A severe flickering problem was noticed on this light after physical impacts. The light exhibited a strobing flicker, remaining constant in frequency and decaying in amplitude, which made me think of a spring's behavior when hit. I opened up the bezel and sure enough, there was a ton of debris lying around that largest spring under the star. Used Deoxit on everything and swabbed then hard-toothbrush cleaned, and deoxed once more.
The soldering to the star on this one is much better. Build on the inside parts of the light are a bit messy, with burrs and debris, but everything else is in fact pretty solid (THICK construction
), the large spring under the star even providing shock absorption (though maybe not SO great of heatsinking, but the pill is attatched to quite a bit of metal anyway). I'd rate bang for the buck around 7 / 10 after cleaning. Thing's I don't like so much about the new build are the plastic instead of metal button, and the nice rubber grip which I wouldn't mind seeing a knurled metal grip / no rubber. I actually like the hexagonal anti-roll fins, and the tips are sharp enough to probably hurt if used as a striking weapon. I see why some would like a round, non-finned bezel, but I also like this one.
Edit: The TF 2C Cree doesn't flicker even after a 3 foot drop onto concrete.