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NVA Flashlight, Surplus
NVA Flashlight, Surplus. A good ol' flashlight without any modern nonsense.
A good ol' flashlight without any modern nonsense.
NVA Flashlight, Surplus. On the backside, there are leather flaps for attaching this lamp to the buttons of an NVA jacket. Of course, you can attach this to any buttons or piercing you want. Some flashlights don't have the flaps.
On the backside, there are leather flaps for attaching this lamp to the buttons of an NVA jacket. Of course, you can attach this to any buttons or piercing you want. Some flashlights don't have the flaps.
NVA Flashlight, Surplus. These use the flat 4.5 V batteries. Inside, there is also a slot for a spare bulb.
These use the flat 4.5 V batteries. Inside, there is also a slot for a spare bulb.
NVA Flashlight, Surplus. The knob at the top turns the light on/off.
The knob at the top turns the light on/off.
NVA Flashlight, Surplus. On the front panel, there are three sliders that you can use to create a green, blue, or red light.
On the front panel, there are three sliders that you can use to create a green, blue, or red light.
NVA Flashlight, Surplus. Most of the black ones are in near mint condition. Reds and blues not so much.
Most of the black ones are in near mint condition. Reds and blues not so much.
DDR

NVA Flashlight, Surplus

Price 14.99 USD excluding sales tax

A proper old-time East German flashlight without any useless nonsense of the digital era. Very similar to the WWII German flashlights. Why change a working concept even if the reign of terror slightly changes. Three colored sliders for sending secret messages to your comrades. Available in various colors.

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NVA Flashlight, Surplus. A good ol' flashlight without any modern nonsense.
NVA Flashlight, Surplus. On the backside, there are leather flaps for attaching this lamp to the buttons of an NVA jacket. Of course, you can attach this to any buttons or piercing you want. Some flashlights don't have the flaps.
NVA Flashlight, Surplus. These use the flat 4.5 V batteries. Inside, there is also a slot for a spare bulb.
NVA Flashlight, Surplus. The knob at the top turns the light on/off.
NVA Flashlight, Surplus. On the front panel, there are three sliders that you can use to create a green, blue, or red light.
NVA Flashlight, Surplus. Most of the black ones are in near mint condition. Reds and blues not so much.

A proper old-time East German flashlight without any useless nonsense of the digital era. Very similar to the WWII German flashlights. Why change a working concept even if the reign of terror slightly changes. Three colored sliders for sending secret messages to your comrades. Available in various colors.

Use

This flashlight doesn’t have any easily breakable decadent western electronics or a million functions that no honest citizen needs. When you twist the robust metal knob at the top with proper socialist vigor, you will get enlightened. On the front panel, there are three sliders that you can use to create a green, blue, or red light. You can use them for signaling or create a passionate atmosphere in your bedroom with Das Boot-style lighting.

Don’t ask about lumens, they are just capitalistic nonsense. These only use units approved by the Party, and that’s all you need to know at your security clearance.

When you open the metal case, you get hold of the battery compartment. This flashlight takes one flat 4.5 V battery. Inside there is also a slot for a spare bulb, and there should be one of those included as well. If not, be proud that it is your spare bulb that has been commandeered for rebuilding the state.

At the upper and lower edges, there are leather flaps with varying colors. They are designed for attaching the lamp to the buttons found on some NVA (and some BW) military jackets. So, this is a kind of headlamp predecessor, a boob lamp. You can of course use those to hang this lamp on any buttons or piercings you want. Some of the flashlights don't have the flaps.

Sizing

This is sized exactly right since the Party doesn’t make any mistakes. Measurements c. 65 x 125 x 40 mm (2.6" x 4.9" x 1.6"). The weight is c. 130 g (4.6 oz).

Condition

East German military surplus from some abandoned Cold War-era cellar guarded by the ghost of Stasi. So, these might have been used for interrogating the enemies of the state - or not, as there are unused ones in the mix. Most of the black ones seem unused. The red and blue ones are used, some heavily. They all have been stored for a long time, and even the unused ones can have some surface rust, warehouse dirt, and such. These have such names on them as Artas and Narva.

All products: DDR

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3 ratings
Five stars
I would recommend for a friend

09.03.2024 Verified purchase
This piece from the wrong side of the Iron Curtain is not for peeps looking for a flashlight that’s ready to go. Some work has to be done to set-up the wiring to make it good for modern spec batteries.

By modern standards the lighting performance is underwhelming since it uses older incandescent bulbs. This can be addressed by modifying it to take LED bulbs or whatever lighting system comes in the future.

If you really want this for you: Expect to use a lot of imagination, and elbow grease to make it work.
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Five stars
I would recommend for a friend

24.03.2024 Verified purchase
Ordered in blue and black, just waiting on a re-stock of the red ones now. Until you put a battery in pretty lightweight as they seem to be made from tin or some other thin and easily battered metal.

Both I received were in new off the shelf condition and fully functioning, bulb was much brighter than I expected and unlike some of the regulation military issue ones I have made of heavier duty materials (1 Bundeswehr and several Swiss Army models) the battery fits in very snugly so doesn't require padding out to maintain contact with the connections.

Handy little torches for stashing in a coat pocket without losing them to the depths or amongst other stuff one might be carting about ones person, or with some buttons stitched on in an appropriate place, fitted to a jacket for when you find yourself suddenly in the dark or decide to go scrambling around in unlit places on a whim of interest. And even with the cheap and stingy materials to make it in comparison to the proper Army issued ones still a pretty solid and robust item.
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Four stars
I would recommend for a friend

04.02.2022 Verified purchase
I purchased this as a novelty, and it took a little effort to get working (hint-short terminal goes on the right, the contact for the back of the bulb may need to be bent forward), but I really am quite impressed by the performance.
First, features- clearly Varusteleka marketing dept. sees this item as a novelty so didn't include much serious information, so here goes. This lamp has quite a narrow throw, but is quite bright inside the beam. Inside the field is probably as bright as my 300lm light but as the beam is about half the radius at same distance this means the bulb is maybe 75 lumens. The beam also had some rather significant artefacts most likely caused by the plastic lens.
Has a red, blue and green filter, in order of ascending brightness. Red is very dim, but the narrow field makes it mostly unsuitable for tacticool operations in the dark, if you were considering a 30 year old £10 light for such purposes. Something unclear from the images is an extra thin lens in the top of the body, which shines unfiltered light upwards onto your face if it is worn on the chest, this feature is presumably included to make border guards look scarier in flashlight-spooky-camping-story style, but serves to ruin your night vision with red filter on. This could be solved with electrical tape but I digress.
The knob is 3 position, 'off', 'momentary on' (off until you push down on the switch which turns on the light for signalling etc.) and 'on'.
One feature hard to quantify is the bulky, fiddly technicalness of the flashlight. Feels like the kind of thing that would have been used and struggled with by the survivors in the original The Thing. Comforting to know that you can likely fix or at least diagnose any issues it begins to have.
As noted it is a boob lamp. Neither of my East German jackets have the necessary buttons for proper fitting but the fastening buttons used for closing the jacket are of correct spacing, allowing it to be attached in the middle of the chest, making you look somewhat like a train while walking the dog in the dark. If other jackets have equally spaced buttons you may be fine mounting the same way. The buttons will need to be quite large though, not like most civilian style buttons, to properly secure the lamp.
One final note is that 4.5v flat batteries are renowned for leaking, so don't use vintage batteries with your vintage torch.
Overall, fine for civilian purposes, keeps the hands free (I usually wear one of my DDR jackets anyway) and I will probably get a lot of use out of it. And if SHTF nobody will be pilfering 4.5v flat batteries so you'll have all the supply you need. Not a bad choice as a cheap and comfortingly manual lighting option.
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Comments

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Jason S. 24.01.2022
Das boot style lighting... I’m in!
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James B. 24.01.2022
The last time I used a 4.5V flat battery, the Berlin Wall was still standing. The West German Bundeswehr also used similar torches, so if you buy one of these, you'll also have to buy or already own a pre-Flecktarn Bundeswehr jacket or parka to hang it on, or sew on buttons in strange places on one's existing combat smocks, I s'pose.
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Sean E. 26.02.2022
1.5V AA to 4.5V adapters exist, idk how well they work or how easily findable they are
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