Ideal Batman utility belt flashlight question

[BatToys]

eBay sold a red cap Batman Ideal belt flashlight with No Hong Kong lettering. In the screenshot he wrote the reproductions said Hong Kong. Is that accurate?

[BiffPow]

I don’t know how accurate it is, but someone had a reproduction utility belt flashlight on Etsy and it makes the same claim. What I think it’s saying is that the flashlight themselves are vintage but the decals are reproduction.

Here’s what it says, and then I will attach a link to the listing:

“PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A VINTAGE CHROME FLASHLIGHT ALMOST IDENTICAL (EXCEPT FOR THE WORDS "HONG KONG" AROUND THE END) with a reproduction Batman logo decal. IT IS NOT AN ORIGINAL. . . . . BUT READ ON.”

Once you click on the link, you have to click the “item details.”

https://www.etsy.com/listing/474360008/ ... ng_details

[BatToys]

Thanks Biffpow. That was very helpful.

So original Ideal vintage flashlights say Hong Kong by the button while reproductions do not say Hong Kong.

[BiffPow]

I think the opposite. The original Ideal utility belt flashlights did not have Hong Kong stamped on them, but the ones that do say Hong Kong are also vintage flashlights - they just weren’t made for the Ideal utility belt. Someone is taking vintage Hong Kong flash and adding reproduction decals, possibly because the ones that were made for Ideal were the only ones that weren’t stamped “Hong Kong.”

Sorry for any confusion my previous post might have caused.

[BatToys]

I think they're airspraying the bats on, not decals.

Are you sure Ideal Batman flashlights did not use both plain and Hong Kong versions?

[BiffPow]

No, I’m not. I’m no expert on them. That’s just how I interpret what they’re saying. But, given that the Ideal Toy company had their own manufacturing plant in Queens at the time (back then, almost everything we consumed in America was made in America), I would be surprised if they had any components made in Hong Kong as that would have been considered inferior quality to American made.

[BatToys]

I looked for my reproduction red cap metal flashlight I bought a few years ago on Etsy. On that the bat is a wrap around decal sticker. The reproduction has with no Hong Kong words.

So the guy who paid around $1,200 for the ebay flashlight with No Hong Kong words and belt pieces that had 2 reproductions darts overpaid a lot for a reproduction.

I do have an Ideal Batman metal flashlight with the words Hong Kong that I bought from a expert bat collector who has high integrity and he told me that was a vintage Ideal flashlight.

[BiffPow]

I don’t know. You may be right. Again, I’m no expert. It’s not that Hong Kong made toys were necessarily inferior, they were just considered to be suspect by American consumers.

My limited understanding from what I have read is that, while toy manufacturers in Europe and the United States did start using Hong Kong factories sometime in the 1960s to keep up with the demand, the ones that did use those factories would avoid saying “Hong Kong” until the late 1960s or early 1970s.

[BatToys]

It's possible Ideal used both flashlights or one might have said Hong Kong and the other didn't. The only one who could answer for sure would be someone who owns a lot of Ideal Batman utility belts in the box and he can check the flashlights.