Thanks!

Thanks for all responses and discussion!

John Wilder wrote:newish generation for sure given the nylon trigger sheath, but ive never seen the colored metal on the trigger itself before. aliens usually have a date stamp on the bottom of the trigger.

Thanks for the reply. These have plastic triggers(2 black, 1 blue), and no date. Still looking...

John is incorrect. They are rather old and in amazing condition for their age.

I don't know how old they are. When I worked there in 2000, once in a while we'd see these come in for repairs and they were considered old then. How old?

My oldest alien is about 97' and it's got the aluminum trigger. These are older than that.

The originals that may not have even been for sale came out around the early to mid 80's. They did not have the trigger we all know and love. They were essentially Helium Friends. The trigger design came about some time after that, I don't actually know when.

If I had to guess, I'd say early 90's but I don't know. Is there a date stamp or any numbers on the trigger?

John, you can see in the clear Alien in the first photo that this is the old typical nylon tube over the metal sheath. Not the complete nylon sheath. The ones by the late 90's had "Alien" printed on the sheath. These predate that.

nicelegs wrote:John is incorrect. They are rather old and in amazing condition for their age. I don't know how old they are. When I worked there in 2000, once in a while we'd see these come in for repairs and they were considered old then. How old? My oldest alien is about 97' and it's got the aluminum trigger. These are older than that. The originals that may not have even been for sale came out around the early to mid 80's. They did not have the trigger we all know and love. They were essentially Helium Friends. The trigger design came about some time after that, I don't actually know when. If I had to guess, I'd say early 90's but I don't know. Is there a date stamp or any numbers on the trigger?

Only stamp is on the nicopress that creates the thumb loop; 'CCH'*

Thanks again! It's like these were Eurosealed for 20 years...

*Colorado Custom Hardware

nicelegs wrote:They are rather old and in amazing condition for their age.

Yup, old ones. I've got a couple with plastic trigger bars down in the pile o'Aliens, all of which IIRC were dated by their original owners as early 1990's vintage. I seem to recall the aluminum trigger bars came about mid-90's and date stamping/logo a bit after that. Would have to go digging through the pile to tell for sure, but long story short the plastic was early on.

These are from 91-92 time frame. The OP's cams are better finished (cam lightening holes, better chamfer on lobesindividual trigger wires, overall length is more consistent...) so it would seem they are a later vintage. Maybe?

91-92 vintage.

91-92 vintage

Jason Todd wrote:These are from 91-92 time frame. The OP's cams are better finished (cam lightening holes, better chamfer on lobesindividual trigger wires, overall length is more consistent...) so it would seem they are a later vintage. Maybe?

Actually, the lightening holes are only on the two cams closest to the camera which appear larger than any of the ones you show while the one in the back which looks about the size of your largest one does not have holes in the cam lobes. Even the newest Aliens have never had holes in the smaller (red and down) sizes that I know of. Looking at my Aliens, the older ones, without "alien" printed on the nylon cover have just 2 wires, each going to opposite cam lobes as do the ones that have "alien" printed on the nylon cover. So it is possible that they were produced with 4 wires early on and they switched to 2 later. FWIW the new Aliens, made by Fixe, have 4 individual wires.

Mine were bought in the mid and late '90's.

Imagine that I had a garage shop where I made lamps and clocks to sell on ebay. My designs would be about the same, but every one would be different. The designs would change based on what materials I could source, ideas I'd have to waste less, or a certain wholesaler changed their product. CCH was no different.

Basically, Dave went through a ton of different design ideas and instead of prototyping them, he shipped them and sold them. Especially early on. This means that in the same year, you could end up with drastically different cams in the same size.

FWIW, I've only ever seen the Orange, Purple, and Clear set as in the first pic. They've done it that way since at least the late 90's. Maybe forever, I don't know.

Here is another confusing thing. They were fucking amazing at doing repairs. And I mean repair, they did not replace cams, they fixed it.

I frequently would see manky old cams that were not functional come in. For $8 they would get new lobes, new axle, new springs, and rewired. Or whatever part of that piece your cam needed. So it's entirely possible that you could have a cable and trigger from 1989 with lobes and springs from 2003.

Don't forget about the second C. It meant custom. One guy even commissioned a set of steel lobed aliens because he wore the AL ones out too fast when aiding. Without much comment to how poorly these would have performed, suffice it to say that he got what he ordered. If stuff like that ever got resold, it would be totally untraceable.

What about the fist and OW size cams Dave made to see if he could? Or when he made ice screws because he had some steel stock sitting around and wondered if he could program his machines to do it?

Without a date stamp, the best info I can really provide is that yes, I'd whip on them.

FWIW, your thumb loops are not split or torn. That is extremely rare in the older rubbery style loop. To keep them that way, my best guess would be to have double non-extentable slings sewn on, in exactly the same way that C4's are slung. Clipping a caribiner to them and whipping is why they got holes. Sure it doesn't weaken them but you should keep those things pretty.