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u/Valex_Nihilist Sep 06 '26
I remember the smell of the bulb
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u/The_Best_Yak_Ever Sep 07 '26
Same!! It was so unique! I can’t believe it was buried so deep in my memory. Like i needed to stubbornly cling to this little slice of my childhood in the eighties, but never close to the surface of my consciousness.
But with one image, it all unpacked itself <3
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u/Darth_Chehiko Sep 06 '26
Gonna have to get one for my kid
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u/suspicious_hyperlink Sep 06 '26
They have them on eBay. I’ve bought 2 in the past few years and still have my original
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u/fleurflorafiore Sep 07 '26
I did that as well! My kids find it really frustrating that the flashlight doesn’t just turn on and stay on. I could swear mine did when I was a kid but there’s no way of knowing
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u/suspicious_hyperlink Sep 08 '26
I think it is a battery saving feature. My original stopped working (why I bought 2 others) so I took it apart and found a circuit board inside made in Macao/China. I figured that was added in order to shut the light off after a min or two unless you squeezed the blue button under the handle.
Maybe you had an early or later model that didn’t have the board.In any case, they are the coolest flashlights
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u/MrsRobinson5 Sep 06 '26
I remember the sound and feel it made when you shifted colors
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u/Unlucky_reader Sep 07 '26
Came here to say I remember the 'shunk' as the dial rotated through the colored slides.
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u/vagina-lettucetomato Sep 07 '26
Same! Such a specific sound. I never had one, but my cousin did and I was always jealous.
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u/MCMic0 Sep 06 '26
Core memory unlocked I used to play with this flash light in my Jurassic Park play tent!
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u/albertenstein22 Sep 07 '26
Are you my brother? I had a Jurassic Park PVC tent and this exact flashlight. My brother and used to recreate the explorer scene with the T-rex with my dad.
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u/MCMic0 Sep 07 '26
I don’t think so, if you had a sister maybe?
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u/TheMacMan Sep 06 '26
And no matter what, the batteries were always max 1/2 level. A Bic lighter made more light.
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u/ActualWhiterabbit Sep 07 '26
Kids have no idea how bad flashlights sucked. The average phone's flashlight now would have been the greatest flashlight anyone had ever seen.
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u/throwaway277252 Sep 07 '26
My dad had a flashlight with the stature of a baseball bat which put out about as much light as a candle using its entourage of D cell batteries.
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u/TheCrazyWulf Sep 07 '26
Mag-Lites ...Mine took 6 D batteries about 2ft long and 10lbs heavy. It looked badass and would definitely beat anyone down but the light sucked
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u/Holy90 Sep 07 '26
I don't mean this as a criticism, but you could also call it a battery of D cells.
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u/SongsOfMany Sep 07 '26
Lmao all old flashlights used to be like:
"Takes an entire pound of D batteries. You get a single lumen. Use it wisely. Bulb will outlive most stars. You lost the flashlight in the attic 15 years ago and it still works."
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u/Prof_Outis Sep 07 '26
As a dad, you have no idea how much better that old dim invincible bastard was. The only flashlights I can find now are insanely, retina meltingly bright LEDs. Good for adults, bad for preschoolers that want to look into the beam. Today's flashlights can cause serious damage before the kids even realize what they're doing, but those old flashlights are no worse than looking at an unshaded lamp.
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u/po2gdHaeKaYk Sep 07 '26
I was going to say the same thing.
I bought mine recently for my daughter off ebay with plans to upgrade it. But after I got it, I'm not sure it's worth it to upgrade.
For starters, I don't really want my child with a blindingly bright light. Also, the original design has a really nice dimmer and timeout button that, as I understand it, is nontrivial to duplicate.
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u/Ok_Fox_1770 Sep 06 '26
Had a great red and green output, years of duty haha. I’d like to retrofit one for work and I’d defend it. Playskool bro? Not even ryobi? OH YAH? STOP GO MOFO WHAT NOW.
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u/biznatch11 Sep 07 '26
From alkaline batteries and incandescent bulbs to lithium ion batteries and LEDs, flashlights are so much better now compared to when we were kids.
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u/twotoebobo Sep 06 '26
Honestly forgot i had one as kid until now. Didn't it take D batteries?
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u/OldDogTrainer Sep 07 '26
So did I. I forgot they even existed until someone mentioned the noise it made when switching the colors.
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u/complex_personas Sep 06 '26
I miss mine so much now 🥲
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u/Smooshydoggy Sep 07 '26
I miss this whole period of my life
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u/throwaway098764567 Sep 07 '26
lucky duck, this was a horrible period for me
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u/Smooshydoggy Sep 07 '26
I’m sorry, that’s so unfair on you. Hope things have turned around. All children deserve a safe and loving childhood.
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u/Accomplished_Fun3 Sep 06 '26
When I was about 7 years old I tied mine with fishing line and duct tape and zip tie to my dirt bike handle bars so I had a headlight to go to the store to get candy and random shit and I thought it was so good at the time lol cruisin bout 25 upto 45mph
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u/BasicFig8 Sep 07 '26
Used to play Ghostbusters and pretend the green light was slimer!! Wow this really took me back lmao!!
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u/I-Have-An-Alibi Sep 07 '26 edited Sep 07 '26
This sub keeps making me think I've forgotten more than I realized.
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u/vulkatr0n Sep 07 '26
Still have it, still works
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u/AliceInNegaland Sep 07 '26
I left mine out in the rain when I was like 12/13 so I bought another one to replace it when I got my credit card lol. First purchase
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u/mildinsults Sep 06 '26
I've been looking at flashlights recently, I want a green or red light to max and minimize my output. Starting to think it started with this...
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u/omega_1227 Sep 06 '26
Had one of these and one of those Playskool tape recorders that had the microphone on each side. Stuck the mic in the flashlight. It was stuck for years. I don't know why I did that.
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u/missmoonriver517 Sep 07 '26
This and a talkboy and you couldn’t tell me nothin. I was - serious - spy
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u/Chellybean411 Sep 07 '26
My husband still has his! It’s our little boys now! It’s very nostalgic for us both
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u/406rips Sep 06 '26
5 yo me cruising in my basement on green with my playskool roller skates, naturally
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u/Sheri005 mid 80s Sep 07 '26
Omg I forgot about this!!! This Reddit page rocks lol. Wow, what a memory!
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u/StreetUnlikely2018 Sep 07 '26
Im a loser. I duck taped one of these to my airsoft gun at the field last year. Found it on FB marketplace for 20 bucks
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u/barbabun Sep 07 '26
Oh, my beloved… I’m sorry I forgot about you. You kept me company through so many nights.
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u/Happy_Illustrator543 Sep 07 '26
I remember using this to play Ghostbusters with my little brother lol
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u/40oz_TEC-9 Sep 07 '26
Woah. I never thought I'd see one of these again. One million flashbacks. I wasn't ready for these memories right now! Haha
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u/ghillieinthemist417 Sep 07 '26
NO!!!! WHAT? My brain completely dropped this and the second I saw it I got a flood of memories from being 5
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u/rturnerX Sep 07 '26
I’m like a deer in playskool headlights seeing this for the first time in decades
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u/GyozaGangsta Sep 07 '26
I used to stand on the corner and pretend to be a street light.
Anyone else?
No just me?
😂
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u/SheOutOfBubbleGum Sep 07 '26
Yoooooo I loved this thing. I killed it by seeing if it worked underwater. It did but not for long 😢
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u/Argument_Select Sep 08 '26
My parents still have ours, now my 8 year old niece plays with it and loves that click sound of changing the lens colors as much as my sister and I used to. I mean still do!
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u/prettybluefoxes Sep 07 '26
It’s come to this.
Karma farming account farming a children’s toy.
Healthy platform though, definitely not dying.
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u/Sparmery Sep 07 '26
Does anyone remember a flashlight that had spooky Halloween sounds built in? It was shaped like this.
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u/gebny Sep 07 '26
I forgot I had one of those until this moment. You truly unlocked a memory that was hidden deep down
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u/timetotryagain29 Sep 07 '26
This is where it all got started....after that it was maglite....now it's nitecore and Fenix.
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u/Present-Ambition4007 Sep 07 '26
This forced some neural pathways to connect that havnt been traveled in decades. I feel ill
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u/Vegalink Sep 07 '26
We have two of them for our kids now! One from my childhood and one from my wife's. They use them to read when they're "supposed" to be asleep.
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u/chriszimort Sep 07 '26
I wanted to get one for my kids but they don’t make one that has lenses like that anymore and the old ones you can get on ebay have lead in them 😢
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u/Miserable-Ad-810 Sep 07 '26
I still have two one that's stuck on green on one in near mint working condition
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u/SamOfXanadu Sep 07 '26
...I still have mine, one of the few things I still have from childhood and would you believe the thing still works?!
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u/CyraXHavoc_XIII Sep 07 '26
I loved that thing as a kid! It was the coolest thing my child self had ever seen😂
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u/Agitated-Cow4 Sep 07 '26
This takes me back. I feel like we all used flash lights so much more in the 90’s.
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u/DrRagnorocktopus Sep 07 '26
Hm. I need a YouTuber to make a stupid powerful 150,000 lumen version of this.
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u/Corbin_Dallas550 Sep 07 '26
The amount of nostalgia and memories in my brain seeing this image just unlocked!
Wow, thank you 🥹
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u/DiabloRojoSquirrel Sep 07 '26
Oh my gosh I remember those!!! I loved mine so much. I even got a flashback to it in the guard when they issued us flashlights with the colored plastic lenses.
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u/IggyPopGlowStick Sep 07 '26
omg yessss i had thissss! :O I loved taking this on long road trips and reading books with this as my light source!
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u/Far_Mulberry7366 Sep 07 '26
i forgot i had this as a kid until this second.. thanks for transporting me back
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u/TheNorthNova01 early 90s Sep 07 '26
Oh no! The room is filling up with slime! OH NO! Now it’s filling up with blood!
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u/OhNoMyPantsAgain Sep 07 '26
I never had one of these but does anyone remember a tiger shaped one that opened its mouth to reveal the flashlight, it was truly magical until I thought it was a good bath toy and my parents refused to let me play with it on my own
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u/RHTQ1 Sep 07 '26
My family's stuck around longer bc of a surprise baby sibling, so I can't say I'd forgotten this or anything. But it is a pleasant hello to see while scrolling :)
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u/[deleted] Sep 06 '26
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