What exactly is WE Europe?

[emilianoksa]

I have two WE pistols. One is a WE Europe product from Patrol Base and the other a WE.

 

The boxes are different. One has a nice illustration of the pistol and the other is just the normal black box.

 

Some have suggested there may be better quality control on the WE Europe guns. Most British retailers seem to source their guns direct from Asia. One or two state that their guns are from WE Europe? Is there any real difference? Why are there two WEentities?

 

Is there actually a company in Europe that imports WE guns for distribution?

 

Is there any reason why guns from this company should be preferred over the usual WE products intheir black boxes?

[Tiercel]

See I was always under the impression that WE Europe is better because... erm... well I dont really know now. I vaguely recall many moons ago being told that WE Europe stuff is their newer stuff and has better QC than their Asian counterparts. However thinking about it Im pretty sure theyre going to be made in the same factory to the same standard. 

 

Maybe its all a clever marketing ploy to make people like me think "oh its made in Europe rather than some Chinese sweatshop, it must be better!"

[emilianoksa]

I also thought it might be a marketing strategy.

 

You can get WE USA branded stuff in America.

 

Perhaps these are just deports in the UK and US for faster distribution to retailers.

 

But that kind of begs the question: why do most retailers in this country appear to source their guns from Asia?

 

Perhaps they are cheaper.

 

But as you say, they all come from the same factory, and the notion that some have better quality control than others is not very convincing.

[emilianoksa]

Most UK retailers appear to import WE pistols from Asia.

 

The few that advertise WE Europe products tend to charge more for the guns - sometimes substantially more.

 

Do any of you buy WE Europe in preference, or do you regard all WEs as substantially the same and just go for the best deal?