What will be the rarest production Arc?

My guess is the AA because it had a very short production period before things went wrong.Does anyone have the actual production numbers of the different models.......Peter?

The AA with the AAA-like lanyard lug is probably the rarest, if that counts as production. If you count all the AA's put together, then the LS3 is far rarer than the AA.

maybe the LS3. not too many of those were made...

ARC4X is the rarest at 6 in production. I only know of one gold ARC AAA, don't know if that can count as a production item.

My silver (bare aluminum) Arc-LS prototype is extremely rare - only two are known to exist outside Tempe Arizona.
One is on the western Atlantic coast, the other is on the eastern Pacific coast.
But it's not a true production Arc, so it probably doesn't count here.

The green-bodied Arc-AA with the Arc-AAA-like tail lug is probably the rarest of the production Arcs. To the best of my knowledge, only six to eight of these units were ever produced.

There were those Blue Anodized Lumileds Special LSHP, and a LS1 rev2 factory Cyan, the only factory Cyan in a rev 2 body.

But hey, every Arc is special in it's own way /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

All these talk reminds me of those photobooks in the library about collectables like watches and coins. Arc seem to had attained this status, maybe we will see a photobook in future...

<font color="800080">maybe we will see a photobook in future...</font>

Asides from the Torch Reviews Site, I also have a site that set out to exhibit my other collections of light bulbs, festive lights, electrical accessories and of course flashlights. That site never really got past the initial release showing a few of the light bulbs. It has been a long term goal of mine to overhaul and expand "The Bulb Museum" and finally exhibit more of my collection. One of the sections will be a feature-galley of Arc flashlights, since they are/were one of my favorite manufacturers and I have a lot of their lights.

Anyways, an Arc "picture-book" may not be as far off as you think. The following are some of the photos I have already taken.The site is far from ready but now seems like a good time to show some of these.

Rare and obscure Arc Flashlights.

Brass AAA. One of only 8, originally sold as a CPF benefit on Ebay and Yahoo auctions.


2002 CPF Edition. Sold almost exclusively to CPF members with optional engraving, one of 120 made.


AA lug tail/green anodise. Around 15 sold, an experimental design that looked too much like the CMG Infinity Ultra.


Arc4 Forensic Kit. Specialist kit with Dental Blue LED and a pair of orange filter goggles. Not sure exactly how many were sold.


LS1 Rev.2 Cyan. As far as I know this is the only factory-produced Rev.2 with a coloured LED.


LS3. Underdriven 5-watt LED. Only 30 of these sold, very expensive and many had poor tints.



And although these two were never publically avaliable, they are still well worth a mention:

AAA prototype. One of 12 hand made prototypes, of which around 8 passed QC and were sent out to reviewers, etc.


...and a closer look of the hand-made head:


LS Prototype. It is likely that only two of these still exist, the other is in Seattle WA.



There are many other rare Arcs such as the AA-RGB (havn`t photgraphed mine yet), one or two of the coloured LS1s (wasn`t there only ever one red or green LS1 made?), the AAA-Infra-Red, and the Version 1 AAAs with the "elastic band" gasket thingy around the base of the head. Even the presentation tin for the Arc4. All things which I would dearly love to find, but now suspect that task to be pretty impossible.

As I said, these photos along with the rest of my Arc collection will eventually exhibit at "The Bulb Museum" site, sometime off in the future....


/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I've got one of the 12 ARC AAA handmade proto-types. There is two holes drilled in the board and small + - printed on curcuit board.

i think im gonna be sick looking at all that Chris. Egad what a sweet collection. I thought i had something good going being able to find a first run 500 hybrid and an LS3. lol. Can't wait to get my colored first runs. that are on their way. ive got 4 out of the 6, just need White and Amber now. Ive pretty much written off all hope of getting any of the rare AAA's or AA's so i'll just be happy with the ones ive got.

Do any of you know where i could get my hands on a first run 400 hybrid?

Wow Chris there are some beauty's there!

I have about 8 of the original black ARC AAA's still brand new in their packaging. I put them aside when it was announced that they would no longer be doing the blacks.

I also have about 9 of the natural HA3 units (brand new in their packaging)with the printing around the head as opposed to the body, because I thought they would be rare once the printing was placed on the body.

I guess mine are not as rare as the ones you mention above.

If I wasn't based in South Africa with expensive shipping issues, there may be a way in which I could make some of these available to those who really want to own an ARC AAA but left it too late.

my ls3 is super white no green or blue.
how many had a bad tint ?

does any one know how many lumens a ls3 put's out ?

I was going to mod it--not now

I'll let you know when i get my LS3 next week, i heard some were real bad, like pee-yellow, i guess this is because they are underdriven LuxV's.

I wonder how the insides are assembled. Hope they arent epoxied like the first runs were, i wouldnt think they would be though since they share the later style case. Might be neat to take a LS board, maybe a brown board, replace the electronics and mount a new LuxV emitter on it. then just swap it with the fatory unit, And put the stock assembly aside for safe keeping.

I wonder how many of the LS first run editions were made? Mine is #10 and still in use. I think after the initial production, it was changed rather quickly to a different rev.

Geepondy, You have got a real rare first run. The first batch of 100 had bare NX-01 optics. #100 first run added a thin flimsy lens in front of NX-01.

I was on the original 100 list, but lost track of the thread in time to pay. I also have first run #22.

Impressive, Ive got #92 and i love it, not a scratch on it and the HA matches perfectly with the 123 twistie, but its noticably lighter in color than my first run 1238 and my LSH-P, Really pretty though. it stays in its little baggie with its pack without a battery in it. i take it out and play with it every now and then with the 1xAA "fat" and "slim" packs it came with. Id love to get my hands on a few more sub-100 #'d ones. But thats a mission for another time perhapse. Main mission right now is trying to find one of those "green board 400 hybrids"

With Respect to the LS3 I seem to remember it being more like 50 that were produced. Anyway I know it was over 30 because I have #35.
Mine had a verry verry green/orange emiter that I have changed out for a bluer one.

Hallis
I believe the brown boards are from rev1 and will not fit inside an LS3 head which is physically identical to rev2. The aluminum slugs that the circuit is built on changed to a smaller diameter with the rev2 LS. With regards to the circuit that the LS3 uses it is nearly identicle to the LS1. I believe the only exceptions being a different sense resistor for higher curent and posibly a higher voltage capacitor on the output.

sounds like my ls3 is a keeper
bright and very white serial number 053
not a scratch on it anywhere

[ QUOTE ]
cy said:
ARC4X is the rarest at 6 in production. I only know of one gold ARC AAA, don't know if that can count as a production item.

[/ QUOTE ]

There were definitely more than 6 made...

Great collection, Chris! My collection isn't bad either.
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

With less than a probable 30k units, anyone who owns more than 1 Arc now has a rare"collection". /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif