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! 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!

[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/pre...ils.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.

[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/pre...ils.aspx?id=16

I step back in time... before paintball and before airsoft Tippmann made replica scale firearms.


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.