Tippmann announced in Feb. that all their paintball guns will now come with a new 2 year warranty. Their original warranty was only 1 year with a 24hr turn around promise. This 2 year service just re-solidifies Tippmann Paintball Guns as being the hardest working paintball guns in the industry. The Press Release is below. The industry stranded warranty is usually 90 days on any electronics of a gun (if any), and 1 year on the mechanical parts themselves. Of course, abuse is another story.

If you haven’t done so already, check out the new Tippmann 98 Custom Platinum series paintball gun.  It allows you  easily take apart the gun for maintenance, and it adds some cool looks over the old 98 custom. If you need more fire power and a realistic look, the X7 with eframe is the gun for you.  The select fire switch allows you to quickly change firing modes from full auto, semi, auto and 3 round burst.
“2/1/2008

BUFFALO GROVE, IL - Tippmann Sports recently announced that the company will be standing behind its legendary Tippmann branded paintball markers with a new, industry leading two-year warranty. The first-of-its kind warranty, which will be prominently highlighted on all product packaging as well as the company’s print advertisements and website, officially went into effect on January 1, 2008. There will also be a grace period to cover those players who purchased a new Tippmann marker in late 2007.

“Our exclusive two-year warranty really speaks for itself,” said Patrick Ehren, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Tippmann Sports. “We’re extremely confident when it comes to the durability and reliability of our products - our markers have proven themselves in the field for more than 20 years. “In today’s environment, as consumers are making their purchasing decisions, they want to know they won’t be abandoned by the manufacturer after the purchase. This new warranty gives them that peace-of-mind and sends a very clear message that Tippmann stands behind its products. The level of support and service our company provides is simply unparalleled in the paintball industry.”

For additional details, consumers are encouraged to speak with a certified Tippmann dealer, or simply call the company at 1-800-533-4831. Those who recently purchased a Tippmann marker, but haven’t activated their warranty are encouraged to register today in the Customer Service section of Tippmann’s website - www.tippmann.com.

For more than 20 years, Tippmann Sports has been dedicated to quality manufacturing and the pursuit of cutting-edge technology and design. The company serves the paintball industry from its headquarters and manufacturing facility in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Tippmann Sports’ complete line of paintball markers and related accessories can be found at paintball stores and fields as well as mass retail and sporting goods outlets throughout the world.”

KEE Action Sports the Worlds Largest Distributer is going to be carrying the Macdev Droid.  Macdev in the past few years has faced a lot of US Distribution issues.  Mostly lagging sales.  We stopped carrying them when they decided to stop all gun sales to US stores, and let their US distributer (Paintball Kingdom) sell their guns exclusively to paintballer’s directly.  When that didn’t work out (we knew it wouldn’t), they let US stores sell them again (we didn’t bother to pick them back up).  After a year or so of floundering US sales, some guys in Miami, FL must have sweet talked the Australian company into letting them start as a US Distributer.  I’m not sure what the deal was, but i know “Macdev USA” must have promised Macdev a big sales increase to get the gig.  They obviously fell short for Macdev to look toward KEE ACTION SPORTS for distribution. I’m not sure if we will carry their guns once KEE starts to distribute them.  Macdev makes a good product, however it has little aftermarket  and US support. Meaning, if you go to a field or a event, have your gun go down.  Its much more likely your field will carry a part for a Planet Eclipse Gun than a Macdev.

SAKworldpaintball.com has been a long time dealer of the Nitroduck Brand name. NitroDuck has always been an innovator in HPA technology, blazing the way with their dual stage Mega Regulator, their single stage adjustable X-Stream regulator and currently the Iregulator which has a interchangeable pressure piston kit. NitroDuck was the first company to put “tank threads” on a HPA tank and to drop the whole cradle/dove tail system. This innovation paved the way to 97% of all paintball tanks having the common screw in feature. When we heard of the opportunity to acquire the brand, a long standing name in paintball, we jumped at the thought. We are currently exploring all aspects of the possible buy out including if it makes sense and adds value to our mutual customers. If any information develops we will be sure to update it here.

So View Loader has followed Smart Parts and Tippmann by discontinuing their distributer sales.  View Loader, is owned by a larger conglomerate (k2 Sports) who also owns Brass Eagle and Worr Game Products.  View Loader by far is their most profitable division.

View Loader Makes Quality paintball hoppers like the Revolution EYE Force and the Vlocity Paintball Hoppers.  It has been rumored, that k2 may be selling off View Loader, so for them to discontinue distributer sales would mean they would increase there over all profit margin by a few points.  This makes sense if VL is trying to sell.  As far as who would buy them, I’m not really sure.  With Empire, Draxxus, and new paintball Hopper makers like the NXE Jrny, I’m not sure what current industry players would want VL.  We will have to wait and see what happens.

Tippmann Sports has stopped distributer sales.  Tippmann followed Smart Parts lead by stopping all distributer sales in 2008.  Kevin Sheehan of Tippmann says they did this to help control who is selling their paintball guns.  I think they saw  Smart Parts do this in late 2007, and realized it could work for them.  When a manufacture cuts out a distributer, they usually make more money because a distributer would pay a lower price for an item, than a retail store would be (the store has less volume).

Tippmann has been around since the beginning of paintball.   You can see all their paintball guns here.

So after further digging, I originally thought Kee Action Sports (maker of the TSA Halo Paintball hopper) is going to replace the TSA hopper with the Reloader II hopper.  I originally thought a new mid priced hopper would be released however, KEE decided to continue selling the Empire Reloader II hopper which took a back seat to the TSA hopper for the past few years.  The Reloader II offers the same performance as the TSA however its a little more more reliable.   The Reloader II has a very similar design to the View Loader 12 Volt Revolution paintball hopper, the only difference is the Reloader II has a sound activated triggered motor.  It senses when the gun shoots, then feed the paintball gun.

Planet Eclipse is a UK based High End paintball manufacture, maker of the EGO and Etek Paintball guns, is going to build a new warehouse on land they currently own in RI. The new warehouse will replace the location they have been in for the past few years. They have expanded to the point they need a new custom building for the US Distribution/Servicing branch. This is inside information, from “old man” Gerry Bates their head Technical guy.
Planet Eclipse made their claim to fame by making custom Autocockers before the Autococker design became obsolete, however it was when they released the 2005 EGO when their popularity sky rocketed in paintball. They now sit firmly perched, as one of the top 3 high end paintball manufacturers in paintball. In my opion they are #1 with no one close as far as over all design and function go.

JT USA maker of paintball goggles and paintball hoppers (under the View Loader Brand name) has announced a defect on the XSV Vlocity Paintball Hopper.  Inside the XSV hopper (named after the paintball tournament team XSV) the internal impeller called the “clock wheel” is prone to cracking.  If your clock wheel has cracked, view loader will send you a more durable clock wheel free of charge  if you contact them, their number is listed in the literature which came with your hopper.

Over all the XSV is a great hopper especially at the $109 sale price.  Its the first and currently only hopper offered on the market that comes with rechargeable 9 batteries and a charger.  For its small size, high capacity and super light weight, this hopper will be awesome on any paintball gun from SAKworldpaintball.com

Tippmann just announced that they will be extending the $20 rebate on all Custom Pros and Custom 98 Paintball guns.

“By popular demand we are pleased to announce that Tippmann Sports is extending the 98 Custom $20 Rebate Program an additional 30 days.

 Effective immediately, the qualifying purchase date has been extended from January 15, 2008 to February 15, 2008.  All redemptions must still be submitted to Tippmann Sports by April 15, 2008.”

If you haven’t purchased a gun yet and need one take advantage of this offer.  Thats an extra $20 you can take to the bank.

Smart Parts the manufacture of the NXT Shocker announced a price drop today. This is a second price drop in about a year for the NXT shocker. The Shocker has always been a slow mover. In the original $699-799 it sat all by itself on the shelf, its a slower gun that does need a little more love and care than a Planet Eclipse ETEK. The new $599 price does put the shocker head to head with an ETEK.

On a NXT Shocker vs. ETEK comparison, i would still take an ETEK paintball gun. The ETEK might be a few onces heavier than a NXT however, the ETEKs speed and relibility and over all performance kicks the NXT Shockers butt every time if you ask me. Not to mention Planet Eclipse offers unparalleled support.

Smart Parts did a great job at developing an entry level gun theat performs (ION based guns, which are water down versions of the shocker) however they have yet to come out with anything cutting edge in the past few years. They seemed to be happy making entry level guns and not trying to “think” too hard to develop a new innovative design. Hence the price drop on the NXT Shocker. This road of thought leads to the question “Can Paintball guns get any better?”.

Halo Paintball (owned by KEE Action Sports) announced its discontinuing their line of mid price TSA HALO Hoppers.  The TSA Hoppers ranged form $40-70 depending on their LED or LCD display.  They were offered in 2 body styles a “Frontman” which held around 140rds and a “Backman” hopper which held around 180 balls. Its “gimmick” was that the TSA had a tilt sensor inside which sensed which way you were tilting the hopper.  Depending on the tilt, the impeller would adjust its spin rotation clockwise or counter clock wise to make sure paintballs were being feed into the gun.  Personally I always thought theres hoppers were cheaply made and over rated for the price.  You could do a lot better with a View Loader style Paintball Hopper.

Smart Parts has officially said that the ION paintball gun has been discontinued for their new ION XE paintball gun. The Ion changed the industry, when it first came out it retailed for $399 and was the first paintball gun to offer a speed of 18bps and electronic anti chop beam break eyes for under $800.  Once Smart Parts Dropped the price of the ION down to $199  (and lower) they  owned the entry level market.  The Ion forced manufacturers to tighten their belts and to start releasing high performance features with entry level pricing.

The Ion XE gun is the same great Ion with a slightly new look and a cool new feature.  The XE has more of a edgy body kit to it, and more importantly, the new XE allows you to take the bolt out for maintenance out of the rear of the gun.  So not you don’t have to tear the hole gun apart to get to the bolt.  This is a big time saving feature.   Currently only black is available for the ION XE, however once we start to get colors in we will feature them on the front page of SAKWORLDPAINTBALL.com, which is were you can find all the cool new paintball gear out there.

So we have been getting a lot of phone calls wondering where people can get replacement Pulse Shells.   The deal with Draxxus’ law suit is they can not sell or distribute Pulse hoppers or parts (including the shells).  However you can send your hopper into Draxxus In Virginia and they will be able to swap the shells out for you (under the warranty).  Their telephone number is (571)-261-3162.  I would call first to see if you need an RMA# or anything like that.  I don’t think you do.  If your sick of your Pulse hopper all together, check out the new Empire Magna Loader (also RF Option) or our full list of paintball hoppers.

I’m not really sure if NXE has the “depth” to release and support such a staple of paintball equipment as a hopper. Their packs are nice however there is a big difference between making a paintball pack and a paintball hopper. Especially now with even the basic of hoppers becoming fast and more and more complex.  I obviously wish them and any company that gets into paintball luck, i just think its a very high risk move.

From what i hear it sounds like the “JRNY” ( pronounced journey) hopper is still in development.  We will of course try to keep up with the news on it.

On a side note, we frown upon any company who insists on spelling the name of a product wrong in a attempt to increase sales by thinking it makes the product “cooler”.  I think this is silly and insulting to paintballers, not to mention very very played out.  They might as well give the hopper to some large chested girl in a bikini for a photo shoot.  We would appreciate the photo of the girl, however I think its a lame attempt at marketing.  Paintballers by now should be able to see through all that.

Smart Parts a paintball gun manufacturer has discontinued the popular Epiphany paintball gun with the new 2008 EOS paintball gun.   The major complaint with the Epiphany is the same complaint the ION has.  You have to take 80% of the gun apart to clean and lube the bolt.  This is the equivalent of having to take apart your car engine to get the oil changed.  Sp Smart Parts basically took the Epiphany design and made it so you can quickly and easily unscrew a rear bolt cap and slide the bolt assembly out backwards for maintenance.  This is a great feature which should make the EOS a super star for people in the $350-$400 price range.  Another great paintball gun in this price range is the Invert Mini paintball gun, which we also blogged about here.