VP-70M - ArniesAirsoft - Review Archive

Author

ChrisNorthInGer

The screams, they sound like music.

Registered: October 2006
Location: The outskirts of Reality.
Posts: 2,017

Review Date: 13/6/07

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �65.00 | Rating: 7

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Strong blowback, lower price than the original TK VP-70
Cons:	3 round burst is sometimes unreliable, hop up is poor

A brief introduction:

I don't remember when my wanting of a VP-70 first started. I remember looking at a Tanio Koba when I first found airsoft, but back then $200 (this was before I knew of shipping prices from Hong Kong) was a lot to spend on anything, let alone a plastic toy. Of course my views have changed a lot since then (and quite possibly not for the better), but I had forgotten about the TK VP because it was still quite a bit to spend, and other things caught kept catching my eye. Then I saw it when browsing the News Forum. UHC had said that they were using Tanio Koba design and making their own VP-70. Months had passed before there was news of VPs being sold at various retailers. In between those months, I had once considered buying the Koba, but decided to wait for UHC. Like I said, other cheaper and more practical guns caught my interest. Two weeks after they came out I bought one from Airsplat.

I'm not going to go into the real steel VP-70's history and description. HKPro page on the VP is fairly in depth. If you need more, finding some info on Google shouldn't be difficult.

The VP-70 made an appearance in both Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 4, as well as being the Colonial Marines sidearm in Aliens. The Villain's henchman also used a VP-70 in Mission Impossible 2.

Supposedly, Tanio Koba worked with UHC to produce the VP-70 to help produce high quality airsoft products at an affordable price for people outside of Japan, so it's not just your common Taiwanese knock-off. For more on that, look into this interview with Tanio Kobayashi.

What's in the box:

In the box you get the VP-70M, its stock, a belt attachment for the stock, a small wire loading tool, several papers, and a small box of UHC BBs. I'll elaborate on the stock (and of course the pistol) later, and stick to the less substantial things in this section.

The only papers I've kept were the manual and the targets. If I didn't discard the others, then they're buried in my big drawer of manuals. The only thing that they were was two small sheets of paper that tells you not to shoot yourself in the eye, and that doing a drive by on some one walking his dog will result in you wearing handcuffs. Mostly common sense stuff. The targets were just your standard thin small paper airsoft targets that you get with most airsoft related purchases. The manual is a glossy paper folded into three. On the front it lists a bit about the real VP-70 and a few things about the airsoft version. Opening it up fully reveals the parts list on one side, and the instructions for use on the other. It's written well, only a bit of engrish, and lots of pictures. Some manual scans below:
Cover and Page 1
Pages 2 and 3
Parts list

The belt attachment piece attaches to the side of the stock so you can use it [the stock] as a holster. There are several ways to attach the belt holster attachment to a belt, and two ways to attach it to the gun. Personally, I find the stock too large and heavy, and it too hard to draw the pistol for any practical use as a holster. The HK was able to do the same thing, so it's a plus to be able to use the stock as a holster, even if you never do. Check the scan above for some examples found in the manual.

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g7/ChrisNorthInGer/UHC%20VP-70/Picture039.jpg

The loading tool is nothing more than a small wire with a loop on one end. Despite its simplicity, it works surprisingly well. To use it, just stick it into the small slot (it looks almost exactly like the nub to press the slide catch up on other GBB mags)
and push it down, then pour/push BBs into the mag. I've been able to use this tool for most of my GBB mags, but often its easier to use a Marui push style loading tool. Should you happen to lose this tool, you can just as easily hold down the follower with your thumb nail.

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g7/ChrisNorthInGer/UHC%20VP-70/Picture025-1.jpg

The included box of BBs look good enough to use. No noticeable seams, bumps, or burrs, although they do seem a bit less smooth compared to KSC's. The box says that there are 100 .20g BBs, but with out a scale I can't tell if either are true. There does appear to be less than 100, but who honestly cares?

Build, appearance, and feel:

I was quite surprised by the VP-70's weight at first. For a plastic framed pistol with a plastic slide, it is very rigid and has quite a bit of weight to it, even without the magazine inserted. External metal parts are not scarce. In fact, every thing that should be metal is except the barrel and slide. This includes the safety, the trigger, the mag catch, the chamber block (or whatever it's called), and the takedown piece. The frame is made of plastic, and is thick all around. The slide feels like it's made of the same plastic as the frame, but is smooth and a bit thinner. So far however, the UHC VP has been able handle propane with minor problems.

Internally, almost everything is metal. The blowback mech's frame is made of thick metal, as it should be. The entire frame of the pistol has a metal frame inside. Even the handgrip has a metal spine running through the rear of it. None of the metal used seems cheap, soft or brittle, and parts that move are quite thick. Most of the complicated hammer parts are made of the same silvery metal as the blowback frame.

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g7/ChrisNorthInGer/UHC%20VP-70/Picture026.jpg

Overall, the VP-70 looks pretty good. The slide looks a bit like metal, being smooth and even in a flat, gunmetal black color. On the rear and front ends of the slide where the slide is smooth, you can see where the two halves of the slide join. These are pretty hard to notice, but the way they looked like they were joined does make the slide look a little weak. On top of the slide running down the center there is a criss-cross pattern, possibly to cover up the seam where the two halves join, or maybe even to join the two halves. In either case, it doesn't look out of place.

The frame looks just as nice as the slide. The entire lower half of the pistol, with the exception of the inside an outside curves of the trigger guard, has a rough texture. This texture is not unlike a Glock's, but a bit more rough. You don't have to look that close to notice where the two halves of the lower frame join, but I would think that the seams look fairly realistic compared to the real VP-70.

Because I bought my UHC VP in the States, I don't know if the lack of HK trades is because they weren't added or because I they were removed. On the side of the pistol on the bottom of the grip it does say "VP70M," and where the HK mark would be there is a small criss-cross square. It looks a lot like some one melted them off, but the square looks too precisely placed to be done at a retailer by the hundred. On the front of the slide is also more VP trades, "Mod. VP'70, 9MM x 19." To the right of that there is small text that reads "This soft airgun is not the product of HK, but the duplicate to extract the attractiveness of VP-70." Then on the other side of the slide, it says "DESIGN & PRODUCED by TANIO KOBA & [UHC logo], MADE IN TAIWAN." There's also a number on the chamber along with two symbols and "TK."

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g7/ChrisNorthInGer/UHC%20VP-70/Picture033.jpg

The gun has a bulky top end, making it hard for me to see what I'm shooting at (a lot like the Desert Eagle, though no where near as large). The rear sight is non-adjustable, the front sight is like the real VP, a polished ramp that's meant to give the appearance of a blade, but instead of the polished metal it's just painted white on the UHC (like the Tanio Koba). I personally have a hard time using them effectively, but they work well enough.

The stock feels and looks very plasticy, although I would guess that the real VP-70's stock is the same. The parts where the pistol attaches to the stock and the internal 3 round burst shell are the only metal parts on the stock. I would assume that inside of the burst mechanism the parts are made like the hammer mech of the pistol, but I don't feel comfortable enough to take it apart to check.

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g7/ChrisNorthInGer/UHC%20VP-70/Picture034.jpg

Performance:

Without a chronograph, I can only estimate how hard the VP-70 shoots. Comparing it to some other guns, my best guess would be that it shoots around 275FPS with green and .20s, but like I said I could be way off. I've was able to shoot through both sides of the center of a Canada-Dry ginger ale can, if that helps you at all.

The hop up can be adjusted via the hex screw on top of the chamber after taking the slide off. So far, I haven't been able to get a BB to fly out any further than 85 feet. It almost seems like the gun is reverse hopping, because the bbs fly perfectly straight until about 75 feet, then they curve straight down. I don't see anything wrong with the hop, and reviews on the TK VP-70 seem to suggest poor range as well, so I don't think it's just me. Because the gun has such a poor maximum range, it really limits it to plinking or collecting.

I haven't had any real luck with accuracy, with a lot of the BBs being noticeable spread over an area. Despite what I have heard, there doesn't look like there is a TK Twist barrel installed. I haven't actually seen a TK barrel, but this one has no rifling to it at all, and looks no different than a normal GBB barrel. I don't quite understand why this is, even the box says the gun has a twist barrel.

Using green gas, the blowback is surprisingly strong, and tilts the gun upwards a bit in your hand. With the stock equipped, you only feel a slight tapping, even with the 3 round burst. This high kick is probably because of the weighty blowback unit and the fairly light light slide. The blowback action is also pretty loud, as well, and almost hurts your ears firing in a room with the door closed.

The VP-70 seems to have some cooldown issues, although these are only a real problem when using the burst mode. Because the gas pressure may become too low to cycle the slide fully, the burst mechanism won't reset and the gun will fire in full auto until the trigger is released! So far I've been able to get about 2 mags worth of gas per fill.

The trigger is single action unlike the DAO type on the real VP-70, although it is a little "weedy." I would rather a double action pull for the sake of realism, but I suppose that might complicate an already complex hammer mech, and probably wouldn't help with accuracy or rapid firing. One thing to note is that the safety is a "cross-bolt" type, like on a shotgun or rifle, instead of a lever safety like on most other airsoft guns (and the fire arms that they replicate). It can be pushed halfway on (or off, I suppose) and you will still be able to fire the gun, but the trigger will be sticky.

One thing that you may or may not know, is that the VP-70 does not have a slide catch. The real VP-70 doesn't either, but with that one if you run out of ammo, the gun will simply click once if you pull the trigger. With the airsoft VP, the gun will continue to fire even if you run out of BBs, so there may be times where you're just dry firing and not know it (this is pretty hard to do, unless you're really not paying attention.) This does make the VP very easy to dry fire purposely though, which is equally as fun as shooting with BBs in my opinion.

Besides the burst function, the stock doesn't offer anything performance wise besides an aid for keeping the gun steady while firing. Because this is airsoft, it really doesn't help improve aim by reducing felt recoil that much. Attaching the stock is fairly easy, just make sure the selector on the stock is on "1," or else you will damage the gun and the stock. The manual says that the stock will be easier to remove and attach after 3 or so attach/detach cycles. So far I've done it over ten times, and the stock is still hard to remove, but much easier to attach. Using the method on Just Pistols, I've been able to estimate that the UHC VP70's fires about 600RPM in burst mode. Click here for a clip of the VP-70 firing in burst mode.

Troubles:

Besides the some what poor hop up and lack of a twist barrel, I've had problems with the mag, and a sometimes unreliable burst mode. The mag's fill valve leaks if you don't fill it just right, and I've had trouble filling it with my AI propane adapter without it leaking. Reliability issues with the burst seems to be mostly down to cool down, though it is still a problem because I usually can't fire more than three bursts without the gun going full auto. Also, when I first took the VP70 out of its box, it was very dry and needed to be lubed for it to work smoothly.

I've been using propane since I got the gun, and so far I've only had two problems. The first is that the hammer spring is not very strong, and often the hammer falls and nothing happens. The other is that the disassembly lever can be shaken loose and cause the gun to fire full auto while using the stock or lock the trigger when not using the stock. This is easily fixed by tightening the small hex screw seen above the disassembly lever when it's pulled down. It's part number SC-2 in the manual.

Update: While some one was playing around with my VP with the stock on, they tripped and fell onto it, shatter a small part of plastic on the bottom of the stock where the pistol meets it and chipped two pieces off on the pistol where the stock meets it. I was able to superglue everything back together, and although the pistol works fine on its own, with the stock in 3 round burst mode the gun will only fire full-auto.

Upgrades:

Because the UHC VP-70 was designed by Tanio Koba, parts between the two guns should be interchangeable. I don't think anyone's tested this yet though, so don't take my word for it. There aren't really that many parts out there for it anyway, though.

Conclusion:

I'm a little disappointed with the VP-70. The few problems it has are fairly big ones, and not easily correctable. It's not a gun that I would recommend to anyone as a general purpose handgun like I would a lot of other GBBs. I would not advise against it for anyone who wants a VP-70 pistol however, because I feel that it is a good value for the price paid.

Found something wrong with this review? Have a question about it? PM my Arnies Airsoft User account, and I'll do my best to sort it out.

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