Gave away lots of lights this New Year during my trip

Well,lets see:

MagLite 4d LED 3W

That Walmart 3AA HeadLight with 1W LED/5mm LEDs

STreamLight Twin Task 3AA 5mm LED/Xenon

StreamLight Jr. Luxeon

Several Mini Mag LED 2AA and 3AA

A regular Mini Mag, which I converted with Nite Ize 5mm LED module

Lots of Fifth Element keychain lights

and lots of batteries. Thankfully they were all either AA or D.

And a few nylon holsters for Mini Mags.

Also was gonna give away my StreamLight TwinTask 2D 5mmLED/Xenon but it was getting fixed at the time at StreamLight (I did something stupid to it, crossthreaded the tail cap, but they fixed it well)

All in all, the trip to Europe went well. No problems with customs or anything, although they were amazed at the "large quantity of lights" as they put it. They weren't packed in their original boxes, and many were used.

My Mini Mag 2AA LED fell off the x ray machine, off the rollers and I feared it would get lost somewhere inside, but it didn't. Nobody gave me issues about it. They did however confiscate my shaving cream as the only casualty of this trip. I bought a can at Wally Worlde for 89 cents, took it with me, found out I didn't use the whole thing and tried to bring it back with me. I am a cheap soul. I and almost made it, except it was confiscated in Amsterdam.


The MiniMag performed nicely, and I am still on the NiMH cells I put it before the trip! These NiMH 2700 MaH are truly long-lasting. In the digicam as well, although I took far fewer pics than I expected.

P.S. I asked a friend about the StreamLight Trident I gave him during the last trip -- He found it pretty useful as he lives in the middle of nowhere in a village. He said months later he was still on the original set of AAA cells, and I gave him a whole 36-cell pack from Home Depot. Neat Light actually, that's what I like about 5mm LEDs, they last a long time with their low power consumption. I liked it, but had no use for it as I don't use AAA.

So this time I gave him a better headlight, that cheap 3AA unit from Wally Worlde, it's actually fairly bright, and lots of spare AAs with it. I am sure he will use the 4D MagLite often enough. He is too poor to buy cells, which run close to $2 each, so I am contemplating getting him a charger, probably a Vanson that runs on 220V.

Bravo! I have given away a few lights, but many more pocket knives because I have several more of knives than lights.

I gave my brother a Streamlight 4AA ProPoly Luxeon. Just a day or two later his area experienced a multi-hour nighttime power failure. Great timing.

Nice job etc!
Most people don't appreciate lights so I don't give so many. I only gave a 2C SMJLED to a European friend that wanted one but didn't want to pay $40. I only paid $15 for the light at Home Depot, then $6.67 for the SMJLED PR. But I'm sending some small lights to my brother's unit in Iraq this month. I gave him a SL TL-3 when he left, but he had some problem with it, so he says he bought a Minimag! <sigh>

Way to go etc. I'm sure they'll put them to good use over in Europe.

I know some of them will really need it (About half of the above list went to a single person) I was generously donated a pair of original MiniMags and I gave them away after conversion to Nite-Ize - very nice, I am impressed every time I do such a conversion. Not to mention the run time needed in their situation. (No Walmart 3 miles away you might say)

I am contemplating giving away my ElektroLumens Blasters 2D and 3D, and also the original Gerber Infinity in yellow. They are all nice but I just don't use them. Every time I think I will, I take out the Infinity, put a cell in it, turn it on, and remove the cell and store it. Plus, the darn thing is too dim anyway. I am basically keeping it hoping that I will use it some day.

On the other hand, some of them really need it versus me playing with them - after you get 10 lites, really, you cannot use all of them, even if they serve different functions.

LEDs lights cost about twice what they do here, unless they are the cheapest chinese stuff, which I saw very cheaply actually, a 1AAA light for $1.90 and a 3AAA light for $3.80. They looked almost identical to that light Lowes sells, the name escapes me at the moment.


I did a test with them, 'see that car 50 meters away', I am gonna shine some lite upon it. and did, with both the incan bulb that came with it and the LED module. Surprisingly, the standard incan bulb looked brighter, although it may have been due to the fact we were inside, shining it through a window. Inside, I know, this isn't true. For them, the MagLite is a super quality top of the line light.

4D Incan MagLite sells for $50 retail as one data point.

They did however confiscate my shaving cream as the only casualty of this trip. I bought a can at Wally Worlde for 89 cents, took it with me, found out I didn't use the whole thing and tried to bring it back with me. I am a cheap soul. I and almost made it, except it was confiscated in Amsterdam.

Click to expand...

Did they give you a reason why?


CFU

It was in carry-on (I exceeded the weight limits of the luggage), that latest stupidity about 100ML in liquids allowed.

As I said, no problems with lites.