Lighters to collect that were used in movies

[VonMagnum]

The Usual Suspects gold lighter
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Dunhill unique or Colibri old boy, pipe or standard?


Dunhill
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Colibri
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Maybe IM Corona?
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Any thoughts?

It's definitely not a regular Dunhill Unique as it's clearly a pipe lighter (sideways flame) and it's definitely wider than my Tsubota Perl XL pipe lighter, closer to a full size gas Unique or Corona as you correctly show above. IM Coronas are pretty popular pipe lighters, but Colibri have been used in movies before too so it's hard to say from that distance (need more clarity on lift arm style). Dunhill has pipe versions of the Unique as well and they all look very similar, especially from a distance. There's also Peterson that looks similar as well as Xikar's Pipeline and some others plus plenty of Chinese made knockoffs.

Here's a few of mine: (Xikar, Dunhill Unique, Tsubota Perl)

 

[VonMagnum]

I finally got around to finish watching Dark Passage (1947) and I noticed there was a Ronson Touch Tip lighter in the movie I didn't notice before (been a few years since I watched it and started collecting these things). I've never seen the cigarette case/box/tray she's using before (transparent glass?), but it might be a separate tray with a touch tip added to it.

Agnes Moorehead offering Bogey a smoke (touch tip lighter is on the back of the tray):

Bogart lighting his cigarette with the touch tip wand (He ought to be familiar with it as he had a touch tip on his desk in The Maltese Falcon and Mary Astor uses one in her apartment as well):

I actually own three Touch Tip lighters.

1940s Ronson Octet Tortoise Shell Color (test light pictured here). I bought this one to actually use. It's in near mint condition:

1930s Ronson Octet Black (WWII wedding gift to Walter K. Whigham from the British Electric Board). It was never used as far as I can tell (not a mark on it in that regard and the original wand/wick is unlit) and signed by several people. Walter himself is famous for having a Guinness record breaking steam locomotive named after him. I have no idea how I came to own his wedding gift lighter.... OK. It was on eBay. I bought it and reasonable too because people hate monogrammed lighters.)

Sam Spade's 1936 Ronson Touch Tip lighter with watch from The Maltese Falcon in near mint condition:

 

[VonMagnum]

IMCO Solo Deluxe Squeeze lighter:

 

[Bishop6]

I bought two cheap Ronson Queen Anne table lighters as the snuffers are compatible with the Sterling Silver Adonis in the post above and I thought if the gear thing didn't work, I could at least get it working by changing the snuffer out. I bought two different style compatible snuffer models. Since I didn't need them, I went ahead and repaired them (both had stuck flints and one gear broke in two when I took it apart so I used the 2nd junk lighter gear to repair it). I cleaned them up and both work great (not bad for $5/7 lighters). They looked terrible, but cleaned up pretty well, IMO and now light on the first press:

Number 1:

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Number 2:

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Tyrell has a Queen Anne in Blade Runner.

 

[VonMagnum]

Tyrell has a Queen Anne in Blade Runner.

Do you know which scene? I haven't been able to locate it.

 

[Bishop6]

Do you know which scene? I haven't been able to locate it.

Best image I can find at the moment. It’s there on his table.

 

[VonMagnum]

I just obtained a Ronson Rondelight (1929) in excellent condition. These always reminded me of either a Christmas tree ornament or to some extent, the thermal detonators from Star Wars (e.g. ROTJ). It's round on the bottom so I set it in a shot glass to stabilize it in the China Cabinet.

This lighter may have been used in more movies, but it was definitely in the Edward G. Robinson / Humphrey Bogart movie "The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse" (1938) as shown here:

 

[VonMagnum]

IMCO 1920 "Trench Lighter" in near mint condition. It needed a new wick (95% gone) and cotton packing (looked 100 years old) and a flint, but the brass is in fantastic shape for its age. Sure enough, works like a charm after an hour's work with the wick/packing (had to be pulled out with tweezers and shoved through from the top with a drill bit when it wouldn't come out any further and kept ripping apart). Like new again.

 

[VonMagnum]

It seems the IMCO Streamline was used in The Skeleton Key (2005) (screenshot added to entry on previous page), but shown here too:

Mine:

 

[VonMagnum]

I did a closeup exam of Marion's Lighter from Raiders of the Lost Ark to see whether it was possible to tell if it was truly the IMCO 6700 (1950+ lighter) or the correct IMCO 4700 lighter that started to become available in 1936 when the movie is supposed to take place. I didn't think it was possible to tell the way she's gripping it, but since I have both lighters, I realized the 4700 has only an indentation on the side facing the screen in the movie, while the 6700 has a round rivet. I think the footage shows it to be a 6700 for certain (I see a round rivet shape just under her finger like the 6700 has, not a flat slit like the 4700 has):

You can see the round rivet even in Uta no Prince-sama anime....

 

[VonMagnum]

IMCO "Dandy" lighter. On my quest to collect a lighter from every model IMCO, I hadn't even heard of this one up until recently. This one seems to go for several hundred online for some reason. It appears to be more rare. I think it was only made for a year or two. I picked this one up for under $100 from Portugal, though. It looks very similar to my Dunhill Trench lighter, but the tank is removable, similar to an IMCO 4700, but without the fueling points at the top (which probably decreases evaporation. The manual suggests just filling the tube halfway (left part) and inserting the wick/lighter part into it (middle part) for quick refueling. The wick/cotton is simplicity to replace, however just like the 4700 (probably the easiest of all lighters ever made).

What seemed like a great deal perhaps wasn't. The lighter striker mechanism doesn't work too well on this one. I think it widens at the top slightly and so the flint doesn't sit flat against the wheel. Short of adding some shaped JB Weld to the top (solder would be rough to get the right shape without sanding it down with a fine point file), I'm not sure what can be done. I've seen some larger diameter speciality flints (tube seems oversized for regular flints) that might work better. I don't exactly use these lighters, but I like them to function. Other than some specks of rust, it certainly looked fine to the eye at a glance, but I can see the flint touching the spark wheel shift outward with pressure after one strike instead of sitting flat.

IMCO "Dandy" taken apart (tank, wick/cotton insert for tank and main body with wind guard, flint tube and top)

End Cap on tank (bit of corrosion):

Lighter Lit (with some difficulty):

 

[VonMagnum]

I was watching the movie Harper (1966) with Paul Newman, Robert Wagner and Lauren Bacall when I noticed a Ronson Crown Table Lighter (camera snapshot of streaming picture). It's hard to be certain whether it's the wick version or the butane "Varaflame" version in the movie from that angle (latter is slightly more round; former is more oval in shape, but same pattern. The button/snuffer is slightly different looking as well, but I can't tell from the angle it's shown. The butane versions will need servicing, if you can find the parts. The wick versions will last nearly forever with very little maintenance. Both are pretty cheap online. The wick one is easier to find, probably because many butane ones were thrown out when they stopped working. The butane version has an "arrow-like" snuffer. That one's snuffer looks round/rounded, but holding the body in my hand, it doesn't look that round where my hand cups it away from the snuffer, so it's a good possibility it's the butane version (Ronson switched to butane on most lighters starting in 1956 so if that were a new lighter, it would probably be butane at the time).

My Ronson Crown (wick) Lighter:

Butane version (I've got one on order):

 

[Rymo]

This thread is so great. There's something about lighters (and wrist watches) that has always intrigued me. They're objects designed for a single specific task, but there is still an infinite number of styles and designs of them. I love the engineering that's gone into all of the different designs.

 

[VonMagnum]

They're also kind of fun to repair. I get a nice feeling getting an old unloved lighter cleaned up and working again, especially when I get it for cheap.

Your dresser and China cabinet and other spaces start to fill up, though.... Fortunately, I have those Indy warehouse guys back there to move things around... .

 

[VonMagnum]

Well, this Waldorf roller lighter with a half cap looks similar to the Dunhill Broadboy MK2 Half-Cap (MK2 Full Cap was the Dr. No / Goldfinger lighter). In other words, from the half-cap side, it bears a fair resemblance and cost a song compared to a Dunhill Broadboy MK2 Full Cap, that I've never been able to acquire at a remotely reasonable price. In other words, in my movie display, it'll do for now. It works great, though. It's made in Switzerland.

I also picked up a 1953 Ronson Rondelight Queen Elizabeth / Prince Consort Phillip Coronation Lighter in mint condition for a pretty good price, figuring it will probably go up in value since her passing. It's a nice Rondelight besides. Now I just have to find a movie it was in.

 

[VonMagnum]

I got the Ronson Crown Butane lighter in today that matches the scene in Paul Newman's movie Harper (1966).

After a bit of cleanup and a pressure test, it seems to hold butane still. I'll have to wait and see for how long, but this how it looks (click for slide show):



Edit: Sense of scale compared to Ronson Crown Wick lighter (and Queen Anne, etc.):

 

[VonMagnum]

Now here's an interesting lighter. I just need to find a movie that it was in, but it seems almost made for a movie gag. In fact, I just watched a old movie the other day that had a similar looking snub nose mini-pistol that looked oddly similar. I should have written it down. It's an IMCO 6900 "Gunlite" lighter from around the mid 1950s (It says "Gunlite" on the bottom text on the handle if you can't read it in the picture). The mechanism is a sideways placed IMCO tank and a sideways snuffer on the end that caps the wick. The tank only fits in one way so an arrow on the back points up. There's a slide switch on the back that slides the whole mechanism forward (a little bit in appearance like a slide on a 9mm) so you can access the flint chamber. The whole mechanism is set off by the trigger and opens on the end and the flame comes up vertical since it's a wick lighter. I've got a later made 1960s gas version that shoots more like a flame thrower waiting to be picked up, but it might need some butane work.

This one was in great looking condition and unlike most has a nice multi-textured blue handle instead of flat colors. I've also got a 1950s era Soviet Union knockoff version coming that's similar I bought from someone in The Ukraine. Due to understandable shipping disruptions, I'm not sure when it will get here.

The wick wasn't lighting very well and since IMCOs are usually very easy to replace the wick and cotton packing, I went ahead and did so. The wick still had a few inches, but wasn't absorbing from the cotton very well, which also looked quite old. I put the new wick and cotton packing in and it lights to ridiculous flame heights now with a full tanks.

Click on pics for enlarged slideshow:

 

[joberg]

There was quite a few models of lighter guns. I remember that my Uncle had one; a small scale .45 and the flame was in the ejector port

 

[VonMagnum]

Here's the IMCO Gunlite G66-R circa 1973. It's a butane powered, albeit "plastic" version of the earlier IMCO 6900 Gunlite with a wick (see two posts above). I cleaned it up and out, got the internal spark wheel working somehow (The whole trigger was jammed pretty good and you can't just pull it apart as I think it's glued. I beat on it with a drill bit and a hammer until something gave in the tube). It's putting out a nice spark out the end with a new flint installed now.

But that leaves the old butane tube. It is a refillable version of the G11 tube. Ironically, that's an issue. With the G11, you can buy an AirSoft valve and just screw it in with an o-ring under the lip and half your problem is solved. Here, the one they already included doesn't appear to be removable in any obvious way and of course it's leaking.

I took apart the top valve and added two o-rings and it seems to function/work now as far as I can tell (won't hold gas long enough to experiment for more than a few seconds) as it was leaking like a sieve too. I watched the G11 videos on YouTube, but his G11 tube seemed to completely disintegrate and he added some plastic bits and a sponge from a BIC lighter. I just left the valve alone and put an o-ring around it and where it seals and that seemed to stop the leak and allow it to function. But with the fill valve leaking, there's not much else I can do. If the AirSoft valves are slightly larger in diameter, it might be possible to just drill around it or something and screw the new valve right into the plastic like on the G11.

I'm definitely not an expert on gas valves. The only other thing to do would be to look for a replacement already serviced or replaced. It's too bad. I wanted to see this one shoot a flame out the front.

 

[VonMagnum]

I bought another (backup) Ronson Adonis from South Africa that looks almost the same as the one in Dark Passage (1947) except for an extra rivet on the end and the curved part doesn't dip down quite as much. It's a newer non-Sterling Silver version that was made in Great Britain. It uses full size gears in the spark wheel so even if one had been broken, it would have been easy to find an extra from a junk lighter. The photo showed what looked like a barely used exterior with no monogram except there was a tiny little pin-style dent on it. It just arrived a few days ago, but unfortunately, the wick was almost down to the nub and wouldn't come up at all. I thought it was gone, but eventually I found it had a few inches left but wouldn't budge inside the lighter and wouldn't soak too well either way.

This is a much harder lighter to remove the cotton packing inside due to the small opening and shape of the lighter so I bought a new 16-tweezer set off Amazon with some rather strange shaped and long neck tweezers. I also find a drill bit works great for catching cotton on it down in (spin in reverse) and then pull it up and you can then get at it with stronger smaller tweezers. I eventually removed it all and got what was left of the old wick out. I just bought 16 new wire-wicks from IMCO and trimmed the wire down smaller so I could try and get it to turn inside.

It kept getting caught on the rather large flint tube in there (not a lot of space for it to reach behind it) so I trimmed the metal needle even more and bent curved it to try and get it to turn upon hitting metal. I eventually could see just the edge of the needle sticking out towards the fill opening and grabbed it with one of these new curved tweezers. From there, it was straight forward to pull through and cut off half the wick (use the other half for another lighter with the needle still attached) and repack with new cotton. That took care of the wick.

I also had to take apart the snuffer and drill through the stuck flint from the top of the tube as it wasn't coming out from the bottom. I cleaned the tube out with a wire brush and made sure a new flint would come all the way through (sometimes the tubes get compressed and a new flint can get stuck and you're in a world of hurt then with some designs, but it's much easier to fix from the top and Ronsons at least let you take the spark wheel out easily (with some practice taking the whole mechanism apart and putting it back together becomes like 2nd nature). I found some flints I was using weren't sparking great so I got a brand new one out that was longer and silver in color I got from France with a lighter purchase and holy crap, Batman! It now lights every single time. Other than that tiny dent, it's like brand new again.

DARK PASSAGE Lighter (Left) and my Sterling Silver identical model version (Right):

Newer version I fixed today (notice extra rivet on right side):
(Front)

(Back)

(Lit)