Dragon - ArniesAirsoft - Review Archive

Author

davedawg123

It's on like Donkey Kong

Registered: June 2005
Location: Southern California
Posts: 3,559

Review Date: 17/11/05

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �75.00 | Rating: 9

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Full metal, low price, runs on either Green Gas or CO2, slide cycling speed improved, high capacity magazine
Cons:	Front section may come loose, gas guzzler

Personal thoughts: I might have to sell my other stuff so I can get the silver version, too... so I can go dual gunning. :P I seriously can't wait until they release a full auto version of this baby...

The magwell is so blingin' B) I kind of want to chrome the outer barrel or the slide... wonder how much it would cost? But it will probably wear and look nasty afterwards.

Anyways, on to the review. I bought the Dragon package from the great people at Evike.com. Shipping was fast and communication was excellent, as usual. The package was at my house in two days. Smile

The performance is great. Kick is very hard (more so than my G18c w/ plastic slide or previous G19 w/ metal slide and highflow valve), and the slide cycling is so much faster than the regular Hi Capa. This thing is built so solid and the parts fit very well with no rattling (minimal if you try to shake the *beep* out of it). I've completely forgotten what an Infiniti is... :D Rumors have been mentioned that the slide is made from aluminum vs. the (supposed) pot metal used in the regular WE Hi Capa. All I can say is that from memory (I sold my WE Hi Capa to buy this baby) the material of the slide does feel different but I couldn't tell ya for sure. The grip safety also seems to work much better than the one included in the WE Hi Capa. Installation of the chrome magwell was a bit of a pain, but a hammer can fix anything. :lol:

I fired three mags through it so far. I filled the first mag for about 6 seconds with green gas and I was able to get off about 23 shots. Rather disappointing, I thought, but I had a similiar experience with my previous regular WE Hi Capa and found that filling it for about 10 seconds provided 60 shots in the Hi Capa (and this was WITH a slight leak in the mag... my Dragon's mag has no leak). So I filled it for about 10 seconds and I was able shoot off the 7rds left over (I had filled the mag with 30) and the slide had no problem locking back. Then I was able to fire 58 more rds from the single fill, which gave it 65 shots total on one fill... not bad. Anyways, I shot at a coke can from about 25 feet away and here are some results:

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b198/davedawg123/my%20airsoft%20gallery/IM000362.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b198/davedawg123/my%20airsoft%20gallery/IM000360.jpg

Not that it says anything besides "shooting cans are fun". :D

My only gripe (besides not having two of them :lol:) is that the front section (with the front sight) may come a little loose after some firing if the hex screw (allen key included) holding it underneath the dust cover is not tight enough. Of course, the tradeoff is that you might strip it if you turn it too tight, but I gave it some force and it didn't appear that it will strip, and by looking at the screw head I couldn't even tell that I turned it as there were no signs of any wear. It would have been nice if the front section was a little longer (see first photo) so I could drill another hole underneath to give it additional stability if need be, although, it probably isn't necessary.

I waited a couple months for this baby, and after receiving it and trying it, I can say that this was definitely worth the wait. If you like 1911s (I guess they are called 2011s now), and you want a full metal sexy kick ass gun, the WE Dragon is the one for you! Smile

Now some ratings, pointless since it's subjective but oh well:

Looks: 9/10, did you expect anything less? I love 1911s. If it had some decent trademarks or was chromed out, I'd give it a 10. :D

Performance: 9/10, kick and power is great on green gas. The slide cycling speed is much faster than the Hi Capa, as well (albeit, it's nothing like the speed of a plastic slided G18c). Having never handled a TM Desert Eagle, I couldn't tell ya how it compares so I'll stick with a 9.

Build: 9/10, yes a 9... much of the rattlyness of the WE Hi Capa is gone (at least in my version) and the grip safety appears to be much better than the Hi Capa. If the front section had another screw hole supporting it or if the plastic grips felt a little better, I'd give it a 10. But that's just being picky.

Value: 10/10, I guess an Infiniti would be the standard 2011 to compare to, and having never handled one, I'd rather have two WE Dragons than one WA Infiniti. Also, $645 for one WA Dragon (pfft) or five WE Dragons? Hmm... I was going to give it a 9.5 but at 1/2 the cost of an Infiniti or 1/5 the cost of WA Dragon... c'mon!!!

Overall: 9.5/10, I guess it would be like comparing a STAR M249 to a CA M249. I being the poor man, love this thing. :D I'd like to give a 10, but a CA man might want to give it a 9. So here is a compromise.

For questions or comments, go here.

On a side note, this review was conducted rather hastily and I was very generous with the ratings. I have conducted a more in depth and critical review (with a bit more pictures, might I add) of the new WE Hi-Capa 4.3 here. Check it out! Smile

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My airsoft gallery (some past, some present)

For sale:
Viper Mk18 Gbbr - $400, Dytac PWS Piston Gas Block - $40, ACM UBR Stock - $50,
Empire E-vents Facemask - $20,

Other...
Stuff...

hitchhiker

Registered: May 2006
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 139

Review Date: 1/7/06

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �80.00 | Rating: 8

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Looks, accuracy, cheap and effective
Cons:	Gas guzzler and some problems with hammer spring strength.

A friend bought one of these awhile back and when it works this thing is a force to be reckoned with. Accuracy is good for a pistol with the ability to hit a man-sized target from about 20 meters. Cycle speed is decent while certainly not on par with a G18c it can spit out an impressive rof that'll keep the other guy in his place. Solid construction with very little rattle and with the forward portion of the slide fixed you don't get the wobbly barrel seen in some of the other WE pistols.
All of this being said it has some problems. Heavy gas consumption means that it has trouble getting through an entire clip on a single fill when using a partially empty gas can (can be solved by filling the magazine, waiting 5 minutes and then filling again), it also has the massive cool-down seen in most of the WE pistols I have handled with only the ability to let go five shots at most before it gets sluggish. You may also want to consider getting a heavier hammer spring or simply stretching the one you got in order to shoot consistently in warmer weather (85 degrees +.) We have had some trouble with this on the warmer summer days we�ve been out and it causes much consternation and gnashing of teeth. That being said I�ve had to stretch the spring on my Western Arms pistol as well and most other GBBs tend to have this problem.
Another quirk with the WE line of pistols is the grip safety either not working very well or not at all (this has happened on both my Baby Capa and the Dragon.) This can be solved quite easily by disassembling the grip and shortening the prong extending from the grip safety by a very small amount.

Pros
-Accuracy
-Build Quality
-Cheap
-Full Metal

Cons
-Gas Consumption
-Cool-down
-Grip Safety
-Warm Weather Shooting

X Lupin

Minister of FAMAS Arts & Sciences

Registered: May 2005
Location: South Florida
Posts: 703

Review Date: 3/6/07

Would you recommend the product? No | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 7

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Sexy, Powerful, High Capacity
Cons:	Gas consumption, material, accuracy

I bought this gun to hop on the bandwagon, It looked nice and had a high mag cap.

When I got it, everything was hunky-dorie, Great power and everything, but it could only get off about 25 shots/fill on propane. While reloading, I accidentally dropped the magazine and the front part bent, making it almost impossible to load it. I had to buy another magazine.

Also, from slide-locking, the metal on the slide wore down around the slide release, meaning it wouldn't catch the slide on empty, so I had to put some stuff under the magazine spring so it would press higher against the slide.

I soon sold the gun, because I needed a gun that had good gas consumption that didn't pull my pants down. (It's heavy.)

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Interested in one of these guns? Just ask. Willing to part with most all of them. Most of these guns upgraded or custom in some way.
AGM Mp40, Asahi Bushmaster, Asahi M60E1, Asahi Sterling Custom,
Classic Army M15A4, Daytonagun Aks74u, HFC M190(2)
JAC AR-15 Prototype (First GBB rifle in history), JAC Uzi DX, JLS F2000, KSC M93R Metal
Maruzen-Daisy P38 Single Shot Pre-Classic, Maruzen S&W .44, Maruzen Walther P38(2)
TM 1911A1SD, TM 5-7, TM FAMAS F1 (Custom FAM-203)
TM FAMAS SV, TM P90, TM VSR10 PSS10 ToyTec Calico M100, ToyTec M203, ToyTec P90.

buggyr333

Registered: June 2007
Posts: 53

Review Date: 6/7/07

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �60.00 | Rating: 9

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Reliability, looks, mag capacity, performance, price, weight
Cons:	Front section comes loose, Slide lock stops working after a while(long while), clip can fall out when in holster (goes for all Hi Capas), hop-up hard to adjust

Let me start by saying my Dragon is pretty old. It was bought by my friend who got it when it first came out. I bought it off of him for 60 dollars (it had some problems already, thats why so cheap)

Performance is great, i hit a sign (which ironically said no paintball, air-guns, or related products) from about 130 feet away (estimate)

The first bad thing i noticed was that the front section was loose, it was easy to tighten (used an allen-wrench that came with a cheap adjustable laser)but about every 30 shots or so it becomes loose again

Another thing was once during a skirmish, i ran out of ammo in my rifle (long stand-off) so i drew my pistol and charged the guy. When i got to him i aimed, and pulled the trigger, then i realized, my gun didnt have a clip in it. Then i was shot about 20 times by him... So yeah my clip was lost because the mag-release button goes out far and my holster may have been a little snug, but the same thing happened to my friends Marui Hi-capa 5.1
So then i bought a Marui clip and now i keep the clip in a mag-pouch and load it when i need to.

Next thing, is soon after that the slide lock stopped working as well, it would lock back about 1 out of 10 times. Now it doesnt lock at all.

But keep in mind, my dragon is among the oldest We-Tech dragons, and ive been running it on red-gas, so these problems may not occur to other Dragons for a long while.