This is a post for members to share purchase regrets from the gel blaster industry.
This covers wastes of money, dead on arrival / broken or just straight out poor quality items or lapse of judgment purchases.
Feel free to also post any other purchase items that relate to Gel ball that proved to be a waste of money such as tactical gear too.
My regret is the c02 m4a1 revolver purchased for I think $300+
possible the most expensive desk paper weight I have unfortunately lol
Blaster
C02 Revolver
issues:
Cylinder no longer rotates due to Pot metal contact surface wear.
APS Shark (Always Practically Shit)
(Still have it ⌠but its on a 3rd rebuild. Pot metal parts suck arse)
Tac Gear:
Tactical Helmet (Classic Army)
It ended up looking like a cheap Bicycle helmet ⌠not exactly what i was going for âŚ
Part
Mk CNC v2 gear box early Gen
So, this has little bit of a story. I purchased this gearbox with the âpatriotic mentalityâ to try and build a closed to 80% Aussie made Blaster âtechnicallyâ.
This was back in the days when only Retro Arms V2 box were sold in the market from âGBAâ and when âHawkex Tacticalâ actually delivered orders and when âBruisemasterâ actually made ordersâŚyup thatâs a long time ago lolâŚ
So, I purchased the Mk CNC box from X-force and found out the quality control was lacking rang up and asked about the rough piston guide rails and was told that just take a little sand paper and smooth them or i could exchange it?
I decided on the former (my mistake) and proceeded to clean the rails, seem nice enough but, the issue was with shimming. It was impossible to shim.
I found out and just shelved it until a buddy of mine was getting into the sport/hobby and i decided to give it to him of course heâs not much of a gel blaster tech and took into X-force to have his custom rifle built. 2 weeks later past and then finally he got a call to come and pick up his blaster.
The tech said when he walked in if anyone ever brings in this gear box again he will show them the doorâŚlol turns out they gave my buddy a warinterst box for free and just charged the labor good to know i wasnât alone with my grief.
HO BOY do we have a list here.
First blaster - SKD Glock 18 from TacToys of all places. Regret giving them my money, but the blaster itself was solid and a good introduction into the hobby. Just fuck TacToys.
First GBB 1911 - I FOMOâd and bought a Wells 1911 from iHobby when they first came out. We all know how they turned out. At least I managed to sell mine, and its damn CO2 mags.
Metal bolt for my GJ M24 springer rifle - It MASSIVELY increased the FPS, but completely fucked up my accuracy. Waste of a hundred and something bucks. Ended up just giving the whole thing to my neighbour so he could teach his kid gun safety.
All my preorders at Command Elite Hobbies - I had all the original gas pistols from them on preorders. They took so long that I was able to cancel most of them without that fucking 20% cancellation fee they were charging (thank GOD), but I still got the shitty Beretta. The tin pot metal, leaky magazine, safety-doesnât-decock piece of shit Wells Beretta.
Atomic Armoury .44 Savaging Bull - Itâs crap. Itâs all plastic. It feels shit in the hand. The timing chops gels in half. I dropped it onto carpet one day and the entire rear sight snapped in two. I only bought it because the preorders were stupid cheap, under $200. Even that was too much.
HK416D V2.5 - Also from CEH, because they didnât label their fucking products properly. The V3 was like 30 dollars more, and had metal gears, and I actually wanted that one. But, accidents happen when youâre shopping at 2AM after 6 hours of research.
Nylon LDT MP5 w/ metal gears - Like the HK416, it wasnât necessarily a bad blaster, but it was a case of pulling the trigger on buying it just a fraction too soon. A couple months later, the full metal MP5s came out with the LDX gearboxes, but Iâd already blown my wad. Taught me to wait a little bit after releases to buy them.
SJ M4 CQB - Good little blaster, for a full nylon unit. I had intentions of installing its gearbox (with its functioning bolt lock!) into a receiver I bought from WAT. I shouldâve just bought an LDX though. Since then itâs just been turned into scrap parts and a binned receiver. I didnât even want to bother sending it up north when I shipped my stuff off.
The receiver from WAT - The dust cover didnât latch closed (apparently GnP receivers justâŚdonât do that), and the bolt catch slot didnât have room for my SJâs bolt release, instead just having a crappy flappy paddle like the HK416s. This whole endeavour turned out to be boondoggle.
Wells Webley revolver - Iâd just finished watching the first couple of seasons of Peaky Blinders and was absolutely enamored with the damn thing for a moment. Then season 3 rolls around and Tommy starts packing a 1911A1, and Iâm just left wondering why I bothered. Cowboy revolvers are cool, Webleys are just British.
Gear, too.
My first tacvest - A basic non-plate carrier design that I stupidly bought trying to emulate a 90s SWAT look. Then modern MOLLE gear started catching my attention, and I just decided to sell the damn thing. Never even got 1 game in it.
My first thigh holster - Thigh holsters suck. They roll around on your leg and donât stay put, and all the ones sold by the big retailers were kind of annoying with all their weird fabric flaps. Iâve bought a loooooot of holsters over the years, but the thigh one is the only one I regret. Theyâre just worse versions of mid-rides.
My first helmet - It doesnât take helmet mounted hearing protection. The goggles donât fit over my glasses. The material isnât great feeling. And itâs from a type of armour 30+ years old. I cannot wait until my new high cut helmet shows up.
âNODS increasinglyâ I feel the pain! and so did my wallet.
APS Gas Shotgun - exteriorâs nice but basically too easy to break, shells are pain to gas up. They say donât dry fire it because itâll break the firing pin, but how the hell are you suppose to render it safe without dry firing after the final shell? Leave it primed?
Cyma M4 CQB for Zhenduo - nothing wrong with the blasters because they worked great and was dirt cheap, but the stolen credit card details and dealing with the disputed charges plus waiting 3 weeks for new cards was a hassle that was not worth it at all and why Iâll never buy from them again.
I got caught out in the Zhenduo card scammer fiasco but have dealt with them without any problems since then.
As George W Bush once said âFool me once, shame on you. Fool me ⌠You canât get fooled again.â
They occasionally have some good discounts like 22% off.
It took 1 month for my last order to arrive which does not bother me for spare mags etc.
Does the fact that most my orders are done after/while drinking count as lapse of judgment purchases?
Most of my disappointments have been the result of being an early adopter
the first M16 - pre Gen 8 - twist and bend when firing and snap in two when you fell over
M24 - broke several bolts before I gave up trying the strengthening tricks and lashed out for metal bolt
APS Shark (I think) - no end of problems with magazines and sold it
AA357 revolver - was a waste of time, as documented on other forum. CEH swapped for AA 1911 tactical (green gas), which is still one of the best GBB pistols despite being based on Wells
WeTech - HiCappa 4.3 M1911 - rattles and fired all over the place until APGS fitted a GE barrel
Wells M9 - leaking magazine (fixed by iHobby) and poor performance (fixed by new barrel from CEH). - now performs great
any blaster built by a self proclaimed expert
Disappointment because of short life
Tac Gear disappointment
Other stuff that has become unnecessary or useless
You have inspired me to make a new thread, with this post. Tac gear for hefty folk.
lol Iâll allow it 
considering the deceptive marketing tactics of retailers. Scamming a sober or inebriated individual is still scamming
I started typing a similar length list to yours but it just beeping depressed me so gave up. So many over promises / under deliveries. So much bad support after purchasing, even literally on the same day.
Im glad i look at most of mine as just collectors items now and other than than to many M4 derivatives, i donât really regret many of the buys now, but at the time, for many of them - soooo angry.
The revolver was definitely a heap of shit. Sent that back. To not return anything but money.
The Shark otoh Iâve had success with after a few mods suggested by an old forum member. Held up fine thus far.
Iâve been pretty lucky in that most of my regrets were learning processes, pushing things too far, expecting too much from good parts in cheap nylon boxes etc. But I have some notable numbers.
Skd Beretta.
Bought it, blew circuit board at first game. Fixed it. Second game barrel shot out. Fixed it. Next game? Circuit board blew. Turned out I had a seized mag motor that would blow the board every time, binned the spare mag⌠forth game, circuit board blew. I took great pleasure in hoiking it at a wall and watching my first pistol explode into many bits.
Well 1911 and fabric drop leg holster.
I was one of the first to get a 1911. Yes. Spent the first game loosing mags and the pistol from the holster. Got a better one for next time. The pistol actually worked okay. I was lucky. I did shoot my mate with the barrel as it flew out once. Fixed it. Eventually the mag seals went⌠fixed and okay when they eventually came into stock nearly 6 months later. Sold it. Happy again!
Also kept the fabric holster and years later it now is a great mobile leg home for my 40mm. So a regret that ended well.
Gen9.
Now I still technically own my first blaster, and my first gen9. It has an mk box and is awesome. Itâs kinda not the original gen9 anymore as I had done enough work and mods and use that the upper receiver broke, and the receiver is the only jm gen9 part left!
What I do regret is buying 5 of them!
On one hand they served well, and seen countless games and 100s of 1000s of gels so all good. But in the end to get them where I wanted them they need an mk box. End of. And I just couldnât justify keeping them as I would end up buying too many mk boxes, and by this time v2 boxes were much better options and far more prevalent so sold them all.
I now refuse to buy anything new until it is been in the wild for 6 months. Once something passes the â6 month testâ I am aware of weak points, parts availability, and have usually worked on them also. I am fortunate that I get to work on blasters I donât own, so I get to be familiar with blasters I havenât forked out for at times⌠Which leads me to my last regretâŚ
Double bell aks.
I waited 6 months to get one. And love it. Itâs great. I replaced the oring and cylinder, radiused it⌠nothing else as shimming was good⌠and it does 390fps all day on semi and full auto. Decent accuracy, and over all⌠itâs good. The only blaster Iâve not changed a shim on and been happy with ever. I want more. Love aks, and they have a good range of them! But the price has increased across the range of db aks, and Iâm too much of a tight ass to fork out for them. At least this regret keeps my wife happy! (Until I see them on sale again!)
I have a massive list of internal parts and build mistakes and regrets from 5 years of playing with them⌠but ainât going into that! Any mistake and broken part is an opportunity to learn, so I will take it.
@RokSolid
Sounds very much like my whole experience buying, collecting and building blasters for myself and others 
Iâm not even going to make my list just yetâŚâŚ will take a bottle of Jacks and some therapy to reduce some of the flashbacks and trauma 
Interesting topic, thanks to the advice on the old forum and probably due to my limited time on the gelball field dont have to many regrets. Mainly my earlier buys.
fjs hk416. 3rd blaster and bought on facebook marketplace for 150. My regret was not doing enough research , i thought i was getting an ltd as i thought that all their was. And yeah thing was rubbish, worse then the jm scar i had.
m92 aeg pistol. 2nd blaster i got, paid retail and i wish i skiped it and went straight to gas pistols.
not so much a regret but wished it worked better. Ltd m203 launcher, one of the two grenades is a pain to fill. But the main issue is the firing mechanism, its hit and miss if it fires.
any tactical gear from gel stores. Thigh holster, mag holder etc. Its all rubbish, spend twice the price at a proper combat/tactical gear store but its 4x better.
Jesus n here i am all torn up with wanting more but also only wanting what ill ever use
Recently had the urge to build a hpa sniper.
After a long search I found the only hpa bolt in Aus at a store that was closing down.
Rushed in and made the hefty purchase after the staff told me it will fit into the DB VSR-10 SNIPER RIFLE.
So I hunted the net and bought the rifle for an exceptional price.
Low and behold the bolt was to big for the receiver.
So far I have honed the receiver 
and the bolt slides fine, but now I have to hone the barrel to allow the bolt to fit in there.
I have a fine line between having a broken barrel and a tight bolt.
Over $700 in and feeling some regret,
But screw that, Iâm getting this done.
Sadly, that doesnât include everything in the shedđł
Or the shelving unit and rack you canât see in the pic.
But yes I probably have more blaster parts than I will ever use
Skd glock. Was decent till it stoped feeding.
Cyma m4 (all 4 of them and the one im buying later today), not because they are bad. Im pretty happy with them overall. But because spare parts and upgrades are harder to come by. Them having slightly different parts vs standard dosent help. Like the piston, cylinder head, mags and buffer tube. I blame @DocBob. If i were to start over with my stable, id go jm just for simplicity. Tactoys (sigh) US is stocking more stuff and popularity is increasing on this side of the earth, so that regret may change.
A stainless steel 7.3mm barrel. Contolled growing, and having different gels then my kids made it a pain. Esp since its rare i ever have super fresh gels on hand.
Bf p90. Mags are a pain in the ass. From loading, to swapping, cleaning and feeding. Rear grip puts my wrist at a really uncomfortable angle.
