We’re very proud of our new Breakthrough BT2 and BT3 lights. We feel they redefine the right angle light by providing firefighters the smoke cutting ability of a light box…only its housed in the hands-free form factor of a right angle light. These new BTs therefore do the jobs of two lights (right angle light and light box) in one.

Check out the product pic, action pics and video below. The beam shots you see below are what the light is able to put out thanks to our unique SMO-KUT smoke cutting technology.

We took a stance long ago to:

• never exaggerate our specs (which is why we list torch lumens); or to
• never use Photoshop to deceive end users by enhancing beam shots.

In other words, what you see (below or listed on our website) is what you will get.

BT2 (left) and BT3 (right) right angle lights

BT3 (right) and BT2 (left)

The BT2 gives light box smoke-cutting performance in a right angle light body

BT2 beam aimed at ceiling

Here’s the gist: FoxFury is releasing a new light at FDIC 2012 at 1:23 P.M. EDT on Thursday, April 19th. FDIC is a REALLY BIG yearly firefighting show in Indianapolis. This product unveiling will take place in FoxFury’s booth #5314 (in the Indiana Convention Center). If you can’t make the show, be sure to check out our website and/or social media pages (links below) on Thursday, April 19th for details…once they’re announced. We’ll also issue a news release on Friday April 20 with the official news.

FoxFury’s Twitter Page
FoxFury’s Facebook Page

We’ve put a lot of hard work into this new light and don’t want to spoil the surprise. The only hint we’re giving (outside of the fact that it’s obviously a light) is that this item is bigger than a penny but smaller than a school bus.

FoxFury will have several of its best selling products (and by that we mean lights) there along with a breakthrough product that we’ll be unveiling later this month. You want a hint? It’s an LED light:) That’s all we’re saying for now.

If you’re in the area (or know someone that it is), please be sure to stop by.

A few months ago, we mentioned that we created 200 special flashlights. Those lights have now officially arrived and are ready to ship out. What makes these special? These are custom limited edition CheckMate JB flashlights with a gunmetal gray finished. The JB stands for John Bianchi, whom we partnered with on this project.

John Bianchi was a soldier, a police officer, a competitive shooter and, of course, the world’s foremost holster maker. While most know John as pioneer of leather holsters and gun belts, he has also revolutionized gun carry methods and gun performance.

OK…back to what makes this light special. This CheckMate JB set features a serialized CheckMate with John’s signature. It also comes with a leather holster designed specifically by John for this project. Holsters are available in either black or tan. Only 200 of these lights and holsters have been made and each comes with a certificate of authenticity.

If interested, be sure to order one today. Act now as these are expected to get snatched up quickly.

April is going to be a busy trade show month for us….and we’re excited about that. Our first stop is St. Louis, Missouri for the NRA Annual Meetings and Exhibits. The show dates are April 13-15. We’ll be in Booth #402.

If you’re attending the show, please come by the booth and say hi to Mario, Maria and Tim. While there, check out our flashlights including the limited edition CheckMate JB. JB stands for John Bianchi (the legendary holster maker). We’ll also have an array of LED headlamps along with our waterproof AWL pistol lights and Nomad portable scene lights.

This will be the first time we’ve ever been to the BIG NRA show. The only NRA show we’ve done prior to this one was the NRA Police Shooting Championships in Albuquerque this past September…we exhibited at that event and were a sponsor.

Have a great weekend and we hope to see you at the show. For our NRA Show Press Release, click here.

These were shot in a pitch black room in Wisconsin. The Rook MD1 flashlight is the only light used in this shoot. The pictures below with the dotted lines were done with the strobe.

Jordan with a giant light halo

Fantastic light effects with a flashlight

Jon shining the MD1 flashlight into the camera

Jordan with his Iron Man impression

On Tuesday of last week, Vegas had unusually strong wind gusts of up to 70 mph. Here is a picture of the Nomad when the wind was probably somewhere in the 30 to 50 mph range. Antonio deployed the Nomad in order to take these pictures. The wind did not cause the light to wobble or fall. Below are pics of the Nomad as both an area light and spotlight.

The Nomad set up as an area light (diffuser lens attached) outside the Rio Convention Center. The Las Vegas Strip is in the background.

Nomad deployed as spotlight (diffuser lens detached) with the Las Vegas Strip in the background.

Nomad deployed as a spotlight. The light is aimed at a a wall near an entrance to the Rio Convention Center.

Nomad as a spotlight illuminating the exterior wall of the Rio Convention Center. The light is at full intensity (4000 lumen)

On Wednesday, Antonio took some pics of the Nomad at one of the Rio parking garages. These were shot on the top floor. Parts of the lot were well lit but some areas had little light.

The Nomad at the top floor of the Rio Hotel Parking Garage

Nomad Spotlight atop the Rio Parking Garage

Nomad area light illuminating our truck in the Rio parking garage

The pics above show the Nomad in different places but none of these areas was truly pitch black. The only pitch black place Antonio could find was his hotel room with the lights off. The video below is of Antonio demonstrating the Nomad in his room. He closed the curtains and turned off the lights to replicate blackout conditions (ie. power failure). You can see how well the Nomad illuminates this room as both an area light and spotlight.

And now for the fun stuff. Most of the pics below (including the pictures of Penn & Teller) were taken at Rio Hotel.

An extremely heavy (for a necklace) Gator necklace at the Rio gift shop. These are plastic gator heads with Carnivale hats. Pretty sweet...in a very odd and unusual way.

Antonio got a chance to meet Penn Jilette from Penn & Teller after their show. He's an immensely talented magician and a very good bassist too.

Antonio with Teller from Penn & Teller. Teller does speak when not on stage. He and Penn are very nice guys and wonderful illusionists.

Nomad 4000 next to a space ship and aliens outside the Alien Fresh Jerky store in Baker, CA.

I had the chance to exhibit at the CGA (Common Ground Alliance) Excavation Safety Expo last week (March 6-8). The show was held at the Rio All-Suites Hotel in Las Vegas. It’s a trade show geared towards digging, drilling, excavation and damage prevention. Safety is a REALLY big deal at this show. Much of this work potentially takes place around hazardous areas / gases  intrinsically safe equipment (lights included) is required.

It was a memorable trip indeed in many respects. First off, there were wind gusts of 50 to 70 mph in Vegas on Tuesday…not exactly the best thing when trying to set up a booth. The wind also suspended some outdoor evening activities.

The Tuesday reception was great. Several vendors at the show brought along entertainment and the 800 attendees had a great time. There was also plenty of food. Kudos to the catering staff at the Rio for their incredible professionalism and inventive food. I’ve never seen items like “Towered Chile Lime Chicken on Corn Cakes” at other shows I’ve done.

There was a full line-up of classes on Wednesday and Thursday. It sounds like attendees were able to select the classes that best fit their needs. Some speakers (including  PHMSA Administrator Cynthia Quarterman and Paul Jr. of Discovery Channel’s American Chopper) spoke on the BIG stage. This was also the area where attendees enjoyed lunch while networking.

Several exhibitors (FoxFury included) also participated in the Vendor Drawing on Wednesday night. Travis Bandy (pictured here) of British Petroleum (BP) won our drawing and received a Command 20 Tasker and a Scout Tasker-Fire light. Congrats again Travis!

PelicanCorp, a fine Australian company who provides niche software and to utilities, gave away the grand prize of the evening: a trip to Australia. They drew a name but that person sadly wasn’t present. The several hundred people in the room at that time felt so bad for that person….for a few seconds. Then they redrew and everyone was happy again. One very happy winner had their day made.

FoxFury had the Nomad area light along with some Rook flashlights and LED headlamps and hard hat lights (including some intrinsically safe Performance Series models). I had a lot of fun meeting with several of the attendees. I learned a great deal about how lights are used in this specific application. We gained an even better understanding of the lighting needs of this industry thanks to the feedback received.

I was able to walk the show for a bit and saw some interesting things including the custom motorcycle below by Paul Jr. (of Paul Jr. Designs). Paul (Teutul) Jr. was at the show for a little while posing for pictures with attendees next to a gorgeous motorcycle he made for 811. Please check out the photos and captions below.

Custom 811 Bike by Paul Jr. Designs. 811 is a really cool resource that I had no idea about. You can 811 to get information about what's below BEFORE you dig.

Front view of this custom motorcycle made by Paul Jr.

Here's Paul Jr. (center) with his wife Rachael and a CGA attendee

Funniest sign at the show and my favorite trespassing sign of all time. This sign was at the Voss Signs booth.

Customizable aluminum markers by Berntsen. One of the Rio staff jokingly said "Those look like coins for the Jolly Green Giant."

Entrance to the CGA Excavation Safety Expo

Inside the CGA Expo Hall. It was quite busy at times.

Cheers,
Antonio Cugini

Happy Leap Day! Last week we mentioned two evening parties we attended during Firehouse World in San Diego. Today we’ll quickly discuss the show itself. The Firehouse World Exhibit Hall took place Feb 21-23. The show attracts over 7,500 attendees making it the largest fire event here on the West Coast.

FoxFury was one of the 280 exhibitors on hand and we were set up in booth 1945. Back in 2005 (our first Firehouse World show), all we had was LED fire helmet lights. Our product line has grown since then and we displayed helmet lights, flashlights, right angle lights and portable scene lights at the show

Our wider range of fire lights allows us to fill more general and niche lighting Fire, Rescue and EMS needs. They’ve also attracted more booth visitors who have taught us a great deal about the lighting needs of first responders.

Customer feedback over the years has helped us fine tune our fire headlamps. We displayed our Command, Performance and Discover Series Fire helmet lights at the show. The 100 torch lumen Discover Series is the newest and most powerful of the three.

This was the first big fire show where we’ve been able to show our Rook MD1 and CheckMate flashlights. These CREE white LED flashlights are compact, powerful and have focused beams. They are surprisingly bright and enable firefighters to light up nearby and far away areas.

The Nomad 4000 was very well received.  It’s a versatile scene light that firefighters can use as either an area light or spotlight. This portable, rechargeable Nomad can be used for general or niche tasks including medical triage, disaster recovery, task lighting and command post lighting (incident command).

The beauty of the cordless Nomad is that it can  quickly give focused or flood lighting. Attaching the diffuser lens gives area lighting while detaching it gives focused light. An added bonus is that it illuminates large areas without the need of cords or loud, heavy, pollution-creating generators.

We’ll focus the rest of this post on some of the interesting things we saw at the show. First off, we received an unexpected visit from World Tour Snoopy. We had no idea such a Snoopy  existed but apparently this little guy travels the world. He was in Tateyama, Chiba Japan the previous week but came to San Diego to take part in Firehouse World and Mardi Gras. Snoopy is modeling our Discover fire helmet light in the picture to the right.

Like all great fire shows, there are plenty of seriously sweet fire trucks. Firefighters are very proud of their fire trucks and the trucks (chrome and all) are unbelievably shiny and immaculate when they are on display. Since this show was in Southern California, it was mostly local fire trucks on display.

The two pictures to the right are the side/back and front view of the Oceanside (CA) FD 100′ Tiller truck. This tiller ladder truck is called Ladder 7 and features a 100 ft tall ladder that can access upper stories of taller buildings.

This was the first tiller with a PUC (Pierce Ultimate Configuration). Pierce delivered this rig in November of last year. Another neat feature (common to tiller ladder trucks) is that it has two steering wheels and two drivers (one in the front and one in the back). This long vehicle is especially good at getting into position quickly and in going around corners.

Here is a picture of a shiny Riverside County (RVC) FD wildland fire truck. The larger wheels on this wildland (AKA brush) truck enables it to be driven effectively off-road and over rough terrain so that wildland firefighters can reach the location of the fire. California is no stranger to wildfires so vehicles like this one are unbelievably valuable and help save people and property. 

Finally, the picture to the right is of a vintage Reno (NV) Engine 1 FD truck with a dalmatian…for you dog lovers. We didn’t catch the dog’s name but it sure captured a lot of attention at the show.

Hope you enjoyed this blog post. We’ll have more to share here in early March.

As we alluded to yesterday, we were invited to a party here in San Diego this past Tuesday night (AKA Mardi Gras). This party was unlike any other we had ever attended….because it was held aboard an aircraft carrier.

The event was a benefit held after the opening day of the Firehouse World Exhibit Floor. It was officially called the First Annual Fire Service Appreciation Event and was held aboard the USS Midway, which is now a museum and popular attraction here in San Diego. The Midway was the longest-serving Navy aircraft carrier of the 20th century

Proceeds from the event went to to the San Diego County Burn Institute. The event was open to Firehouse World attendees. FoxFury exhibited at Firehouse World and went to the USS Midway after the show floor had closed for the evening.

MES California invited FoxFury to help sponsor this event….and we accepted. Phil and Nick from FoxFury brought our portable Nomad 4000 area lights to help light this special night. It’s a good thing they did because parts of this ship were REALLY dark. The museum is typically only open during the day (from 10 am to 5 pm daily). It is only open at night for special events like this one.

We set up two Nomad light near the food area, which allowed guests to better see the BBQ chicken, brisket and sides available to them. There were ceiling lights in this main area but this room was still quite dim…except for the areas where the Nomad spotlight beams were shining.

There were also a few portable bars set up around the museum. One especially cool one was outside on the Midway deck and offered a spectacular view of Seaport Village and other parts of San Diego. This scenic outdoor deck was extremely dark. The Nomad was the only light source in the area and allowed the bartenders to pour their potions.

Back inside the main floor, the San Diego Burn Institute was airing a slideshow where they shared photos and news from events they’ve participated in over the past year. There were also a custom miniature fire vehicle that was serving beer. We set up the Nomad (with the diffuser lens detached) nearby to help spotlight the beer taps.

There was also a vintage plane near the end of this large hall. This area essentially had no lighting and the plane was very hard to see. We set up a Nomad (with the diffuser lens attached) near the plane to provide flood lighting so that this photo could be taken. You can tell from the picture at the right that the Nomad would be of value when maintaining any type of fire or military apparatus or equipment in a large garage in a fire station or at a hangar.

Phil and Nick also brought along our  Rook CheckMate LED flashlight. They shot a very brief video that shows the varying frequency pattern of our turbo-strobe. The backdrop of the video was an empty F-14 Tomcat on the Midway’s deck.

Phil and Nick had a lot of fun and made it a point to explore the museum and see all the planes and military history that the Midway had to offer. They were impressed by the museum along with the number of people that came out to support the San Diego County Burn Institute. Thanks to MES Fire for the invitation and opportunity to bring our Nomad lights around to light up some of the evening’s key attractions.

We’ve included a few more pictures below. Have a great weekend and we’ll tell you more about Firehouse World next week.

Here is the Nomad on the USS Midway deck at Dusk

Nick in the cockpit pilot's seat of a what we believe was a Saber jet