"Army of Two" Airsoft Skirmish Masks Review

[quinch]

Like those newer versions. I'm not one to wear a mask...hate them normally in fact but those I'd get!

 

Are they available yet? From Cactus again?

[uscmCorps]

They'll be available through Cactus again. Not sure if they're available right now, but they could be. I'd drop them a line. From what the Dizon brothers told me, it sounds like they're in active production of these and have been selling them for a while now.

[quinch]

Cool, will wait and see.

[galactica]

(cheeky advert) i've just put one of these up for sale in the Camo & Gear forum

[kojak]

I've had mine for a few months, and the mesh badly compromised my depth perception and ability to spot the enemy at a distance. It was usable indoors as long as there was plenty of light, and kind of OK in mountainous terrain where rocks and boulders are the only cover, but completely useless in the woods.

 

I actually did dremel out the mesh, then epoxied in some impact rated clear lenses; visibility is greatly improved but they do fog up. I managed to squeeze a small fan in for testing, and some kind of barrier between the nose/mouth area and the eyes would probably help.

 

Do you or any of your teammates have any trouble viewing iron sights/holosights while wearing the mask? Using my LR300 I cannot see my EOTech reticle at all without going into some incredibly awkward position to try to look down the gun.

 

Who uses sights? Certainly not these clowns:

 

[Stodgey]

i placed an order with cactus hobbies back at the beginning of march, they told me 2 weeks and it would be with me............ 3 months later and after countless emails and as advised by the cactus hobbies site, a phone call to evike where they basically told me to go *fruitcage* myself. i got a bit fed up.

 

eventually they sent my money back to me but with the exchange rate difference and paypal charges i was £20 down... after one final look at the site, i noticed that they were slagging off a british retailer who is selling Ao2 masks.... www.sykesmasks.co.uk

 

i went to the sykes masks site and placed the order with them..... this time costing £47.99 posted instead of over £100 from cactus, i had great comms with them and we had a chat about cactus and what not etc etc.......

 

i had the mask through this morning after a 2 week wait due to wholesale shipping to the retailer. and all i have to say i WOW!.

 

fantastic quality, really comfortable and looks spot on to the game, and dare i say it better that the cactus one (i would like to point out here that i have not had a cactus mask to compare so i am purley going by pics)

 

what i have noticed and if you go to both sites and compare the pics, is that the cactus mask resembles the mask shown at the kit selection part of the game whereas the sykes mask more resembles the in game/cutscene mask (if you look closely there is a difference in the game - the kit selection screen mask has more silver in it and the in game one is more subdued and slightly bronzed)

 

i havent had chance to get pics but when i get them they will be online

[heroshark]

after seeing some of these masks close up .They are of very poor build quality, and materials. I'd be reluctant to pay £50, let alone £100 . Their profit margin must must be humongus.

[fyurian]

man if u bump into someone wearing that mask in cqb itl scare the cr*p out of you

 

I want one

[Frontiers]

after seeing some of these masks close up .They are of very poor build quality, and materials. I'd be reluctant to pay £50, let alone £100 . Their profit margin must must be humongus.

 

and which masks you are talking about? the original SYKES mask is way better than any of those Chinese copies and they certainly aint poor build quality, i saw your website and you are asking for like £100 or so for you masks which i think is highly overpriced compared to the price of Sykes masks/Army of two/immortals i think the price/quality ratio is pretty good for their price.

[heroshark]

and which masks you are talking about? the original SYKES mask is way better than any of those Chinese copies and they certainly aint poor build quality, i saw your website and you are asking for like £100 or so for you masks which i think is highly overpriced compared to the price of Sykes masks/Army of two/immortals i think the price/quality ratio is pretty good for their price.

 

 

from start to finish I put alot of work in my masks .All these masks are made on a production line ,mine are one off's .Except for my generic model which is £70 inc postage which I think is fairly reasonable .Theres a big difference .My point was ,I wouldn't pay £100 for an ao2 mask ,as its a production line mask made with cheap materials.

[smurf38]

Got my Skull mask today, excelent build quality, fantastic look. Got the medium and only problem is the lack of room for the nose..

Other than that, cant fault it! and looks amazing

[Basho]

Who uses sights? Certainly not these clowns:

 

Paintball with BB's

 

Nice masks though!

[uscmCorps]

from start to finish I put alot of work in my masks .All these masks are made on a production line ,mine are one off's .Except for my generic model which is £70 inc postage which I think is fairly reasonable .Theres a big difference .My point was ,I wouldn't pay £100 for an ao2 mask ,as its a production line mask made with cheap materials.

 

To be fair, their masks only cost $80-$90 (£48-£54) plus S&H ... I consider that a pretty reasonable price for these masks. If anyone is paying up to £100 for an AO2 mask I'd say that's either due to a ridiculous mark up or simply because the S&H is excessive. But the MSRP of $80-90 still stands.

 

Got my Skull mask today, excelent build quality, fantastic look. Got the medium and only problem is the lack of room for the nose..

Other than that, cant fault it! and looks amazing

 

Perhaps you could try some extra padding to give just a little extra space in the front?

 

Paintball with BB's

Yeah ... that's what I was thinking. Looks like Speedball to me. Aside from what appears to be an obvious case of "blind fire" in the pic, I see a couple other issues like: in the Philippines (where these pics come from) they have crazy high FPS and yet these guys clearly aren't observing any minimum engagement rule ... and many of the spectators in the background are observing with zero eye protection and nothing between them and the shooters except for perimeter tape.

 

Then again ... I'm reviewing the masks ... not the players who use them!

[Horsem4n]

its funny, i have owned a salem mask from cactus since they came out, and i have never worn them in a scrimmage. mostly thanks to my glasses.

 

these things are quality, even though mine is only 2nd gen. very comfortable.

 

[Armourdillo]

To be fair, their masks only cost $80-$90 (£48-£54) plus S&H ...

 

To be TOTALLY fair....the price in pounds sterling that you have quoted would heavily depend upon the exchange rate at the time.....which we all know fluctuates excesively.

[Samm]

But the Pound has never been worth LESS than the Dollar, and only close to equal once for a short while way back in 1985.

[Armourdillo]

But the Pound has never been worth LESS than the Dollar, and only close to equal once for a short while way back in 1985.

 

But it USUALLY averages out to about 1.5 dollars to the pound......which would make the average price $80=£60 and $90=£75

Plus it also depends on who you make your transaction with.

but my point was.....in ALL fairness you cant state EXACTLY how much it works out to.....because there are too many factors involved.

 

 

and besides.....you cant really compare Cactus masks and Herosharks because they are two completely diferent products.

 

 

.......lets be fair

[Sale]

I find the banana in Horsem4n's picture rather interesting. What's up with that? Certainly you can't eat it while wearing the mask...

 

-Sale

[heroshark]

I find the banana in Horsem4n's picture rather interesting. What's up with that? Certainly you can't eat it while wearing the mask...

 

-Sale

 

 

definitely ,its my favourite part of the picture

[uscmCorps]

To be TOTALLY fair....the price in pounds sterling that you have quoted would heavily depend upon the exchange rate at the time.....which we all know fluctuates excesively.

I think Samm made a very good counterpoint to yours.

 

But the Pound has never been worth LESS than the Dollar, and only close to equal once for a short while way back in 1985.

Well put!

 

But it USUALLY averages out to about 1.5 dollars to the pound......which would make the average price $80=£60 and $90=£75

Plus it also depends on who you make your transaction with.

but my point was.....in ALL fairness you cant state EXACTLY how much it works out to.....because there are too many factors involved.

 

 

and besides.....you cant really compare Cactus masks and Herosharks because they are two completely diferent products.

 

 

.......lets be fair

I was trying to be fair. But Heroshark himself made the comparison between Cactus' masks and his own ... a topic I would never have initiated on my own as I personally see them as two totally different products. I like Heroshark's masks ... they appear well made and are of his own design. That said, I can't concede to your argument, Armourdillo, when I can go on Evike right now and order several of these masks each for $89.99 ... using a Paypal currency converter, with ALL additional fees included, a customer in the UK would have to send £58.55 to cover an item costing $89.99. So I'm not really seeing where it's "fair" for you to say that someone would pay £75 instead of the actual £58.55 through Paypal? You mention "averages", but Heroshark had made all his comments within the last few months and the GB£ to US$ conversion has NOT seen THAT much of a fluctuation to quantify your claim of £75 average and certainly nowhere near the £100 estimate Heroshark made on July 8th, 2009. So yes, let's be fair.

 

On another point of fairness, I paid for the masks in my initial review in full with my own money. Personally, I find it a little awkward for someone with a competing product to come into a review thread and belittle the reviewed product and extol their own. It's hard to view such disparaging comments as being unbiased when clearly they have something to gain from them. Not saying that was his intent, but that's certainly how it could be interpreted regardless of how accurate his comments may or may not have been. Had I been Heroshark, I wouldn't have made those comments but instead have one of his customers make them, as they had first hand experience with a product they bought.

 

Still, I wish Heroshark the best of luck with his masks, because like I said, they appear well made and are his own design.

[heroshark]

My reply was in relivence to this

 

i placed an order with cactus hobbies back at the beginning of march, they told me 2 weeks and it would be with me............ 3 months later and after countless emails and as advised by the cactus hobbies site, a phone call to evike where they basically told me to go *fruitcage* myself. i got a bit fed up.

 

eventually they sent my money back to me but with the exchange rate difference and paypal charges i was £20 down... after one final look at the site, i noticed that they were slagging off a british retailer who is selling Ao2 masks.... www.sykesmasks.co.uk

 

i went to the sykes masks site and placed the order with them..... this time costing £47.99 posted instead of over £100 from cactus, i had great comms with them and we had a chat about cactus and what not etc etc.......

 

i had the mask through this morning after a 2 week wait due to wholesale shipping to the retailer. and all i have to say i WOW!.

 

fantastic quality, really comfortable and looks spot on to the game, and dare i say it better that the cactus one (i would like to point out here that i have not had a cactus mask to compare so i am purley going by pics)

 

what i have noticed and if you go to both sites and compare the pics, is that the cactus mask resembles the mask shown at the kit selection part of the game whereas the sykes mask more resembles the in game/cutscene mask (if you look closely there is a difference in the game - the kit selection screen mask has more silver in it and the in game one is more subdued and slightly bronzed)

 

i havent had chance to get pics but when i get them they will be online

 

yes I am biased ,but I just want people to realise in some cases are being mugged. Thanks for your support

 

I think Samm made a very good counterpoint to yours.

 

 

Well put!

 

 

I was trying to be fair. But Heroshark himself made the comparison between Cactus' masks and his own ... a topic I would never have initiated on my own as I personally see them as two totally different products. I like Heroshark's masks ... they appear well made and are of his own design. That said, I can't concede to your argument, Armourdillo, when I can go on Evike right now and order several of these masks each for $89.99 ... using a Paypal currency converter, with ALL additional fees included, a customer in the UK would have to send £58.55 to cover an item costing $89.99. So I'm not really seeing where it's "fair" for you to say that someone would pay £75 instead of the actual £58.55 through Paypal? You mention "averages", but Heroshark had made all his comments within the last few months and the GB£ to US$ conversion has NOT seen THAT much of a fluctuation to quantify your claim of £75 average and certainly nowhere near the £100 estimate Heroshark made on July 8th, 2009. So yes, let's be fair.

 

On another point of fairness, I paid for the masks in my initial review in full with my own money. Personally, I find it a little awkward for someone with a competing product to come into a review thread and belittle the reviewed product and extol their own. It's hard to view such disparaging comments as being unbiased when clearly they have something to gain from them. Not saying that was his intent, but that's certainly how it could be interpreted regardless of how accurate his comments may or may not have been. Had I been Heroshark, I wouldn't have made those comments but instead have one of his customers make them, as they had first hand experience with a product they bought.

 

Still, I wish Heroshark the best of luck with his masks, because like I said, they appear well made and are his own design.

 

[Armourdillo]

And i'd like to second that emotion.....I know of PLENTY of people (in the UK) who have been ripped off.......despite what you say...from the UK ordering a mask from CH is NOT as simple or straightforward........with S+H you DO end up paying closer to the £100 mark......your mask will take (if it arrives at all lol) like 3 to 4 MONTHS to arrive.......and after all that waiting .....you find that you cant wear your mask........unless you have no nose.....and why should people be expected to put extra padding inside so their nose doesn't get squashed?.........if you do that then you loose out on what little periferal vision you have.

At the end of the day....yes this is your thread....and yes it is about a review of CH masks.....but EVERYONE is entitled to their own opinions......and the truth must be told so that people KNOW that they are taking a chance on these products......as they are not always quality.

And it seems that CH dont waste any time slagging off other retailers publicly........so a little taste of their OWN medicine wont hurt ...i'm sure.

[uscmCorps]

I think there are about 12 AO2 masks used within my team. Perhaps more. All of the owners obviously have different shaped heads, faces etc. I have never heard of anyone having a problem with inadequate nose space. Then again, only two people in the group (myself included) have the medium sized masks, but I've only ever worn the large masks myself in game. It sounds like it's possible that either the Dizon Bros. maybe overly layering fiberglass and resin in the nose area of the medium mask, or that the medium mask is just generally not a good fit for most people. I cannot say for sure, as I have never had a problem with the medium mask the few times I tried it on, and after asking the other guy on the team that has one he's reported no issues either. As for general QC issues, none of my guys (many of which bought their masks outside of the group purchase) have ever made any complaints about the quality of the masks aside from the need to loctite the screws for the straps (something I documented in my review). That's not to say that the Dizon Bros, are incapable of letting a low quality product slip by once in a blue moon, such is the nature of doing products by hand and with fiberglass, and is of course highly unfortunate when/if it does happen ... but you can't really judge an entire product line and all associated merchandise as being poorly built based on the failings of one or two you've seen personally. I've seen personally 20+ AO2 masks since they came out, and that gives me a pretty good appreciation for the pros and cons of the mask and allows me to make my own informed decision about how they average out quality wise. That said, I can't blame you for your opinion. If I had only seen one or two examples of a certain product and I was disappointed with what I saw, I too would probably make a snap judgement about the entire product line based on the limited exposure I had with the ones I came in contact with. But I'd still be open to the notion that perhaps I had just been unlucky, or perhaps part of one production run slipped through the QC cracks and it's entirely plausible that the product as a whole was decent. Which is why threads like this are important. One or two people come in complaining about being disappointed with what they got, and yet many more come in with a different opinion. Does that make the complainers wrong? Not necessarily. Does it make them unlucky? That's more likely taking the aforementioned subjective ratio into account.

 

As for increased S&H, I'm not sure what to say about that. If a retailer like Cactus Hobbies is charging an excessive amount over the going rate for USPS Priority Shipping ($26.50/£16 ... delivery to the UK within 6-10 days), then that absolutely is a failing on their part. The same goes for any retailer out there. There's really only so much you can charge extra to account for handling charges, packing supplies, etc. And if they're going with the much more expensive flat rate rates, they're more inclined to drive away customers. But that's par for the course with any product you're considering buying really isn't it? Especially when you live in the UK. You've gotta factor the extra costs to determine whether or not it's worth it to you. Do I think that the AO2 masks are worth $89.99/£58.55 each? Yes. Do I think it's worth close to £100 once S&H is added in for a UK customer to get it? Personally, NO. But then again, I doubt I would ever willingly pay over $90/£60 for ANY mask as I think there are plenty of mesh type solutions out there, like BitterEnd Goggles, that can be bought relatively inexpensively and I can just cannibalize the lower half of an ACM Sansei Mask to protect my chicklets. Or I could modify a Hockey Mask with Mesh that could cost me very little and yet be perfect for CQB. Point being, $90 is probably my threshold for a mesh mask (I originally paid $80 for mine). I certainly doubt I'd pay much more than that however, your own mileage may vary.

 

As for Cactus Hobbies being incapable of shipping items in a timely manner, there is absolutely no excuse for that at all. I have heard that problem a lot in the months following the review I wrote. Personally, I now recommend to my friends to order from Evike as although I abhor them, they at least ship items in a timely manner which Cactus never seemed to do, even for me.

 

Regarding your comment of "CH dont waste any time slagging off other retailers publicly" I have never seen that or heard of that. So I have no comment on that. Simply that to retaliate in kind, to do so in this thread seems a bit pointless and petty when it does nothing to better the community we live in and further generates/perpetuates animosity. If you have a problem with their behavior may I suggest you take it up with them personally rather than waste forum space that could be better used to inform the public of the products we review. To that end, stating that Cactus Hobbies is consistently negligent about shipping on time and charges an excessive amount is useful information and consistent with other similar reported experiences and thus benefits the community at large. Reporting that you've personally had a problem with a mask you bought also helps the community as they can add that to the list of unhappy customers vs happy customers. But ... trying to publicly defame them because they rubbed you or someone else the wrong way doesn't help the community. If you want to start a flame war with them or throw nasty comments at them back and forth this isn't the place for it.

[Armourdillo]

Regarding your comment of "CH dont waste any time slagging off other retailers publicly" I have never seen that or heard of that. So I have no comment on that. Simply that to retaliate in kind, to do so in this thread seems a bit pointless and petty when it does nothing to better the community we live in and further generates/perpetuates animosity.

 

Fair comment...you are 100% right....this is not the place and it was not my intention for it to sound the way it did......kind of proof that you should NEVER type or say something in a forum UNLESS you have the time to think about the things you say PROPERLY.......and I appologize.

 

I do have a problem with he way they have promoted themselves in the past....and I should not stoop to their level......not only that but as far as I am aware they no longer conduct themselves in the same manner......so they have obviously learnt from their mistakes and it is not right for me to be opening up old wounds.....my bad.

 

I would like to take back what I said....but for some reason I cant edit my post in this section......dont know why.

[kojak]

I've had mine for a few months, and the mesh badly compromised my depth perception and ability to spot the enemy at a distance. It was usable indoors as long as there was plenty of light, and kind of OK in mountainous terrain where rocks and boulders are the only cover, but completely useless in the woods.

 

I actually did dremel out the mesh, then epoxied in some impact rated clear lenses; visibility is greatly improved but they do fog up. I managed to squeeze a small fan in for testing, and some kind of barrier between the nose/mouth area and the eyes would probably help.

 

Quick update on the fogging issue; I ditched the fan and drilled some extra holes in the mouth and a row of holes in the eyebrow area. Played indoors all day at over 100 degrees, with the mask worn over a UA Tactical Heatgear baklava. The inner pads were soaked with sweat but the lenses never fogged. I still wouldn't use it outdoors unless a mask was required by site rules, but I can finally throw out the paintball mask I keep for CQB.