1979 First Year Lights

Summary: 1979 lights were the first produced by Maglite and the lowest serial numbers. These lights had many differences from later lights like their low focus grip and larger, bulbous switch cover. They are very rare today.

I've previously covered the early history of Maglite, but most may not know that the 1979 Maglites from the first year of production have some very interesting differences from later Maglites because the design was still a work in progress. These lights are specifically the first batches produced from March of 1979 to early (February or March) 1980. Two key features that differ from the rest of the early no letter serial Mags are:

- The low grip on the head. There is a space of about 1/4" between the bezel and the focus grip. This can be seen in the photos below when compared to a 1988 Maglite. This makes spotting these models on online auction sites very easy for those interested in collecting them.

- The bulbous switch cover. The switch hole diameter on the 1979 lights is 0.725" vs. 0.650" on all other D Cells Mags. The switch cover is therefore larger and lacks the flat, flanged edge that holds the seal into the lights on the earlier models. The covers were instead held in with a small circlip that went inside the cover but these are almost never found on old lights and are impossible to find as parts. For this reason most lights found for sale are missing the switch cover. Old covers will stay in place just fine without the circlip but the new style covers just fall right out of the light. Mag Instrument no longer produces replacements for the larger switch cover. Pictures of the switch covers for comparison are shown in the photos below.

These photos also show a TM bezel vs. and R bezel. Immediately after the Maglite logo earlier lights have a TM and later lights have the R with the circle. This signifies the difference between a regular trademark which anyone can claim and a registered trademark that is on file with the patent office. Even though this trademark was approved in 1981 the changeover didn't happen until 1987 when Mag Instrument stepped up the protection of their designs. I posted a Quick Dating Guide that is an easy way to date lights. 

A while back I was able to purchase a small lot of new old stock (NOS) original switch covers. I have several of these that I use for restorations and replacements on 1979 lights. I'm running low though and seeing as how Mag Instrument doesn't sell them I was thinking about have some made up from a rubber supplier. Below is some of the lot that I bought from an old Maglite service center.

Most of these very early lights I've bought were from owners in California which makes sense as the first year of production was likely shipped and sold near the factory. They are commonly referred to as 1979 lights or first year lights among collectors. Production serials vary but it looks like somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 of these early models were produced during the first year. This is a far cry from the million or so of each model currently produced per year. Based on how many survived it's a real testament to the durability of Maglites. I have a full collection of these early models, a 2D through 7D. The 2D is a ~18,000 serial, the 3D is a ~22,000 serial, the 4D is a ~11,000 serial, the 5D is a ~14,000 serial, the 6D is a ~3,200 serial, and the 7D is a ~4,400 serial. The 14,000th 5D Maglite ever made may not seem like a big deal but a current serial is something like 508000000. There have been over 8,000,000 produced so 14,000 is very early in the production run, like the first 0.1 % made with few surviving.

It's also worthwhile to note that all of these lights are stamped "Paten Pending" and all of them have patent misspelled so you do see collectors try to pass this off as an error light and even though it is they all technically had the same error. Lights were stamped "Paten Pending" until early 1981 so you'll see this on non-1979 lights too but only on a very small amount of C cells as C cell production started when the patent was almost approved. I should also note that 1979 first year production lights were mostly black although Mag instrument did a couple very small test batches of blue, red, and gold that they did offer for sale. Colors really started full production in early 1980 and I've covered those here. Shown below is my complete collection of 2D through 7D 1979 first year Maglites.

I got a great backstory on some of the lights when I purchased them. The 6D was bought by a trucker on a trip to California in the summer of 1979. He carried it with him for many years before having a battery get stuck inside. He sold it to another collector I deal with and that collector restored it. It is serial # 3,207 which is from one of the earliest batches of Maglites. I have heard of only 4 or 5 lights that are possibly older and owned outside of Mag Instrument. Mag Instrument owns several extremely low serial lights that were retained by the factory. The original owner had this one engraved with his name right above the serial. I've covered this light in another post as well as some other personalized lights I have too.

The 2D shown is the lowest serial D cell Maglite I've ever seen in all of my years of collecting. It could very possibly be the oldest Maglite still in existence today outside of Maglite's factory. It is a 422 serial so it is the 422nd 2D Maglite ever produced. That's astonishingly low considering new 2021 2D lights are around serial number 37,900,000. This light came from an estate sale in Arizona and its original owner was from California like owners of most other early lights that were distributed near the factory. It only saw light use and is in excellent condition today. It has all the other features of extremely early lights like very sharp tooling and the "Patent Pending" stamp instead of the later mis-spelled "Paten Pending" stamp. It is likely these extremely early lights were hand tooled and as such their fit and finish is extremely high compared with later mass produced lights. If you've seen a lower serial light please shoot me an e-mail. My contact info is at the right. The light is shown below with a 2021 Purple 2D.

The 4D shown below was purchased as part of a used lot of Maglites from a large concrete manufacturer in California. The concrete manufacturer bought lights for every truck since they started their business in the early 70s. This one survived all the way from 1979 until 2009 when it was replaced by a newer LED light. The light has an awesome patina to it from years of use and has held up very well. The light was used very frequently and batteries were changed once a month so it never had a battery get stuck in it. You just can't recreate the way these lights fade and wear so this is one of my favorite lights in my collection. It's hard to capture on camera but I've also tried to take a pic with a brand new 1980 light to show the difference in finish.

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