1989 3D Camo Light

Summary: This was a "test" camo finish done in 1988 to see how different finishing techniques would look. All of the camo finishes wear quickly and this one was changed to the woodland pattern still seen today after a very small manufacturing run.

In addition to the standard black, blue, red, and silver finishes Mag Instrument has also done some special colors on the non-letter serials to try to increase sales. I've covered the earlier standard finishes here. Since 1989 Mag Instrument has produced a painted camouflage light. Shown below is one of the first full size Maglites with a camo finish.

This light has an R with a circle next to the Maglite logo but does have a stamped bezel so it is a pre-1990 light. Early lights will have a TM bezel while the trademark was still pending approval. I've detailed all of these changes in my D Cell Quick Dating Guide. This light is a ~1,700,000 serial which puts it right at 1989. Mag Instrument currently produces a woodland and until 2017 produced a digital camo light. All 3 variants are shown below. The 1988 camo light is on the left and as far as I know was only produced in one small batch in 1988 before the woodland camo lights became standard. This finish can be considered a "test finish" to see how well the light would wear and sell. This is similar to the early test finishes Maglite experimented with.

Because this finish is painted on over the aluminum and not anodized it wears very quickly. As such Mag Instrument only did small runs of these. Even the new style lights that you see for sale used will have a good portion of the finish worn off. This light was sold to me by a fellow collector and I've never seen another one. I also don't believe they were produced in any other size except 3D. It's also interesting to note that Mini Maglites were available with a painted woodland camo finish from 1984 on but it took a little while for Mag to apply this finish to their full size lights. I have some first generation Mini Maglites that I've detailed in this post.

As always I'm looking to buy Vari-Beams and Vintage/Rare Mags. Please let me know if you have any, top dollar paid.