You'll have to excuse me here, as this new post is going to meander all over the place... First up and in no particular order, other than that which it rolls out of my left ear.. that film I've been ranting about... Equilibrium (you can find the trailer here).

Equilibrium - film of the week revisited
So what's new in the Arnie'sAirsoft world?
Airsoft world gone M4 crazy?
Future developments

Equilibrium - I don't know how many people read my 'film of the week' post a week or so back, but the film Equilibrium (aka Librium for some releases and EQ for short) looks to be about to do the rounds in Japan (see Equilibrium's Japanese website).

Proving that you can find anything on the 'net, I finally managed to track down a great fan website for the film that fills the advertising void (The Equilibrium Movie fan-site). Sadly the film studios have no dedicated site for its own release - and as of writing this news post I still have around 13 days to wait for my pre-ordered copy of the DVD to turn up.

Reading around the subject it becomes clear why the movie leaves with with an uneasy feeling that they really could have pushed the envelope further and done more. Well that's the way the production team felt, they had big plans for EQ, but their creative urges were somewhat curbed by a very tight budget (see movie production notes)

With Matrix2 due for release this year it'd be easy to overlook this EQ (suits, guns, Keanu Reeves with a bad British accent, more guns and kung-fu? - yeah that's the one), but my advice is don't - it has some original concepts and ideas in it; although anyone old enough to have read George Orwell's 1984, or have seen Fahrenheit 451 may recognise certain familiar concepts. My guess is that the 'GunKata' and specifically the Cleric's sidearm may well strike a note with Airsoft "gun-porn" lovers around the globe (here's hoping that the world releases inspire some custom replicas).

(Please note EQ images above are from The Equilibrium Movie fan-site - used with permission. Equilibrium and its images are the property & courtesy of Dimension Films)

"gun-porn?" I hear you say? Ah before the deluge of emails hits me, it's not like it sounds - honest! If you need to blame anyone, please PM Blondie - it was his idea. ^_^

"...Having recently found out I'm not the only one who enjoys a bit of the old 'Gun Porn' the night before a skirmish or whilst cleaning kit I thought I might suggest we combine knowledge to come up with the ultimate GP list..." (source: forums)

But seriously though, I'd bet that there's more than a handful of readers out there that are more than a little fed up with Hollywood films that take themselves seriously yet still miss the fundamental basics in firearm action sequences (such as most mainstream semi automatic pistols locking back on the final shot). I bet there's still more that take pleasure in watching the odd mindless film featuring wildly unrealistic (yet quite often funny) firearm action sequences.

So go on.. sling on over to your favorite DVD watering hole and per-order that puppy, make sure you have a few cold ones on ice, sit back and enjoy the film. Should you happen to wander over to Play.com with your flexible friend in your wallet I can't be held responsible for excessive purchasing when your other half spots your 'DVD splurging', and remember I never even mentioned Dog Soldiers, Resident Evil, Leon, Lilo and Stitch ("cute and fluffy!")... okay I'll stop now.

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So what's new in the Arnie'sAirsoft world? Well the emails come, the email postmaster has had a fit, and the phone's been ringing off the hook, and I've already been out to meet another local courier company - it's been a busy week, and it's only Tuesday.

You may have noticed that we've now taken on RedWolf Airsoft and CombatClub as new supporters, so I thought I'd welcome them on board here. As you will know all the supporters do a lot in terms of getting the latest news out to us and helping support Airsoft worldwide - without them it'd be more difficult to run the website.

I'm afraid that I'm somewhat lagging behind with reviews and email replies at the moment. Several kind people have submitted a whole heap of reviews and articles in for publication, but I haven't had a free moment to get around to doing many of them yet. Worse still the weather down here has been so horrendous it's simply not been bright enough to get photos of the equipment that I'm reviewing myself. I note with amusement that the weather monkeys have already spotted that I'm cooped up in the office so have rolled the sun out, typical really, 10:1 it will be chucking it down when I head home.

The photo gallery continues to grow at an astounding rate. I'm afraid that not all submissions are accepted. I know a lot of people have sent in photos of their equipment and hard work, but photos really need to be 640x480 and above, well lit and in focus to be accepted. Do note that submissions should be of your own work, and not that of images of photos found on other websites.

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Airsoft world gone M4 crazy? In recent news updates the news from ArmaLite of the new 'CA-approved' v4 AEGs has proved incredibly popular with more than 2700 stand-alone views, and in a similar vein the new Thermold-style M4 mags from Taiwan have also proved to be of great interest. Lets not forget the myriad of AN-PEQ replicas that have appeared recently.

Oh.. on that subject, the 'XX Reads' bit on each news article is a tad misleading. The number of reads means the number of times that that story has been individually referenced or read fully. The read number does not count the number of news page viewings, only direct views (i.e. when you click Read More...).

So has the Airsoft world gone M4 crazy? Not really the M4/16 series have always been popular, as you can see by the number of available accessories out there (and possibly the heap of them in your closet).

As most people will tell you it took ClassicArmy (CA) until version four of their MP5 range to finally iron out the wrinkles in the product. As CA are a fairly predictable company (I mean that in a good way - they actually give out press releases, have an English website, and take on feedback), it stands to reason that the v4 M15 range should be more robust, reliable and popular.

• Version 1 of CA's M4 was well... erm well it was M4 shaped (see our review).
• Version 2 featured various improvements on the initial V1 release.
• Version 3 again had internal adjustments to make them more reliable but the body had 'Classic Army' stamped on it, instead of the usual realistic markings we've come to expect. Here in the UK (and in Europe I gather) most retailers re-grease the gearbox, and take out the spring spacer, thus resulting in a much better reliability. In the US I've heard unconfirmed reports of around a 25% return/failure rate with unmodified v3 CA AEGs.
• Version 4 actually addresses the concerns raised when version 1 hit the market. The gearbox is simply put 'better'. Internally the guide rod spacer has been removed (a major point of stress and failure for most unmodified gearboxes), the gears have been reinforced, a new hopup unit has been added and the gearbox has been greased properly before shipment. Externally the body looks the part now with authentic white lasered ArmaLite markings, unique serial numbering, better stock and foregrip glass-fiber reinforced composites and stronger barrel tightening systems. I know more has been done, but those are the highlights of their work.

Perhaps CA aimed a bit high with their initial release (?) - as running anything at 9.6-12 volts with a power of ~400fps/0.2g is bound to put incredible stress on any minor manufacturing faults resulting in premature gearbox failure.

Now that's an awful lot of hype for the version 4, and if it stands up to half of it we should be looking at popular product. But as I've (almost) always said, we shall wait for the fat lady to sing first - and she arrives on Thursday. ^_^

TM's latest M4 variant, the M733, has positively flown off the shelves around the world - who says TM can't pick a winner? The good news is that I'll have our own in depth in-house reviews of all of these pieces very soon... weather permitting.

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Future developments: Well ArniesAirsoft had continued to grow, and has now been running for two and a half years, with averages of 6,000 viewers / 35,000 page views per day and now over 2 million unique visitors so far.

I'm looking into more ways of optimizing my time - remember I have a real life outside of this website - sad but true.

So what are the plans for the future? To be honest I don't have a blooming clue... ^_^ I'm sure it'll be fun whatever we do here; the website will continue to develop to cater for the needs of Airsofters world-wide.