Seeing as I wrote it I may as well share - here is my first editorial for the new website! Wooo!!-

All things considered, there is a reason why Tokyo Marui is the best-known airsoft manufacturer in the world, and it isn’t just their size or pedigree or long-term presence in the marketplace: it is because their guns simply work. As soon as you buy them. And you can make them better very easily.

They have long held the unofficial title of `most reliable manufacturer` among airsofters and although there are a few (a very few indeed) pieces that make it out of the factory in non-functional condition, the overwhelming majority are reliable, sturdy, long-lasting guns and their AEGs make up the majority of actively skirmished weapons out there in the big wide world.

The system inside them all is fundamentally the same; certainly there are gearbokes in varieties from V1 through to V7 now, but the principal is damn similar, and therefore the gun that compresses this tried and trusted formula down into the most cost effective, most lightweight and burden-free, most easily manoeuvrable package is, to my mind, the one that has to win the title of `best gun`.

What am best gun? Marui’s Heckler & Koch MP5K.

Now, the range and accuracy are the only realistically detrimental points to this gun’s profile, there is nothing that can be done about this if the MP5K is to keep its honorary title of `Best Gun` for reasons that’ll be clear below, but then equally there is nothing any of its detractors can cite apart from these two issues when trying to deny its greatness, whereas I can quite cheerfully say;

The MP5K is the lightest and most easy-to-carry-all-day AEG on the market.

The MP5K is the most manoeuvrable and `pointable` AEG around.

The MP5K is as reliable as any Marui AEG –more reliable than any other brand by default!

The MP5K has more accessories available for it than all but one series of AEGs (guess which series )

The MP5K is both an excellent primary and also an excellent secondary skirmish weapon.

The MP5K is the cheapest Marui AEG available.

The MP5K has a folding stock option with a longer inner barrel and threaded outer barrel – the PDW – for only £15 extra.

And I could go on. The thing is, if you have ever skirmished with an MP5K, you will know that the range and accuracy that other players with long assault rifles have over you, is totally counteracted by the fact that you can run faster, move more stealthily, flank and surround people more quickly and easily, and even strap your AEG to your leg and run full-pelt away from their fire and out of range if you have to.

And just to own one, to plink with or whatever you want to use it in your own home for, nothing else out there represents such superb value for money.

You need do nothing to your Marui MP5K to make it work and then all you need is a hi-cap magazine or two and a stick battery and you’re set to skirmish for years to come, and it has only cost you about £150.00!!

Ah yes, the stick battery. What most people will see as a hindrance; an inadequacy of sustained firepower; I see as an advantage simply because there’s no other way to get a battery into a gun of this size and the size of this gun gives it advantage over any battery complaint. Plus, oh doubting Thomas that thou mayst be, I have just one word for you – Intellect

Intellect’s 1400mah Nimh batteries will last for a full day’s skirmishing at the hands of even the most trigger-happy player, and often have the staying power for 2 full skirmishes when used by normal people Their battery cells have an amazing ability to retain power, and for those of you that remember the `old days` when the only batteries available were 500mah mini and stick types, and 2000mah large types (all NiCads of course) then the fact that these Intellect sticks last about as long – if not even longer - than those original large batteries should warm your heart in the glowing fires of progress.

And of course, progress is something that needs addressing here because of the Chinese clone market, a market that seems to threaten the high and mighty Japanese manufacturers – but even though the parts in these clone guns are usually direct copies of the Japanese, their assembly seems to leave a lot to be desired which makes them really not a gun you can pick up and play with.

And that’s the real beauty of the TM MP5K.

-

For the beginner, it represents the best gun you can get for the money, and that’s the main concern when you begin the long and winding journey of airsoft expenditure in this lifetime There is no other gun you can pick up for this price that will instantly be usable – to great effect – at any gaming site in the whole of the UK.

For the plinker and airsoft collector, there is nothing else that will give you reliable fully-automatic fun, and that will look and feel like a real `assault SMG` or however you want to classify it. What else will give you 20,000+ rounds of full-auto mayhem for under £100 without a single repair or any internal maintenance? Nothing else, I challenge anyone to find a gun that can.

For the experienced skirmisher it allows you to use a proper SMG as a backup weapon, with a fully-auto 240 round capacity (with the double shrt magazine hicap from Marui) in the same ultra-compact frame as a large pistol.

It also allows you to have the ultimate CQB gun – a pistol-sized machinegun, with the capacity, reliability and strength to stand up to the rigours of interior combat and also give you that ammo capacity that other CQBers only wish they could fit into a gun so small and easy to manipulate.

And, of course, they are so light and manoeuvrable that you can use two at the same time with supreme ease Is there nothing this gun can’t do???

Well, yes of course there are; unfortunately, it can’t shoot at 130-foot ranges like an M14 or the G3 SG1, and it can’t take magazines larger than 240rnds in capacity, and it can’t cook you breakfast or write your dissertation for you… but hey. It’s the practicality and the money that counts here, and for that, there simply is no other that can compare.