Posts Tagged ‘Airsoft’

Some of you may have noticed a marked increase in the output of Raptors social media pages of late. Both twitter and Facebook.

I would love to say this is because Swampy and Spider have become more knowledgeable and conscientious about publishing stuff, but lets be honest it would be easier to get a noob to take their hits at Ground Zero than that.

It’s all down to the enthusiasm of previous contributer MilGeek who has started penning (should that be keyboarding?) upon our pages. A long term airsofter and self confessed old fart (probably why he fits right in…) for those who don’t know him we heartily recommend his own pages on airsoft, military history, modelling and computer gaming. You can find him over on the MilGeek Blog and his spin off pages chronicling his modelling past times. (No. Not that kind of modelling you filthy minded…)

 

..and he does graphics too!

..and he does graphics too!

We’re sure you’ll like his stuff and he shares a fun first ethos like us, has a penchent for Ruskie gear, for those that can recognise him he’s has already appeared in our vid for Centurions CQB game at Scarbrough and written the report

Welcome aboard buddy.

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Politics is probably like football and religion, topics best left out of friendly conversation. However I’d noticed some political posts over on twitter by big retailers obviously very pro one party so I wondered how the general election could impact airsoft?

To those who think it is of no consequence, a little recent history is worth checking… we came very close to losing the hobby on the initial drafting of the VCRA. Only huge lobbying efforts, players getting involved and accepting a lot of rules prevented it disappearing.

So I simply asked the candidates from the big 3 parties in my consituency on twitter
” last Lab Govt tried to ban our hobby.Can you give the many NE players an assurance Airsoft is safe for the future?”

Which got the following replies

First up, they all replied swiftly – so thanks for that! As you can see some are more supportive in tone than others. I leave it up to you kind reader to read between the lines and decide the support or lack thereof airsoft would receive!

Of course there are many other matters which effect our votes. Trifling matters of taxation. welfare, defence but on this one matter dear to our hearts you can at least make an informed choice.

Last point is a personal one.

Vote.

You have a privilege many do not and many fought to get you. Whatever person gets your support, or if you just scribble an abusive note and no suitable candidate, do something. After all “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others”

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One of the players at Centurion is doing some academic work on the subject of airsoft, you can help out by taking a 2 minute survey on the subject here to give him some data to work with…

Go on, you know you want to…

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The Raps are planning a return to Otley on the 12th Feb, for a combined outing. Long overdue return for me after Christmas and real life jobs so looking forward to shooting with my team mate again on the calf burning slopes of the Khe Sanh wood! Rock on.

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Have we seen the passing of the golden age of airsoft?

It’s a thought that has been bothering me more and more. Airsoft in the UK faces pressures from all sides, and in some regions struggles to continue.

We had the VCR act passed and its assault on liberties. The threat to completely remove our hobby was narrowly averted by concerted action by retailers, sites and players. The bastard offspring of that stalwart defence, UKARA, continues to this day. A de facto licensing of airsofters without which it is nigh on impossible to obtain equipment for your hobby. Run and maintained by a cabal of retailers it’s short history is already tarnished with claims and counter claims of sites punished for offering memberships and other sites not punished for similar breaches. The stranglehold on the UK airsoft scene is undeniable, a power which is controlled by several retailers which exist in a competitive environment where they seek to maximise profit. It does not leave you with a comfortable feeling.

As for the airsoft guns themselves. China, long the source of cheap kit which enabled players to enter the hobby inexpensively cracked down on the producers. Either for breaches of law or more likely failure to pay off the correct officials. This saw a drought in the £100 region of AEGs which has continued to this day. As with all pricing habits, UK retailers seem to have maintained the higher pricing that resulted from the crackdowns.

Sites seemed to be springing up all over the place at one point. You could always find a site that you had never heard of before somewhere in the UK. Now, in similar fashion to the dot.com bust we seem to be seeing consolidation by the major players. The larger companies are grabbing every available site for their portfolio, and more and more single site operators seem to be going to the wall. With Council planning permissions increasingly difficult to obtain thanks to Daily Mail reading nimbys and left wing gun hating lentil munchers we are faced with a dwindling variety of sites as everyone is swallowed up by the Tescos and Wal-Mart of Airsoft operators.

So we seem to be entering a phase of commercialisation of the hobby. Is it all bad?

Not necessarily.

Larger site operators have more resources and have a depth of experience, so hopefully well thought our game days that hold your interest (and yes, better toilets!). The Internet allows players to purchase kit globally which will hopefully limit UK retailers prices becoming astronomical.

We are becoming mainstream. You are the norm. No longer some dodgy activity on the back of a farm that locals think is a paramilitary training camp but a legitimate hobby that brings leisure money into the economy.

Lastly, the best hope is you. The players. We are increasing in numbers. We will continue to as long as we keep making sites welcome for others to join, because that is the life blood of the hobby. Noobs. Without them rejuvenating the stock of people who play, and ultimately who pay for airsoft, we will dwindle to irrelevance and find ourselves ignored, and then outlawed.

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The rumours are true…. Well, partly. The screaming budgie that was thought to be crashing and burning has appeared to be just slightly singed.

In 2011 a crack airsoft unit was disbanded for being so damn good everyone wanted one. A few of these men promptly escaped from a maximum security forum to the airsoft underground. Today, still wanted by the many teams, they survive as airsofters of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can sober them up long enough, maybe you can play alongside the Raptors
The raptors

Due to an understandable exodus of (the less committed – ed!) players for newer shiner teams the CO took the hard decision to disband the Raps as a regular airsoft team rather than let the proud name limp on like a prize fighter beyond his best.

However a mysterious and foolhardy duo found the ethos and camaraderie just too hard to let go. The never say die, fun first, worry later, all in it together attitude is a hard one to give up. So the resistance has gone underground. Unpredictable at the best of times, now elusive, certainly sneakier and possibly even more resistant to common sense than ever. They continue to play independently whenever they can, and will still write rubbish on here for people who should know better to read, but when teamed up a disturbing yet beautiful transformation occurs… they become Raptors

Spider and Swampy. The Raptors – Still resisting common sense and good taste

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