Shot a Mini today

Yeah.

Too small for me.

itty bitty mini maggy

awesome gun, if i ever make a return to speedball or have some spare time im going to try and fine a used one and rebuild it...

Very nice. Awfully small, but very sturdy and easily compactible.

Invert (Mini) is a subsidiary of Empire, which is under the umbrella of NPS. So unless they are suing thier own companies, you are thinking of the NPS vs. Draxxus thing over the Pulse.

Shot it, hated it.

Even fully loaded for bear, it is so light that when you start laying a rope, you're bouncing almost everywhere due to the fact that it's a blow-forward coupled with a reset-spring (think like a mag).

The lack of an LPR means that like the PMR, the blow-forward on the bolt operates at the same 200psi that the marker operates at. While this doesn't seem like such a big issue, it means that if, for some reason, you have a ball half-dropped into the chamber IT WILL CHOP! Now, not only is chopping a pain in the butt on the field, but the tolerance between the bolt and the body is so tight that you are almost guaranteed to wedge the bolt on shell. If you were to do so in a game, or god forbid a tournament, you'd be forced to do one of two things, either try to force the bolt back into the reset position with your straight-shot or battle swab, or not use your marker. Not only would it put you out of the game, but it takes a bit of time to remove the bolt from the marker. All told, we had to go at it for 6 minutes to pull it out as you have to take the grip off, and screw around with everything just to pull the bolt. The eyes are also milled into the body which makes them a pain to clean and remove/replace. Also, pay close attention to the warning sticker on the feedneck, some newb tech at Pev's almost lost his finger when fiddling with the marker the other day, as it is, he only crushed his finger from the second knuckle down.

I definitely don't like the fact that all of the air lines are internalized and milled into the body. If you were to get some sort of an obstruction in one of the airways, you'd never be able to clean that sucker out. While air-way obstructions aren't common, they still happen. In 4 years of tech work, I've had 10 separate cases of obstructions affecting a marker. This also means that you can only use their reg/asa that MUST stay in a fixed location. So no rail, no drop, and no variable-output tanks for the mini user. Couple that with the fact that they've flat out refused to disclose the air-flow system of the marker for the time being and you've got an airsmith's nightmare on your hands. There are just too many things that can go wrong with this marker, and each issue takes a long time to fix due to the fact that everything is fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. Add in the price tag around $400 at most pro shops and I wonder why anyone wouldn't just go out and put the money on an Ion, PMR, Epiphany, or other tried and true marker for less.

Also, the reason that pro-shops around the nation(s) are just getting these in is due to the fact that there were some very serious board and mechanical malfunctions in the early run that had to be fixed. We're talking 50% failure rate from one source.

If a little kid or midget asked me if it was a good marker for them.... sure. But putting weight and size at a premium means (for now) that everything else you want in a marker comes second.

hybrid-sniper wrote: Invert (Mini) is a subsidiary of Empire, which is under the umbrella of NPS. So unless they are suing thier own companies, you are thinking of the NPS vs. Draxxus thing over the Pulse.

tallen702 wrote: usafpilot07 wrote: And atop of all that, rumor has it that Mini/National is in court regarding the production of Mini's as they seem to be under some type of copyright infringement. It's basically a rip-off of the AGD blow-forward design, I wouldn't be surprised to see Tom Kaye involved in the court proceedings. Oh, and sorry for two consecutive posts...

Aye, I didn't mean Invert vs. NPS. I just heard rumors of some court proceedings, and didn't know who they were being conducted with.

Seriously, for the price and the issues that appear to be inherent in the system, you can do much better. Heck, a Lasoya Promaster from ICD will only run you $199 right now. Sure, ICD's have their fair share of maintenance woes, but at least you can work on them.

tallen702 wrote: Shot it, hated it. Even fully loaded for bear, it is so light that when you start laying a rope, you're bouncing almost everywhere due to the fact that it's a blow-forward coupled with a reset-spring (think like a mag). The lack of an LPR means that like the PMR, the blow-forward on the bolt operates at the same 200psi that the marker operates at. While this doesn't seem like such a big issue, it means that if, for some reason, you have a ball half-dropped into the chamber IT WILL CHOP! Now, not only is chopping a pain in the butt on the field, but the tolerance between the bolt and the body is so tight that you are almost guaranteed to wedge the bolt on shell. If you were to do so in a game, or god forbid a tournament, you'd be forced to do one of two things, either try to force the bolt back into the reset position with your straight-shot or battle swab, or not use your marker. Not only would it put you out of the game, but it takes a bit of time to remove the bolt from the marker. All told, we had to go at it for 6 minutes to pull it out as you have to take the grip off, and screw around with everything just to pull the bolt. The eyes are also milled into the body which makes them a pain to clean and remove/replace. Also, pay close attention to the warning sticker on the feedneck, some newb tech at Pev's almost lost his finger when fiddling with the marker the other day, as it is, he only crushed his finger from the second knuckle down. I definitely don't like the fact that all of the air lines are internalized and milled into the body. If you were to get some sort of an obstruction in one of the airways, you'd never be able to clean that sucker out. While air-way obstructions aren't common, they still happen. In 4 years of tech work, I've had 10 separate cases of obstructions affecting a marker. This also means that you can only use their reg/asa that MUST stay in a fixed location. So no rail, no drop, and no variable-output tanks for the mini user. Couple that with the fact that they've flat out refused to disclose the air-flow system of the marker for the time being and you've got an airsmith's nightmare on your hands. There are just too many things that can go wrong with this marker, and each issue takes a long time to fix due to the fact that everything is fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. Add in the price tag around $400 at most pro shops and I wonder why anyone wouldn't just go out and put the money on an Ion, PMR, Epiphany, or other tried and true marker for less. Also, the reason that pro-shops around the nation(s) are just getting these in is due to the fact that there were some very serious board and mechanical malfunctions in the early run that had to be fixed. We're talking 50% failure rate from one source. If a little kid or midget asked me if it was a good marker for them.... sure. But putting weight and size at a premium means (for now) that everything else you want in a marker comes second.

Man..... I don't think i'll be getting one of those anytime soon. At first they looked realy realy realy cool. But I guess some things are to good to be true.

usafpilot07 wrote: MoNkeY Hunter wrote: Man..... I don't think i'll be getting one of those anytime soon. At first they looked realy realy realy cool. But I guess some things are to good to be true. Every innovation has it's bumps to get over in the beginning. This is the first real "Birth" of a new gun in years...  I mean, when you compare the hiccups in the path to Dye needing two or three RUNS of matrixes each year before all the problems are fixed, a brand new company hitting some obstacles isn't so bad. Give them time, Mini's are going to be a great leap in the future.

Assuming they dont fizzle out before they get to the good stuff.

Monk wrote: usafpilot07 wrote: MoNkeY Hunter wrote: Man..... I don't think i'll be getting one of those anytime soon. At first they looked realy realy realy cool. But I guess some things are to good to be true. Every innovation has it's bumps to get over in the beginning. This is the first real "Birth" of a new gun in years... I mean, when you compare the hiccups in the path to Dye needing two or three RUNS of matrixes each year before all the problems are fixed, a brand new company hitting some obstacles isn't so bad. Give them time, Mini's are going to be a great leap in the future. Assuming they dont fizzle out before they get to the good stuff.

They won't they're backed by two of the biggest companies in paintball. It'd be like DYE or Tippmann fizzling out. The companies employ very good mechanical and fluid-dynamics engineers who know that there are going to be bumps in the road. Heck, AGD's been through more bumps than this and they're still alive and kicking.