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Why did you start airsoft?
If memory serves I was interested in either airsoft or paintball when I was younger (mid-teens), there just happened to be an airsoft site more locally so parents were much more willing to take me. The obsession just grew from there, though as many have I've had a few spells of disappearing for a few years before coming back.
 
What do you like about airsoft?
This time around, the social aspects. I relocated for work within the last few years and felt I needed something to get me outside and meet people with a common interest, which tends to be a bit harder to do as you're getting older. Outside of that, gucci gear.
 
What don't you like about airsoft (not including KM or non hit taking, something more substantial please)?
Maintainence, prep work before heading out for a day/weekend, folks that moan about things rather than taking (what I see to be) the correct path of amending them e.g. moaning about 'cheaters' but not once telling a marshall. That's pretty much it, I've been around the hobby long enough to not let the usual suspects bother me too much. I've been in the hobby on and off for about 15 years and it's the same things that are still 'problematic'. I guess I've just learned to accept them as quirks, for better or for worse.
 
Do you think airsoft has any health benefits I.e keeping you fit etc ?
I'm just going literally steal what @Lozart says here. Couldn't have said it better myself... at least not without potentially upsetting people.
 

A TM G34 with all the trimmings (shoutout to the lovely Prowin mags) and a pair of TRMRs with multi shot bases from a lovely bloke on here that’s unfortunately leaving the game. Genuinely gutted because I’d have loved to get some games in with him, but it’s come to a good home. This’ll be the new ‘CQB primary’ stuff.
 
The arrival of some additional long WTFix straps means I could finish putting the Crye Airlite chest rig together, and my Ferro FCPC v5 arrived from the US. Placard is very much a placeholder, not entirely settled on what will live there just yet.
 

I largely disagree entirely with this statement. In my opinion you should put more effort into researching eye pro than you should any RIF you ever purchase.
 
I wouldn't personally entrust my vision to anything made by Valken or Nuprol, QC is my main concern here. Bolle and Revision are both brands known to be up to the task, worth considering how much you tend to sweat/how likely you are to fog protective eyewear up. Not being able to see where you're going/what you're pointing your shooty stick at/moving your eye pro to clear fog is just as dangerous as wearing inappropriate eyewear. Assuming you value your vision, take some time, look at testimonials and go from there.
 
Also worth considering the shape of your face when picking up eye pro, uncomfortable protective equipment will happily ruin your day.

Don't know if it counts for much but I have just had an email saying words to the effect of 'Hi, you have a parcel coming tomorrow which requires a signature'.
 
As for travelling to local depots, the majority of that tends to happen overnight so it's certainly not out of the question. Ultimately I'm not particularly arsed either way, takes as long as it takes, but I'm aware others are significantly more bothered for various reasons.

I largely disagree entirely with this statement. In my opinion you should put more effort into researching eye pro than you should any RIF you ever purchase.
 
I wouldn't personally entrust my vision to anything made by Valken or Nuprol, QC is my main concern here. Bolle and Revision are both brands known to be up to the task, worth considering how much you tend to sweat/how likely you are to fog protective eyewear up. Not being able to see where you're going/what you're pointing your shooty stick at/moving your eye pro to clear fog is just as dangerous as wearing inappropriate eyewear. Assuming you value your vision, take some time, look at testimonials and go from there.
 
Also worth considering the shape of your face when picking up eye pro, uncomfortable protective equipment will happily ruin your day.

Depending on what the eye pro is generally attaching lower face pro is pretty simple, just a case of popping some cable ties through the mesh of the lower face pro and through the ventilation holes/any other hole you can find on your eye pro. Tends to work best with goggles in my experience because there are plenty of points to pop cable ties through on the under side.

A TM G34 with all the trimmings (shoutout to the lovely Prowin mags) and a pair of TRMRs with multi shot bases from a lovely bloke on here that’s unfortunately leaving the game. Genuinely gutted because I’d have loved to get some games in with him, but it’s come to a good home. This’ll be the new ‘CQB primary’ stuff.
 
The arrival of some additional long WTFix straps means I could finish putting the Crye Airlite chest rig together, and my Ferro FCPC v5 arrived from the US. Placard is very much a placeholder, not entirely settled on what will live there just yet.
 

A TM G34 with all the trimmings (shoutout to the lovely Prowin mags) and a pair of TRMRs with multi shot bases from a lovely bloke on here that’s unfortunately leaving the game. Genuinely gutted because I’d have loved to get some games in with him, but it’s come to a good home. This’ll be the new ‘CQB primary’ stuff.
 
The arrival of some additional long WTFix straps means I could finish putting the Crye Airlite chest rig together, and my Ferro FCPC v5 arrived from the US. Placard is very much a placeholder, not entirely settled on what will live there just yet.
 

A TM G34 with all the trimmings (shoutout to the lovely Prowin mags) and a pair of TRMRs with multi shot bases from a lovely bloke on here that’s unfortunately leaving the game. Genuinely gutted because I’d have loved to get some games in with him, but it’s come to a good home. This’ll be the new ‘CQB primary’ stuff.
 
The arrival of some additional long WTFix straps means I could finish putting the Crye Airlite chest rig together, and my Ferro FCPC v5 arrived from the US. Placard is very much a placeholder, not entirely settled on what will live there just yet.
 

Pretty much. Buying something that’s in stock, for the stated price and receiving it within a reasonable window of time (generally dictated by the postage paid for) should be the normal baseline a company operates by... granted that’s not always the case. But I’d be reluctant to say ‘xxx company is amazing because I always receive the things I buy’, that should be common place for anywhere.
 
The ‘real good retailer’ stripes are earned by those that go above and beyond when shit goes south. Suffice to say I’ve only seen evidence of that in a negative light in regard to HPA.

Ahh, right you are. Feel like a right berk now.

I’m not sure a stock adapter, stock, foregrip, red dot, weapon light and suppressor really help with that high a price to be honest 👀.
 
Though I will say I’ve never understood the comparison of prices between airsoft RIFs and ‘real gnus’. They’re very different beasts, bought for very different reasons. No matter how much cheaper I could pick up a real AR for versus my airsoft one, I’ll never be able to skirmish with it so it’s a somewhat moot point... not to take away from the fact that the Redwolf price is absolutely wild, but still.

Disagree with the FN57. Its a modern classic!

I don't have any recommendations per se in terms of the 'form' that is generally person preference, I generally veer towatd T1/T2 replicas because I like the look... not much more thought has gone into it than that. With the general theme being inexpensive I'd probably advise giving a hint toward your preferred look and then folks with experiences of various replica of that type can share their thoughts.
 
One thing I would consider which caught me off guard, are you aware of whether you have an astigmatism at all? I was gutted when I picked up a fancy reflex sight only to discover what should have been a lovely crisp dot looked more like a firework going off. I've found using similar optics with both eyes open (which was something entirely new to me) lessens how bad it is and makes it entirely workable. Just food for thought, I'd gone through 30 years on this Earth having no idea I had anything going on with my eyes... because there is seemingly very little an astigmatism actually effects in day to day life.

Pretty much. Buying something that’s in stock, for the stated price and receiving it within a reasonable window of time (generally dictated by the postage paid for) should be the normal baseline a company operates by... granted that’s not always the case. But I’d be reluctant to say ‘xxx company is amazing because I always receive the things I buy’, that should be common place for anywhere.
 
The ‘real good retailer’ stripes are earned by those that go above and beyond when shit goes south. Suffice to say I’ve only seen evidence of that in a negative light in regard to HPA.

i think its mostly the short mag, i understand they're somewhat rare for the vector.

Pretty much. Buying something that’s in stock, for the stated price and receiving it within a reasonable window of time (generally dictated by the postage paid for) should be the normal baseline a company operates by... granted that’s not always the case. But I’d be reluctant to say ‘xxx company is amazing because I always receive the things I buy’, that should be common place for anywhere.
 
The ‘real good retailer’ stripes are earned by those that go above and beyond when shit goes south. Suffice to say I’ve only seen evidence of that in a negative light in regard to HPA.

T1/T2's are small red dot sights, the real steel is made by Aimpoint. There are a heap of replicas for them, sights such as the Vortex Crossfire also have a very similar footprint.
 
FC1 is a new one to me, a quick Google tells me they're a prism red dot. 'Prism' optics are often a go to option for folks that suffer with astigmatisms but still want a red dot-esq optic rather than a traditional rifle scope. The reason they're good for folks with astigmatisms? They have an etched reticle on a lens, much like a traditional rifle scope, (which is often illuminated) rather than a 'reflected' red dot as most conventional red dots do. TLDR, the fact it's an etched reticle rather than a 'reflected' one means astigmatisms don't effect the view of the dot.
 
RMR's are small reflex sights, the real steel is made by Trijicon. Again, a fair amount of replicas out there. In some circles RMR has kind of just become a colloquial term for 'reflex sight'.
 
Red dots and reflex sights work much the same in general terms, real steel holographic sights function differently but as mentioned previously by hitman the replica version tend to just be red dots in a holographic sight body.
 
I've only ever used Vortex magnified optics (because I seemingly have more money than sense). I believe 'Vision King'  are a well regarded fairly budget brand of magnified optics within airsoft circles. But I'll allow someone with actual experience with them to elaborate.
 
(If anyone knows better than I do here and believes anything I've said is inaccurate please correct me and I'll edit this post to prevent the spread of misinformation.)

Apologies, I just found it.  Thanks for the tip.

This s*** right here, this is why I play airsoft. 
 
 

I genuinely hope it's at least moderately useful. I've been in a very similar situation multiple times across my time in the hobby (give or take 15 years), some for similar reasons and some for entirely different ones. In this instance I think you've hit the nail on the head, not being able to go out and play definitely amplifies the 'is this all really worth it' element. I've nearly thrown in the towel at least 3 times in the last year, but I know full well being honest with myself that without airsoft things to enjoy/grumble about the last year would have been significantly harder because I'd have had very little to be looking forward to at the tail end of all that's going on.
 
Waffle away, getting it out there is a damn sight healthier than having it all bouncing around your noggin entirely untamed.

Thanks for the valuable input - and I mean that. The airsoft community is great for providing feedback and solutions. I guess this is the one place I can come to for some positivity and reassurance about the whole ordeal. Maybe I just need to get back out to a field get a couple of kills and get over-shot by a couple of newbies and I'll be back with a shit eating grin waiting for my order to cross the channel in a less than ideal time frame at a more expensive rate. What can I say I don't like change (not according to my CV) but I don't adapt well and I'm just waffling. I feel much better, thank you. 

My reply wasn’t a simple ‘if you don’t like it, find something else’. That was very intentionally the final option listed.
 
You in no way need to defend how you wish to make your purchases, everyone is entitled to their preference. But you’ll need to answer the question yourself as to how set in your preferences you are, and whether the need to deviate from that is enough to put you off entirely. Because that’s ultimately where we are now, like it or lump it (the vast majority of us falling in the latter camp I imagine) things aren’t the way they were.
 
If your criteria is as set in stone as you say it is, the second hand market seems to be the closest thing to a solution I can put forward. If that’s a no go for whatever reason, then I’m fresh out of ideas.

Very much ‘just another mayo AR’, but it’s my ‘just another mayo AR’.
 
Finally got around to modifying the dust cover so it holds shut, and threw a PDI 6.05 barrel in there (no idea what effect that’s going to have until I get an opportunity to shoot it further than I currently can). Just waiting on a Mini2 replica to show up from HK (ordered mid December, so lord knows when that’ll show up) and I reckon the dishes are done.
 

 
Turns out the colour of BCM FDE looks nothing like it does in person in photos 🤷🏻‍♂️.

Hahahaha, regrettably I don’t think I ever spent more than 5 minutes at a time ‘ghillied up’ indoors (largely because the dog was not a fan of it at all). Generally just threw it on to make sizing adjustments and get my long suffering girlfriend to take some photos so I could check for halo screen/raffia coverage. And now the vast majority of my ‘leafy boy’ stuff has new homes.
 
Throughout it all I’ve definitely found a additional use for chest rigs and plate carriers with ‘emergency doffing’ capabilities. It’s been a close shave with answering the door to delivery drivers in the full ensemble on a few occasions 😅.