TOP M249SAW written by Miki Nakamura of TokyoHobby- Tuesday, January 15, 2002


Miki Nakamura (the CEO of TokyoHobby) kindly sent in this news article for UK hobbyists and our other readers regarding the recent new release from TOP. The photos in this article were taken at Yoshitomo Co. Ltd.(TOP). The information inside this article has been checked and approved by the CEO of Yoshitomo Co. Ltd. .

Miki has also provided a feedback section (visitors or existing users can send in their comments, which will be directed to Yoshitomo Co. Ltd. by TokyoHobby themselves). The following article is an introduction to this superb new Airsoft replica. Arnie

TOP M249 5.56mm Squad Automatic Weapon (or FN MINIMI)

The M249 is the standard squad level infantry fire support weapon for both the NATO and US forces, which has replaced the more heavier 7.62mm calibre machine guns. Being several kilos lighter than the 7.62mm calibre machine guns it is favoured by special forces for who the gun weight is essential for long range operations. As the 5.56mm Nato ammunition is also lighter than 7.62mm it allows troops to carry more munitions to field, and with lighter recoil, the automatic fire is more easily controlled in M249.

Yoshitomo Co. Ltd. has produced this excellent squad fire support weapon as an Airsoft replica under their brandname TOP, which has an excellent reputation as the M60 model gun manufacturer. After producing several M60 variants for a decade they wanted to bring this experience and know-how to their new series of M249 electric machine guns.

The TOP M60 was originally designed to be primarily a model gun and not a electric machine gun let alone an effective skirmish piece (i.e. the M60 was designed as a collectors piece, not for Rambo impressions at your local skirmish site - Arnie).

TOP have changed their target in M249, as with huge improvements in gears, cylinder, hop-up unit and the BB feeding mechanism, the TOP M249 is more than capable to take on the the most demanding survival gaming hobbyist (skirmish) requirements.


Left: Image of the trigger grip and trigger, top middle: back sights, bottom middle: side view of M249, right: two images of the M249 with bipod folded out

To produce this new and superior electric machine gun, Yoshitomo Co. Ltd. set up an very impressive operation which was simply out of reach financially for any other smaller company in this industry. To ensure a high quality design, they hired a veteran designer of model and Airsoft guns, who has produced many hallmarks for the largest air and model gun companies in Japan.

What is strikes you first when you look upon the M249 is the excellent exterior finish of the replica, as it comes with the standard TOP 80% metal part composition.

Indeed the quality of the metal parts on the M249 is a vast improvement over the M60 series and TOP has reached the highest possible quality with a finish to the metal parts that has previously been unseen in Airsoft machine guns.


Left:
M249 cocking lever, right: round loading chamber

The TOP M249 features a field take down mechanism like the real steel item (see below).


As you can see int he images top left, the receiver and barrel for the M249 easily strip into their functional parts. Top right: the Head1950 licensed hop-up unit

The gears are constructed of a high quality metal and feature a custom designed differing radically from both Tokyo Marui and SystemA AEG gears. The mechanism has been custom designed for the M249 and is well up to the standard needed for electric machine gun requirements. The hop-up unit is produced under license from KM/Head 1950, which is a another update over the old M60 series.

A rare photo of the TOP M249 with the prototype box mag

The standard M16 magazine for M249 holds 45 BB's and the box magazine holds 1000 BB's. The muzzle velocity with a 0.20g BB is 85m/s which is in keeping of the ASGK rules and regulations.

Yoshitomo Co. Ltd. is planning to release total of four variants of M249 series during the year 2002.

The standard TOP M249 SAW retails at 128,000 Yen with the next production run (the second in total) being scheduled for April 2002.

TOP has authorised us to collect reservations for them and you can apply for one by placing order at sales.tokyohobby@tokyohobby.net

Article written by Miki Nakamura CEO TokyoHobby.net

New TOP AEGs: So what are TOP going to produce in the near future? Well they are now in a race to develop both the first production Barret M82A1 and the Galil ARM (Assault Rifle Machinegun) AEGs. Here's what Miki had to say: - Arnie

"...TOP is going to produce the GALIL ARM as an electric gun. The release date is set to around Christmas 2002.

TOP is also going to be releasing a BARRET M82A1 and has discussed with us some of their plans regarding it. What is extremely interesting is that it's going to be electric. This is a huge project for TOP, which means that you will again see another high quality product from them.

In Japan the race to produce M82A1 has begun and we will see soon see who are going to be the top players in it. More details to be released soon.

You can place us additional inquiry requests for the Galil at service.tokyohobby@tokyohobby.net with subject header: TOP GALIL ARM or for the Barrett at service.tokyohobby@tokyohobby.net with subject header: TOP BARRET M82A1..." - Miki

Feedback form: Yoshitomo Ltd. (TOP) is would like to receive all kinds of feedback from the people who use their products or have new (realistic) ideas about what they would like to see produced in the future.

If you would like to send some feedback to them, please fill in the boxes below and click 'submit'. You must fill in all the boxes, and include a valid email address. Please note all feedback email is handled by TokyoHobby, who then forward it onto Yoshitomo Ltd. (TOP) themselves for security reasons.

This is the first time (to our knowledge) that a Japanese company has been interested in the opinions of people outside of Japan (specifically the UK and the US), so please do make sensible suggestions and comments - Arnie

Your email address:
Your realname:
Your home country:

Type your message to Yoshitomo Ltd. (TOP) here:


Internal Links:
M249 pre-review - written by DJ (aka Nautilus)
M249 first impressions the problems - How to fix a few of the issues with the TOP M249 by LT mac

External Links:
NEASG M249 comparision - RK00 of AirsoftDepot wrote this beautiful comparision review of the Asahi and TOP M249 releases.


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Last modified: Tuesday, January 15, 2002 6:53 PM Copyright 2001 ArniesAirsoft
TOP M249 images are Copyright TokyoHobby.net