****'s Sporting Goods 3-Pack of Lights - Cheap

****\'s Sporting Goods 3-Pack of Lights - Cheap

The ****'s Sporting Goods store here in town has 3 mini-mag AA light knock-offs on sale for $7.99; sticker says $14.99. These are Type II anodized, have a red/silver/blue pack the most, that includes 6 batteries, lanyards, and what appears to be clickie tailcaps. Granted, these may not be worth much out of the box, but looks like it would be a nice cheap host for people to mod, and for less than $3 each, can't be totally worthless.

Re: ****\'s Sporting Goods 3-Pack of Lights - Cheap

I bought a pack just recently: If they go on sale again here, I'll get another. Pleased with them. They are brighter than my Mini Mag with new batteries and bulb, with a nicer beam, too. I gave one to my son for his car, and because my wife likes the clickie better than the Mini Mag switch, she has one in her purse. I'm going to mod hers with a 26,000 mcd led to see if it will match my MM/MJLED. They come with a couple of spare bulbs (per light) too. Altogether, not a bad deal.

Re: ****\'s Sporting Goods 3-Pack of Lights - Cheap

These are Quest brand. I picked up a pack today. Seem to be a great light fo the price. The focus is adjustable. The beam is similar to my Brinkman Legend - alot of artifacts. It would probably benefit greatly from an orange peel reflector rather than the stock smooth reflector. Are orange peel reflectors available for Mini Mag and Legend 2AA lights? I've been spoiled by the beautiful output of my Brinkman Maxfire rechargeable light I bought last month. The Quest switch is reverse clicky and allows momentary off, but not momentary on. It's light weight and seems pretty well built. I wonder if it will accept the same drop ins as the mini mags? I prefer the clicky tail switch rather than a twisty head switch.

Any advice on whether rechargeables or L91 lithium batteries would safe and effective in these Quest lights and the Mini Mag and Brinkman Legend lights?

Re: ****\'s Sporting Goods 3-Pack of Lights - Cheap

Hell yeah! I have 9 of 'em with everything from standard LEDs in various colors to 26k LEDs to RGBs to a laser!

I thought I posted about them a couple months ago but I can't find that post now. I highly recommend them! That clickie makes all the difference.

LO - I've sputtered several of my reflectors. I haven't actually used any of the incandescent bulbs with the sputtered reflectors though... just with LEDs with wide patterns.

Re: ****\'s Sporting Goods 3-Pack of Lights - Cheap

cratz2, I love your enthusiasm! Which is your favorite mod of these lights? Which is the brightest? Which has the beam pattern that you prefer?

Re: ****\'s Sporting Goods 3-Pack of Lights - Cheap

Thanks for the heads up on these. Picked up a couple of 3 packs today based on the comments here and put in a MJLED tonight. Very nice host for the money. It's not as substantial as a MM, but it's great not having to give any of my $s to Mag.

The switch is very postive - no flickers of any kind. Three sets of threads-all are good. My only complaint would be that the plastic fittings are pretty cheesy, especially the one in the tailcap. The reflector is good and I was able to enlarge the opening for the MJLED with no problem. I installed one of my less desireable greenies and it is an absolutely perfect beam. Very tight hotspot and perfectly round defined large flood.

I've only played with the one light, so my comments are based on the one. If I find any differences as I pull out the others, I'll repost.

Great giveaways that have some substance to them for about eight bucks. Overall a whole lot better than an out of the package Mag.

Re: ****\'s Sporting Goods 3-Pack of Lights - Cheap

Stopped by Disk's Sports today after reading about these lights here and bought 2 packs at $7.49 each. I cut out a silver one and dropped in an MJLED and I have to agree... the beam is better than my MM.

Re: ****\'s Sporting Goods 3-Pack of Lights - Cheap

I picked up another three pack today, and am waiting for an MJLED and Kroll clickie from the Shoppe. I now have four of the multi-color lights, and a new Mini-Mag, plus the BIG MAG I am working on mounting a LUX III in. Those emitters are little!
The tailcaps of the three-pack will not fit the MM. Bummer! The MJLED will go into the new MM, with the clickie, and two of the 3 pack will receive 26,ooo mcd 5mm leds for the grandmoppets. If all works well, my wife will get the light with the clickie, because she likes that better than the twist head. Me, too. I will see how the new one works with the MJLED. I may even have to order another MJLED or three, and another Kroll or two. I agree, the MJLED is a great improvement for the MINI MAG. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
You know, this stuff is FUN, even when you cut a led down and it doesn't work. At least, I have another couple to play with. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/au.gif

Re: ****\'s Sporting Goods 3-Pack of Lights - Cheap

I just picked up the last pack of these tonight. Like everyone's comments so far, these seem well made for the money. The clickie doesn't have momentary on though like the kroll, but I can live with that. The lanyard is well placed too (though made for smaller hands). Some of these knock-off products have better features than the name brand stuff!
I think I like the reflector better than the MM too. They are interchangable though. I'm going to pick up some MJLEDs after reading all the hype about them and use these as the lights I pass out to friends while camping (they always end up bringing substandard lights).
Thanks for making me aware of this great deal! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

Re: ****\'s Sporting Goods 3-Pack of Lights - Cheap

Sounds good!! (running to nearest ****'s Sports)

Re: ****\'s Sporting Goods 3-Pack of Lights - Cheap

[ QUOTE ]
Filament said:
The ****'s Sporting Goods store here in town has 3 mini-mag AA light knock-offs on sale for $7.99; sticker says $14.99.

[/ QUOTE ]
Thanks to filament and this thread - I have just bought a pack of 3 of these Quest brand lights from my local ****'s Sporting Goods for $7.49 per pack.

They are indeed very good value for money and would make fine hosts for the MJLED
- please see:
MJLED drop-in for MiniMag 2AA

They do work well in their own right too - the clickie tail switch is especially welcome. Although the beams are focussable - they can be somewhat variable on quality - I have one that is very good, one that doesn't focus that well, and another that.... (please see later**)



Compared to regular Mini-Mag 2AA


Disassembled -


** the more observant of you may have spotted something not quite right......


Indeed the center of that reflector is not round..... no, this not the way it's supposed to be, the other two are round ....

I noticed that this light didn't seem to want to focus and seemed even to be inconsistent in its focussing almost as if the beam was changing.

Once I took the head off I realized why - the bulb must have been in contact with the reflector and was actually melting it! Hence the non-round hole and the burnt looking bulb - that's melted plastic.

Needless to say this is going back for an exchange. The other two lights do work without signs of melting the reflector - and the clickies switches are great.......

Really good value for money - I'm sure my faulty one was just an isolated case - but worth bearing in mind that the bulb should not be in contact with the plastic reflector.....

Re: ****\'s Sporting Goods 3-Pack of Lights - Cheap

Thanks for the pics UnknownVT. They will help some people decide to go ahead and try to pick up some of these lights. I think mine were a great deal.

Re: ****\'s Sporting Goods 3-Pack of Lights - Cheap

Wow, you actually ran it long enough with the regular bulb to melt the reflector? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif I can honestly say the last mini-mag I bought I never even powered up with the original bulb in it until I had an LED replacement in there /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Re: ****\'s Sporting Goods 3-Pack of Lights - Cheap

[ QUOTE ]
James S said:
Wow, you actually ran it long enough with the regular bulb to melt the reflector? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif I can honestly say the last mini-mag I bought I never even powered up with the original bulb in it until I had an LED replacement in there /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[/ QUOTE ]
Hey, I had to at least try them out to make sure they were working - so the actual runtimes were very short duration as I was just "testing" them.

That faulty (blue) one just wasn't focussing properly and the beam appeared to be changing when I moved back to what I thought was a previous "optimum" position - that's when I realized the bulb was melting the reflector - the duration mostly was probably less than a minute at a time enough to adjust the head for the beam.

Sorry to sound dubious (and I'm not missing your humor) /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif
but it's hard to believe that you wouldn't even try the lights out "as is" first, before replacing with an LED - then how do you know if the basic flashlight was functioning? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif That's all I was doing......

Re: ****\'s Sporting Goods 3-Pack of Lights - Cheap

Would a sandwich fit in one of these?

Re: ****\'s Sporting Goods 3-Pack of Lights - Cheap

[ QUOTE ]
Technician said:
Would a sandwich fit in one of these?

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not sure. The bulb housing on these lights seems to be epoxied in place rather than the two-piece housing found in minim*gs. If I were spending the $$$ on a sandwich, I would get the sturdier minim*g as a host instead (a little thicker aluminum for thermal reasons).
These Quest lights are primarily popular for the MJLED and low cost. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif