Speedbird_666

Well, the one down my shed for starters. It's been well known that the Edge series has had some serious QC issues. Even their Brand Ambassadors have said so. There are quite few videos on Youtube - both Negative Airsoft and Bigbird Airsoft have covered it. Just because you got a 'good' one.....🙄

That's fair enough. But it seems the days of cheap guns from Poland have gone. I've been buying guns in the various sales over the last year from UK stores, there were many bargains to be had. Not TaiwanGun cheap, but still significantly better than normal UK retail. May I ask, how much was your order total? I'm trying to wrap my head around the 'Government Charges' bit and see if roughly correlates with Import Duty and VAT.

G&G captured the low-end market for some time, no doubt about it. But then they started jacking up their prices (even announcing a worldwide 10% price hike on their website). Problem is, the other manufacturers have caught up and often undercut G&G in terms of cost for comparable features, or exceed G&G's feature set for comparable cost. A basic CM16 (no rails, standard plastic hand guard front end) will set you back £125. A Specna CORE can be had for cheaper (£110-£120), with a much better feature set (a choice of rails/lengths, Quick change spring, tightbore barrel, rotary HOP). There is now no compelling reason to buy a G&G Raider (£140) because for a few quid more you can buy significantly better guns. Other and new manufacturers are also entering the game (e.g. Evolution and Saigo Defense) saturating the sub-£150 market even further. Yet G&G are still churning out the same old stuff, hoping their name alone is a worthy selling point.

Indeed. I've been playing for 15 years now. My first ever overseas Airsoft order was placed only 12 months ago - funnily enough with TaiwanGun. The rest of my guns/gear were bought from UK suppliers anyway. New players will get sucked into the sales pitch from shop staff - not realising that they can buy cheaper from elsewhere. Spend 20min in the Zero One* showroom on a Saturday morning and you'll see plenty of punters paying over the odds for their first shooter. *Not dissing Z1. They have staff to pay, family to feed, Mercedes to buy etc, so if people are willing to pay their prices, then fair enough.

It's a fair price for what it is. Very niche, but I'm sure there's someone out there who will want it.

Not a lot. UK Airsoft will be fine. I would wager that most new players get their kit from UK vendors, especially those that live close to a bricks and mortar store/showroom. It's the more experienced hands that will be hit hardest with this.

ASG only manufactures one gun - the Scorpion Evo. Everything else is OEM'd by (in no particular order) Classic Army (most recent Armalite Series), Lonex (Proline LMTs and older Armalites), G&P (Other older LMTs), VFC (Spectre Series YHM M4), JG (G36s).....etc etc etc. So there's no simple answer. G&G Combat Machines were the go-to starter gun for many years. But they've now out-priced themselves and you get don't very much for your money. CYMA - The VFC style metal AKs are excellent and relatively cheap (the CM.045 is great), their M4s are much better with the newer internals. Specna - Each of their product lines has a different OEM manufacturer. The 'One' and 'Core' series offer decent, if unremarkable performance but good value. On paper the 'Edge' series should be a killer deal, but are plagued with QC issues. *EDIT* @Skara posted literally the same thing as me at the same time, but in more detail. 🙂

That's funny, my BF-888s were definitely not legal on the pre-programmed channels. The radios came with high-powered mode set as default, which can't be changed without the programming cable. I'm not even sure the low powered setting is actually below the limit either. Then there's the small issue of removable aerials. PMR446 units cannot have them (so as to not increase their range buy adding a larger one), so even if the power is within the legal PMR446 limits, they are illegal anyway. So, it comes down to the classic 'pick two out of three' scenario. - Cheap - Legal - Good Pick any two, but you can't have the third. So: Cheap and Legal - Binatone and other low-end guff. Unlikely to be good though. Cheap and Good - Baofeng, but it won't be legal. Legal and Good - Motorola and equivalents, but it won't be cheap. Just my 2p.

Best value? Baofeng. Legal?...umm...no. Doesn't stop lots of people buying them though. If you want a legit PMR446 radio, I'd say something from Motorola, perhaps the TKLR series.

Gawd, it looks fucking awful. I've been following this thread with interest. Very tempted to pick an AAP-01 up on payday.

Yeh - just found it. I'm resisting the urge to order anything from Ali until the Chinese New Year has passed. Any problems with shipping with the new VAT rules?

That sure does look very nice. SomoGear? https://www.somogear.com/product/somogear-ngal-red-aiming-laser-ir-laser-flashlight/

TBH, I have never run an alarm with my LiPos. Generally I switch packs during the lunch break. Never had an issue with over-discharge, but I do take a cell checker with me. When I switch LiPos at lunch there’s normally around 50% capacity left (2s 1300mAh Turnigy NanoTech), but it depends on how trigger happy you are. Then when I get home, I storage charge then keep them in a bat-safe box.

How about this one? - it's a smaller, inline version that plugs between the battery and gun: https://www.componentshop.co.uk/in-line-low-voltage-alarm-deans.html

You mean a LiPo battery alarm? They are £3 posted from eBay. Plug into the balance plug of the LiPo, stick it in the foregrip of your G36. It'll beep if the cell voltage drops below 3.7v

So can HMRC through Direct Recovery. The new rules came in a few years back just before I left the department. If you owed more than £1K in tax, and had over £5k stashed across your bank accounts, the money can be taken directly from the bank if you ignore HMRC trying to contact you.

As previously mentioned, it could be currency fluctuation. I've seen the prices go up and down a few quid each way quite a few times on TG. I've no idea how frequently they update their conversion rates - it could be a built into their shops back-end system to pull the spot rate automatically.

Struggling a bit to find anything that really excites me. So far my Wishlist is pretty meh: 1) Some kind of mechanical HPA setup (either Tippmann M4 or Polarstar Kythera) 2) an MP5 - preferably a 'K' model. 3) an LCT or E&L AK - Krink length with a buffer tube (heresy I know) 4) ASG Bren 2 5) ASG Scorpion Evo If was really really flushed with cash: 6) TM NGRS SCAR - Just to see what all the fuss is about.

TG stock a lot of stuff that’s not readily available from UK suppliers, so for me cost is a lesser issue, it’s about having choice of products. For example, they have the CYMA blue edition MP5K in stock, which I’ve yet to see here in the UK. Handling fees are annoying, but it’s the import duty that will be the kicker, if it’s charged at all.

Taiwangun are not charging Polish VAT on sales to the UK. All the prices have been dropped by 23%. UK VAT is chargeable at import, collected by the carrier. Not sure about the duty side of things as to whether it is chargeable under the free trade agreement or not. So net we gain 3% on the VAT difference, but that will be swallowed in carrier charges. The shipping cost has been dropped a little I notice, just over £9.

Just realised that the PCC45 mags are not compatible with the UMG. The feed port is at the front of the Mag (M4 style) compared to the UMG (at the back). Vs Well, that's an opportunity wasted.

I think the Bushidos are full metal. The lower end Saigo Defense models (Ronin, Kenji and Shinobi) are plastic-bodied and are in roughly the same price ball-park as Evolution.

Basically. But I quite like it - especially when the rails are stripped off.

Yeh, now you mention it the UMG/P was a bugger with the length of it's mags. The gun was decent otherwise. Now, if a manufacturer came up with a UMP9 instead.......

Try the G&G UMG version. Excellent quality plastics. Saw the PCC45 the other day on US Airsoft's channel. I quite like it.