Tokyo Marui Night Warrior

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Tokyo Marui Night Warrior

 

Contents:

 

1. Ordering
2. Initial Impressions and Features
3. Externals
4. Internals
5. Performance 
6. Conclusion 

1. Ordering

 

I ordered my TM Night Warrior (I'll  refer to this as the M1911 NW) from WGC Shop in Hong Kong during their holiday season 10% off sale. Total with UPS shipping to CONUS came out to right around $150 USD and the pistol arrived within a week of placing my order.

 

I requested that WGC use an orange tip due to the difficulty associated with removing orange paint from plastic, but they informed me that no plastic tips were available. Much to my surprise, they ended up shipping it with a blaze orange plastic tip pressed into the muzzle. I've since removed the tip without any problems. 

 

2. Initial Impressions and Features

 

My understanding is that Marui basically combined their Desert Warrior and MEU replicas to yield a hybrid 5" M1911 variant. The rail is not based on a real design but I'm sure its functional. The initial appearance is acceptable and doesn't immediately stand out as lightweight plastic. 

 

As a modern M1911 variant, it features the now-common 3 hole, long trigger, ambidextrous thumb safeties, a flat main spring housing, an extended beavertail grip safety, and a skeletonized hammer. 

 

Marui ships the M1911 NW in a nice cardboard box that lets the buyer know what's inside without overdoing the graphics. 

 

The pistol comes with the usual accompaniment: 

 

- A small bag of .25g BBs

- A plastic bushing wrench 

- 2x dry fire adapters 

- Orange bore plug  

- Instruction Manual 

- 1x Wilson Combat 47D style magazine 

 

The pistol is well presented and protected during transit. I thought the bushing wrench was a nice addition as the bushing is quite tight on my example. 

 

3. Externals 

 

This is very much the standard Tokyo Marui GBB pistol. It features a plastic frame, slide, and outer barrel and a metallic inner frame, sights, safeties, etc. The plastic parts have a matte surface and are of high quality. In my experience, these actually wear better than metal slides and frames as scratches are less evident. 

 

Out of the box, it sports clean lines and the classic M1911 appearance. The two-tone color scheme reminds me of Springfield Armory's MC Operator. 

 

 

For a "Night" handgun, it features lots of nicely plated parts like the outer barrel, barrel bushing, and hammer. 

 

The outer barrel has an excellent finish and slightly metallic feel while preserving the advantages of a lightweight plastic part. 

 

Marui chose to outfit this variant with Heinie sights with the 3 dot arrangement. The step in the sight is meant to be used to rack the slide in case the user is wounded in an arm. However, being equipped with a GI-length guide rod, you can use the plug and the front of the slide to cycle the handgun as well. 

 

The grips are similar to those found on the rest of Marui's 1911 lineup and hide weights underneath. The grips aren't aggressive and are not as textured as I would prefer. Still, seeing as the recoil will not be jarring the handgun around, this isn't a problem. 

 

The weight of a loaded Marui 1911 is roughly 1.9lb. My SAI M1911 Loaded model comes in around 3lb with a loaded 8rd Wilson Combat magazine. That's quite a difference but I'm not going to hold this against Marui as it's impossible to ask for more from a mostly plastic replica. 

 

4. Internals 

 

The procedure to disassemble the M1911 NW differs slightly from real firearm. Mainly, the plug must be removed from the inside of the slide and it is held captive by the slide instead of the bushing. I suspect a bushing made from pot metal would not hold up as well over time. 

 

Everything inside is absolutely normal for a Marui pistol. The hop-up unit on mine turned out to be assembled incorrectly, but this was a five minute fix. 

 

 

There simply isn't a whole lot to write about. It will handle green gas/propane in warm temperatures (I would say this is up to 75-80 degrees Fahrenheit) , but I would recommend switching to 134a/duster in the hotter summer temperatures. The pressure of propane increases significantly with temperature and I don't intend to push the limits of the plastic parts. 

 

5. Performance 

 

Performance and quality control are the reasons why despite moving on to real steel handguns, I insist on buying a stock Marui pistol. Marui's barrel and hop up combination has always served me well and I don't feel like fiddling with a WE or KJW. 

 

Based on past experiences and a little testing of this particular replica, I'd say it is effective to about 100ft. This is to say that I would be confident hitting a human-sized target at least once if I fired three rounds at that range. 

 

In terms of absolute accuracy, I set up a simple test. I measured 30ft with a tape measure, set up a target, and benchrested the M1911 NW. With the hop-up adjusted for 100ft and the front sight dot set in the center of the target, the pistol shoots roughly point of aim at 30ft. 

 

I used G&G .25g BBs and green gas for this test. The spread was approximately 3 inches. I'm perfectly satisfied as the front sight of the pistol will blot out the target at this distance. 

 

30ft, 10 rounds from the bench

 

A quick note about the trigger- its not at all similar to that of a real M1911. It only requires a pound to a pound and a half of pull to 

6. Conclusion 

 

I've owned Marui, KWA, WE, and KJW GBB pistols and I came back to Marui for a reason. For slightly more money than the other brands, you're getting a highly consistent, quality replica that looks good and does well on the field. Am I going to slap a Guarder kit on it as I did with my previous pistols? I don't think so- they're still not going to bring the weight up to that of a real M1911 and I don't want to sacrifice performance. 

 

I swapped out the frame to a non-railed MEU frame I had lying around and replaced the trigger with a M1911A1 trigger. Since my fingers are relatively short, this helps maintain a consistent trigger pull for me. For most people, the M1911 NW is excellent out of the box. 

 

I give this offering 4.5 stars out of 5. 

 

Edited January 5, 2015 by tinydata

[tinydata]

As a test, I chilled a magazine with a full tank of green gas at 35^o F for an hour. The Night Warrior fired 16 rounds without issue and another 4 after manually cycling the slide. 

 

The Night Winter Warrior is pretty impressive in the cold. 

Edited January 9, 2015 by tinydata