Sometimes, we don't post about airsoft tech, an FPS video game, the latest firearm, or a airsoft-culture icon here. We actually report about feats of military engineering. It may not be the most awesome firearm that we want to have an airsoft version with, but it is something that may just push forward the world's most high-tech military further into the future, with rivals still catching up with the previous military technology breakthrough.

In this case, it is about the U.S. Navy's latest weapon, which is simply called the Laser Weapon System (LAWS). If you will think about a light beams hitting targets quickly and accurately as seen in movies and television shows, then you're thinking of the right weapon.

The U.S. military have been researching on making lasers viable weapons platform just like sci-fi authors and futurists have been telling us. One of the the problem is the power systems that can sustain a high energy weapon like a laser. The other is the type of laser they want to use, which I will leave it to others to explain what these are.

On board the USS Ponce in the Persian Gulf, is the LAWS, which they tested against two targets --- one a speedboat and the other a drone. It successfully hit both targets with the operator using which looks like a game controller as seen in the video below:

The deployment of the LAWS in the Persian Gulf also is a warning to Iran that they have a weapon system that is about ready to go and defeat its strategy of "swarming" sending big numbers of fast attack boats the ships of the U.S. Navy patrolling the gulf, including aircraft carriers. This means that by overwhelming the ships with such numbers, a torpedo or an anti-ship missile may just get through and sink a capital ship, either an Aegis Destroyer, or the biggest, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. With a laser weapon system that can hit and destroy targets on the water or up in the air at a fast rate that the "swarming" approach will be futile.

But a single LAWS on board a single ship may not be enough, and it will take several LAWS installed in some ships in a fleet to be able to swat away the swarms. Now, it's just a matter of waiting when the U.S. Navy will give the green light to have this deployed for all their fleets worldwide.

Sometimes, your weekend just doesn’t start right. The site locked up so we cannot update it last Friday. I'm in the Philippines where I was caught in some horrendous traffic in Metro Manila where people now started their Christmas shopping and parties. Apart from that, the water I drank just made want to throw up all my insides.

That was yesterday. Today, well… the Weekend Feature Story which I expect to have posted still remains unfinished pending information I am expecting. Which means, we have to scramble what story to post.

I guess it has to be quick and light for this weekend as Alvin Diokno, also known as "Primo", the person of the custom ZM LR300 GBB Rifle sent me this link which seems appropriate enough to get you busy this weekend.

It's from the Outdoor Hub, and it's about properly pronouncing 10 gun names. Just when you think us airsoft players are good with our knowledge with firearms, we may just suck at pronouncing the names of some of the most iconic weapons in history, with the exception of the native speakers. But if you want to establish your authority on gun knowledge, perhaps pronouncing them as well as how their inventors did would help even more.

Now, test your pronunciation by watching the video below and repeating the names over and over again until you perfect your pronunciation of the following guns:

• Mosin
• Steyr
• Kalashnikov
• Garand
• Dragunov
• Sturmgewehr
• Tavor
• Heckler Und Koch
• Makarov
• Saiga

That's your homework for this weekend. If you fail to still pronounce their names, gimme 20 per wrong pronunciation. :-)

With thousands of airsoft players submitting their favourites for the various awards categories of the 5th Airsoft Players' Choice Awards, there is still much time for those who haven't submitted theirs yet. There are two weeks left for the Nominations Period where the top 5 nominees for each category will then proceed to the final voting round in January 2015.

Those who submit their list of nominees AND also vote during the voting period will qualify for the raffle draw. As for the raffle prizes, these are some of the desired airsoft guns and gear by airsoft players as we have explained last time with more to go. But we'll post them once again here.

Start nominating now!

CLICK HERE TO START SUBMITTING YOUR NOMINEES!

(Nomination Period: 1 December to 29 December 2014)

So what are the prizes that will be waiting for the lucky raffle winners? Here is the initial list and there will be more:

From Tokyo Marui:

Tokyo Marui HK417 Early Variant

Tokyo Marui M870 Breacher Gas Powered Shotgun

Tokyo Marui HK45 Gas Blowback Pistol

Tokyo Marui M&P9 Gas Blowback Pistol

From Gun-Fire which is mainly for European airsoft players:

E&L Airsoft EL-104 AEG

Specna Arms SA-V01 AEG

Three sets of Rockets BBs, Flashlight, Gloves, & Promotional Gadgets.

From SpecShop.pl:

ESS - Profile TurboFan Goggles - Foliage Green

Don't you love participating at the 5th Airsoft Players' Choice Awards? Start nominating and vote in the final round!

Please take time to click on the logos of our sponsors and visit their websites. Without them, the Awards won't be a reality and there will be no cool raffle prizes to give away:

MAIN PRESENTER

GOLD SPONSORS

GENERAL SPONSORS

Too bad, this product that I am writing about is NSFA (Not Safe For Airsoft) which is only it is possible to use for milsim games, many would love to have this in their loadouts. Why it is not safe? This gadget actually lets you shoot fireballs from your wrist to a distance of 10 feet. You would wish it can go farther, but perhaps for health and safety reasons, the developer wants it at that distance.

The product in question is called the Pyro Fireshooter. You can wear the shooter on your wrist allowing you to shoot four fireballs before reloading. For those doing some magic tricks or doing some fan film of Street Fighter, the visual effect of Pyro is awesome. If you really want to impress an audience, use Pyro, but make sure no one is standing in the way or you may just toast someone.

Designed by Adam Wilder, you can just get the super villain Pyro suit, and you can put up a performance. Pyro Fireshooter has 4 chambers so you have a maximum of four shots. These are triggered with a remote so you don't really have to wear the wrist shooter. But of course, the effect of shooting fireballs from your wrist looks more awesome than firing it from a distance.

If only we can use something like this for airsoft, such as a mini-smoke grenade so you immediately deploy smokes rather than fumbling through your vest finding which pouch your smoke grenade is located. Just stretch your arms to the direction where you want the smoke grenade to land, trigger it, and you just have created a screen for your movement. You will look awesome in front of your mates.

It is a novelty item, especially for Christmas. If you have US$174.00, you can order one right now but you will be in the next batch as the batch for 22 December has already been sold out.  Just bear in mind that this is not a toy and thus, careful use of the Pyro Fireshooter is strongly advised.

For fans of zombie themed movies, tv shows, and video games, here's another way for them to actively participate in determining the fate of a man and his daughter after the man survived an attack by the zombies. Called "5 Minutes" this is an interactive film made for Casio G-Shock, yes the popular watch series.

5 Minutes shows us the man pointing his gun at his head whilst his daughter waits in another room with the zombies trying to breach their apartment. But one thing is obvious, the protagonist has been bitten and may become an infected and it will take 5 minutes, hence the title.

Producer Felix Faißt and Director Niemann created 5 minutes while they were studying at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg which they then pitched to the Casio G-Shock. Since the project was already in advanced stages, it was easier for the company to appreciate the concept and led to a better financing of the project. But of course, we all know what the result of such support is.

Since it is an interactive, you as a viewer gets to be involved in helping the protagonist decide his fate and for his daughter. You will have to watch carefully as it will also involve some multitasking tasks. The let down is that it is not a pure zombie killing spree, but instead it's a problem solving test. And such tests can also help out, especially if you are working in a team, in this case for airsoft team which will need members with good problem solving skills.

Click here to start your five minutes.

I am really cool with my cheap and internally well maintained AEG but in order to talk about airsoft gears on these pages sometimes I need to go with the flow and jump on new bandwagons. I thought I will replace an MOE hanguard with a Keymod rail and see where the new hype takes me. My trusted retailer had one 332mm long rail on sale so I figured what could go wrong. I am awaiting Krytac products for review so it seemed like a good idea to see something else for comparison.

I ordered accessories as well to go on with the handguard: rail sections, flashlight mounts and I even crafted my own handguard panel out of old rail panels based on the open source material, because (hurray!) Keymod is open source. You would think no licensing fees means only good for chinese companies because they can do whatever they want (not that they care anyway). I even thought of coming up with a good design in AutoCAD and give it to my local machinist since the design itself is so easy, but after looking at the rail side of the datasheet a little better, I realized (at least I did) that there is more to it than keyholes cut into some aluminium.

On the website where I placed my order this rail is marketed as ACM, which means All China Made. In this case it covers Army Force but I am only guessing. I did not put a whole lot of effort into researching who is responsible because it won't be marketed under the same name anyway and I found out this out for a good reason.

Now let's look at the specifications of the Keymod rail system. Please be advised that I am not an engineer and some technical expressions might not be correct. I am just trying to shed some light on things so others can avoid paying for a rail which is not perfectly fine.

Let's not talk about the rough cut on the standard accessory rails and the fact that rail slot dimensions are not being up to spec because most accessories could deal with that problem. On the images the rail is pictured next to a GG&G (not G&G) rail which was designed to be used on real firearms, so I am guessing they know a little better and I need to state just by looking at it that they do know better.

Now that we got that out of the way, we can talk about the keyholes. At first glance, everything looks fine, hole diameters are correct and keyhole distances from each other are correct as well. The first accessory I tried was the rail section (made by AABB) even before the rail itself was mounted on the receiver. The rail section went on without problems but I found it odd that screws are sticking out too much on the inside.

Then I tried rail panels made by AABB and realized that something isn't right because they did not fit. It happened before that AABB did not get everything right so I reached for the G&P rubber panels but the result was the same. The rail is thicker than the part on the rail panel where it should grab the rail.

I figured I will use this rail anyway without the panels, but then the last drop just fell into the bucket: the top accessory rail was sitting higher than my receiver. I figured this must be a joke and sat down to my computer to look at the datasheet again. Right after that I started the RMA process with my retailer.

What's missing is a "tapering" inside of each keyhole. If you look at the drawing you can see that it isn't supposed to be a straight through hole. There is a 0.63 inches angled section of the hole where the "skirt" of the Keymod nut should fit, basically this is the negative print (if you look at it cross section) of a keymod nut and this supposed to be on the inside of the handguard. The bigger part of the keymod nut sits inside the accessory and not sticking out on the inside like with this rail. The "untapered" straight through hole runs 0.234 inches wide and 0.26 inches deep but on my rail this runs all the way straight through over three mm. The overall thickness of the rail wouldn't be a problem (the drawing only talks about minimum of 0.8 inches) as long as there is a place cut for the keymod nut to sit in but that is clearly not the case here. 

I get it. The CNC machine would have to spend more time with a correct and up-to-spec product and it requires a special tool but I seriously doubt this ever saw a CNC and more like it was made using a drill press. Edges are rough and only thick coat of paint covers further anomalies and shenanigans. This is not cool.

Don't get me wrong I have seen and used "cheap" products but at the end of the day I got rid of all of them. Here, I am talking about cheap optics only good for a day or two; rail accessories biting thread marks into the material on an expensive rail; threads disappearing out of holes after just one or two tightening; paints chipping off only by looking at it; parts incompatible; realizing that the website where you get your part used a different picture to display the product; and I could go on for days. Companies making such garbage should grow up and look around, the market is not the same anymore.

Only three messages to the company where this one is made but I seriously doubt anyone from that company is reading:

1. Hire me as director of manufacturing because even I am clearly better in understanding technical drawings than the personnel responsible for this nonsense although I do not have engineering background (as you can tell based on the wording of the article above);
2. Listen up because this one is the most important thing: STOP RIPPING OFF AIRSOFT PLAYERS!!!! The reason there is no brand name with your product is because people would know what NOT to buy. I think if you know that you're manufacturing defected product is the worst thing you can do; and
3. If you are ripping off an actual brand name at least try to spell it right. This is not even funny.

Obviously I did not get this part from the manufacturer so there is one more important thing to talk about and that is the retailer. Back in the day there were a few retailers for serious stuff and places for garbage, but now everyone sells pretty much everything because competition is so fierce. I like how WGC Shop puts this in the description of each ACM item and I quote: The above airsoft gun is made in China and will be tested before shipping. We will test the gun to ensure that it does work properly ( the qualified one in the test means it is able to use up one whole magazine ). However, we do not guarantee the quality of the outer surface of the airsoft gun. The quality of finishing may be imperfect and may have slight flaws.

My retailer promised me that they will get in touch with their supplier and this error will be rectified and the item on their website will be marked so no one will get false ideas about it. I only hope my actions will save some of your hard earned dollars.

Retailers in the EU and the States probably will do the same thing but sites in Asia won't do this for you, often they don't even accept returns on ACM items. Shady corners of Aliexpress and eBay will circulate this rail and many like it for a long time.

I guess I learned my lesson again: everything probably worth as much as you pay for it. Reverting back to MOE now...

As we go in to the last weekend before Christmas day, the makers of  the massive hit series, "The Walking Dead", AMS, have revealed information of a spin-off that would surely be taken as a big Christmas gift to the fans of the zombie-themed TV series. This spin-off would take place far from where "The Walking Dead" is being filmed and will be on the opposite side of the US.

Yes, the zombies will be invading Los Angeles, California and will take over Hollywood.

That's the first tidbit being revealed by various news and entertainment websites. The second tidbit is that it's going to be a prequel of the series, so this might just mean providing the origins of the zombie infestation that hit the USA.

The third piece of information, according to TVLine, is that the following actors have signed up: Cliff Curtis (Gang Related), Frank Dillane (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) and Alycia Debnam Carey (McLeod’s Daughters).

Apart from this information, everything related to the production of the spin-off is still kept under wraps. Even Los Angeles is not confirmed if location shoots will take place there, or they will be done in other locations made to look like the City of Zombies, eerrr… Angels.

Last 6 December 2014, I was privileged to attend a CQB competition that was held inside the Main Headquarters of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. The event was called the 1st Ice Box CQB Competition that was organised by HIT Philippines in cooperation with Marshalls Elite and supported by AFP Civil Relations Office under Lt. Col. Los Bañes.

4 airsoft teams made it to the event. The organisers were supposed to be expecting more but some of the teams which confirmed early on had to cancel their participation as Typhoon Ruby (International Code Name: Hagupit) had already entered the Philippines and was slowly making its way in the Central Philippines. Metro Manila was still untouched by the Typhoon on that day, but the airsoft teams which did not show up were on standby to help in rescue and relief operations in case the Typhoon hits their areas.

The teams were briefed and waited for the jump-off at the Parade Grounds and they were inserted into the mission area by a military vehicle that can handle a small unit team. The objective was the abandoned Logistics Command (LogCom) building which was burned in a major coup attempt by renegade soldiers in 1989. Within the  building were active soldiers who were provided as OPFOR by the AFP Civil Relations Office.

The story was that the teams were given the mission to rescue hostages and eliminate members of a drug syndicate in the building before any of the hostages get executed. The airsoft teams were free to determine the entry points to get the maximum advantage whilst up against a very experienced enemy.

After all the teams had gone through the missions, they were then all made to defend the building with the OPFOR soldiers allowed to attack the building in the spirit of fun. By almost sun down, the traditional AFP Boodle Fight, where stacks of food were laid out on a long line of banana leaves, where all partook in the food eating with their hands.

As for the results, here is what have been provided by the organisers:

Champion: Team Achilles
1st Runner Up:  Team NSG-1 and Rec Tag Bravo (Tie)

More photos of the event at the Popular Airsoft Facebook Page.

As we prepare for the holiday festivities this week, we hope you haven't forgotten making your list of nominees for the 5th Airsoft Players' Choice Awards. We are now going into the final stretch of the Nomination Period, as it nominations will close on the 29th of December 2014. Thousands of airsoft players have already submitted, and we look forward to receiving your list, if you haven't done it yet.

Also, we will again remind you that it is important that you submit your list of nominees and voting in the finals as doing both will qualify you for the raffle with fantastic prizes waiting for you as shown below. Your Christmas wish might just come true if you nominate and vote for the 5th Airsoft Players' Choice Awards.

Start nominating now!

CLICK HERE TO START SUBMITTING YOUR NOMINEES!

(Nomination Period: 1 December to 29 December 2014)

So what are the prizes that will be waiting for the lucky raffle winners? Here is the initial list and there will be more:

From Tokyo Marui:

Tokyo Marui HK417 Early Variant

Tokyo Marui M870 Breacher Gas Powered Shotgun

Tokyo Marui HK45 Gas Blowback Pistol

Tokyo Marui M&P9 Gas Blowback Pistol

From Gun-Fire which is mainly for European airsoft players:

E&L Airsoft EL-104 AEG

Specna Arms SA-V01 AEG

Three sets of Rockets BBs, Flashlight, Gloves, & Promotional Gadgets.

From SpecShop.pl:

ESS - Profile TurboFan Goggles - Foliage Green

Don't you love participating at the 5th Airsoft Players' Choice Awards? Start nominating and vote in the final round!

Please take time to click on the logos of our sponsors and visit their websites. Without them, the Awards won't be a reality and there will be no cool raffle prizes to give away:

MAIN PRESENTER

GOLD SPONSORS

GENERAL SPONSORS

It's a short one for today as we won't bother you with a long form story since we know that you are all preparing for your tomorrow's Christmas festivities. Even us here at Popular Airsoft, things have slowed down considerable as we're mainly now excited in spending the holidays with friends and family.

We hope that you have great plans this Christmas apart from ordering that awesome airsoft gun that you have been saving for. It's a season for hope, sharing, and caring, so let's make it work.

Merry Christmas geardos!

(Advisory: No news from 24 to the 26th of December. Regular news will resume on the 27th).

We're  back from a brief break (if you call it that way) from the Holiday celebrations as we closed shop from the 24th to the 26th of December 2014. This means that for those who have submitted news items and other announcements for us to post on these dates, they didn't get posted if they're effective only on those dates. We're going over submissions now and we'll post some of the news that are still relevant and in effect in the next few days until we close shop again for the New Year Festivities.

How was the Holiday break for you, our dear readers? We hope that they're as enjoyable as I did as I joined family and friends in the festivities. Nothing really "airsofty" to really write about as a weekend feature as we are still in the Holiday mood, which we bet most of you are still are.

What is really important right now is to give you our second to the final reminder to submit your list of nominees for the 5th Airsoft Players' Choice Awards. The Nominations period will end on the 29th of December 2014, which is basically two days away. So if you have not nominated yet, you still get a chance in the next two days.

Remember that if you nominate and vote for the 5th Airsoft Players' Choice Awards, you get to qualify for the raffle draw. It's time to submit your list right now and invite others to send theirs too by 2459H GMT on Monday, 29 December 2014.

CLICK HERE TO START SUBMITTING YOUR NOMINEES!

We're on the last day of the Nominations Period for the 5th Airsoft Players' Choice Awards. This means it's also your last chance to send your list of nominees to help them be in the shortlist of finalists when the Voting Period Starts. Only the top 5 nominees per category get to advance into the Voting Period for the awards and thus, your nomination will mean a lot to those you want to win an award.

Always a reminder for us, you can only qualify for the raffle if you submit your nominees and also vote for the finalist. Not all do this, which means you have better chances of winning a raffle prize that we will list a again below.

Will your favourites make it to the finals? We'll all find out when we post the finalists on the 5th of January 2015.

Nominate now! It's the final call!

CLICK HERE TO START SUBMITTING YOUR NOMINEES!

(Nomination Period: 1 December to 29 December 2014)

So what are the prizes that will be waiting for the lucky raffle winners? Here is the initial list and there will be more:

From Tokyo Marui:

Tokyo Marui HK417 Early Variant

Tokyo Marui M870 Breacher Gas Powered Shotgun

Tokyo Marui HK45 Gas Blowback Pistol

Tokyo Marui M&P9 Gas Blowback Pistol

From Gun-Fire which is mainly for European airsoft players:

E&L Airsoft EL-104 AEG

Specna Arms SA-V01 AEG

Three sets of Rockets BBs, Flashlight, Gloves, & Promotional Gadgets.

From SpecShop.pl:

ESS - Profile TurboFan Goggles - Foliage Green

Don't you love participating at the 5th Airsoft Players' Choice Awards? Start nominating and vote in the final round!

Please take time to click on the logos of our sponsors and visit their websites. Without them, the Awards won't be a reality and there will be no cool raffle prizes to give away:

MAIN PRESENTER

GOLD SPONSORS

GENERAL SPONSORS

Advisory: We're going on our New Year Break starting today as we allow ourselves more time to spend the holidays with our friends and relatives as well as greet the new year with them. We hope you are doing the same too, spending the holidays with those who matter most to you.

Thus, no news later in the day until the end of the 1st day of 2015. Regular posting will resume on the 2nd of January.

As we go into the new year, airsoft has grown as an industry. Whilst it is still dominated by companies in East Asia,  more companies from other parts of the world are joining as well. Airsoft is becoming a global industry now with new names from the U.S.A and Europe now making their own offerings in terms of airsoft guns and technologies that can be used by airsoft players.

We hope to see more next year, since the more choices for us, the better for the industry and the players. Companies will have to innovate and diversify their offerings and price ranges even more to meet more competition. For us airsoft players, it will be better products and services at good prices. Airsoft  companies cannot rest on their laurels now.

Here at Popular Airsoft we would like to thank the companies that have been supporting us over the years. All their review materials, ad placements, and news submissions have nourished us and helped us continue with posting about the latest news and issues in the airsoft world.

We all wish you a more prosperous 2015 and that business will be even better in the year of the Wood Sheep.

But most of all, we would like to thank our readers for making Popular Airsoft as a top airsoft news and information website in the world. Without your visits and clicks, we would not be where we are right now.

We wish you and your love ones a healthy and prosperous New Year.

Now, it's time to prepare the fireworks as we prepare to greet the new year tomorrow.

We hope you all greeted the 2015 with a big bang. We did it here in the Philippines as we're on a holiday break here. Celebrating new year in the Philippines is like getting into a warzone,  fireworks in almost every street with people just lighting up with abandon all kinds of pyros that can give colour and loud sound whenever they fire. No wonder that new year's eve is always greeted also with some unlucky houses and even whole neighbourhoods burning down caused by careless handling of fireworks.

There is even a more dangerous method of celebrating new year here --- firing guns in the air instead of just being contented with fireworks. There were incidents of people injured or killed by stray bullets from guns fired in the festivities.

So if you intend to greet the new year in the Philippines, you might want to support this project on Kickstarter called the The BulletSafe Bulletproof Baseball Cap. If this project takes off, since it already achieved its funding goals, we get something not intimidating and more familiar way of making our heads safe from high speed projectiles rather than wearing ballistic helmets all the time.

If you want to support this project, you can star from small denominations. But if you want to get BulletsSafe Cap, then you can pledge US$99 or more,  and still save money from the planned US$129 retail price when it gets released.

Does this project interest you? Then better go now to its Kickstarter page to learn more.

The U.S. Army has been using the Beretta M9 series as the official issued pistols, supplying over 600,000 for over 30 years with a recent contract of supplying 100,000 more M9s. The 9mm pistol has been the official sidearm and seen in many movies, especially in the award-winning "The Hurt Locker. However, the company will need to compete with other companies with the plan of the U.S. Army to upgrade its standard service pistol.

Even if Beretta has an advantage over the competition due to the familiarity of servicemen with its pistols, it expects a stiff fight over the new contract and as such released the Beretta M9A3 Pistol as its offering in this upgrade program.

The Beretta M9A3, whilst still looks the traditional M9 pistol, has more capacity and even more modular than its predecessors. Thus, it can hold two more rounds in its "sand resistant" magazine and more weapons accessories can be mounted easily on it such as suppressors and laser devices.

As explained by Gabriele de Plano, vice president of military marketing and sales for Beretta USA, “After listening closely to the needs of U.S. Army and other Service small arms representatives, we determined the M9, much like its counterpart legacy weapon systems like the M4, M16 and M240, was capable of being upgraded through material and design changes."

“The resulting M9A3 we are offering to the Department of Defense will likely cost less than the current M9, and will answer almost all of the Services’ enhanced handgun requirements.”

The color of the M9A3 will be released in "desert tone" as compared to the previous M9 models which are in black and the color choice was perhaps due to the adoption of the Operational Camouflage Pattern (OCP) which is based on the Scorpion W2 pattern that also was the origin of the Multicam pattern.

Expected to be submitting its bid for the Pentagon's "Modular Handgun System" are other well known companies such as Smith & Wesson.
As for those who are expecting a civilian version of the M9A3, Beretta will be putting one on display at the SHOT Show 2015 in Las Vegas this January.

It's reckoning time, finding out who or which the airsoft players will pick as the best in the various categories of the 5th Airsoft Players' Choice Awards. After almost a month of submitting nominations, we now have finally whittled down the top 5 nominees per category. Will the previous winners made it to the finals this time? Find out on the list below.

We are going to say goodluck to all the finalists! They can now campaign for votes of airsoft players from all over in order to win in the categories they are in.

As for the airsoft players, your vote will count, and you will have to make it count. If you want your favourite to win, you can share this page and indicate to your friends whom they shall vote for.

CLICK HERE TO START VOTING NOW!

(Voting Period: 05 January to 02 February 2015)

Here is the list of the finalists!

Best Airsoft Retailer for North America

Evike.com
Airsoft GI
AirSplat.com
MiR Tactical
Airsoft Atlanta

Best Airsoft Retailer for Europe

Gunfire
SpecShop.pl
RedWolf Airsoft UK
Sniper Airguns
Begadi 

Best Airsoft Retailer for Asia

eHobby Asia
RedWolf Airsoft
WGC Shop
First Japan
Echigoya Guns

Best Airsoft Magazine (Print or Digital)

ARMS Magazine
Airsoft International
Airsoft Insider
0'20 Magazine
Airsoft Action

Best English Language Airsoft News Website

Reddit /r/airsoft
Arnies Airsoft
Airsoft & Military News/Airsoft Community Europe
Thumpys 3d house of Airsoft
Airsoft 2Day

Best Non-English Language Airsoft News Website

WMASG
Hyperdouraku
Toy Soldiers Airsoft
AirsoftBB
Saba-Navi

Best Airsoft Blog

Hyperdouraku
Airsoft & Military News/Airsoft Community Europe
Airsoft Odyssey
Military Blog Japan
Airsoft Obsessed

Best Online Airsoft Community/Forum

WMASG
Reddit /r/airsoft
Airsoft Forums
Airsoft Society
Airsoft Verzeichnis

Best Airsoft Video (Posted Online)

Airsoft Wars Operation Lizzard V
Border War 6 The Sunseeker Official Video
Gunfire & SCDTV E&L AK Stress Test
DesertFox Airsoft The Most American Operator EVER!
Airsoft GI How to Get a Girl to Play Airsoft

Best Airsoft Event (with over 500 players)

Border War 6 The Sunseeker
Airsoft Wars Protector XI
Berget 12  Lords of War
Combat Alert
American Milsim Operation Broken Home 3

Best Airsoft Podcast or Video Channel

Airsoft Wars
DesertFox Airsoft
Airsoftology
Miekkopowietrzni
SCDTV

Best Tactical Gear Manufacturer

Condor Outdoor
Flyye Industries
Crye Precision
Miwo Military
5.11 Tactical
LBX Tactical

Best Eye/Face Protection Manufacturer

ESS Eye Pro
Bolle
Oakley SI
Revision Military
Wiley X

Best Airsoft Upgrade/Parts Maker

LayLax
SHS Airsoft
Lonex Airsoft
MadBull Airsoft
Guarder

Best Airsoft Kaboom! Manufacturer (Grenades, Pyros)

Airsoft Innovations
Tactical Game Innovation
Enola Gaye
MadBull Airsoft
Craft Apple Works (CAW)

Best Airsoft Pistol (regardless of power source)

Tokyo Marui HK45
Tokyo Marui Glock 17  Gen 3
Elite Force 1911 Tactical
VFC/Cybergun FNX-45 Tactical
KWA ATP AUTO

Best Airsoft Gas Rifle

KWA LM4 PTR
Tokyo Marui MP7A1 GBB
GHK M4 GBB Rifle
KWA KRISS Vector
GHK G5 GBB

Best Airsoft Electric Airsoft Gun

Tokyo Marui HK416D NEG
VFC HK416D Version 2
Krytac Trident CRB
Ares Amoeba AM-013
G&G Combat Machine CM16 Raider

Best Airsoft Gun Manufacturer

Tokyo Marui
G&G Armament
KWA
VFC
G&P

Special Airsoft Players’ Award

Jet DesertFox
Mach Sakai
Vorpal Bunnie
Alex "Bandit" Cruz
Robo Murray

Please take time to click on the logos of our sponsors and visit their websites. Without them, the Awards won't be a reality and there will be no cool raffle prizes to give away:

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GOLD SPONSORS

GENERAL SPONSORS

Now with the Voting Period of the 5th Airsoft Players' Choice Awards smoothly on its way to find out who and which will be the best in the categories, we would like to remind voters that they have a chance to win any of the raffle prizes that our sponsors have given for this event. These raffle prizes are some of the sought after products in the market these days.

The photo above is a set package deal prizes with the E&L Airsoft AK AEG from Gunfire for the lucky Europe-based voter. But there are more prizes for those who do not reside in Europe. Some of the prizes are from SpecShop.pl, and of course the latest products from Tokyo Marui.

CLICK HERE TO START VOTING NOW!

Find out more about them below. We hope the list alone would motivate you to vote and invite your whole airsoft teams to vote as well.

Start voting now!

From Tokyo Marui:

Tokyo Marui HK417 Early Variant

Tokyo Marui M870 Breacher Gas Powered Shotgun

Tokyo Marui HK45 Gas Blowback Pistol

Tokyo Marui M&P9 Gas Blowback Pistol

From Gun-Fire which is mainly for European airsoft players:

E&L Airsoft EL-104 AEG

Specna Arms SA-V01 AEG

Three sets of Rockets BBs, Flashlight, Gloves, & Promotional Gadgets.

From SpecShop.pl:

ESS - Profile TurboFan Goggles - Foliage Green

Don't you love participating at the 5th Airsoft Players' Choice Awards? Start nominating and vote in the final round!

Please take time to click on the logos of our sponsors and visit their websites. Without them, the Awards won't be a reality and there will be no cool raffle prizes to give away:

MAIN PRESENTER

GOLD SPONSORS

GENERAL SPONSORS

It's rare to hear from Systema Engineering releasing a product that is not part of their PTW and airsoft upgrade parts lines. Today, Kumi Yoshida, the Systema CEO sent us news about their Pendulum Target. It's not as high tech as their PTW products and uses no electronic parts. It is intended for developing dynamic shooting techniques.

We'll let her explain what this product is all about:

Regarding Peer Over Shooting

Our product (Pendulum Target), is a tool used to train in dynamic shooting techniques (peer over). Because the focal point of the target to the Pendulum Target is in constant motion, it trains the shooter to a moving target.

When the muzzle velocity from a firearm is 90m/sec, and a shooting range is 20m, arrival time to target is approximately 0.22 seconds.

Estimating the speed of the pendulum, the shooter will need to adjust the time of shooting .22 seconds prior to pulling the trigger as opposed to a non moving target.

Once the timing is grasped, the shooter should be able to hit the target rhythmically as the pendulum passes the zero point.

When the target is in a fixed position or has very little movement, it is necessary for the shooter to image sending the rounds to the target based on a fixed target; however for targets at a short distance as well as targets that are in motion, it is necessary to predict the location and image the shot placed prior to the current location in order to hit the target.

To make that happen, it is most effective to practice shooting at a moving target that will require predicting the location as the round hits the target.

Focusing on the term "shooting", it is easy to place attention to the performance of the weapon, however unlike aiming at a fixed target, in the case of a moving target, the concept of time is absolutely necessary to be factored in. 

To improve your shooting precision, please make use of this product.

Our apologies to Daniel and the rest of the Airsoft.nu crew. We were inundated with a lot of New year greetings that we failed to notice that their greeting contained something that the Swedish Airsoft Community are already celebrating about: Gas-powered airsoft guns are now legal in Sweden as of the 2nd January 2015. Talk about having a new year blast!

According to swegaslegal2013.info, airsoft players and retailers in Sweden are having the issue on airsoft gas guns:

The effect of the problem is that the Swedish Customs are interpreting the law to a tee.

They simply do not allow gas-powered airsoft replicas into the country.

This means that Swedish retailers are unable to offer the full range of gas-powered airsoft replicas.

End consumers are unable to import gas-powered airsoft replicas directly.

In most cases, attempts to import gas-powered airsoft replicas result in either one of the following scenarios:

• The goods are returned to sender by Customs.
• The goods are seized by Customs. 
• The goods are seized and destroyed by Customs.

And in some cases people have even been charged with weapons smuggling and brought in by the Police for interrogation...

As you can imagine this result in a lot of wasted time, money and energy and is cause for a lot of frustration for all parties involved.

There is currently no enforcement of the law from anyone except the Customs Office...

And that the solution is:

Simply by changing the law from:

"... powered by air, spring or CO2." to;
"... powered by air, spring, CO2 or equivalent propellants." the problem would be solved.

With some lobbying through the petition of Nonex of the Airsoft Sverige, the Swedish Parliament approved the proposed change and set the date for such change to effect on the 2nd of January. Here's the text from Airsoft.nu in English:

From today (2nd January 2015) gas powered guns are legal in Sweden.

The new law enable airsofters to import gas powered airsoft guns (eg. Green gas) without the chance of packages being stopped and Returned by the Swedish Customs.

Shops based in Sweden will be able to have a larger range of gas powered airsoft guns than before thanks to the new law as well.

We say congratulations to the Swedish Airsoft Community for their effort to have airsoft gas guns legalised. Now, all they have to do is wait for warmer temperatures for them to enjoy their gas guns once they start receiving theirs.

It's January and lots of things are happening at Las Vegas. Whilst we are all waiting for the SHOT Show 2015 to hear about the latest in firearms and airsoft technologies, right now we can learn more about consumer gadgets on display right now at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). What probably is an interesting gadget is the Sony SmartEyeglass Attach which is being discussed at different tech sites and blogs.

We are fascinated with the Heads Up Displays (HUD) that we can use for everday use. There are two well-known releases, the first is Google Glass, which is not taking off perhaps due to people not wanting to have an always on smartglass, and the Recon Jet from Recon Instruments which can be used for athletic purposes and now being used as a base smartglass for tactical purpose.

The proposition of the Sony SmartEyeglass Attach is allowing the user to immediately convert any existing eyewear, be it spectacles, sunglasses, or protective eyewear into a Smartglass.  This means that they can reduce cost of the Smartglass since there's no need to purchase the actual eyeglass/sunglass itself. Use it with any existing eyewear you have.

This means that for airsoft players, they can use their Oakley SIs, Wiley-X, Revision, Bolle, and all the other protective eyewear certified safe for use in airsoft together with the Sony SmartEyeglass Attach provided there is a frame to which it can be attached to.

There is still much to learn about this product so we'll have to find more information on the various uses and what applications can be developed with it. If it is compatible with mobile devices such as smartphones using Android or iOS, then application developers can the apps needed to exploit the capabilities of this gadget. For airsoft, milsim apps such as mission objectives, maps, rules, and team coordination and sharing of information can be used with it.

The Smartglass technology is still slowly making its way as people are still hesitant to wear something that would make them look like the Borg. Perhaps Sony's SmartEyeglass Attach is something that can help lower that resistance.

Press release below:

Sony Announces the Development of a Compact, Lightweight Single-Lens Display Module with OLED Technology That Enables Superior Image Quality

When attached, turns eyewear into a smart device capable of displaying visual information

With this module, Sony has achieved a compactness of size and a lightness of weight that make it possible to attach the module to a piece of eyewear. It accomplished this by equipping the device with a High-Resolution Color OLED Microdisplay, a Micro-Optical Unit that brings out the full potential of the display's high image quality, and a miniaturized control board with arithmetic processing capabilities on par with smartphones that was made possible by high-density packaging technology.

This display module possesses the potential to enrich users' lives in a variety of ways. By simply attaching it to a pair of fashionable glasses, goggles, sunglasses, or other type of eyewear, you can instantly gain access to visual information that adds a level of convenience to your everyday life. The module also has potential applications in sports or for work, among other areas, displaying helpful information that supports you in the activity you are engaged in. And this is all done in a small sub-window that does not obstruct your field of vision. Because the module is easily attachable/detachable, you can use it only when you want to, and you have the option to store it away if it does not suit the occasion. Sony's new module presents the opportunity to begin incorporating glasses-style smart devices into your life in a comfortable, easy way.

Sony is aiming to start mass production of this display module within the coming year. It is looking to provide the product to a wide variety of potential customers, from eyewear makers whose pieces are tailored for specific uses such as sports or entertainment, to electronics manufacturers who are considering pairing their products with wearable devices, to companies that provide business solutions utilizing wearable devices. By making the product available to such a wide range of outlets, Sony will promote the adoption of wearable devices in new areas, thereby contributing to the further development of the market. Sony will also provide software development kits (SDK) to partnering organizations for this Single-Lens Display Module boasting rich arithmetic processing capabilities, thereby embarking on a new commercial solutions business that will broaden the world of wearable devices.