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I have always loved flashlights. Don’t know why, I just do. Slicing the darkness with a sword of light has been a “thing” for me as long as I can remember.

When I was a kid, this place named RadioShack opened up down the street. My Dad and I would go there when some electronic do-dad was acting up and they usually had the parts (most of the time) to get the repair done. During one of our visits I noticed their flashlights. They had big flashlights….and I just HAD to have one! A 4 D-cell flashlight that was bigger than any I had seen was beckoning me to purchase. And I did. Size mattered back then and I must have been King cuz mine was bigger and better than yours! And it got serious use at night.

Right up until it broke. Ugh. Hated that day. We were a group of four kids playing in the neighborhood, all dressed in our best black outfit – so as to blend into the darkness. Our game was Spy. I don’t recall what or who we were spying on but we would do our stealthiest best to disappear when someone came walking or driving by our little patch of grass. We would reappear only when they were gone and we would do this for hours and hours with no one knowing what was going on.

As an aside….golly, times were different back then. If kids did this today there would be hell to pay! AmIRight?

Anyway, my reliable 4-cell flashlight hit the asphalt during one of our Missions and it was busted beyond recognition. The glass lens shattered instantly, spreading out in front of the flashlight like a soda spilled onto the sidewalk. The switch popped out from the side like a turkey thermometer does when the bird inside the oven gets hot and done. And that was the end of my way-cool-totally-awesome 4-cell flashlight. Rats!

After that, I moved away from gargantuan sized lights and moved on to sleek sexy models that worked on a couple of C-cells. Over time the transition to AA batteries made flashlights sized perfectly for my back pocket. And I even paid extra for one of those new-fangled LED lights so small you wouldn’t even know it was there except for the brilliant beam of perfectly focused portable light coming from my hand.

Then I got an old car and one light was never enough. The glove box had to have a flashlight for emergencies and this new company “MagLite” came out with an OhMyGawdIMustHaveIt model I put right next to my seat for “protection”. You see, this one was a 6-cell MagLite with a wide-to-tight focus ring at the head, weighing in at a svelte 2.5 pounds. It put out a seemingly forever lasting beautiful white light and oh man, I thought this was it! I was carrying around a small baseball bat sized flashlight useable for protection that put out that gorgeous swath of light I always craved and just had to have next to me. Naturally this would brighten the darkness and get us home safely….as usual.

Well, much time has passed since that first flashlight. Many options, many models, and oh-so-many batteries were used up along the way. And all along my timeline there have been improvements in optics and batteries too. And the companies have churned out smaller and better lights using LED bulbs and smart-switching technology. These days police officers around these parts carry SureStream Stinger flashlights to light their surroundings while Firemen carry flashlights by a company named “StreamLight”. Both of these flashlights use this fresh tech to throw a beam measuring about 230 lumens which is bright, but not terribly spectacular.

The costs have gone up too. That RadioShack light (1967 dollars) cost $7 + batteries and felt like a small fortune back then. Lights today can cost however much money you have in your bank account! The SureStreams and StreamLights of the world can cost more than $200 and don’t really light up the night like you think two hundred dollars would. What I mean is, these so-called professional duty lights are only about twice as bright as my 6-cell MagLite from many years back. Seems to me if you are paying a fair sum of cash for a Pro-style flashlight, it should throw a lot more light!

Learning Moment – a lesson on light

so the folks in charge of measuring such things as “light sources” and brightness came up with the terms candlepower and lumens. Each term provides a definition of how much light a light source produces which helps you define (justify?) how much money you need to spend for a flashlight that is bright, kinda bright, or super bright. I always go for super bright…..so here is the info that levels the playing field if you are interested in purchasing a new flashlight.

Candlepower is a scientific measurement of light at its source or how much light is produced by an object itself. If a lamp has 200 candlepower, then it produces – at its source – the equuivalent radiance of 200 candles. Better put, candlepower measures the throw of a light or how good the light is at projecting at a distance. The more concentrated the beam of light, the more candlepower.

Lumens, on the other hand, are a measurement of illumination. And illumination refers to how well the light reveals objects. So a “lumen” is a unit of measurement gauging how much total light a device produces, regardless of beam focus. Better put, lumens measures the quantity of light produced by a source.

End of lesson.

Monster Flashlights

And at this time I would like to introduce one of my new favorite companies: Monster Flashlights. These guys make a flashlight as bright as you like, at a very fair price point, then ship it to you via USPS Priority. They are family owned, based in the US of A, and pander to Flashlight Freaks all over the country. I’m not going to go into everything about these guys because you can do your own research in your own time. For a start, go to Monsterflashlight.com and read about how they do that thing they do.

Suffice it to say, after spending too much time getting smart about the specifics of flashlights, I almost made a serious blunder with my purchase at a site obviously based in China. One of the biggest complaints on the forums (yes, there are flashlight forums) was how long it took for the shipment to arrive and then how impossible it was to deal with mistakes, busted gear, and/or returns. I was very nervous about sending my money to them and kept looking until I found Monster Flashlights. Only after they massaged my fears by answering questions via their FAQ page was I able to send a payment their way and purchase a really bright light.

Three days after clicking the Submit button on their order page I was rewarded with the following flashlight via USPS: Monster Flashlight Cree Q5 Tactical LED 1200 Lumens Max – 5 Mode (their model #5Q5-1200-5).

Here is a description of my order:

• (1) flashlight
• (3) high volt 18650 batteries
• (1) battery charger

This purchase rang the cash register at $95. Free shipping/no tax.

You get what you pay for in this world of ours and I wanted something more than a flashlight RadioShack or Home Depot could provide. 200 lumens was NOT enough to meet my requirements and since I was NOT interested in yet another OK light, I sprang open my wallet and transferred the payment to them for a superior light. Oh, and they take PayPal. Thanks for that too!

From the Monster Flashlight website

The Monster Flashlight 5Q5-1200-5 is without doubt our best value ever in a tactical flashlight in the greater than 1000+ lumens category. This is one awesome police/fire/EMS tactical 1200 lumens max Cree LED multi-mode flashlight. In our never ending effort to produce the brightest and the best for the best price, we came up with this incredible workhorse.

THIS IS AN INCREDIBLY BRIGHT FLASHLIGHT IN A WELL MADE ALL METAL BODY MEASURING JUST UNDER A FOOT IN LENGTH. We have researched and compared dozens of LED flashlights on the market to determine for ourselves what are the best features and what works best in high end tac lights. We then work with our designers and engineers to design and produce a flashlight that is good enough to be called a Monster Flashlight. We only sell the best of the best, so you don’t have to sift through the junk looking for the good ones. We then offer these amazing lights to you at excellent prices with the very best of customer service.

Our fellow flashlight freaks know that there are a lot of inferior flashlights being sold on the internet and shipped on slow boats from China. Your dedicated Flashlight Freaks at Monster Flashlight, on the other hand, sell only a brand new, top quality product, and we ship this 1200 max lumens light immediately from New Jersey by USPS Priority Mail. That way, you will have it in 2-3 days instead of 3-4 weeks like the sellers in China.

Satisfied Customer

I am now the owner of a really bright flashlight. I have never had a brighter one and can only say I am a very satisfied customer.

Monster Flashlight model #5Q5