Part 1:This is a drawer that in hindsight, I have not highlighted before, probably because I do not view these as valuable members of the collection on the whole. With that said, I have noted that at one time, i could find a few of these locally, and these days, a few years later, nothing. Not sure if that is indicative of how cheap and unpopular such Leatherman Micra sized tools are, or that the market did a shift as it is wont to do. Either way, here are the contents of this drawer here...
Before we start, I would also like to state that on some of them, my camera did not focus properly, and I only noticed this after the fact. I did have to do a battery change, and my Canon G12 gets a little weird when the electricity goes below a certain point. Hence, on a few, there will only be one photo as opposed to the standard 2.
So onward into this little tour of the cheap seats section...
1. First up is this little advertiser. The company still exists, but you have to wonder as they did cheap out on the tool to emblazon their name on.
I love how someone thought it would be a grand idea to just shrink a full sized tool into the form factor of a pocket sized tool like the ubiquitous Micra and keep the folding tools as a 1:1 reduction. Thus, you get something like this, which on the whole, looks like a bigger tool than it is, but that ruler underneath is in centimeters. So, um...er...who want to complain about tiny tools on their MT?
2. This beauty is two toned, with a nice grippy textured gray paint. Unfortunately, it suffers from the dreaded LED light that takes up a whole handle. On something this small, I guess that isn't as much of a disadvantage. Not sure who made this or who even sold this one, but the overall build on this is of a higher standard to many of its breathren that reside in the same drawer.
3. Mountain Dew MDX advertiser. This one is very similar to the Gerber Eclipse in how the handles rotate around an axis point. In the closed position, the handles prevent the spring loaded pliers from opening. Mountain Dew MDX was produced from 2005 to 2007. Not only is this little MT laser etched, it also comes in a fetching little sheath.
4. Toolsmith. Same design as the Mountain Dew MDX listed above except the handles swing out instead of rotating.
5. Tara Jeans Bakery advertiser. Now this is back to the Mountain Dew MDX style, with the rotating handles. I had assumed it was for a jean company, but found out it was produced to advertise a bakery in Tennessee.
6. I got this as part of an eBay deal package. This is a Cabela's advertiser, and is a bit dreadful in that it has that LED taking up a whole handle design. That LED is very thick. Not as high of build quality as #2 in our list.
7. This plastic covered Nortel Networks advertiser is a bit different. Odd that they decided to make this little guy thicker than it needed to be for that plastic covering. I guess the advantage here is that the company can do some fancy graphics or whatever. However, it isn't all that endearing to put ones company names on such bottom tiered goods. Note that the key-chain attachment point also acts as a lock to keep the tool closed in a pocket. Several of these small tools have such design features.
8. Next up is a cute little MT that is also plastic covered, but isn't as thick as #7, which in my books is a whole lot better. Not sure what company used this tool as their advertiser, but this one is a bit unique, especially when looking at the pliers shape. Some of the tools are also more in line with grooming than anything else.
9.Durabuilt is a Canadian window and door company. They went all out by actually stamping their name into the steel, which is a nice touch. Of interest, are side facing tweezers.
10. For a while, this style of MT was abundant in my area, then the supplies have dried up several years ago. To add to the fun, these make nice little fishing MTs. They do look a lot like Leatherman Micras, but lack the tweezers cutout in the handles.
11. Another odd little pocket tool due to the fact that they shrunk all the tools, making a lot of them useless in the process. This one also features a locking keychain mechanism that locks the handles closed.
12. A Winchester advertiser. This MT suffers from very poor handles that dig in when the tool is opened. Mind you, Winchester is re-known for putting their names on all sorts of crap...this is no different.
13. Same tool, but it escaped the Winchester tagging.
14. ToolWorx advertiser that suppers from a very small tool set.
That concludes part 1...
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