EA Fastmag Replicas (GEN2)

[akiraspeedstar]

 

I recently purchased a set of Fastmag Replicas from eHobbyasia made by EA. They were a good deal (USD $9.49 each) so I figured I'd give it a shot. These were the ITW Fastmag Gen2 replicas, I decided to go with the GEN2 versions after reading reviews of the real steel counterparts. Seems most people said that the GEN3 didn't have many improvements except that you could double stack the pouches. Some actually said that the GEN2 held onto magazines better, plus there's a bungee strap just in case you need that extra security.

 

The finish of the fastmag is good, unlike the real steel counterpart it's made out of a hard and sturdy plastic in comparison to polymer. Everything fit well and after installation there was no movement what so ever.

 

The pouch holds the magazines via friction/pressure with two rubber strips on the inside, one on the front and one on the rear. The front and rear pieces tension is adjusted by a small rubber strap, very similar to those wrist bands that you see for $0.50-$1 at stores. You can actually utilize those wristbands should the rubber strap on the mag pouch ever become loose. You can adjust the amount of tension by moving the rubber band up the pouch or by adding additional rubber bands.

 

With the OEM setup with the rubber band being at the bottom notch (the weakest setting), installing a magazine is quick and easy. Removing the magazine is also done without really any effort at all which will aid with reload speed. One of the advantages of these pouches is that you can run the pouches upside down, I tried this by holding the pouch in my hand and whipping my arm around in violent motions and also in a circular motion. In hindsight this wasn't the smartest idea, as I could have damaged my magazine had it flown out and hit the wall. Thankfully though the magazine held tight and didn't even budge an inch. Considering that this was on the weakest tension setting, I'd see no issues with losing magazines, especially if you raise the tension.

 

I know that I could have just tucked in my original mag pouch covers to make the pouches a quick draw setup and for removing magazines it's great. The reason that I went with the fastmag style is how much easier it is to place a mag back into the pouch. I'd imagine if my pouches could fit two magazines (well it can, but it's hard as hell to get in and out) that it wouldn't be as hard. But I've noticed that the cloth style pouches would always deform when empty. So when conducting a tactical reload, placing the partial mag into a pouch was difficult. With the fastmag, I can now place the partial magazine into a pouch as fast as dropping it into my dump pouch.

 

Overall I'm very satisfied with these pouches and for less then $10 a piece it's a great deal.

Edited February 4, 2012 by akiraspeedstar

[akiraspeedstar]

Alright I got some in game testing and I have to say these mag pouches are great. Tactical reloads were easy and lightning quick thanks to these pouches which was the primary reason I purchased them. It's also great with how much of the magazine you're able to grab, giving much more control during reloads.

[Extraordinaire]

So, you're the reason EA is out of stock of the tan ones.

 

I'm actually looking into getting all Fastmags for my current gear set up. My DBT FAPC only has 4 columns of MOLLE on the front plate section. I was thinking of throwing two Fastmags up front side-by-side, one upside down under a radio pouch on the rear section, and two side-by-side on my war belt.

 

Do you believe the retention will hold with one mounted upside down? I believe I'm going for the Gen 3 as they come in sets of two for $16.50.

 

Cheers,

Ex

[intinerious]

The Gen3 replicas are VERY well made; the pistol ones are crappier.

 

I mounted a DBOYS hicap on a gen3 that I got and even upside down it was holding on quite well after some vigorous shaking. Not sure if you dump a bunch of .3g bbs will it still hold or not but I'll be testing it with a lonex flash mag.

 

The pistol ones are as good as the Gen2 ones....soooo not that good IMO But they hold double stacked mags well and 1911 mags are 'okay'. Don't try to mount it upside down, thats the main point for the pistol fastmags

 

EDIT: Oh yeah the gen3 fastmag for the M4 mag was new...I haven't gamed with it yet so even though OOTB it can hold onto a mag quite well even upside down. I can't say whether the friction lock mech (the rubber stuff inside the fastmag) will hold it's own against mags being pulled and inserted into the fastmag multiple times.

Edited February 5, 2012 by intinerious

[kojak]

Will the pistol version hold an MP7 mag?

[Kunlun]

Or an MP5 mag?

[akiraspeedstar]

So, you're the reason EA is out of stock of the tan ones.

 

I'm actually looking into getting all Fastmags for my current gear set up. My DBT FAPC only has 4 columns of MOLLE on the front plate section. I was thinking of throwing two Fastmags up front side-by-side, one upside down under a radio pouch on the rear section, and two side-by-side on my war belt.

 

Do you believe the retention will hold with one mounted upside down? I believe I'm going for the Gen 3 as they come in sets of two for $16.50.

 

Cheers,

Ex

 

Yeah after my order was shipped, the site suddenly went out of stock haha.

 

As for the GEN3, just remember that the one with the two flaps on the top are for the molle setup and ones without (which are actually the same one just with the tabs cut off) are either to be mounted on top of another or on a belt. Without those flaps there will be a decent amount of wiggle in the pouch.

 

I believe it would hold upside down, like I mentioned with it on the weakest tension setting I was trying my hardest to make the magazine fly out and it didn't budge at all. Though to be safe I'd at least increase the tension to either the second or third setting.

Edited February 5, 2012 by akiraspeedstar

[appslapp]

I have used all the Fastmag from china...and the V3 is the best in my opinon.

My rigg:

yes.. it hangs low after a 96h game;)

[Extraordinaire]

Looks great, appslapp.

 

Have you ran one upside-down at all?

 

Thanks,

Ex

[intinerious]

appslapp it looks awesome I've seen it before in the JUMP carrier thread too XD

 

btw; I realised the amount of glue they used to provide friction inside the FASTMAG is absymal....I ripped mine apart (easily too; one of the pistol ones and the M4 one was falling right now) and superglued them back on. They seem to hold up fine now.

 

GBBR Mags seem to be an issue with the upside down mount; I can't mount my empty (of gas and bbs) WE GBBR mag on the Gen3 without it falling down even on the highest tension level on the fastmag. P-mags hold VERY well; I don't have a bag of .3g bbs right now so I couldn't check if the fastmag can hold my usual lonex fastmags with .3g bbs fully loaded upside down...I haven't gamed in a while nor a scale so those who know what the empty weight of a WE GBBR mag is will know what the threshold for the upside down retention on the Gen 3s from my experience.

[Extraordinaire]

Aye. I'll be running Beta Project 75rd PMAGs and I hear they're very light.

 

So, I guess it's a safe bet for mounting one upside-down. And if it does fail to hold the mag, I'll only be out one of them.

 

Thanks,

Ex

[intinerious]

Aye. I'll be running Beta Project 75rd PMAGs and I hear they're very light.

 

So, I guess it's a safe bet for mounting one upside-down. And if it does fail to hold the mag, I'll only be out one of them.

 

Thanks,

Ex

 

I want to get a ton of those too but the reports of it jamming up is a little unnerving on getting them since I know of a way to fix jams in midcaps but not sure whether I can do it on the BP mags....also they come in a box of 5 (I think?) so if I can't do it on 1 of them then I have 4 POS's sitting in my gear locker

 

Oh yeah; replying to the guys above, I think the pistol fastmags can hold any 9mm double-stacked mags. Not sure on the mp7 ones though as I dunno whether the cross-section of the mag is similar to an MP5 one (I'm sure one of the retailers said the fastmags can hold MP5 ones). They hold 1911 mags too albeit not very well; the groove on the middle of the fastmag is too thin to properly center the TM 1911 mags that I have and lock them down securely...either this issue is due to the molds being slightly off on the replica or that TM 1911 mags are different in dimensions compared with an RS mag (I won't have any idea as I can't get RS firearms in HK...well most of the population here can't ) and that the fastmag is afterall designed for RS stuff.

 

Oh and the two locking arms on the pistol fastmag that lock both pieces (front and back) of the fastmag together has a lot of friction when they are being pulled apart as the top parts of the locking arms will rub against the grooves they sit in. That means the rubber band tension lock will have additional friction to overcome. I'm sure if I sanded the arms down a bit so they don't rub when the halves are pulled apart will allow the fastmag to lock pistol mags down better but so far I haven't been able to figure out how to split both halves open (it's not as easy as the Gen3 M4 fastmags).

 

EDIT: Oh yeah, forgot to mention I got these at ACMGear. They have a TON of these fastmags and they sell them at a very respectable price (the staff said they probably sell it for the cheapest price out of all airsoft shops...I don't buy from overseas so I dunno, but you guys can check and find out ). The staff was very nice and helpful as well...so pardon the advertisement here; but I think they as a retailer deserves to be mentioned

Edited February 6, 2012 by intinerious

[AMC1096]

Have you guys had issues at all with the bands that are on the fast mags? Somehow I stretched mine out and it will no longer hold a mag when it is upside down.

[intinerious]

Have you guys had issues at all with the bands that are on the fast mags? Somehow I stretched mine out and it will no longer hold a mag when it is upside down.

 

Which ones? The Gen3 or Gen2?

 

I find the Gen3s to be holding up well....how the hell did you manage to stretch them to past the elasticity limit anyway?

 

Oh since I'm posting another comment I might as well also say that I took a look at the real Gen3 fastmags in Supreme Co., a company in Hong Kong that primarily sell real steel gear if you will (5:11, Danners, BlackHawk!, etc.). They had a shipment of Gen3 M4 fastmags in stock and looking and feeling the RG one there's practically no difference between them. The rubber friction thingy inside the mag that holds the mag in place is black on the real deal whereas my RG one has a RG rubber strip. The real deal also have 2 elastic bands as opposed to one...I'm not entirely sure whether the real fastmags are meant' to be run with both bands (or they are designed to be removable and set to the higher or lower position you want if you wanted to use 1 band only to reduce the tension on the fastmag) but since the overall fastmag feels exactly the same as the clone I see no reason why the clone ones can't hold a real M4 mag loaded with 5.56 if it has both retention bands on and the mag was held upside down.

 

Another trick I'm planning to do is to go to a skateboard shop and see if I can get some scrap grip tape; use the tape and stick a strip on top of the rubber frictional thingys on the fastmag and that SHOULD be able to give the fastmag a lot more grip with the slightly reduced internal dimensions (with the grip tape inside, so the retention bands will have more tension) and the frictional forces should be much higher than the stock rubber thingys the fastmags use.

 

I've never touched grip-tape before other than those on batminton rackets so I'm not too sure if the skateboard grip tapes would provide too much friction or scratch the sides of the mags like sandpaper. Anyone with experience with skateboard grip tape can chime in with their experiences?

[AMC1096]

Im using gen2. I have no idea how I stretched them.

[intinerious]

Well in that case I think you either have to find those rubber bands from a shop or you'll need to get new ones ><;

 

I haven't seen those bands being sold in the airsoft shops, so maybe look at the real fastmag webstore or some other shop if those rubber bands aren't exactly custom made for the fastmag?

[akiraspeedstar]

A lot of people have mentioned that those wrist bands that they sell (for cancer, aids, herpes *shrugs*) fit perfectly for both the GEN2 and GEN3.

[intinerious]

A lot of people have mentioned that those wrist bands that they sell (for cancer, aids, herpes *shrugs*) fit perfectly for both the GEN2 and GEN3.

 

Ah of course! I knew there was a similar product out there; just couldn't quite put my finger on it (or wrist? LOL?)

 

I suppose if you find black ones they'll work well even against RG or DE coloured fastmags. Pink ones will stand out quite nicely though

[kojak]

What you need is a brown colon cancer awareness bracelet.

[Extraordinaire]

I've never touched grip-tape before other than those on batminton rackets so I'm not too sure if the skateboard grip tapes would provide too much friction or scratch the sides of the mags like sandpaper. Anyone with experience with skateboard grip tape can chime in with their experiences?

 

It's going to scratch the hell out of your mags. Grip tape is nothing more than an adhesive-backed course sandpaper.

 

-Ex

[intinerious]

It's going to scratch the hell out of your mags. Grip tape is nothing more than an adhesive-backed course sandpaper.

 

-Ex

 

Hmmm really? Damn. I saw that SAPH has some grip tape designed for the grips of the gun. Any ideas whether the gun grip tapes would be less harmful to the mags?

[Extraordinaire]

I imagine products like that are less course.

 

Back when I used to skate, I used to tear my thumbs to hell the first few days after getting my decks re-gripped. It's rough stuff for a reason.

 

I wouldn't want to slide my magazines across it, that's for sure.

 

-Ex

[intinerious]

I imagine products like that are less course.

 

Back when I used to skate, I used to tear my thumbs to hell the first few days after getting my decks re-gripped. It's rough stuff for a reason.

 

I wouldn't want to slide my magazines across it, that's for sure.

 

-Ex

 

Thanks for the advice I've never skated before and although I've come across skateboards they're usually discarded items in uni...never felt the grip on the board though

 

I'll update again once I find some suitable material to give friction to the mags without damaging their finishing. Oh yeah, my GEN3 M4 pouch mounted upside down already starts dropping my unloaded Lonex Flash Mags....seems like if you want to hold your mags upside down the stock rubber grip thingys inside don't last long

[Short Stack]

Well I've brought my replica Gen3s to 4 games now, set up double stacked side by side, they work amazing and i love them. Buy them.

[J.J.Simpson]

stupid question - can i fit ak47 mags i know they are made for m4