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What can I say? Mixed reactions really about the show, I cost me around £50 GBP or $90 USD to get there so my expectations were high. The hobby show this year was held at the “Twin Messe Center” in Shizouka City and after a pleasant ride on the Bullet Train I arrived and met my brother at the ticket gates.
The show was spread over the two centers and all the major model companies were there, names like Tamiya and the likes taking center stage. My first job was to over come the excitement and the 5 year old in my from racing around the center checking out all the latest toys, such as micro RC helicopters that fit in your palm or the latest AI Robots from Sony, secondly to find the information desk to find out just who was at the show!
This is were I got disappointed, It seems that companies like KSC, Western Arms and Tanaka do not attend these shows as they don’t have a PR budget and if they do it doesn’t cover having a stand at the largest hobby show in Japan.
So with my hopes downcast I headed to the Tokyo Marui stand, now this is where I cheered up! It was big, bigger than their last stand at the Blackhole show when pushing the new M14, They had all technical reps there so they could cover any question you might have relating to their products, sorry guys, now sexy short skirt reps to be found here!
I would like to take this time to thank those that submitted questions to me as it can be a bit hard being the reporter, photographer and the ever eager customer, so having those questions on my PDA really helped.
“Type 89 Buddy”
With a recommended retail price of ¥50,000 (£240.00GBP or $448.00 USD) this is probably the expensive gun Tokyo Marui has released to date, why you might ask? Well as one of the members here said, “It’s the Gun of Japanese Armed Forces, of course they are going to do the best job they can on it!” and they certainly have!
The Type 89 is full metal, yes the upper and lower receiver, barrel, everything that should be metal is and you feel it, the hand guard is made from very high quality ABS and there is absolutely new flex in this weapon what so ever! All the markings on the weapon are 100% accurate with nothing left off.
The main feature of this gun is the Mechanical selector and the Type 86 just like the real steal has four settings, Safety, Semi Auto, 3 Round Burst and Full Auto. It also Sports a new EG1000 BT which is designed to take the added stress caused by the 3 round burst. Now as it has been mentioned the Type 89 takes a stick battery in the fore grip and not in the butt stock like other solid stock weapons, why you ask! Well it’s because it’s not all that bib and is very narrow compared to that of the M16, G3 or MP5 variants. Now this isn’t to say a modification can’t be done to the wiring and also a self styled battery pack that would fit in the stock, but alas it will not fit the larger battery packs that are out there.
As you can see standard and high capacity magazines are already to go and they both feature a new spring plug that enables the user to use every last BB in the magazines rather than having 3 or 4 left after you have emptied it. Also on the release day a Vii selector switch will be available which is the version used on all current version used by the Japanese Coast Guard and Police Units and also a 20mm rialto mount scopes.
md.
