Algy

https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/edinburgh-news/east-lothian-dad-caught-trying-27148827 Some hapless fellow in Scotland imported an "air rifle" which got nabbed by customs, police then made a couple of visits to the addressee and discovered and seized his toys. He believed he was allowed to import as was a member of the "UK Air Soft Association" and other gun clubs. He ended up in court and lost his seemingly considerable collection despite most of them being "legally held". I know air rifles etc. in Scotland are licensable (if that is what he actually imported), but it seems a bit arbitrary for what are essentially toys to be confiscated by the court, especially where it was conceded that they were in fact, for the most part, held legally. **Edited link

First thought on seeing those prices is 'a fool and his money are soon parted', but there are presumably enough people out there who are money rich and time poor, who don't have the time to research and tinker to achieve similar results on their own, which probably makes this endeavour worthwhile for Patrol Base. When I started out in airsoft I baulked at the prices for some (toy) guns, and didn't mind gutting internals of lower end stuff and fettling to make them shoot as well or better than more expensive stuff. But now having made the grave error of growing up, and having too many children and other responsibilities eating away at my time, I don't mind forking out for something a bit pricier that doesn't require completely overhauling to be satisfied with. Not £1.4k though.

Wearing full Russian ,or even Ukrainian, clobber at the moment would be in poor taste. But that didn't stop plenty of guys going full LARP during the Global War on Terrorism, when it can't be said that US/UK/Allied nations always acted with the utmost moral rectitude. Nobody's breaking any laws other than transgressing good taste, but there's no accounting for taste.

The going rate on Japanese and Taiwanese sites for these rifles seems to be £260-300. I think it's just the scarcity over here that is driving the high price, the SMLE has been out in Japan for some time, but obviously being closer to the source they've had fewer supply issues.

I have the metal bodied EBB version, which I am assuming is otherwise internally identical to the JG080. It was fairly decent ootb, nothing to write home about, but certainly good enough for the price, much like most JGs. Go for it if you like the look of it, it doesn't have any fatal flaws as far as I'm aware.

Perhaps the $530 price there is premium as they seem to have the first batch? I've seen a couple of Japanese sites where the pre-order cost is around $390-415. Still a tad pricey, but a bit more reasonable, at least for a product that isn't exactly going to fly off the shelves.

To be fair, its's an ad for toy guns, and the guy playing Marui Man isn't a professional actor, he's a Japanese gun nut/journalist. Although he somehow managed to get bit parts in Terminator 2 (Mall Employee Shot by T-1000) and True Lies (Japanese Party Goer in the last scene), which is pretty cool. https://anidb.net/creator/48343