a nice post on BLF about it. That is hobby, I do not pay the money for a flashlight but for a couple of hours hobby-fun 
The last “group buy” of an untested light was different: the Astrolux EA01 was hardly a risk because almost everything about it (driver, Anduril, led, build quality, etc.) have featured on other known lights, new was just the optic which is not a big risk. And indeed the light was exactly what was expected (and I love the beam out of this large TIR 
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