Club Obi Wan

It's been a while since I have posted on the forums. While I have been rather busy with various projects, I have not forgotten about you guys and girls! In fact, I have some news for you. For the past few months, many people have been asking me in emails if I was still making and offering my product line. The answer is a resounding and affirmative "yes."


CHANGES to the ZIPPO LINEUP:

The last Generation of resin badges has been dropped due to problems with sourcing the required resin. About six months ago the supplier pulled the product due to manufacturing issues. I ran out of my private stock last November and had to stop making resin badges. Because I saw the writing on the wall before summer last year, I began working on a new type badge. I drew on all my experience gained by making resin, metal and hybrid badges for the past four years and incorporated a few improvements and design changes.


GENERATION 5 BADGES

Generation 5 Badges are now out. They replace Generation IV resin badges. Generation 5 badges are cast metal badges with clear resin coating. These new badges are not yet show on my website, but will be added within the next few days.

Casting badges in metal allows for superior consistency and tighter tolerances and ultimately better fit than casting in resin. As one result, Generation 5 badges are a little thinner than previous badges. The metal badges are painted bright white and are clad in a clear UV-resistant, locking urethane clam shell for ultimate protection. The locking clam shell is a real improvement in functionality and about as bomb-proof as can be.

The clover has been redesigned to set Generation 5 badges visually apart. Generation 5 badges are available for #200 style Zippos. Depending on interest, I may eventually add badges for Armor, 1937 Vintage and 1941 Replica Zippos.

You may wonder if there will be Generation 5 Resin Badges. Whether or not it will happen depends of course on availability of the casting resin and demand. As I mentioned earlier, the casting resin has been discontinued. However, the resin was reformulated and has become once again become available just recently. The new formula unfortunately cure s almost twice as fast as the previous one, and this means making resin badges becomes extremely time-consuming, because I can cast only one or two sets at a time. I have no idea if this material will remain available or not. I don't know how this will pan out. Possibly, I will offer resin badges only when available, without the option of placing an order.

Like all my items, unless otherwise stated, all badges are hand-crafted by me. Nothing is machine-made or outsourced. US-made materials are used whenever available.







REPLACEMENT BADGES

You may wonder if older style spare badges still available for your Zippo?
Should you have damaged a badge and require replacement, I can do that for you. As an alternative I can also upgrade your lighter with a new set of the latest badges, if badges for that particular Zippo model are available.


HYBRID BADGES

They remain unchanged and available for #200, 1937 Vintage and 1941 Replica Zippos. They will retain the same clover design, which will set these badges further apart from Generation 5 badges. The hybrid badges remain among my personal favorites.


FUTURE AVAILABILITY OF OFFERINGS

Besides expenses, availability and unavailability of materials, sales demographics will ultimately determine which badges and other offerings will remain or even make it into production. As long as the work-to-sale ratio is acceptable, offerings will remain in production. Lack of interest will result in offerings being dropped from the lineup.


NEW WEBSITE and NEW EMAIL ADDRESS

In the interest of keeping prices in line with how they have been for the past few years, I have moved my website from a paid server to a free one:
http://relicraider.110mb.com/index.html
The new website may occasionally be down, so please bear with me and check after a few hours or the next day. The new website does not allow hot-linking of images, but I can and will upload linkable images upon request. If I were to keep the paid website, I would certainly have to increase my prices. I believe the occasional downtime and some quirks to be an acceptable tradeoff. My earthlink email address is currently still working, but I can already be reached under my gmail address: relicraider@gmail.com


ZIPLIGHTS

A got a hold of a small cache of NOS ZipLights recently. Presuming current demand, my ZipLight stock should last until early summer.

I think that about covers everything and I look forward to hopefully posting more on the forums, as time allows!

Cheers,
-Relic Raider

The new badges looks great :tup:

I guess it is time for me to add a new zippo to the collection soon


/Jakob

Thanks for the compliment!

I would like to explain what I meant by "locking urethane clam shell." It means the protective urethane resin ("plastic") coating goes "around" the edge of the emblem on three sides, further improving durability.

Since a picture says a thousand words, here is a close-up picture that will show what words probably fail to accurately describe. The upper badge is the older style resin badge, the lower badge is the new Generation 5 badge. Click the thumbnail for a larger version:

I got one of RR's new G5 lighters a couple weeks ago. It is so great... Its been said alot at this forum but I'll say it again. Relic Raider is GREAT with an amazing product. The only place you need to go if you want a "lucky charm" that is accurate and durable.

So what exactly are the differences between Generation IV and V?

I got a hybrid from Relic Raider last week and am going to give a full review with pictures today or tomorrow.

The clover on the G5 is dead on with the original prop.

VP wrote:So what exactly are the differences between Generation IV and V?

I'll reiterate and illustrate the differences:

1. Generation I-IV badges have one clover design, Generation 5 badges have a different clover design, hence the switch from Roman to Western "Arabic" numerals. The Gen 5 clover is also a little smaller with a finer outline. It's right at the limit of what I can precisely, accurately and consistently paint by hand. The picture shows the Generation 5 on the left and the discontinued Generation IV badge on the right:



2. The Generation 5 badges are cast in metal, or resin, should I be willing and able to occasionally offer a resin version. Generation IV badges are cast in resin. The same white, green and black paint are used for both Gen IV and Gen 5 badges. The urethane coating is also the exact same material on the old and new version.

3. The Gen 5 badges have a locking clam shell coating (previously shown) and they are a bit thinner, which you can see in this picture:




Cheers,
-Relic Raider

balsho wrote:The clover on the G5 is dead on with the original prop.

Without the sloppiness of the original, I hope!

Caplin wrote:I got a hybrid from Relic Raider last week and am going to give a full review with pictures today or tomorrow.

I'm looking forward to people other than me posting pictures!

Cheers,
-Relic Raider

Just ordered a 1937 from you RelicRaider, I look forward to getting it. I will post some pics with a review once it's in my hands.

I just wanted to thank Relic Raider for a recent purchase.

Below are the three "clover" lighters in my collection.


On the left is my first lighter from ~3 years ago (I forget where from), next is a Studio Showroom clover and last but not least, the "belle of the ball", my new 1936 Vintage Relic Raider clover with a hybrid badge. This baby's going with me everywhere.

Some more pics (sorry for the picture quality)




Until next time...

The lighter on the very left is an official Zippo version. Thanks for showing your photos!

Nice collection OSU!

I have been thinking about getting a clover zippo from the Studio (but first I'll be getting one of the new G5 lighters from RR ). How is the quality of the Studio's clover zippo?


/Jakob

Thanks JEEP.

The graphic on the Studio clover looks great and is well done, but I got it mainly as a display piece. I read on here somewhere the concern over it getting scratched off easily since it is silkscreened or painted on. I would agree with that assessment and wouldn't carry it around with me very often.

Even though the RR clover can get scratched as well, it just seems sturdier to me. I wouldn't hesitate to carry it around as an everyday lighter or throw it in my bag if going on an “adventure” (keeping it away from sharp objects or course ).

Yea the studio clover is not good at all if you want to actually use it. The paint is really weak. RR's G5 all the way. It is more accurate to the film and can easily take normal use. Now if they just made a butane insert that was reliable...

balsho wrote:Now if they just made a butane insert that was reliable...

Did the butane insert break? I haven't had any issues with the one that I bought, but I haven't used it much at all.

Cheers,
-Relic Raider

I've tried 3 different ones that I could get my hands on. The "Z plus" totally broke after just a couple of days. "Thunderbird" was not too bad but the construction is a little weak. And this one now has been pretty good. Some guy on ebay sells just inserts out of Germany. It is like the thunderbird but better made. But the thing still is inconsistant. Flame level is all over the place, have to refill every other day. There is all these different factors that effect its performance: type of fuel, filling procedure... I wish zippo just made one or you could just slide in a bic lighter in there somehow.

That's a shame. My Z-Plus seems to be made better than the Thunderbird. My Thunderbird works fine, but I think it may be leaking a little gas over a couple months. Do you know who the manufacturer of the German inserts is? Some people here might be interested in those as a better alternative.

Cheers,
-Relic Raider

The brand is TRISTAR.

I found the Tristar butane insert easily online. It looks similar to the Thunderbird, but there are a few differences. Maybe both are made by the same manufacturer and one model is newer than the other. Anyway, this may be of interest at least for our Europeans!

Cheers,
-Relic Raider

How about a custom RR zipbutane insert?

One word: liability

They are very similar but the tristar fits better and has a better spring mechanisim that keeps the zippo shut tighter. As far as a custom thing I got some mini bic lighters thinking they could just slip into the shell but even the mini is a bit too long. Its a shame, when it comes to butane there's nothing better than just a disposable bic. But nothing looks better than a RR lucky charm. :(

Is there a website or supplier for these lighters?

Lighters or butane inserts? You can get the lighters everywhere and the link for the badges is in the first post, http://relicraider.110mb.com/

Well luck came in the mail today. I arrived home to find my 1937 Zippo from RelicRaider waiting for me. I must say I am very impressed your work sir. The badges make the Zippo even more of a heavy duty item. When I first pulled it out of package I thought it was a bit bulky however that effect is wearing off and I am enjoying the lighter. The work and detail is wonderful, top of the line. Here are some pics for you all to enjoy, it even photographs well I must say.

Thanks for posting these nice photos! I'm glad you're happy with the lighter. By the way, the hybrid badges for the #200 and the 1941 Replica have a more narrow metal edge. For some reason I thought the 1937 Vintage lighter looked better with a wider metal edge. Just don't drop the lighter on your foot.

Cheers,
-Relic Raider