Rare Old Ronson Ronii Refillable Red Flamagas Mini Clipper Lighter

Meet the rarest lighter in the world: the eye-catching red, small size, RONII Refillable / Reusable cigarette lighter, “Made In Spain” (obviously made by FLAMAGAS / Clipper, Barcelona, but undocumented) for American company Ronson ca. 1995. Provenance: Chase Renwick, Kingston, IL, USA.

I like to call this Ronson-Clipper “The Ripper”. The silver and red color scheme is like you see on Mid-century / vintage flashlights, Thermos bottles, and Coleman lanterns. This aesthetic makes me think of the great outdoors and going camping! Probably the most valuable collectors' lighters for the outdoorsman are hand-painted Town and Country Zippos (1949). Speaking of art, the designer behind this iconic Clipper lighter shape / form (1970) was Enric Sarda of Barcelona.

This Ronson-Clipper is approximately if not the same size as the small Clipper (mini, micro, or classic pocket). I don’t have one here to compare it to, but I have regular size Clippers and this Ronson is noticeably smaller. It’s 2 1/2 inches tall, not counting the spark wheel. With the wheel, it’s more like 2 5/8 inches tall. A regular size Clipper is more like 3 inches tall.

The flint rod and wheel comes out / goes in (standard flints go into the bottom of that part). I tested that twice. This lighter sparks up. There’s no butane in it, probably not for 25+ years, so there’s no flame. I’m not filling it because I need it to be able to ship on an airplane. Also, I think it ideally needs some proper cleaning first.

From what I’m able to determine, the RONII offered here must have been one of the first ever Clipper minis, which are technically called “Clipper Classic Pocket”. The Clipper Classic Pocket lighter was “born” in 1995, the exact year that Ronson introduced the RONII. I don’t think the refillable RONII was in production for very long. My guess is that it didn’t sell well and was only around for a year or so.

In 2010, Zippo acquired Ronson. New Zippos, Ronsons, and Clippers are all under 10.99 (Zippo at Walmart, Ronson at True Value hardware, Clipper at smoke shops). If you’re not a collector and you just want a good lighter cheap, they’re all top choices. On eBay, you can buy replacement flint barrels for the mini Clipper inexpensively, by the way.

By 1974, Ronson had come out with the disposable RONII. They were made in Newark, Delaware. That was a Bic and Cricket competitor (disposable lighter market) and it looked different from the (future) refillable / reusable RONII. The Ronson Corp. marketed the refillable / reusable RONII as having “New Child Resistant and Adult Friendly Features”.

I’m unable to find any outright documentation of this, but I’m positive that Flamagas made the RONII refillable lighters for Ronson. They’re Clippers but with Ronson branding. The metal part at the top has etched into it: “Made In Spain”. On the bottom, there are various markings, including “FGS”. Maybe that stands for “FLAMAGAS” (the manufacturer).

The markings on the bottom are: “PAT PEND REGIST”, “43” (?), “RONSON”, “FGS”, AND “RONII”. I was able to read the tiny markings under a jeweler’s loupe. On the metal part at top: “MADE IN SPAIN” and “RONSON” along with a little “R” in a circle. On the red case: “RONII” (with little flame above the last “I”, “REFILLABLE”, and “RONSON”.

Online, I was able to see an example of old packaging for a RONII refillable. Ronson offered a 1 year warranty on the product. RONII refillable lighters came in blue, red, white and black. Apparently, the metal piece at the top was black, when sold in 24 pack boxes. I saw one (black color body), sold as a single unit but with fuel and flints in bubble packaging or blister pack, with that metal piece being a gold color (from what I can tell).

I’ve not been able to find another RONII like this example, with the red case / body and silver color metal piece at the top. I only have this one RONII and I doubt I’ll ever come across another one. ~Chris Smith, NJ, USA