Working on a micro-review on a bizarre flashlight I received last week
It uses the reflector to cool the led that is mounted facing a mirror on the bottom of the reflector, thus it is mounted completely different and unique, hence the reason for ordering it.
Now I can’t be the only one having something that is strange or bizarre.
Please share yours!
And if possible with link to vendors and well pics are almost obligatory 
Will post mine later tonight.
You mean a recoil thrower light? Those used to be some super-thrower designs…
I don’t have anything particularly unusual in my collection other than a clone of the Gladiator…
Yes that is what it is, aha, so it is called recoil thrower light
Well I saw it for the first time and ordered since I had never seen something like it, thanks!
Well will do the micro review of it anyway, it remains a strange light for me.
I’m looking forward to your review… I’ve always been interested in the recoil thrower design lights, but never purchased one.
This design is cool for the optics, but horrible for the thermodynamics. The heat path away from the LED is simply insufficient for transporting greater masses of heat. I think that’s the main reason this lights never made it into the wild.
A little later then promised but here it is, the micro review of the reason for starting this thread.
Thanks to Keltex78 I now know it is a Recoil Thrower (I wrote it on a piece of paper and put that in the light for future reference)
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I saw it flash by and was baffled by its design.
It was cheap so I ordered it, and funny I was as anxious to see this arrive as I am with the pending Kronos set.
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It came black, but taking it apart was so easy I decided to cook it to become this nice coppery color.
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As you can see the light it produces is very little and very ugly.
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The amount of work that has gone into it baffles me.
It has double, good fitting, good quality Orings everywhere, a glass lens.
The tail, normally 1 piece of alu and just a screw-on part with space for a switch is made of two alu parts that nicely screw together seemlessly, having decent threads there as well.
It was when I saw this I wanted to share it with you.
Such a strange mix of care and attention to detail,
such strange design
yet utterly useless because of the more then small LED.
And in case a bigger would have been used, problems with cooling.
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The tiny LED is domed and there is a lens that makes it look bigger then it is.
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In use it is like a zoomie zoomed out to the max.
The light is very weak and reaches 75 meter tops.
Closer to a surface the LED mounting part can clearly be seen.
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No this one is not going to be used, but with its new color and (for me newbie who has never seen something like this before) unique design it does bring a smile to my face so I placed it in front of the shelves in the cupboard where all the flashlights go.
When I take a light out, I see it and smile.
But I really expected this topic to take off, nobody with a DCQ Tiny that is producing so much lumen for such a small size? Or I don’t know, the baton fashlight mentioned earlier also would fall in the categorie strange/bizarre compared to the usual design of flashlights right?
That’s a nice looking light, don’t write it off too quickly…
First, check your current at the tailcap to find out how much power this light draws. The emitter is an older design XR-E, but it is still a very strong performer in long-range throwers. From your picture, I can’t tell if it’s the EZ-1000 die or the superior EZ-900 die, but either way, that’s a good match for a thrower. At only 1A, these emitters can generate an excellent beam. If it’s drawing less than 1A, I’d swap the driver and try again. Although, I’d use it on high conservatively, due to the thermal limitations of the design. I’m actually extremely impressed that this this is focused so well that it generates a zoomie-style square hotspot. Only $8.42 from the link you provided; I may order one for myself…
It feels a bit like a failed design, idea is nice but usable? Like a car collector who has one of those three wheeled cars with front as door, an interesting idea once, reaity has passed it, yet interesting to have.
I think the driver is pressed.
Also the long wires to the emitter do not seem thick
I tried to get the LED out, but did not want to break anything.
For now in the fase of having to start with modding leave this as it is. But if you can make something cool out of it, that is something I really would like to see.
The delivery was fast.
I always wanted one of those, but I had not seen them for sale for a while, thanks for the link, I ordered one 
The design works well with a XR-E because that led has a fairly narrow beam, 90 degrees half intensity if I remember correctly. It will probably work ok with a Oslon SSL80 as well, so I will have some fun with it!
The reason that the design is so well done is that it is a thing from the past: a couple of years ago the budget lights were a bit more expensive (this recoil thrower would go for 18 dollars) and a bit less cheaply build than the real cheap trash you can buy now.
Recoil throwers were somewhat impressive when 1A to the LED was the max. They throw a conctrated pencil beam but cooling is insufficient for more than 1A and today’s emitters and driver destroy it for throw nowadays. Still fun to have at least one in the collection.
Back on topic, I think my most bizarre light is the Reylight BLF Ti. The design is, let’s call it ‘baroque’ with its medley of styles, the price of the 10 trits was almost the price of the rest of the light (with a total light output of 1/10th of one lighted tailcap ), it came with an impossible cheap switch that required a fair amount of improvisation to make it right, it is made of titanium which is killing any possible serious performance, and yet I built it up with a triple Nichia 219C and BLF-A6 direct driver, 2700lm at start-up, dropping faaaasst.
But I like it, because it is a bizarre hotrod, it is a real BLF thing, because it was a daring project but Rey just made it happen.
Passing over ones that I don’t like, I chose three.
This is a 3 x D cell powered zoom flashlight. A grey one like it was chosen by the winner of my giveaway.
It is from here: http://www.tmart.com/X2-T6-10W-1200LM-200m-Range-Aviation-Aluminum-Alloy-Flashlight-Torch-Black_p186576.html
The moving head is inside a fixed head that bends when it is dropped, such as in shipment, and then it won’t zoom and can’t easily be fixed.
This is an old LED Lenser and also a Coast. It said “Coast” on the blister pack. It has very limited twist zoom. Lensers and POP lites are all a bit wierd and this old thing is more so. It was very cheap, because the included alkalines had leaked.
My guess is that there had been a recent agreement, about how to market POP lite production, that was shown on the blister wrap but not yet etched on the light.
This is the light I took that last picture with and most of my pictures of flashlights and do some detailed work with.
It is a Smiling Shark SS-902. It swivels, zooms and tail stands, so I can point it and adjust the size of the spot. It is largely plastic and not very rugged, but is very useful. It is a movable pill zoomy, which is bazaar all by itself. It came with an external port to power the LED, not to charge. So it can be used as a desk lamp and left on for hours on mains power.
I think it came from here http://www.easylightbuy.com/smiling-shark-ss902-cree-q5-led-3mode-zoom-flashlight_p4745.html, which makes it even weirder because that is a strange and unreliable store where things can sometimes be found after everyone else is sold out of them. The hook is for balance.
About recoil throwers, I might get that one, but I think the trouble with them is that the optics is similar to a zoomy in throw mode, or an Ahorton fixed lens conversion. So the penalty in cooling really comes at little optical advantage. It does have the advantage that a reflector doesn’t have chromatic aberration. If the reflector is deep enough, it will focus nearly all the LED’s light, like a two zone TIR, but the pictures don’t look like it is deep.
I think a good way to convert an old incandescent flashlight would be to make it into a recoil thrower with liquid cooling.
My Reylight Ti host kit had been sitting in a drawer for months. Finally got around to assembling it a week and a half ago. I used a Toykeeper FET+1 driver from Mountain Electronics and triple XPL HI 5000K 3C.
The titanium parts and copper pills were all nicely machined. The weak point is the switch. The threads on the aluminum switch body didn’t quite match up with the threads in the tailcap, resulting in the switch skipping and sliding when I tried to tighten the works together. I ended up inserting a piece of copper solder braid into the threads when screwing in the switch. This provided the necessary tension and solved the problem.
The resulting light is suprisingly impressive. Decent interface, great output (my guess around 2000 lumens on a fresh Efest Purple). Yes, it’s a chunky titanium light, but it feels and looks absolutely amazing even without trits. I really like this one and have been even EDC’ing it some of the time now.
I thought about trying to mod it to fit and 18500 cell instead of an 18350, but concluded there just wasn’t enough space inside. Even if I shortened the pill and removed the o-ring at the lens, the switch just took up too much space.
Someone needs to make a recoil thrower with a copper head and arm. Should be better able to offload heat that way.
If the led gets a direct thermal path, I actually think you can get away with running it at 3 amps in this light (going to try that anyway )
Not sure I have anything all the strange or bizarre tbh.
I have against 26650 Sk68 which I guess is a little unique.
My Klarus NT20 is a little oddball being a proper dedicated 16650 light. It’s also a dual switch before they where common and has a twisting head. Giving it one of the best UI’s of any torch I’ve owned.
Still rather normal. But I guess not something everyone has. An 18650 TIR equipped zoomy. With charging port.
Oh, and I have one of those recoil throwers too. Never really got on with it. Very blue tint and horrid UI. So I tried by passing the driver and dedoming the XR-E. It’s now dim and with an Incan yellow like tint. I found the wires to he emitter are tiny and very brittle. Maybe I should try swapping in another LED. But no idea how an XP-G2 might work with the reflector.
To me it seems a shame that more 18650 POP lites weren’t made. I would like the T62 better without the external charging port, but that is the only fault I find in it.
+1 on that. And I agree about the charging port, I’d never use it and it only serves to make the light longer.
I keep meaning to have a go modding mine. But I’ve not managed to break the glue holding the head together yet.
