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This is probably the best standby/emergency light on the market, ever.
Note: this item was provided to me at no cost for review.
I wrote about the sibling to this light, the MX3F here, and I love that light. The MXS is a similar looking light, with a completely different personality and use case — so it gets its own review. FourSevens dubs this light the ‘Standby’ because it is designed to be just that: always charged, always ready, and automatically on should the power go out.
Big claims, all backed up, in a pretty good light.
One of my favorite lights of the year, and an all around must have light for most people.
RovyVon makes the neatest little lights out there, and this Angel Eyes E5 is a home run. It’s unassuming, but outright amazing. There’s a few models of this, but the one I have is the GITD body, with the UV light option — thus allowing for easy self-charging of the body to glow through the night.
Everyone needs one of these, but I guess I can tell you why…
What I’m going to attempt in 2023 as I wind down the reviews for this year, and let me warn you now that I might ruin some watches for you if you read the second part.
A nicely featured packable duffle bag, with some serious caveats.
The idea behind this bag is that it is a self-contained packable duffel bag. The entire bag, with the straps, packs up into one of the pockets. At the same time, it can be expanded out to a full duffel which has a set of straps that allow it to be worn as a backpack if/when needed.
It comes in three sizes: 30L, 45L, 60L. Here, I am looking at the 30L model. I picked this up at the start of the year, to use on any trip as a backup bag. The type of bag you would use any time you find that you maybe bought too much to fit in the bags you have with you.
I’ve not had to use it in that role as of yet, however I have tested it in various capacities — it’s not a home run, but it’s far from bad.
A nicely featured packable backpack that doesn’t look terrible and performs better than expected.
I’ve had this bag for quite some time now, and it’s been on the market for a very long time. This is a 19L packable backpack from Mystery Ranch. I picked this up mostly as a ‘just in case’ backpack, but it’s much better than I anticipated, so worth a few words on it.
One heck of a deal, and one heck of a good sling.
I’ve been struggling to find a sling which is the right shape, size, and look for me to be able to use without it looking — well — weird. Someone on my Discord pointed out this brand for the pouches — but the Rover Sling Pack caught my eye. They are made in a wide variety of colors, and are really competitively priced.
It’s been my go to, and really only, sling since it arrived. It’s fantastic.
I would have never guessed that one of my favorite lights of the year, was one I find too large to carry in my pocket, but here we are.
Note: this item was provided for review, at no-cost.
A little while back, FourSevens released two new lights, which both look similar — large bodied, blue anodized, great looking lights. When you think of a flashlight, this is the shape and general size of a flashlight you think of. So when FourSevens offered to send them my way to test, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on them. Today, I want to talk about the Maelstrom MX3F “Flood” which is a really awesome light.
Don’t lose your shit, buy this.
I never understood these little travel tray deals. They didn’t really make sense: there’s a nightstand at every place I stay, and my stuffs can go on that. That said, my loyal group of enablers in the Discord praised these trays and so I bought a couple.
And then I bought four more, turns out, these things are handy has hell.
A really low profile design, and has some compelling attributes, but ultimately it has a hard time standing up to the current Mystery Ranch offerings.
I am not going to dive too deep into this bag, because while it is very interesting — it’s not something readily available for purchase as a new item. You can easily find them secondhand, but you are buying secondhand then. And, also, it’s not my favorite bag, it’s mostly just ok, so I don’t think it is worth a ton of time on it.
But, it is one of those bags I had been wanting to try for a while, so I snagged one at a solid deal — this is the Mystery Ranch Street Fighter — and why not help calm your wonder too.
One of my shortest reviews ever, talking about maximizing resolution for your iPad Pro, and of course those crumbs at the bottom of your bag.
Now is a great time to snag some MACV-1s in your size (I grabbed another pair). If Coyote Brown is a color you like (great color) the GR1 is on sale in that color. Sale here (affiliate link naturally).
Now is a great time to snag some MACV-1s in your size (I grabbed another pair). If Coyote Brown is a color you like (great color) the GR1 is on sale in that color.
Let’s talk about how this tiny slipjoint knife is a beast of a knife and perhaps the best knife all around.
Fun fact, I have in my possession one of these knives, but I own two — and I never sold or given away any. How? Well my Bexar Ultem was lost by UPS in their Drop Box so I am fully out on that, thanks a lot UPS. Even though I had that model Bexar for only a few days, I was so impressed with it, that I went right back and got the Titanium model — which we will talk about today.
But spoiler: this is possibly the best knife on the market today — without caveat. I know, I know, let’s talk about how that’s even possible.
A really nicely made watch, which is one of those ‘never think about damaging it’ watches — with a few caveats.
I snagged the Seatrek for a bargain basement $140 from Jack Mason, but I am going to be looking at it in the perspective of the MSRP listed — but know that Jack Mason does sales often during the year (and they seem to be replacing this model, however it’s still worth a quick look).
The Seatrek is a quartz diver, with a lot of subtle flair to it, and it looked like a steal at the discounted price (spoiler: it was/is).
Short review: really great design elements, well finished, good specs, priced correctly at around $200.
External displays are all the rage for iPad Pro Pros, and that thing where I thought a bag would suck a lot, but it turns out I love it.
A SAK style knife with M390 steel, and that’s where the good parts stop.
It doesn’t really matter how expensive some of your knives are, or how well settled you are on them, there’s a certain amount of comfort and charm that comes from dropping a Swiss Army Knife in your pocket. What it is about the relatively inexpensive knives, and the overall lackluster materials, I don’t know other than to know that they are great knives.
Still, haven’t you had the thought “man, what if Victorinox actually tried to make the SAK better?” I’ve had that thought and so did MKM. Enter the Malga 6, which looks a lot like a Swiss Army knife, but uses higher-end materials. M390, and Micarta to name a few.
I’ve had this knife for a while now, and I drug my feet writing about it because of the mixed feelings I have about the knife. Actually, I don’t, because I simply don’t like it.
Is this the best watch you can buy for under $600? It might just be.
I picked this watch up to meet my requirements as a watch which you can get for under $600, and wear anywhere. And my requirements for wearing anywhere is that it would be a watch I could wear swimming at a resort, traipsing through the woods, or in a Board Room. There’s not many watches which can pull that kind of duty, but of those limited few — Seiko’s Alpinist family is certainly in the mix.
This 1959 re-imagination, the SBDC149, is the revival and modernization of a 1959 mountain climbing watch. And it adds a lot of new stuff: date window, better lume, 70hr power reserve, 200m water resistance — just to name a few things.
This is a stellar watch, and in this emerald green dial, it really pops. It also comes in blue, ivory, and a slate gray color — all of them looking spectacular. I had no other green dials, so that’s the model I choose, and it might represent the best watch you can spend just under $600 on.
This bag is close to being really good, but doesn’t quite get close enough to hitting that mark. It is still a good bag though.
Orbit Gear makes some wild designs on bags, some subdued ones, and all around well made offerings. When I saw the C102 Sharpshooter, it looked like a stellar bag and at $128 (+$30 shipping) it was worth picking up to try out.
It’s a very good bag, but not perfect.
When you need a slip joint, but want something that feels like a locking knife — either way this knife slices.
Maybe you noticed, but I’ve been on a slipjoint kick lately — they are very subdued feeling to those around you when you are going into places like offices. Anyways, carrying on with my quest to find great slipjoints, I snagged an Ace Farley Slipjoint with green canvas micarta second hand. I’m impressed, this is a very good slipjoint knife — it’s also a very good knife in general.
Apple really dropped the ball with iPadOS 16, but not as much as Taylor Welden does all the time.
One of the best folding knife blades I’ve used, but there’s a few caveats to go along with that.
I saw a couple of these ‘Acta Non Verba’ knives show up on Reddit, and then while browsing through posts I saw that the ANV A100 comes in a CPM MagnaCut variant. It is quite a premium over the ELMAX variant, but MagnaCut is a fantastic metal. What I wasn’t expecting is, well actually I wasn’t expecting basically anything about this knife.