This light has withstood the test of time and remains a good / popular choice for / with many today, despite having been around over 5 years. What I find just as amazing is that with all the no-name, Johnny come lately, jackleg, flash in the pan, fly-by-night (did I miss any?
, flashlight manufacturers around today, I'm not aware of any of those who have seized on that and done a real form / functional knockoff / copycat of this design. I know of only one other light that
essentially checks all the same boxes as this one (excepting AAA [which is not an
advertised feature of the 1L-1AA], but adding 16340), and it's not from any of the above referenced companies, and costs twice as much. I can't understand why none (apparently) have considered that they need a light to compete with the 1L-1AA, because clearly that space in the market still exists. I admit that I'm not up to date on all the product offerings from all the above manufacturers so I could be missing one (let me know please), but I don't recall seeing it if it's out there. It's not as if those companies don't do 'knockoffs / copycats', so I wonder why not this one?
Edit: After posting this, just for fun I pulled up this doc and it does appear there's a patent or two on that light; although I didn't get to finding out what it covers. I suppose it's possible there's something patentable about that 'dual fuel' arrangement and maybe that's inhibiting knockoffs. I wouldn't have thought so, but it might be a possible answer to my question.....?