From the reads on the data sheet on a higher end NTE product [CMOS 555] these units boast alot of output current and up to 66% of supply Voltage [or a lesser regulated amount]...
  I'm no the data sheet reading champion ..by any means, but it would seem possible to operate an incandescent [flashlight etc] bulb with a 555 chip.
  I tried out a Circuit Snippets device I'd built a while back that uses a LDR, coupling the LDR to the blinking LED ckt. ... the efkt I think was noticable.
  Measureing MY LDR's seems to be very difficule in that I can't seem to get readings consistant enough [from light to dark readings] to post about
Lowest reading I can get one minute is ~7k5 the next it's ~350k.
  whats a good cell to mess around and test with and what [typically] does it take to get usable efkt from an LDR ..ckt wise.. is there a LDR 'page' to look at?

Couldn't you get a datasheet from the cell's manufacturer? :?