Bullet, the ‘tiniest flashlight on Kickstarter,’ blows away its target

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The tiny Bullet is sorta like the 12-inch MacBook of LED flashlights.
The tiny Bullet is sorta like the 12-inch MacBook of LED flashlights.
Photo: Slughaus

The makers of a tiny (but badass!) new LED flashlight say they took inspiration from the 9mm bullet, but Apple’s incessant drive toward miniaturization seems at least as much of an influence.

You can almost hear the dulcet tones of Jony Ive’s voice in the description of the Bullet, which its maker calls “the tiniest flashlight on Kickstarter.”

“We took the smallest, sleekest possible design, and combined it with aircraft-grade aluminum and an anodized finish to bring you a powerful tiny LED light, perfect for everyday use,” says the Bullet’s Kickstarter page. “We believe that the shape and size kept the design minimal, functional and easy to carry, completely hassle-free in any situation.”

Measuring just 1 centimeter wide and 3 centimeters long, the Bullet looks like a … bullet. It comes in matte black and gun-metal finishes (you had to see that one coming). There are no unnecessary buttons: You just twist the Bullet a quarter turn to light it up (and reverse that to turn it off).

It might be the perfect LED flashlight for studying the Second Amendment late at night under the covers.

Prototypes show the evolution of the Bullet LED flashlight.
Prototypes show the thoughtful evolution of the Bullet LED flashlight.
Photo: Slughaus

The Bullet, which went live on Kickstarter over the weekend, has already blown away its $10,000 goal. Slughaus, the San Francisco company that designed the Bullet, is offering one of the flashlights for just $8, with the usual deep discounts if you buy multiple units.

It looks like a lot of thought went into the design, and apparently the Bullet is pretty much a bull’s-eye: Slughaus already raked in $57,000 in pledges from more than 2,000 backers.

The stop-motion promo video for the Bullet, which you can see below, borrows another trick from the Apple marketing playbook: It compares the flashlight to almost impossibly small objects like a paper clip.

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