The iconic Maglite 3D

[GMT2330]

Maglite's most popular serial numbered flashlight and I think still in production.
The Maglite 3D is a bit of an icon.

Please post your highest serial numbers here. Also would be interesting to see the lowest. Does anyone use it as a stock incan?

I bought a new (old stock) purple 3D this year, shipped from a US seller.
Serial number: D3050469575. So over 50 million!

Can you beat that? I'm sure a black 3D ordered direct from Maglite would be 51,000,000+

 

[GMT2330]

Bought a few 3Ds lately (5 at the moment) including a late 90's new old stock with 26 million serial no. There's something about the proportions that seems so right somehow.

 

[bykfixer]

For some reason 3D size were the most popular for not only Maglite but other icons of that era yet packs of batteries came in multiples of two. That little extra length gave folks more confidence when a hammer was needed and the output was indeed noticeably brighter than it's 2D bretheran.

I still use a big barrel 2D as an incan but my 3D's have either been converted to LED or are LED from the factory. I think my highest S/N is 17 million but I'll check later. I do have a 3D vare bright with a bit over 3000 serial number.

 

[LEDphile]

Note that serial number ranges often have gaps in them (e.g. if the manufacturer has multiple design revisions, and denotes that based on SN range), so using the serial number to determine how many units were produced is a risky proposition. I do not know if the Maglite serial number range has gaps in it.

51 million units sold over 45 years is a bit over 1.1 million a year, which is around 21k per week, and 3k per day on average

 

[GMT2330]

Vari-beam 3D has to be one of the rarest 3D Mags.

 

[GMT2330]

Note that serial number ranges often have gaps in them (e.g. if the manufacturer has multiple design revisions, and denotes that based on SN range), so using the serial number to determine how many units were produced is a risky proposition. I do not know if the Maglite serial number range has gaps in it.

51 million units sold over 45 years is a bit over 1.1 million a year, which is around 21k per week, and 3k per day on average

Yes, that's a lot of lights! I don't know if Maglite can make them in those numbers or not. Obviously sales have slowed down a bit lately for incans, but they must have sold plenty in the 90s/early 2000s.
I'll have to do some more reading at maglitehistory.blogspot but my gut feeling is Maglites are sequentially numbered with no gaps.

 

[JwSantora]

How do decipher the serial numbers? I have a 3D #32899444.

 

[bluflaam777]

How do decipher the serial numbers? I have a 3D #32899444.

maglitehistory.blogspot has a number history. There may or may not have a letter prefix. The first number denotes the number of cells used. The following numbers are sequential.
You can also send an email to maglite and they will tell you the month and year it was made.

 

[xxo]

At one time Mag was selling 150,000 lights a day.

 

[ABTOMAT]

The size of the 3D has a lot to do with its popularity. It's in the Goldilocks "just right" zone. You see 2D and 3D Mags being popular, but then competing brands with external switches (with room for another cell inside) are more common in 3D and 4D sizes. Anything longer ends up being more of a club than a light.

Vari-beam 3D has to be one of the rarest 3D Mags.

Honestly, I get the feeling the 3D Vari-Beam might be the most common non-black 1980s Mag. Other colors from back then are much harder to find. The perceived rarity of some of these lights is affected by how few flashlights people bother to list for sale on eBay or whatever. A lot of Vari-Beams turn up in "Lot of flashlights - $5" posts on Craigslist.

 

[ABTOMAT]

How do decipher the serial numbers? I have a 3D #32899444.

There's no hidden information in the serial number past the first digit (cell number.) Yours would be from about 1991 based on the ones I've gotten dates on from Mag. As posted above, shoot 'em an email and you'll get the born-on date.

 

[Unicorn]

I'll need to check the ones in the car. We had two, one was my wife's dad from the 80s when he was a cop, the other was just one I had. One of them was lost in a car accident, but I don't know which it was. I'd swapped both other to LEDs for a higher output and longer battery life. I think it was just a 55 lumen conversion, but I was really looking for the extremely long runtime and not say a thousand lumens for an hour. Figured it was enough to work on the car, change a tire, or have to walk a ways in a really bad situation.

 

[GMT2330]

The size of the 3D has a lot to do with its popularity. It's in the Goldilocks "just right" zone.

Yes, the odd number of cells put me off for a long time. But I always thought it looked better than a 2D/4D.

Honestly, I get the feeling the 3D Vari-Beam might be the most common non-black 1980s Mag. Other colors from back then are much harder to find. The perceived rarity of some of these lights is affected by how few flashlights people bother to list for sale on eBay or whatever. A lot of Vari-Beams turn up in "Lot of flashlights - $5" posts on Craigslist.

Nice to know they're not impossible to find

 

[GMT2330]

At one time Mag was selling 150,000 lights a day.

A day?! That's more than one every second. Obviously that includes Mini Mags etc. Any idea which year that was?

 

[Lowglow]

3D is on my hall table as a 'ready for anything' light. Funny, I can remember the first digits of the serial number simply because it's 345. Still incan, only changes are tail spring and switch low resistance mods, glass lens and running a 6 cell bulb with AA to D adapters. Really nice beam with stock reflector.

I was running the 3 cell bulb but the hot-spot was a bit concentrated.

 

[xxo]

A day?! That's more than one every second. Obviously that includes Mini Mags etc. Any idea which year that was?

In the vid here:

American success story Maglite isn't threatened by your cellphone flashlight

Maglite CEO Tony Maglica said his dream could have only come true in America.

www.foxbusiness.com

Tony said the first 10 or 15 years.

I'm guessing it would have been after the Mini Mag and solitaire came out, basically the 1990's maybe into the early 2000's before LED's were starting to take over.

 

[bykfixer]

My highest 3D S/N is 50.9 million on a black 3D.

 

[sween1911]

If we're looking for lows, my 1983 3D Mag has a serial of 30305213.

I'll hafta check my other 3D's.

 

[Goofy_Goober]

The black 3D I modified in a previous thread has the SN 3050483144, purchased at the beginning of April this year.

 

[ABTOMAT]

I don't think I have one past 17.7 million. Lowest is 3008556 for a "real" serial number. Also have lower on those later Vari-Beams with their own out-of-sequence numbers.