Re-run of the old school KC Hilites 46 / LE / 772
Answered
Hey KC. I'd love to see a small batch (50) of the old school KC Hilites 46 (with Amber lenses) produced. There's a small but stable group of people who look out for these but can never find them.
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Official comment
Hi, Thanks for making the request. It's funny that you mention this because our CEO was just talking about what a great light this was for the price.
Thank you for your contribution, get others to on this product and maybe we will consider running a limited edition!
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Yeah, they're going for huge money on ebay because of the rarity. Bring these back at a reasonable price and I'll buy some even though I have all I need.
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I'd love an email notification to get these if they do have a limited release!
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Yes please bring these back. I 2nd the notification email if they become available.
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Would Love to see these back.
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I need a new set of these lights! KC please bring some back and email me for a notification/ Thank you Alan for your interest.>>Todd
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Howdy Alan!
Thanks for these quick updates, I know you've probably got plenty going on at the office so all this support from you is greatly appreciated!
Though I can't speak for everyone, I can assume halogen would be preferred. However, an LED version that utilizes the classic housing and classic interchangeable lens (I believe there was a clear and a amber version) would be well received too as a modern run to tribute the classic light. Something to consider!
As those before me mentioned, a kickstarter or other crowdfunding for this might be viable. I've funded some successful projects that pulled in over 1.5 million in funding for 60$ items. I'm sure if KC included several reward tiers adding shirts, stickers, other promotional items, a single pair of lights, two pairs of lights, both lens options, and even a tour of the facility respectively it could garner a good following.
I'd promote any effort on both my club's facebook pages, which have a reach of 15K combined, as well as other social media outlets. The groups and forums are buzzing about this potential revival of the old light series, this thread here represents only a small portion of all those excited by this!
Best of luck, I'm on the edge of my seat about this!3 -
I'm also interested in a couple of these in amber. Please add me to an email list if you have started one. Thanks
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KC, I (as well as many others) am very interested in bringing back these lights. The original poster is correct in that there is a certain Jeep/Ford community (one that I am part of) that is constantly on the lookout for these lights. Finding these older lights is incredibly tasking and people have little to no luck and have to resort to finding a suitable (inferior) substitute that looks similar. A limited run would be nice. I have little to no doubt there are members of the community who would buy multiple sets just to have on hand in case of future need on another vehicle or to sell to a member down the road years from now who might miss out on this possible limited run. Depending on price I may very well get two maybe three sets. If this limited run happens, please e-mail me information. Thank you.
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There is not just a Jeep community but also an Explorer community that would be interested in purchasing at least one but in many cases more sets of these lights. Since posting the link to this discussion in a private Facebook group my notifications have been exploding for support in this run.
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Bryan and team,
First thank you so much for the huge support recently. We thought we lost you guys. We still have some of the reflector tooling but there are other housing and plastic cover tools that are damaged and we'd have to assess whether we could repair to get a run out.
With the overwhelming support, I will need a few weeks to assess the viability of the tools and at what volume/price we could resurrect this. We will do our best and see if it's a possibility. At the very least we could get the information and then consult the forum here.
Will post some status here again soon!
Alan Wang
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Team,
The majority of the tools for this product were destroyed 2 years ago :(. Between 1991 and 2005 we ran 571,679 pieces so the tooling for both the reflector and plastic hinged cover was already so deteriorated that we decided to trash them.
At this point, we would have to retool most of the light to resurrect it. This has been and will be on our list of things to review to see if we can bring it back at some point but currently it would be quite costly if we retooled just for a limited run of 500 pairs.
I assume most of the support would want this light to be a halogen version and as close to the original as possible vs. an LED version right?
I felt the bottom of my stomach sink when our team advised of the situation because I know how many of our customers would feel. What are your thoughts?
Thanks
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Team,
I just wanted to follow up here and say how blown away we are from the overwhelming support of the brand and product in discussion. At this time there is not a viable solution as the cost to create tooling would not be possible even with the current amount of sets proposed. We will research guidelines on the kickstarter or other similar platforms to see if we could raise the money.
The other route is for us to see if some existing tooling still exists that is a similarly sized light. That research is underway but may not yield a viable alternative, but we will try!
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Alan,
Thanks for the continuing updates. Every road has speed bumps, I'm sure there will be plenty in the way of this project but I feel comfortable saying that if that road can be traversed that everyone here and the silent majority will be ready to partake in the reward!
If similar tooling does exist, that would be an interesting route to take to see what modifications would be necessary to the design, or the tool, to achieve the end goal.
I've seen successful, established companies run kickstarters for new variants of existing products so i imagine that a kickstarter would be a very successful route if everything checks out on your end with the rules. I'd definitely forward the campaign to every social media outlet related to off road, vehicle enthusiasts, and even jurassic park that I have close connections with to maximize exposure.
Keep us all posted,
Thanks Again!2 -
I would love for these to be made again as well. I've got an old set, but one of the amber lenses is cracked, and I'd love to at least be able to buy a new lens!
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I'd take a handful
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I could name off a good 200 people who would be happy to get a hold of at least a pair of remade KC HiLite 46 / LE / 772s, but I'll spare you the mile long post that would be!
I am confident that revitalizing this line of product would have positive results and that a large number of Jeep, Explorer, Off-road, and especially Jurassic Park enthusiasts would hop on board.
Both Amber and Clear options would be utilized!1 -
If the lens is the same then I don't think it should matter if it's Halogen or LED.
It would be nice to have a kickstarter to show how many pre-orders there would be to help decide whether to bring them back into production.
I'm sure if it was a limited run of even 1000 there would be more orders vs knowing they will be produced for a few years.Personally, If I know it's going to stay in production for a few years then I will only buy 2 sets, but if it's a limited run then 3-4.
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@Nathan, are you willing to share the Sketchup files when you're done? Might be useful in the event that KC doesn't make these lights.
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I have a '93 YJ and would love a set of the 46 series in Amber. I have a couple friends that would definitely be interested as well. Please send me a notification if/when this goes forward. You'd make a lot of classic KC Fans very happy if you did a small run of these guys. Let me know ;)
Much appreciated!
-Barrett0 -
When running a new batch, I would love 2 pair of the 46 series in Amber for my 91 Wrangler!
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I own a 93 Jeep Sahara as well and my brother owns a 92 Explorer, and for the projects we our involved with require these particular lights in Amber and Clear. These lights are EXTREMELY hard to find! But neccesary for our builds. You guys would not be making a mistake at all by making a new run of these because our specific community would all buy them and it wouldn't be just one pair we would buy a lot.
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I live in Norway and I dont even have a car to put the lights on for the moment and i like to get a set of 3.
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Would love a set or two of 770 (clears)! Please do a run!
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Hello from France, I would love one pair of the 46 series in Amber for my 92 Wrangler ! And here I have friends interested too.
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Yep, definitely a want! Please remake the 46 series in amber!
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I'll buy 5 pair when they are released. I have a few Jeeps and I'll put the amber variety on each. I'm begging you, please remake these.
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I'd buy two pair right off the bat.
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I too would purchase a couple of sets of these lights (amber lens) for my '95 Jeep Wrangler. Please bring these lights back, even if for a limited run!
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