There was a time that BG had hundreds of listings of Astrolux lights and accessories. Now its a dozen at best and half of them are all FT03’s.
Strange
1 Thank
Educated guess: COVID-19. Shortage of various components and supply chain disruption.
Ok but why didn’t the same thing happen to the other hundred flashlight companies.
1 Thank
If it was Covid related, then the possible reason it impacted Astrolux more than manufacturers could be tantamount to the way Covid affected small businesses such as restaurants in the U.S.
Different companies would’ve approached the situation in a variety of ways depending on the decision making by those in charge, and each company was also in its own state of financial solvency when COVID hit, so there have been a variety of outcomes. The ones that were financially in trouble or borderline before COVID, and/or the ones who chose less effective solutions or simply had less options available to them likely had worse outcomes.
Scaling back the number of models you produce is actually a pretty sound strategy if you’re looking to reduce manufacturing expenses and keep doing good business.
Astrolux doesn’t produce flashlights. It’s Banggood’s store brand for lights which were made by other companies and rebranded. Mostly they rebranded Mateminco lights, but there were assorted others too. I think they had someone at Banggood select which lights to sell this way, and handle agreements with manufacturers… originally Neal, but then he got fired and I don’t know who took over that job.
As for why there aren’t more… I don’t know. Perhaps Neal’s successor got laid off? Or maybe the items just haven’t been selling well? It seems like Astrolux and Mateminco lights aren’t as popular as they used to be. I admit I haven’t really been paying attention to Astrolux for years, but looking at the store now, I don’t see anything new except some bike accessories. Maybe it’s all just old stock?
7 Thanks
Hmmmm, thats interesting. Thats sounds reasonable because the AX Mateminco store is full.
Last 3 Astrolux lights I bought:
|Astrolux|EA02| May 2021
|Astrolux|BL02| July 2021
|Astrolux|BL03| Oct 2021
Not a lot new to offer.
I started noticing this maybe a year and a half ago but now it’s even worse. BG doesn’t really seem to have a lot of flashlights of any kind lately. Their spare parts for Astrolux and others started to dwindle and then the prices for what they had went way up. Mateminco doesn’t seem particularly helpful with parts now, either, and the prices are as high or higher than what BG had them for. Not sure what’s going on. Possible that BG’s gymnastics finally shot themselves in the feets and sales suffered, plus a lot of vendors are selling direct now, and we have several new ones that are offering better lights at the same prices or cheaper (with better discounts or fairer prices up front).
Good observation. AX definitely is looking like the Amazon of the East.
Most Astrolux flashlights and parts are out of stock at BG. It seems like they have stopped producing the Astrolux brand. Also, Mateminco who produced Astrolux and also sold them as Mateminco flashlights hasn’t produced a really interesting flashlight since the MF01X.
It is true that many manufacturers have nice single cell flashlights but Astrolux/Mateminco used to have big and powerful flashlights like the MF04S, the MF01S and the MF02. Lumintop has some similar BLF inspired flashlights but at premium prices.
Some Astrolux/Mateminco flashlights had really nice colors and also copper and brass versions. I’m glad I got myself a nice collection as long as they were still available, some of them mainly for the looks 
. I would have loved to see their full brass MF04S (✌ FREEME - ASTROLUX MF04S (XHP70.2) & MF04 (XHP35 HI) - BRASS@.@) and the MF03 with 8x XHP70.2.
Wow, that would be very interesting if they got out of the flashlight businesses. I also have a bunch, no regrets.
I did not get the MF01X as it was released with a slew of problems.
Zanflare was Gearbest’s house brand, or maybe exclusive outlet, for lighting and they’re gone as well, though it was possible to pick up the T1 lanterns under other brands after they stopped selling them.
The F1 looked like a nice light, and those who had them seemed to like them, but I heard way too many GB horror stories to ever seriously consider patronizing them.
I have an Astrolux C8, and it was an interesting ready-made alternative for those who didn’t want to mod one themselves.
The EC01, then 03, were hot for a while, and Sofirn sold the EC03 under its own brand for a short period last year.
Easy in, easy out, business, but the hassle/ROI ratio probably wasn’t good enough to keep around.