Hi everyone, made an account recently as this appears to be the most up-to-date/active place for gel blaster info besides reddit.
Some friends of mine have gotten into Gelball again and I was wanting to join them, I have a bunch of old, old blasters 2019 that are out-of-date and beyond repair and was thinking of a fresh start.
I was looking at the CYMA M4 CQB, before looking around and seeing people suggesting the Double Bell M4 or the GBX, now I’m confused at what to go for. I was thinking the CYMA for its airsoft-like gearbox which I assume would take most parts if it were to be modded, however the Double Bell and the GBX seem like much better out of the box options? What would you guys suggest?
Hopefully these types of questions aren’t considered spam.
The GBX was solidly my recommendation before they sold out, closest JG works metal blasters are now $450-$500. Still awesome, just a much beefier price tag than $220.
CYMA M4 CQB is nice a cheap, you will want to mod it though, but they take mild performance upgrades well if you are willing to put the work in. SHS gears and metal rack piston and anti reverse latch, M90-M100 spring, cylinder head and nozzle, 480 motor of choice to suit your build and it will be a light beast. Wouldn’t go too crazy on the nylon box though.
Double bells metal gearbox nylon blasters are great value, though hit a bit hard and some are known to “wells” the front of the gearbox, I believe this may likely be an issue related to using a 70% cylinder on all models regardless of barrel length. I would recommend getting a correct cylinder to the barrel, radius the gearbox, and loctite the motor height adjustment in place, and maybe change to an m90-m100 spring, as the stock ones are closer to an m110-120, many of their models would be too poweful for some fields.
Every brand and blaster has it’s quirks, none are perfect without some effort… still. So in that regard you haven’t missed much!
I would also say, just because you have old blasters doesn’t mean they are out of date, I still use a few blasters that are from 2018, of course they have been upgraded a bit, but my old gen8 ump45 still gets regular use. My wife, still almost exclusively uses the vector she bought the first month they were released, but again, it has be upgraded.
Yea when that Wells 1911 came out I had play with one and was unimpressed. Same with that revolver that was a heap of shit and went straight back for a refund.
I think the timing of the AEG CQB and MRT at the peak of blaster crazyiness went hand in hand with their sales making it a $99 blaster for the masses that was a first with Nylon and good build quality. Never forget the day at M4a1 the lineup was down the street, 10am they’d already sold 200 of them and were about to run out.
Wells couldn’t get a gas blaster together to save themselves, but AEG was a total different kettle of fish. Alot of people with the amount of AEG wells out in the wild just jumped on the me too train saying all Wells are shit.
Either I got lucky mine have been the most reliable. I still have spare gearboxes collecting dust to go in when they are supposed to break. But they haven’t
I had a Well M4 CQB back in the day… metal geared, nylon everything else. Got some hard use from me and ended up giving it up to a friend on the GC who used it twice a week for indoor skirmish. As far as I know, no issues and still going strong.
I don’t think the AEGs are as bad as their reputation claims they are.
It’s just the metal gearbox versions I only ever heard/saw fail, that shitty pot metal cast and not rounding the cylinder bits, can’t think of the term for it, almost every gearbox I would see was cracked.
We all know it’s the quality of the pot metal most of the manufacturers use that’s the problem.
Which is why until internal components like sears and such are made from decent steel instead of recycled Chinese pushbikes I couldn’t justify the asking price of a GBBR.
Forking out over a gorilla for something that’s possibly going to have the wear characteristics of a Well 1911 GBB pistol is just scarey.
Yeah those wells right. Their gas stuff is terrible. And the current metal grey gearbox is so bad that every time I get one for repair the first thing I do is look up the mag well and I swear half of them are cracked. But, they are decent performers initially. and there was a time when the nylon boxes were decent options alongside JM.
There is something special to me about getting a cheap blaster, thrashing it like it’s worth stuff all and having fun, then upgrading it to be a reliable performer because you get attached to it. My gen8 ump, gen9, and j12 and my (missus’) vector are all in this category and all still see regular thrashings. Even my nylon mp5 falls in here. New it would have been more than $200 I know, but I got it for $100 second hand barely used, thought it was just a wall hanger as I love mp5, then the bug bit and spend a heap of cash and time on it.
I guess my big point is, it’s a hobby to me. A cheaper blaster can be more fun as it has plenty of opportunity to spend time working on it, and make it special to you.
90% of cracking gearboxes is due to dry firing as they get feed problems from throwing a bag of Gels in their fishing bucket of water for three months then come searching the web seeing some builders dry test firing on their bench.
Average joe thinks that’s normal and proceeds to do it thousands of times. Same as cars bigger motor more power, usually yes but you loose efficiency and reliability. Of course they are going to break. You should know that from what you say. They all came overspringed from the factory.
The weaker ones will break first. But if you do it right they will not. Even bad piston o ring will cause it. You gotta maintain them. You are servicing that 90% who run them into the ground. Good business for you
Never understood why some people chase firing volume… maybe it’s the added realism, but all I can think is “that ain’t doing your gearbox any good”.
I’ve seen people start salivating when they dry fire their blaster and you get that loud crack of the plunger hitting the cylinder head really hard… personally I like mine to be as quiet as I can make them. Correct VE &AOE, not oversprung… almost sound supressed.
