Tippman goes Airsoft, What Do You Think?

[AGD]

AO,

Tippman jumping into airsoft, any comments?
http://www.tippmann.com/about_us/pressReleaseDetails.aspx?id=16

[bentothejam1n]

I never got into airsoft, mainly because the shots were rather inconsistant and I just don't like the fact that the bb's are that small. On the topic though, I'm interested to see if Tippmann can perform well in a Japanese controlled market. And I'm curious to see how much of their quality comes over from paintball

[Remington]

Wow! I never would have thought to hear Tippmann making airsoft guns! :wow: Good luck to them; it's definetly a Japanese dominated sport, but if they can make a quality product, they'll basically have control of the US market! :ninja:

[Cow hunter]

lol i laughed at the "the leading manufacturer of high-performance paintball products" part. oh wait..... its on the tippmann site, that may have something to do with it......

[marpat]

lol i laughed at the "the leading manufacturer of high-performance paintball products" part. oh wait..... its on the tippmann site, that may have something to do with it......


umm i would think that they are.. since almost every field has them as rentals...

but i hope that they can compete and bring the prices down. you should get into it tom.. heheh

but airsoft has it's advantages i.e. milsim, setup, no mess. but yes it's hard to tell who's hit because there isn't a "mark" and it's based on a huge honor system. but i think they'll do well if they can bring the same quality but at a lower price point.

my 2 cents

[personman]

Seems like the next logical step for them.. they have pretty much had control of the scenario market for a long time in paintball, and with airsoft they can do the same style stuff and make even more money..

It should be interesting, because all of the airsoft guns that I've encountered have been very cheaply made, and tippmanns have a reputation for being tanks.. maybe they'll raise the standards in airsoft?

[Munnin]

iv got mixed feelings about this. currently i own a TM Sig SG-552 SEALS thats about a year and a half old, unfortunetly i Rarely get to play. TM has long been known to have the best quality AEGs for everyones needs.
with tippman entering the market, i hope that they stay true to their time honnered quality control and customer service. i also hope that they produce accurate reproductions, no COLT M4 in the big tippman letters on the side of the gun.
i also feel that with such a large well trusted company from the paintball world entering the airsoft market, airsoft will see an influx of younger players that, yet again want to have the 'sickest gat'. and some people might not enjoy walking by a pro shop and seeing 12 guys with assault rifles shooting the breeze and twiddeling away with the gadgits on there new m4s. it just seems unsafe, moreso than the 4500psi bombs that people tote around in paintball. the standard capacity magazine for my SG552 has fake rounds in (the magazine is translucent), some police forces may feel the need to shoot with such a realistic looking threat (our ever viligent police around here have been known to overshoot when excited, example : guy had a gun in a parkinglot, fired at a police officer, missed, and was perferated by 6 men with AR-15s, iirc over 30 rounds missed the man and caused severe damage to the surrounding buildings, the man was shot ~25 times)

sorry kinda went off on a rant.

conclusion, im happy to get a US baced supplyer of quality airsoft supplys, but the game might loose some of its charm, its a game baced off of the honnor system, something wich paintball severely lacks now adays

[Cow hunter]

umm i would think that they are.. since EVERY field has them as rentals...

but i hope that they can compete and bring the prices down. you should get into it tom.. heheh

but airsoft has it's advantages i.e. milsim, setup, no mess. but yes it's hard to tell who's hit because there isn't a "mark" and it's based on a huge honor system. but i think they'll do well if they can bring the same quality but at a lower price point.

my 2 cents
please actually read and comprehend what someone says before you comment on it...... every field has them because theyre cheap, durable, and require little to no maitmence, does that in any way make them high performance?

but yes there are aspects of airsoft that paintball cannot due, but to my knoweledge there are no established "fields" per se where one can go and play strictly airsoft.
another thing is the fact that the gun you use makes a massive difference. a wal mart special can hardly shoot 20 ft, while people who invest a bit in their weapon can hit people 100 yards away. in paintball even a spyder can shoot as far as any other gun.
one more thing, some of these guns look a bit too real, i remember a couple people bieng shot because their airsoft pistol was confused as a real pistol, that doesnt happen very often in paintball does it?

[SpitFire1299]

Its upseting. Paintball is much better than airsoft. :)

[GT]

AO,

Tippman jumping into airsoft, any comments?
http://www.tippmann.com/about_us/pressReleaseDetails.aspx?id=16


Diversity in thier buisness model is always good. It's nice to have alternate product line to fuel, capitol, ones true intrests. :ninja:

[etjoyride]

Interesting. I play airsoft owning several GBB pistols(gas blow back) and having a friend with several classic army AEG's(which i use). I tihnk it will be great to see another player in the high end airsoft market. At the moment Tokyo Marui and Classic Army are the two leading manufacturers in high-end airsoft(although several companies such as G&G and ICS are working to get up there). Maybe tippmann willjoin in with the top two, and maybe just maybe they will make a more affordable quality M14 since that is the Airsoft gun i want but can't afford.
Good luck to tippmann i suppose

[RusskiX]

one more thing, some of these guns look a bit too real, i remember a couple people bieng shot because their airsoft pistol was confused as a real pistol, that doesnt happen very often in paintball does it?

Airsoft is like paintball 20 years ago. Back in the day you could get your paintball marker in any color you wanted, as long as it was black. Later, when pball wanted to go "mainstream" to avoid the stigma of wargames, is when the current crop of colorful anodized markers and jerseys/uniforms appeared. I wouldn't be surprised to see airsoft take the same route once all the players think there will be greater benefit from public acceptance.

Back to the original topic, best of luck to Tippman. Strategically, seems like a good move. Get in early while the market is growing and they can get established. They obviously have some crossover experience and a strong quality reputation. Stay tuned for a rental fleet of low maintenance, durable, airsoft markers coming to airsoft fields near you!

[peewee]

Interesting to see. As of late there has been a small movement towards a less "painful " game with many fields running at 300 FPS many first time players are turned off at the pain level involved. PMI has recently started up their 55 caliber paintball marker based off the black Max in response to this. Airsoft is a growing industry but I would think that Tippmann should be cautious about diving head long into it. Palco is a long standing company in airsoft. My youngest has one, decent quality & durability for the mid range & higher end guns could be considered the "tippmann" of airsoft (dollar value for what you get). It almost comes across as unnatural to me personally for a paintball company to cross over into airsoft. In my area the two don't mix well. Many airsofties are very milisim oriented about their games & have infringed into areas that paintballers have used for years, in a couple cases they interacted poorly with others that use the same area (motocross riders) where sheriffs had to be called in to break things up. I hope they don't sink to much of the tippmann's asset/money base into the airsoft market. If it flops I would hate to see Tippmann get brought down. It doesn't appear that the C3 took off like Tippmann would have liked I, I hope they are not throwing more money out the window trying to recoup any losses on the C3. I have little faith in the financial mega corporations. I have seen to many long standing American companies get closed after they get involved with a large financial group like tippmann did, I guess that's the price you pay for dancing with the devil.

[p8ntball72]

AO,

Tippman jumping into airsoft, any comments?
http://www.tippmann.com/about_us/pressReleaseDetails.aspx?id=16


I step back in time... before paintball and before airsoft Tippmann made replica scale firearms.
http://www.lakesideguns.com/images/sarcover.jpg

So now tippmann Sr. can go back to what he really wanted to do in the first place.

[p8ntball72]

More info...

Dennis J. Tippmann, founder of the Tippmann Arms Company, was a well known miniature gun maker in the mid 1980's. He specifically manufactured working half scale models of the Browning machineguns. It fell out of existence in early 1986 with a limited number of guns being produced since it's first sales around mid 1983. Shortly after, Tippmann Arms Co. and it's designs, were purchased by another firm. The production of guns by the new company was also extremely limited and with their many other projects and ongoing anti-gun legislation the project slowed. The Tippmann Arms Company, again, fell short of the recognition it deserved. The entire project has been in storage for many years until September 13, 2001. Lakeside Machine absorbed the remaining assets and parts and began making the world famous miniatures once again. All of the miniatures are now being produced as a semi-auto firearm and are transferable to individuals. Full-auto's can be requested from class 3 dealers and manufacturers. Lakeside Machine is also offering a line of accessories for the miniatures such as extra ammo cans, military marked sand bags, belt loading machines, ammo can holders and more.


Tippmann has the "know how" and now has the "Cash" to turn airsoft on it ear.

[grEnAlEins]

I do not really get the whole airsoft thing i guess. It is popular--or seems to be--so it should do good for tippmann I guess. That is if they are any competition for established airsoft gun makers (I do not know any makers by name, but there are obviosly some that are better than others as in any sport/game). If they continue to make a decent and ultra-durable product, I bet they will make profits. I think it is cool to see a paintball company try somthing new. Who knows, they may accidentaly discover the next revolutionary paintball technology trying to improve airsoft stuff. This move can't hurt I guess, unless Tippmann cannot compete.

[REDRT]

Wow tippmann is doing something again. Nothing that I'd be interested in though. How's about hearing something about AGD is doing? I'm not really a tippmann fan sitting here on AO you know.

[neppo1345]

They're damned good at filling those niche markets...

[drg]

IMO it is LONG overdue for someone to apply paintball production values -- reliability, RUGGEDNESS, playability -- into airsoft guns. Just about all airsoft guns to date have been glorified toys. Now that airsoft is gaining momentum as a "real" sport/hobby/enthusiasm, the development of real tools for the job is a no-brainer. Kudos to Tippmann, and yes in a way they are going back to their roots -- all the better.

Once purpose-built airsoft guns start dominating competitions, this trend will take off. There is SO much room for improvement in performance.

[camilion705]

I think it would be great for Tippmann to get into Airsoft. Airsoft is pretty much dominated by Asian companies and to have some more US based competition for companies such as TM would be awesome.

However, they are going to have to make excellent products inorder to compete with the likes of Tokyo Marui and Classic Army... But its Tippmann, so no doubt they will be well made. Right?

[MoeMag]

I’m sorry but I don’t get airsoft. How could it be judged in a competition setting? There is no sign that a player has been hit with the exception of a voluntary “I’m out.” What’s the point? Why not get a toy gun, at least that doesn’t hurt.

I don’t want to give the wrong impression; I’m not insulting, I am really asking.

Now if they fired little ¼ inch paintballs at a velocity greater than 300fps, that run off of conventional pb air tanks, that would have my attention in a heartbeat.

I do realize that airsoft is popular, only because a whole wall at my paintball shop is dedicated to it, so I say good luck to Tippy. They have a great name and they will probably do some good business.

[TheAngryDrunkenRussian]

huh this should be fun.

First off I can see Tippmann marketing more towards Law enforcement with them as trainers.
A. Life like characteristics such as wieght, scale, and action's are pretty much the same as the real steel. The basic principal that cops/military try to use the most realistic weapons for training. I.E. Sim-Munitions (9mm paintball rounds loads of fun when your shooting a SAW), Sim-Munitions suck though considering there very weak range (50m? If I remember correctly). MILES ha what a joke. Stupid Lazer tag and blanks.
But anyways If they train with it. It will put them in a mind set of not to freeze up when cops have a gun pointed at them.

Oh yeah second thing Tippmann will stamp there name on it cause if they put the real tags on it colt,H&k, FN, all them will stick their greedy little hands at them and expect money.

But hey its cool I got a TM m16 as a wall hanger and its made out of plastic, and Classic Army their internal's just suck mad donkey :cuss:

[Tunaman]

I don't think airsoft is a good thing. It is already banned in NJ and you can't buy the guns here.

[msm0711]

umm i would think that they are.. since EVERY field has them as rentals...


my 2 cents


You might want to un bolden that "EVERY". My local field uses Mokal Titans as rental, and I can't say that I've been to a field that used Tippmanns as rentals in quite a while.

[Jotsy]

oooh boy, an airsoft discussion on a paintball thread :rolleyes: here we go again....

just to clear up a few points...

1) the range in airsoft products availiable is quite wide. you can get a $5 springer that will break after a day, or you can get a $1000 assault rifle that will be indistinguishable from the real thing (yes, made of of metal an all :rolleyes: )

2) the accuracy of airsoft rifles is pretty much the same as paintball. mebe with the exception that the long sought after backspin theory in paintball actually works in airsoft and has been in use since the 80's. in fact, you can upgrade some of the airsoft sniper rifles to hit a coin at 100 feet consistently

3) airsoft is based on the honor system. and from my experience, it actually works. my theory is that this is because the only people who would even consider playing airsoft in the first place are the people who uphold values like that. airsoft is also not based on competition. people just play for fun. i have never been to a game where some actually kept score. in fact, i've played games where it was actually impossible to win.

4) i don't know how it is in the states, but here in the UK, the general consensus is that airsoft players DON'T WANT airsoft to go mainstream. the less people know about it the better. this helps keep all the idiots out. you know, the kids that go into walmart and buy the cheapest thing they can get and go out and do a drive by...


At the moment Tokyo Marui and Classic Army are the two leading manufacturers in high-end airsoft(although several companies such as G&G and ICS are working to get up there)

don't forget Systema with their M4 PTW (personal training weapon) which is actually designed for law enforcement training. arguably one of the best made airsoft rifles out there. :headbang: oh i wish i could afford one.....

ok, my airsoft rant is over.... i think i may have gone off topic there :rofl:

so uuh.. yea good luck to tippman :clap:

[Lohman446]

I have heard certain people dream about the "glory" days of paintball, before SP, Dye, and the big boys made it a political game. When it was about innovation of product and advancement of the sport more than politics and patents. When players were honest and teams were people who got along, rather than a group of people thrown together because of skill sets to win.

Paintball will never be there again. Maybe airsoft still is.

[marpat]

umm i would think that they are.. since almost every field has them as rentals...



better?

but my point was that they do make high performance paintball equipment.

it may not be your 20 + bps high performance

but my definition is does it shoot with consistancy (*sp) and some what accuracy with the stock barrel? and low maintenance? - then they do.


but back on track. i play airsoft and i currently own a G-36 TM and it's great. As i see it, most paintball retailers are already selling airsoft guns so it is already creeping into the mainstream market.

As i see it tippmann is trying to establish themselves in a new market due to the fact that there hasn't been any revolutionary paintball inventions in a while and the market is topping off. - again just my opinion. so good for them! it's a good business decision. and if it doesn't have a big tippmann slapped on the side of it then i'd consider buying it. esp if it comes with the tippmann warranty! :D hopefully that doesn't mean also they make it cheap. :p

[REDRT]

To me airsoft is toys. Tippmann is breaking out into new markets. That is fine and dandy. Is the next step water pistols?

[craltal]

"through a strategic alliance with Palco Sports"

They aren't making things themselves right now, they just partnered with somebody who already does, like K2 doesn't make 'cockers...

[11 Bravo]

Wow tippmann is doing something again. Nothing that I'd be interested in though. How's about hearing something about AGD is doing? I'm not really a tippmann fan sitting here on AO you know.

AMEN :clap:

[warbeak2099]

Airsoft is great, why all the hate. IMO it's way better for milsim/woods play than paintball is. It's less expensive too. My buddy is getting into it and just bought 20k bbs for $20. HFC bbs too, not crappy ones. The problem is that it isn't widely played and there aren't as many places to play it. However, it is way superior to paintball for playing woods games and the like.

[REDRT]

Airsoft is great, why all the hate. IMO it's way better for milsim/woods play than paintball is. It's less expensive too. My buddy is getting into it and just bought 20k bbs for $20. HFC bbs too, not crappy ones. The problem is that it isn't widely played and there aren't as many places to play it. However, it is way superior to paintball for playing woods games and the like.

It is all about the pain for me. It drives me to be better. Some times I'm a bloody bruised mess after a long day of paintball, but I feel alive. I like the thrill, the rush of being out on the airball field. I don't get anything like that for an airsoft gun.

[TheAngryDrunkenRussian]

It is all about the pain for me. It drives me to be better. Some times I'm a bloody bruised mess after a long day of paintball, but I feel alive. I like the thrill, the rush of being out on the airball field. I don't get anything like that for an airsoft gun.

Everybody's own niche gives them there thrills. Like race car drivers, tuner's, and such. I mean I love milsim stuff it remind's me of being a Marine. The full face paint, realistic weapons, scenario, tactic's and all that jazz.

I mean its not everyday that you say that you hanging off the bottom of a Huey by a rope, or running through the MOUT facillity at Pendleton jumping through windows and kicking in doors.

But thats not the only thing that get's my jolly's off

[The Stud]

Like Caltral said, they're in a strategic agreement with palco.

What does this means?
They won't be manufactoring their own airsoft equipment or anything like that, instead they'll be slapping their name on the "Firepower" brand of airsoft spring pistols and low-end AEGs.

I was excited about the prospect of Tippmann churning out some of their own AS products aswell, so I called Palco (a company I do regular business with) and was told that they'd more or less just swooped the Firepower name and replaced it with their own.

Sad to say, firepower is VERY low end right now, maybe in the future Tippmann will step in and turn that around, but for the time being I wouldn't start getting your hopes up just yet.

<.2><reality check>