Planning to upgrade, first timer! Cree? Seoul?

I'm planning to upgrade for the first time and I would like to get your input on what I should do! I am looking at various emitters on Deal Extreme, and I want to replace what's in the following lights:

MAG-Lite 3AA (dome came off, and the light is a really intense blue, no idea why!)

Nuwai X3/Rayovac 3W 2AA (Dome came off after a drop)

Dorcy Metal Gear (Luxeon I, take a guess why I want to replace it!)

The most experience I have is replacing the Dorcy's star with one from a better bin... other than that, I have no idea which emitter would give the best output (I'll be using NiMH AA & AAA's) and if any modifications need to be done to the reflector. The heatsinking in the Nuwai and Dorcy seem okay, not sure about the MAG. I am looking to get close (if not, over) 100 lumens, not worried about runtime. Is this reasonable? Much mahalo in advance!

For all three, it might be better to use a Seoul(don't forget to isolate the base touching the heatsink but still keeping a good thermal path, this is to prevent shorts, most would suggest using Arctic Alumina thermal epoxy) because that will give you a similar beam pattern to the Luxeons you have in the current lights.

Here is a Cree mod for the Minimag. The Seoul P4 mod works the same way, the cheaper the Edison opto LED would also give you better performance then the Luxeon but you also get a yellow ring around the hotspot.

For the Metal gear, the LED is on a star so just unsolder the star, pop a Cree P4, Q2, or Q5 or Seoul Star(be careful of the DX ones, some have bad thermal paths) in there with thermal epoxy or paste(no worries about electrical isolation) to provide a good heat path and you should be good to go. For max output with no regards to heat or LED life, remove the Resistor, shorten that piece of plastic, and direct drive it on a 18650 battery. Thread

The X3, I'm not sure. I think you can completely remove the head. I think you know how to go from there(remove the emitter if it is an emitter, remove the star if it is a star and get a brighter Cree/Seoul replacement)

DX also has some thermal glue, I'm not sure how it deals with electricity. Arctic Alumina is non conductive or capacitive.

Beautiful, thanks for the advice! That should about cover it... best of all, my girlfriend can't get mad because I'm not buying any new flashlights...