This is not a conversation about guns. This is a conversation about items that have withstood abuse that are near unbreakable.
Some items I have heard referenced as AK47 of:
Gerber MP600: It’s a multi tool
Old Thinkpad Laptops
Mag lights
Toyota Hilux
Akai 4000ds Reel to Reel tape player. So many are still working, built like a tank. They’re super cheap on the used market.
Bodum French Press
Dynavap DHV
Buffalo Bicycles
Vitamix Blender
I can’t find “DHV”, I guess that’s an old model? What would you recommend for something modern that “just works”?
DHV = dry herb vape.
All the dynavaps share the same rip so pick any one you like. I just use the basic stainless one.
If I were to get a new one today I would likely get the TinyMight v2. However I cannot speak for its reliability as I don’t have one.
Damn that’s a pricy toy! Anything more entry level but still good? I think I might be down for a manual one with a torch.
Also, this is an old meme, and a bit outdated for our times, but no one has mentioned it so ill do it. The Nokia 3310. Truly the AK-47 of phones.
I posted the same thing before scrolling down to this comment. I had one of those things and it lasted like 16 years.
Shure SM58/57
SM57s still can get roughed up pretty bad with the plastic covering on the front of the mic (especially if miking a snare drum with a less than precise drummer). SM58 will survive a nuclear war.
Knit wool sweaters. You can get them for cheap at thrift stores, they are the brick shithouses of clothing. Warm as hell even when wet, safe around camp fires, and you look fly
If you store them with moth repellent.
I feel like I’m being baited to mention Nokia
I’m seriously considering buying a Nokia smart phone to use with LineageOS. I’m a big fan of shitty android phones anyway.
Nokia of now is not the Nokia of yesteryear. Their new phones are just cheap Android smartphones.
Just be aware their newer phones are hot shit. It’s the older phones that got the reputation for durability.
a cheap microsoft phone isn’t a nokia
Who said anything about Microsoft
LineageOS wouldn’t run on a real nokia unless you’re talking about the nokia branded microsoft phones and they’re more like a 3d printed gun than an AK-47.
I think the argument still is, that those aren’t „real“ Nokias. At the very least they’re not the same Nokia that built the 3310, as that Nokia isn’t in the consumer electronics market anymore.
Pretty sure they’re referring to the sale of Nokia’s phone division to Microsoft in the mid-2010s. It’s since been bought back and is in the process of renaming to HMD.
Didn’t it get resold again to a Chinese firm? Please tell me they’re independent again.
Sort of. HMD licenses the Nokia name from the broader Nokia business and kept a lot of the old c-suite. Manufacturing is owned by a subsidiary of Foxconn.
ok, that’s cool. and their stance on repair ability means if they make a reasonably sized smart phone before I need a new one I’ll be getting one, and one of the stupid tablet sized ones anyway if not.
if they still ran on the phone network maybe
Starrett tools. All of them. I’ve put them through Hell and back.
Viking Fishing Kayaks. Made in New Zealand and absolutely bulletproof.
Pre-2010 Toyota Corolla
Camry too.
Zippo Lighters.
If you use it often, sure. If you don’t smoke and just occasionally need to light fires, get a butane conversion. It’s a replacement for the wick, which pops into the Zippo shell. It doesn’t evaporate over time since it’s sealed.
Never understood these. Old fluid, stink, durable but for a lighter I just don’t get the price and love. Non smoker.
I put the electric insert in one of mine, charged it in 2021… still works!
Now the electrics are good. I’m a believer there. Just not the old school kind as much when lighters are so abundant. Only issue with electric is the flame is often needed for other non smoking purposes and electrics have no flame.
Gotta be the KitchenAid mixers no? Especially the older ones. I have a friend that has one from his grandma that’s over 50 years old. If anything breaks, it’s usually a gear or something simple to fix, and the parts are easy to buy and generally cheap.
The mixers are not exactly cheap though… and their other stuff is now mostly made from plastic (like the food processors for example)
I’ve managed to get a hold of 3 of the old ones through garage or estate sales, but yeah the ones that are brand new have plastic parts in them which drives me crazy. But you can at least 3d print what you’re missing
The P4$.FL 44 BF.A OBVIOUSLY guys why has no one mentioned it? Jesus Christ it’s like you want them to break!
^The comments in this thread
Mag lights
these thingymabobs are cool because they’re strong. however, their main drawback comes from the fact that they’re usually pretty weak as lightsources because being a flashlight was secondary for them. but, with a little LED chip upgrade they can gain a second wind as lights, nothing as fancy and eye-burning as some of the gizmo gadgets the flashlight guys on reddit have, but overall competent for an aluminum pipe
Quartz watches: Casio F-91w
Mechanical watches: Seiko 5+1 for the Seiko 5s. Love me a SNZG07J1
I’ve been using the Casio W800 series (W800-H currently) for the past 12+ years. This is my 3rd watch, only because I simply lost the first two. However, it’s about the 6th strap, so it’s like the AK’s strap.
I have an old clock in my cottage. I got it years ago from a previous cottage I renovated. When I found it, the glass had broken so I just treated it as a piece of junk. I renovated that first cottage over a winter and left the clock there to freeze. I put in an AA battery and forgot about it. It kept time great and didn’t lose time … for about two years on the same battery!
The dammed thing outlasted every other wall clock I owned. So I kept it, removed the broken glass and just left it like that.
After about 15 years I still have it in my cottage and it freezes and thaws with the northern Canadian weather. And I’ve only ever changed the battery with the same basic energizer alkaline battery maybe four times!
I’ve never found a comparable clock anywhere. Every new clock I’ve ever bought either fail prematurely or I am constantly changing batteries every two or three months.
So far I’ve junked about a dozen new clocks because they stopped working while this old cottage clock just keeps ticking reliably.
I’m never getting rid of my cottage clock.
Any seiko really
The 1997 Toyota Camry.
And the 1992 chev cavalier. Indestructible.
You must live somwhere they don’t salt the roads.
