Old School Dinosaur Blasters

Compared to the first gel blasters, what we can buy now has become fairly sophisticated and in some cases pretty expensive with the intro of full metal, A/S adaptations and GBBRs. I’m curious to see if anybody still has some of the forgotten early gel blasters. I’m talking pre-Gen8…

From a collectible point of view, they’re cool… and definitely interesting. I’m talking pre Gen 8 M4A1, things like the big Halo Ma5c, the ZeHua F2000, the HeE Punisher M4 and the early Thompson mg, that kind of thing. Cheap, ABS and the trashier the better :thinking: Screenshot_20230523_091657_Google

I know most of them would have been flogged out, broken up, cut up into little pieces for greebles, maybe thrown into the cupboard of shame. :joy: but maybe there are still a couple out there still kicking, modified or otherwise. I’d love to see 'em! :heart_eyes:

A1 with Low Guido Gen 8 conversion - plus lots of epoxy putty to strengthen screw holes

The long version

Still have one A1 left in box to convert

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Ah, the pre LeHui AUG… love it. Very nice job on that conversion too, @Wombat :+1: Yeah, I remember watching Low Guido’s do the same years ago. You’ve got one still in the box? Thinking ahead, hey? :wink:

I wish I’d bought a few more of some of the early blasters. Too late now for most of them. :man_shrugging:

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Still available from iHobby

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I had one of the BLG M-16,s…before the CYMA ones came out…

Cheap, cheerful, wobbly, but an M-16…

Cyma ones are streets ahead…i think i gave the old one away…

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I so wanted an BLG M16 a few years back but the BLG M16s had that removable M4 style carry handle and I just couldn’t come to terms with it. :laughing:

Yeah, the CYMA M16A1 blasters are not bad at all. Everything metal that should be, full metal gearbox. Long blasters though… finding an IB long enough to allow a hop up was pretty difficult.

Still got my gold one as wall art

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Jesus, man… need my Rayban’s on to look at that, but noice! :heart_eyes:

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Bling bling
Funny it came like that from factory
It got thrown in for free when I bought two blasters from this guy
At Caboolture who was getting rid of blaster cheap.
Xforce Tactical bought up the rest of his stock
He now sells ebikes

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Was testing the collection today to see what I would take to a game on Saturday. Was using the 30m clothesline test.

The old A1/Gen 8 still runs best of the lot, once it has had a few gels down the barrel to get it lubed. (The first few gels always get stuck and then it comes good once they are cleared) Second best is bog standard JM AK74U, followed by one of the CYMAs. Was interesting that the CYMAs all drop gels at about the same place, even though they have very different barrel lengths. The ACR had the best range but accuracy sucked with gels flying all over the place - time to drop spring rate

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Ya gotta love the Gen 8 gearboxes.

I’ve actually done a deal to get my Gen 8 Scorpion EVO 3 back… a bit of horse trading with the guy I gave it too.

His GBB pistol shat itself so I’m trading him my Well 1911 for the Evo, all my stick mags and a custom drum mag I knocked out back in the day.

Good deal… :+1: that EVO’s a beast. Was a regular 290fps hitter when I gave it away.

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@Wombat my old mate…… you just perfectly summed up my top 3 blasters of all time! :ok_hand:

The Gen8’s are as everyone knows my all time favourite old warhorses.

My second in line was a complete surprise to me being the JM AK 74U……. as I was probably the last person in Australia to actually purchase ANY model of AK’s, yet ended up buying pretty much every single model available from all the different manufacturers! :joy:

Yet the little JM AK was always my favourite stand out performer from all the others that I had in my collection :ok_hand:

My final most highly rated/enjoyed blaster was the ACR.
Both my stock, slightly & highly modified versions…. as well as the Bushmaster MSR replica that I bought off of an old Forum member :sunglasses:

I honestly found all of the many different CYMA M4’s/AK to be great in build quality as cheap blasters…… but their performance and accuracy OOTB was woeful.

Same experience with many expensive modern metal electronic controlled high end blasters, somehow never being able to stand up to the same performance as the simple old basic nylon blasters :thinking:

I pretty much just enjoyed and respected how any blaster performed standard OOTB with performance, accuracy, reliability and simplicity…… something that seemed to have been lost as time and technology went on :frowning:

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Best performing OOTB blasters have been

  • STD SLR
  • JM AK74U
  • BF MP7

as measured by the 30M clothes line accuracy test

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Yeah totally agree eith your CYMA M4 comments… I’ve got four variants and the build quality for the price is amazing.

Those orange V2 gearboxes in them aren’t too shabby either. All of my stock CYMAs don’t seem to be lacking any power, every one of mine’s been a solid 260FPS on the chrono OOTB. Except for the full metal M16… bog stock and unmodified hits 330FPS all day long.

This fucker, on the other hand…


Spent all day servicing, shimming, lubing, new t piece, nozzle and IB, fucked around for hours reshaping the aftermarket grip to fit the receiver and line up the motor shaft holes, new high torque motor, M90 spring…

Sub 200FPS on the chrono :laughing:
It’s gotta be an issue with the tappet plate and spring… :wink:

OMG… STD/SKD :+1:

Those were my other very first blasters back in 2016/2017.

Still Gen8 style gearboxes, but I had both the SKD/STD HK 416 & M4SS Blasters.

To be honest, they were WAAAAAYYYY ahead of their time when everyone was getting excited about the race for release between the JM Gen9 and the WELL M401 models.

The STD/SKD M4SS & HK416 had these features as standard before either of those “iconic” models were released.

MOSFET
FCU with safe/semi/3 round burst/full auto
Mag prime
Alloy barrels
Threaded buffer tubes
Threaded handguards
Laser optics/sights/torches
Upgraded motors
Front pistol grips

My memory is vague, but these simple features from a blaster that was produced before the WELLS or Gen9 is pretty damn awesome and has always been overlooked and unrecognised in the Gelblaster industry :cry:

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Yep, the M4SS was a pearler… ended up with a bit of a bad rep because everyone fried the MOSFET with 11.1v, like the KVs. I always liked them, and you’re right, compared to what else was on offer, ahead of the game.

There’s a certain charm about the older blasters. Simple and a bit of a nostalgic reminder of what it was like to be into it from the getgo.

They’re getting hard to find now.

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Burn it, usually fixes things :rofl:

I’ve still got one of my first, Well CQB. Majority say it’s shit but it just keeps on going at 300fps with a 1.18mm Ausgel spring seals and some cosmetics to make it more look like a Colt Commando. For $99 it’s been a solid blaster.

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Couldn’t help myself… it’s a Gen 8, what’s not to like? :laughing: I’m a sucker for the oldies.

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Would feel strange picking up that old plastic/nylon feeling stuff again! :joy::sunglasses:

I just finished up my full metal CYMA M16 today, been handling it all day so I’m figuring this thing’s going to be a bit of a shock :rofl: