It might a bit late, but congrats!!
I still remember the excitement when I made my first Joule Thief circuit.

 

I see! Thanks for taking the time to help me out this evening.

In the early days, that was pretty much the circuit for a GO/NO-GO transistor tester.

All you need is a cross-linked 2-pole changeover switch so you can reverse the battery at the flick of a switch.

AFAICR: they didn't have LEDs back then, the usual scheme used the tapped primary of an audio output transformer - if the oscillation was too high to hear, just span a capacitor across the primary.

 

It might a bit late, but congrats!!
I still remember the excitement when I made my first Joule Thief circuit.

Thanks Bug!!!