|
By SocomAirsoft
Published: August 2005
Discuss this review in our forums!
TM G18c EBB
1. The Story
2. Well, How Do I Look?
3. Loading Up
4. Performance
5. Skirmishing
6. Wrapping it Up
The Story
After browsing the ASR Spring Forum for a few weeks, I decided that I was going to grab some TM spring pistols. I looked around for the website with the cheapest prices on the HGHU’s, and I found that Hobby Asia had them for a low price. While checking out that site, I noticed that there were automatic pistols for only $30, and being a noob at the time, I had no idea how useless EBB’s (Electric BlowBack) are. When I came home from school, an ugly green package full of pistols was waiting for me. I just had to get that paper off to see what was inside.
I have to put in a word for Hobby Asia here; they are a very good retailer with the low prices you expect from overseas retailers, but they have amazing customer service, and low cost, fast shipping as well. The only thing they do wrong is package their guns in that disgusting green, but that’s no big deal.
Inside were boxes jammed so tight, I had to cut off the top of the box to get them out. I quickly examined all the pistols, but because I’d used springers before, I played with my EBB first.
Well, How Do I Look?
When looking at the box, the first things I saw were white spots all over the box. After examining their positioning, I realized that they had cut the trades off the box to turn away customs officials. This was a brilliant idea on their part, as I’d rather have the trades cut off the box, than off my gun.
When I lifted the lid, I saw the G18c neatly packaged in the Styrofoam along with the complimentary bag of .12 BB’s and a place to hold batteries. Upon picking up the gun, what you first notice is the weight. It weighs almost nothing, even with batteries and BB’s inserted. This, however, does not mean it doesn’t look nice, because it does. It has the correct trademarks; the GLOCK logo, 18C, Austria, and 9x19, all engraved nicely into the slide. On the other side is a smaller GLOCK logo and the serial number GEK203. The other nice thing about the slide is that it’s vented. This means that it has a whole in the top to let gas escape. This is a real-steel feature and is only for looks on the EBB.
Another nice touch Tokyo Marui includes in their springers and EBB’s, is the mock open ejection port. When the slide goes back, a separate piece of plastic ducks under, giving the appearance of an open ejection port, but it is non-functional. On this piece of plastic, GEK203, a small GLOCK logo, a pentagon, and 9x19 are engraved.
The other trades on the gun are a GLOCK logo on the grip and battery slot, ELECTRIC BLOW BACK SYSTEM FULL&SEMI AUTO MODEL, on the grip, and MADE IN JAPAN ASGK TOKYO MARUI CO.,LTD, above where a lefty would put his thumb.
My biggest disappointment though, is the way this feels. I usually love the way a GLOCK sits in the hand; perfectly balanced and comfortable. This EBB gives none of that feel. To start, everything on the outside is plastic; there is no nice, cool feeling of touching metal. This is partly due to the real GLOCK being polymer based, but my AEP had some metal feel, as did my KWC GLOCK.
Next, there is the trigger. Normally, the trigger safety goes back when you grab trigger, but this one is non-functional, so it pushes back. This leaves the trigger feeling weird and uncomfortable.
Finally, and this is the most bothersome, there is a piece of plastic sticking out where your middle finger goes. (I’ll explain the piece’s function later.) Normally, your finger rests nicely up against the trigger guard, leaving the pistol in an extremely comfortable position, but this EBB ruins that feel. It smashes your finger against the trigger guard, making you want to continually adjust your hand to get the comfort you need.
The only nice thing I can say about the feel is that the thumb rests nicely in an indent. Other than that, the gun feels like holding a bag of nails, and to top it off, you can’t even play with the buttons.
Loading Up
To shoot, the first thing that must be done is the insertion of the batteries. The gun requires 4 AAA batteries to fire. To insert them, first pull a piece of plastic with a GLOCK logo on it, away from the front of the gun, and then pull up. You can now see the cavity where the batteries go. Inside, there is a sticker telling how to insert the batteries. Do this correctly or the gun won’t fire, and the batteries will burn. When you have the batteries inserted, close the lid up.
Now, you must load the magazine. You must pull it out of the bottom because there is no magazine release. Pulling it out reveals a weird-shaped magazine known as the “banana magazine” for the obvious reason of it looking like a banana. It is see through black, so you can tell when it is fully loaded. Push one BB at a time into it, until you can’t fit any more. It should hold around seventeen. Reinsert it into the bottom of the grip, and you are ready to fire.
You know that piece that I said before ruins the feel of the GLOCK? Well this is its function. In order to fire the gun, this must be held down. It’s not like a 1911 trigger safety, where a correct grip will pull it; you must have the intent to pull it. This forces you to grip it in a weird way, and this way is not very comfortable.
Now that we are set to fire, pull the trigger. I’m sure that you are expecting it to be full-auto only because it has no selector switch, but this is not the case. Under the slide is a bar that says “SEMI<|>FULL.” Push to the left for semi, and to the right for full. Again, an annoying feature that ruins the gun. Whereas a normal GLOCK, such as the AEP, you can quickly flip your thumb to switch between semi and auto, you must now take your hand out of the shooting position, reach under the slide, and push a bar. This is very annoying.
If you are thinking, “Oh, all these troubles must hide some good shooting,” you are wrong as all get-out. Pulling the trigger causes the gun to make an AEG-ish sound, followed by a plasticky clack, and the sight of a floating yellow orb. When I say floating, I mean it. The BB goes extremely slow, reckoned to be under 200 fps, with .12’s! Kick is non-existent; you can fire off all seventeen round without moving your hand.
The ROF (Rate of Fire) on full-auto is about four RPS (rounds per second.) On semi, if you pull the trigger three times as fast as you can, you will shoot maybe once. This is a pain in the neck because you would expect your gun to fire as fast as you can pull the trigger, but this is not the case.
This brings me to the trigger. Pulling it feels very weird. I don’t know what it is, but it is not a satisfying feeling at all. It feels kind of like pulling the throttle on an R/C car, and you may know that that feeling isn’t rewarding at all either. It makes the same kind of squeak sound as well, and overall it is just not that fun to shoot the gun.
Performance
The gun had only one thing left to do that could have a chance of making me happy, and that was to shoot well.
I loaded up the magazine, set out my target at thirty feet away, got into a prone position, and fired on semi. Smack, smack, smack; the BB’s hit the floor. (Did I getcha[:p] ?) Accuracy was horrible. You may wonder what the groupings are, but the accuracy was so bad groupings were unmeasurable. Only three out of seventeen BB’s hit the target, and I’m not even sure that they directly hit it. I have a hunch that they bounced into it. The target was rested against a DVD case, and there was not a single rip, tear, or easily noticed mark. I had to examine closely to even see the indents the BB’s made on the paper target.
I guessed that that round must have been a fluke so I set it up again, but to the same results. At least on full-auto five hit the target.
Normally, I would do the same test from fifty feet, but seeing as it barely hit the target at thirty, I felt it to be a waste of my time. I felt some pity for the sad accuracy of the gun, and I felt it needed to have some honor.
There is slightly good news, and that is that you can hit a person at fifty feet. The problem is that they will most likely not feel it at all. To prove this, I asked one of my friends if I could shoot him from five feet, and he agreed. He was wearing only a t-shirt, and he did not flinch once as seven BB’s went into his back.
The effective range (classified as hitting an uncovered, unmoving person half the time) is around fifty feet. However, the usable range would be thirty feet because they have to feel it, and beyond thirty feet, there is no way they would.
I’d have to put the maximum range at eighty feet. If it was not for the superb Marui hop-up, I would not have been surprised to see BB’s fall at forty feet.
Now that the AEP has been released, there is some confusion as to which is better. Check out my AEP review to judge for yourself.
Skirmishing
I managed to use this in one skirmish with my friends. After running out of BB’s in my primary, and after noticing there was someone close to me, I decided to take the EBB out. I didn’t shoot at his head because I knew I couldn’t hit it. When he ran, I knew it was my chance to get him. I popped out behind my tree and chased after him. I went fully-automatic, but my first salvo ended up behind him. I aimed more in front, and managed to take him down with one shot that I clearly saw hit him. However, the underpowered EBB didn’t convince him that he was hit. This lead to an argument, but since everyone saw him get hit, he knew he had to give in.
After realizing that unless someone was with me, and could prove the person was hit, the G18c EBB was useless, so I stopped using it in skirmishes. I would continue to bring it though, because many of the beginners were afraid of it, for reasons unbeknownst to me. They’d be afraid to come near me, but once they realized it was useless, I stopped bringing it at all.
This EBB has no uses in games or skirmishes; it can only provide a small amount of fun for you to shoot at targets.
Wrapping it Up
Pros:
- Blowback
- The side that comes face-up in the box looks really nice
- The mock ejection port is cool
- Decent cover fire for an OK price
Cons:
- No switches or safeties move at all
- Feels horrible in your hand
- Must hold button to fire
- Selector switch is hard to get to
- Banana magazine
- Extremely underpowered
- Low ROF on semi
- Inaccurate
- Feels very plasticky
- There’s no kick
- Trigger feels weird
- Useless in skirmishes
- Extremely light
As you can see by the pros and cons list, you should stay away from EBB’s. I don’t think they do anything even decently, except the hardly satisfactory blowback. I’d advise you to save your money for something better. The combination of everything leaves you feeling sad because you though it would give you some fun, but it doesn’t. If you should decide to buy an EBB, don’t blame me; I warned you.
Discuss this review in our forums!
|
