Challenge Week #4: Brick & Mortar Store-Bought Flashlights ONLY!!

This time, we're going to pretend that Al Gore never invented the internet, and the only lights we have are the ones we bought from a "brick-and-mortar" (B&M) store.

An honest-to-goodness physical building, where you walked in the front door, found a light you wanted on a shelf somewhere, took it up front, paid for it (hopefully!), and walked out.

May be a horrifying concept to youngsters now'a'days, but it wasn't that long ago that it was the norm. Well, there was mail-order out of a catalog, but disregard that for now. Shush.

So, for this week, you can use any light you've got, as long as it came from a B&M store. Since that will include a lot of Maglites, we'll allow any drop-in upgrades, so long as the body was B&M purchased. Ditto for things like old-school SureFire 6P.

Now granted, this is much easier in recent years in view of the abundance of cheap, bright LED flashlights that are now available at stores like Lowes, Home Depot, etc etc. But, how many CPF'ers actually have many of those on hand anymore? I myself bought a handfull of B&M lights over 10 years ago when I was first starting out, but most of them I gave away, and some crapped out.

Incidentally... you know how you often see posts on CPF, discussing a B&M light, that say something to the effect of "this would be a decent cheap light for a non-flashaholic"? Well, now's the time to find out just how decent such lights really are in daily use! Have humble B&M lights narrowed the gap vs. the online offerings, or for EDC use is there still a vast gulf between B&M and "internet lights"?

We shall see

Link to the Rules list from Challenge#1

That's it! Have fun!

Good one! I'll have to go look and see what I actually have. Do antique shops count?

do you have to have walked into the shop yourself and bought it, or is it basically any light that`s pre internet (1990ish)?
I have plenty of maglites and Radio Shack etc... and tons from the 60s and 70s, but they were brought online, if they`re not allowed then I`ll have to sit this one out.

bigburly912 said:

Good one! I'll have to go look and see what I actually have. Do antique shops count?

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Yep, antique shops are a good source, assuming it's a building taking up space somewhere

I'm in. I think I actually have a few headlamps that fit the Bill also.

If it gets bad, I can make the 20 minute drive to Brightguy...

Katherine Alicia said:

do you have to have walked into the shop yourself and bought it, or is it basically any light that`s pre internet (1990ish)?
I have plenty of maglites and Radio Shack etc... and tons from the 60s and 70s, but they were brought online, if they`re not allowed then I`ll have to sit this one out.

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The transaction has to be B&M store, or face-to-face at a garage sale maybe, if it was B&M originally (ditto for gifts handed to you in person).

Sorry, Ebay purchase of an old B&M light doesn't count!

So, if you were at a yard sale and bought a Maglite, that's good-to-go. Same as if someone handed you that Maglite as a gift.

jabe1 said:

...... I can make the 20 minute drive to Brightguy...

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Wow that's handy!! It would be damaging to my bank account though!

An "even bad flashlights aint bad these days" type challenge.
Right on.

Time to dust off those Dorcy, Energizer and Rayovac, or Defiant, Husky, LuxPro etc for those who have them.
I have some Pelican and Streamlight products from B&M stores but no SureFire as they all came via the pony express. Hold on……my black G2x Pro came from a Bass Pro Shop near me. Alriiiiiiiight!

This will be fun for some……torture for some.

Glad I don't live near Bright Guy!

Stress_Test said:

Wow that's handy!! It would be damaging to my bank account though!

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luckily, I don't often have to travel that way.

I failed this one. Would have failed this one ten years ago. Who buys lights from a b&m outside of emergencies:lolsign: ?

adamlau said:

I failed this one. Would have failed this one ten years ago. Who buys lights from a b&m outside of emergencies:lolsign: ?

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Sometimes it's an impulse buy; you see something in the store and want to try it out. And it's always good to have some cheaper lights around that you don't care much about, for those times you hear the dreaded words "Hey man can a borrow a flashlight?"



That's when you give 'em "The Loaner"

bykfixer said:

An "even bad flashlights aint bad these days" type challenge.
Right on.

Time to dust off those Dorcy, Energizer and Rayovac, or Defiant, Husky, LuxPro etc for those who have them.
I have some Pelican and Streamlight products from B&M stores but no SureFire as they all came via the pony express. Hold on……my black G2x Pro came from a Bass Pro Shop near me. Alriiiiiiiight! .......

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Same here with my G2 original, bought at a gun shop when they were clearing out the old incans. In this challenge I'd be hurting without that one, since my other B&M stuff is too big for easy EDC. Except for the first-gen MiniMag LED. Ugh, the infamous sudden-death version. When the batteries run down, it just blips off completely with no warning.

In chronological order of purchase, my lineup for this challenge is:



Mag 3D, MiniMag LED, Task Force 2C, SureFire G2, and Energizer tri-LED 6AA.

I'm hoping we'll see some eclectic line-ups for this week.

This is going to be a tough one but I will try! My one and only light (that still works) bought from a real store is a tiny Foursevens Atom AAA. This would normally be a great excuse to go buy something new but my area is under an insane lockdown right now. I guess at least my odds of success with this challenge increase being stuck inside. :duh2:

Wish me luck!

Dark Attic Works said:

.... My one and only light (that still works) bought from a real store is a tiny Foursevens Atom AAA. ....

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Oh that's cool; the stainless steel twisty? Kinda wish I had bought one of those when I had the chance.

Stress_Test said:

Oh that's cool; the stainless steel twisty? Kinda wish I had bought one of those when I had the chance.

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That's the one! It's a cool little light but pretty finicky. I have to twist it just so or the modes skip around.

Imma have to sit this one out I think, for reasons I won`t go into, I only go out a few times a year and it`s not for flashlight shopping, all my things have to be delivered, so I don`t have any flashlights that I`v bought from a B&M place because I don`t get to go to B&M places.
Hopefully I can rejoin you all in Week #5

I have a few to pick from but thanks to a 24 hour heads up have until sundown today to decide.

I generally keep a couple of house brand lights handy around the house for general use and use them often. Husky (a home depot brand) makes a couple of triple a numbers that thusfar have been reliable for day to day uses. So I'll probably use the 1x as my general use light. A former MalWart brand called EverActive 2x AA incan light I restored a few years back will probably be my 2am nature call light. It has a nite ize LED module from Home Depot in it and Radio Shack batteries. A 2/$10 camo light by Defiant will probably be picked as the back yard lighter. At 110 lumens it's mighty throwy. It's been hanging by the back door for years and thus far has been spot on reliable.

In the non house brand vein for use as 'out for an evening stroll with Mrs Fixer' duty a 2 cell Maglite ML50 from WalMart may get the nod with a SOG D55 I bought at the place I obtain hard hats and safety vests as a backup.

The roster may change but after the idea bouncing around my left brain overnight and with a thumbs up from the ocd voices that seems like it'll be the line up for this challenge.


The proposed lineup.

The EverActive was my backup to a AA minimag all through the 90's up to about 2015 when I discovered LED lights had become brighter than the light bulb light. I plucked it out of my old truck door, removed the dead EverActive batteries and gave it a going over to return it to near new condition. It served me well for quite some time. I put in some Radio Shack batteries and a NiteIze PR module and it lives on a shelf with a bunch of other stuff from an era of life gone by. That one will certainly be an honor to use at 2 in the morning.


The EverActive with leak check technology.
Surprizingly those old depleted EverActive batteries had not leaked.

Katherine Alicia said:

Imma have to sit this one out I think, for reasons I won`t go into, I only go out a few times a year and it`s not for flashlight shopping, all my things have to be delivered, so I don`t have any flashlights that I`v bought from a B&M place because I don`t get to go to B&M places.
Hopefully I can rejoin you all in Week #5

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You must have something you bought from a store, or bought for you. We'd hate for you to have to start at week one all over again!

Well, that's a cool idea and a nice surprise! Good job, Stress :twothumbs

But I'm out, no dice, no way José. I don't live in the First World, or even in the "main" center of my own country, so I never had a B&M store that ever sold a torch worth buying (they're all incan or 3AAA angry blumen) - hell, it's why I found the flashlight forums in the first place. Even M@g-lite I could only buy online.

So, see y'all on Week #5

Finding a Maglite in store even in the first world is not easy anymore Jean-Luc. Some mom and pop hardware stores still have some old stock collecting dust or the big box stores have a few ML50's left. But the classic stuff like minimags and solitaires are getting as rare as an honest politician in Parliment these days.