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Reviews
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Views
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Date of last review
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1
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21997
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Mon February 27, 2006
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Recommended By
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Average Price
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Average Rating
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100% of reviewers
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$12.99
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5.0
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Description:
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Tac Solutions 168TSL Spring Pistol
Completely modular gun system
Detachable 2 sided rail system
Detachable and functional laser
Detachable silencer
Detachable reflex sight
Shoots 200 fps w/ .12g BBs
Magazine holds 15 rounds
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The Man
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Posts: 5,962
Registered: March 2001
Location: Dallas, Tx
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Author
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sgtkillmore
Registered: July 2005
Posts: 334
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Review Date: Mon February 27, 2006
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: $12.99
| Rating: 5
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Positive aspects of the product (pros):
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Cheap tactical accessories, fun and easy to mod
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Cons:
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Extremely poor shooter, mediocre construction
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This is a review of the Neonfire Tactical Solutions Series 168TSL spring pistol. Why couldn’t they just call it “A Vaguely 1911-Looking Pistol”? I do not know. The name doesn’t even sound close to 1911. They could’ve at least changed the 168 to 191 or something.
Look and Feel/First Impressions
First thing is the box. What a box. It’s all blue and has a pretty picture. I’m surprised they managed to fit that ridiculously long name in only two lines.
Then there’s what’s inside the box. I must say, I was impressed. I threw this in the cart when ordering some other items figuring that for $12, why not? And for $12, dang, this thing comes with a whole lot of stuff. There is the pistol (the Neonfire Tactical Solutions Series 168TSL, mind you), one magazine, a small LED flashlight, a laser with remote pressure switch, a rubber band thingy to hold the switch, a reflex sight, a silencer, a dual-rail mount to try to fit it all on, a small paper with illustrations showing how to use the accessories, and even a small screwdriver. I told you it comes with a lot of stuff. These are all separate, removable, and functional accessories. Well, functional in the “it was only $12” kind of way. There are a few details about the accessories to be aware of, so we’ll go through the list one more time:
Magazine:
  
It holds 14 rounds and makes use of one of the two weights used in the weapon. You can see in the picture that it uses the slider/quick fill design. Only problem is the opening at the top is made so you need to push each individual bb through like on a UHC pistol mag. That makes it somewhat annoying to load.
Flashlight:
First off, flashlight is probably the wrong thing to call it; this thing is not the brightest light I've ever seen. The body is constructed of plastic and has an integrated weaver mount; it uses one blue LED, is powered by three 1.5v button cell batteries, and is operated via a pushbutton on the end. While it is brighter than I would’ve expected, tactical light it is not. The power of the light is equivalent to that of an LED key ring light you might use to find your way to the bathroom in the hotel room. Another thing to keep in mind is that both the light and the laser’s weaver mounts lack thumbscrews so use of a screwdriver is necessary for attaching them to a rail.
Laser:
It can be removed from its weaver mount, is powered by three 1.5v button cell batteries, and is operated via a remote pressure switch with about six inches of wire. Looks pretty cool but is not adjustable for windage and elevation so you’ll get more out of it playing with the cat (boy, do they go nuts chasing those things…). It’s also made with thick metal and unusually heavy. This is definitely the best out of all the accessories that come with this pistol.
Reflex Sight:
Completely cosmetic, looks cool but not much else to it. The thing that disappointed me about this item was the fact that the mount is wider than your standard weaver rail so it can only be attached to the top rail for the pistol, which is of corresponding width. Why would they do that?
Silencer:
The thing I like about this item is the fact that the threading on the silencer and tip of the barrel on the pistol are made of metal, a sharp idea for something that will probably get taken on and off countless times. Unfortunately, the rest of the silencer is about as crappy as everything else, horrendously skinny, equipped with a nice, shiny sticker, and about as crooked as the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
Rail Mount:
As previously mentioned, the top rail is slightly wider than your standard weaver rail (see comparison in above picture) so it’s useful for the reflex sight it comes with and that’s it. The lower rail is of standard size. Not much else to it, made of plastic, fits securely to a pair of notches in the frame of the weapon with five screws which keep the two halves of the mount together and keep it snug.
Documentation
As you can see, the illustrations show how to mount some of the accessories. I was going to say that the only thing this is good for is laughing at the terrible translations, but even that isn't really that funny.
Screwdriver:
This is by far the most exciting item that is included with the gun (the Neonfire Tactical Solutions Series 168TSL, in case you forgot). Of the Phillips head flavor and sporting a stylish plastic grip sharply contrasted by a shining silver shaft. This little devil can fasten those screws faster than you can say “Holy crap, how can somebody write this much about such a cheap little pistol???”
The Gun:
Now that we’ve covered the accessories, we’ll take a look at the weapon itself. Let’s face it: at $12, this thing is not pleasing to the eyes. Pictures say a thousand words here. Constructed entirely of cheap plastic with a single weight in the backstrap plus one more in the mag, this weapon neither looks, nor feels, nice. At all. You won’t be finding any fancy slide locks or even a safety, for that matter. The hammer is also a molded portion of the body. The pistol grip panels are poorly molded and do not fit well on the frame of the pistol. And don’t forget the numerous screw holes and the old “MADE IN CHINA” which makes an appearance on both the slide and frame. This is a sickening horrendously ugly gun, make no mistake.
Internals
The internals on this thing are, as I'm sure you can guess, nothing special. There is no takedown lever or anything here; you basically need to completely disassemble it to get at anything. As with many guns at this level of quality, I wouldn't recommend opening this thing up too many times and advise extreme caution when unscrewing things because that plastic is going to get stripped very easily. I was somewhat surprised how well lubricated the internals were, though. The piston was dripping all over the place. Also, one of the first things you want to do is clean out the barrel. Mine was just filthy and had quite an effect on performance. Not much else to it. I suppose you could install a spacer or something if you wanted but it doesn't look like it would take much to crack the frame in half so don't expect much.
Performance
This is where this baby really shines: throwing plastic at over 400FPS and racking up headshots at nearly 200 feet- just kidding. While I wasn’t expecting any surprises here, I decided to give it as formal a test I could to determine accuracy and power.
Accuracy:
I fired at your basic 8.5”x11” piece of paper with a small ring in the center from 15’, 30’, and 45’ distances (measured with a tape measure) using generic .12g and KSC .2g ammo. I fired 7 rounds of each type of ammo at each target.
The Results:
The distances were carefully measured. There was no "well it looks like around 100 feet" going on with these tests. Note my awesome ACU with socks combo.
Again, carefully measured. And check out my great little target holder thingjobber. I love USPS boxes and duct tape.
This grouping is with .12g ammo @15' and indoors
.2g @15' INDOORS
.12g @30' INDOORS
.2g @30' INDOORS
.12g @45' OUTDOORS
As you can see, the results are somewhat random. I would attribute this to the quality of the weapon, the quality of my shooting, and the fact that the 45' test was done outdoors with a wee bit of a breeze coming through. Mostly the weapon's fault, though. All the rounds were on the paper in the first test, but there is no noticeable difference between the two different ammo types. At 30', only two .12g rounds were on target while all the .2g bbs made it. At 45', only one .12g round out of all of them made a hit. I believe the reason the .12 seemed less accurate at 30' and more at 45' is more due to luck rather than anything else. The heavier ammo drops at just about 45' but I'm sure you could arc your shots for somewhat reliable results at that distance. I would say a good, conservative number on the effective range of this weapon would be only around 30' with .2g ammo. It was just too random to trust it to hit anything much further away with any level of consistency.
Power:
For this I used the poor man’s chrono. The results were amazing, I assure you. Firing a single KSC .2g bb into the side of a Coca Cola can from approximately 2 inches yielded… a small dent. That puts it under 290 FPS. Airsoft Atlanta typically has accurate numbers and they put it at 200 FPS with .12g ammo which I find certainly believable.
Modifications/Upgrades
While this isn't something I would consider upgrading internally, this gun has great potential for just messing around with/practicing on the externals. I didn't put much more than maybe an hour into messing with this thing and it looks a hundred times cooler. Now, if you start looking it over very closely you're going to find some little mistakes here and there but, not bad from a distance. First off, I grabbed the ol' Dremel Tool and ported the slide. It's not exactly pretty and I admit if I had just used something like the drill press for my Dremel Tool which was sitting all of three feet away from me it would've turned out much better but it's only a $12 gun and that's what's nice about it. Next I sanded off the "MADE IN CHINA" markings. Then I painted the frame, slide, and rails with Rust-Oleum Camouflage series flat black spray paint and the barrel/fake ejection port with Testors chrome spray paint. All in all, took very little time and effort and doesn't look half bad, considering.
Some pictures of my mods:
Again, from a distance, it can look pretty cool.
Conclusion
Okay, if you’re looking for a sidearm, this is not the answer. I would never even consider plinking around with this thing, not to mention going into battle (a big surprise, I know).
But this thing is great for just messing around with. It was fun to tinker with, the light and laser turn midnight trips to the bathroom into daring covert operations, the accessories are nice to throw on other guns for looks, the gun looks good in little movies I make with my friends, and with a little work it can make a cool wall hanger. So, I like it. If you're ordering some stuff anyways, why not just throw it in the cart and you can kill some time with it when you're bored or whatever.
Additional Images
(Pic from Airsoft Atlanta)
 
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