The whole point of a Tippmann is that it is customizable.  You can make your A-5 look like a MP5, a sniper Rifle, or an M4, thats the beauty of buying a tippmann.

yeah but the problem is...modifying is expensive, and TIPPMANN doesnt really provide a ton of modifiications options, you have to go to other companies like CUSHMAN CUSTOMS or OPS GEAR to get the mods for your A-5 to look like an m60...etc. by tippmann producing the hard product of an M4 or w/e they would increase in profit, i would buy one (as long as it isnt over 600 bucks) because i know tippmann products are hardcore and extremely hard to break, i am currently mod-ing my A-5 to an MSG-90 sniper rifle. its gonna look uber cool...but its really expensive. by producing the actual gun and not one you have to modify a ton, we save money and they increase profits. (this is in ideal conditions of course) but seriously, if they sold an M4 paintball gun for lets say...369.99...how many of you would buy it (if it was TIPPMANN-ized [my word lol] like the a-5/98c/pro-carbine is?

5ptcontingency wrote:  The paintball-ignorant public might not be quite so averse to the sport if they didn't see markers that immitate firearms.

True That.

Enos Shenk wrote: Large Unit wrote: No they dont.. Even though I think making a tourney worthy electro with eyes would make them a lot of money since everybody would want a high end gun with tippmann reliabliilty. What are you smoking? You think the idiotic arrogant tourney people would ever use a "high end" gun from tippmann, what they consider a newbie company?

I agree. They are going to want Cockers, Timmys, etc. Not a lowly Tippmann.

If you want a milsim by an Ariakon (which was formerly known as Armotech) there just isn't the demand for scenario exclusive guns, if you wanted you could turn any Tippmann gun into a scenario gun.  An Ariakon is good for nothing but scenario.  You can't use them in anything except woodsball and scenario games.

both armotech.us and armotech.com (Ariakon)n have a speedball series, they arent just milsim companies. ariakon as both the toro and the respectable Nemisis. armotech.us has made a planet series of speedball guns, the new one is Saturn. they arent just MILSIM companies as i said before.

and to point out something 5ptcontingency, not all of us are actually in the army and use those kind of weapons, we are mostly teenagers that want to have the feel of shooting a gun as a sport, and the more real a paintball gun looks, the cooler it is. (in my opinion).

and yes we have a pretty arrogant society these days, but they arent doing much against paintball around here despite the first death ever that happened just recently, that was the users fault, no one elses'. infact, paintball is gaining popularity, every year since 1998, 1.5 (more/less) million more people start paintball. and its still rising, so for all i care, the anti-paintball society we live in, is becoming much more excepting...or admitting defeat (  )

NeoRome wrote: yeah but the problem is...modifying is expensive, and TIPPMANN doesnt really provide a ton of modifiications options, you have to go to other companies like CUSHMAN CUSTOMS or OPS GEAR to get the mods for your A-5 to look like an m60...etc. by tippmann producing the hard product of an M4 or w/e they would increase in profit, i would buy one (as long as it isnt over 600 bucks) because i know tippmann products are hardcore and extremely hard to break, i am currently mod-ing my A-5 to an MSG-90 sniper rifle. its gonna look uber cool...but its really expensive. by producing the actual gun and not one you have to modify a ton, we save money and they increase profits. (this is in ideal conditions of course) but seriously, if they sold an M4 paintball gun for lets say...369.99...how many of you would buy it (if it was TIPPMANN-ized [my word lol] like the a-5/98c/pro-carbine is?

Well, actually the way it works is that whenever a company releases a product they have to figure in for support, liability, R&D, mass production, packaging, distribution, etc...

Tippmann can't just go design a marker to milsim every single gun out there so that they can sell 100 units of each, sold in dispersed locations across North America.  After military and law enforcement, the milsim market is somewhat small, considering half the people who prefer milsim just go buy an airsoft gun since they're more accurate replicas which require tactical reloads and such.

Tippmann leaves the smaller upgrade markets for people like proteam and opsgear.  They can handle the smaller orders more efficiently.

Think of it this way, if you really want a PSG-1 paintball marker, then you can have a team of engineers design the pneumatics, obtain the patents, thoroughly test your prototype, go back and work out the bugs over and over again, get a pattern maker to fabricate a master mold for all the parts, go to the aluminum smelter, plastics factory, and machine shop and have them do a production run of 1 unit, procure the other odds and ends like fasteners and fittings, set up an assembly line and workforce to assemble your 1 unit, and voila.  One made to order PSG-1 sniper rifle paintball marker.  Problem solved.

I think there would be a pretty decent response to a Milsim weapon. And honestly I think Tippmann would be the best company to make it.

Now, of course this is coming from someone who plays scenario games almost exclusively. When I was looking into buying a new weapon a few months back to replace my aging Tippmann 98 (I got it when it first came out), I had taken a couple of different weapons into consideration. First I looked at the A-5, because really the only thing that can truely replace a Tippmann is another Tippmann. But for me the A-5 just seemed like a Half-Hearted attempt at copying an Mp5k, and If youre going to do something like that you should go all the way. I looked at a couple of other Sim Guns from various manufacturers, and eventually settled on a RAP5.

Honestly I can say its a great weapon for what it is, and that would of course be a scenario gun. Its a .40 caliber so you have to know of a field that'll let you use it. Most of the fields around me have bring youre own paint days on Sundays - which is when I always played anyway - So I havent had much of a problem. Ive also fielded it against regular .68's, and Ive done well, But it lacks some range.

a Curiousity though is the Old Tippmann SMG series. Ive used them many times before, quite a while ago. It was a Very nice weapon, I especially loved the magazines, even if they were a bit inconvenient to load. what I wonder though is why a follow up was never made. Tippmann made the SMG and then we never saw anything like it again (Until now with the RAP4 and RAP5). I know If I could find an old Tippmann SMG for sale, I would buy it immediately.. and chew the arms off anyone else who was looking at it.  People used to moan about the small clips for it, But I actually enjoyed it. I never liked having 150 rounds in my weapon at one time.

Would it really be a bad idea for Tippmann to Make a newer, possibly modernized version of the SMG? I for one think it would do very well.  Tippmann's already got the market cornered when it comes to different designs (Honestly folks, 90% of paintball guns look nearly identical, regardless of color), And alot of people who buy Tippmanns as far as I can tell usually do so because they dont want a Neon Pink gun with the same generic rectangle with a cylinder look to it. If this is the case then I dont think it would cause too much of a shock in sales then if Tippmann designed a New Magazine loading weapon in the spirit of the SMG series.

Anyway. Just some thoughts.

Tippmann doesn't need to make MILSIM guns that are designed to look only like one gun. As others have said this would probably lead to them making less money rather than more because you lose the ability to customize the gun. Tippmann guns are usually turned into replicas anyway but if you want to make it into a speedball gun instead, you have that option. Because of that, tippmann guns appeal to more people. For example, if the A5 was an exact replica of the MP5K then you probably wouldn't be able to make it look like say an M16. Then you'd have to go to a 98c to get that look and then you lose the features of the A5. The A5 isn't like that though and you can make it look more like an MP5 or you can make it into a couple of other guns. That means that all the people who like the MP5 and want a milsim gun will like the A5 and same goes for fans of the M16 or AK47. If you sacrifice the ability to change the gun into whatever you want it to be then you will not sell as many.

It makes more sense to sell a simple gun that can be modified into many things so that the user can shape the final product. I think MILSIM tippmanns come out very nice and they probably wouldn't cost much less if tippmann sold them like that anyway. Also, check out http://www.bentippmann.com - www.bentippmann.com for some less expensive versions of pro team upgrades. They sell nice MILSIM stuff for much less than proteam. I bought a sight rail/carry handle from them for my 98c, just as good as the pro team one but much cheaper. I'm not sure if they're part of Tippmann Pneumatics or if they're a seperate company but they sell good stuff for low prices.

all of you who want electric crap speedball guns go buy a junky cocker and we can laugh when you drop it and it breaks :)

BrigadierWolf wrote: While they wouldnt have to copy an existing weapon, I dont think it would hurt Sales for them to make a new magazine loading weapon like theyre old SMG 60 and 68. I mean, those things were Hot, Its a shame they dont make them anymore.

Well that's something entirely different. I was only addressing the topic of making a MILSIM gun that is designed to look only like one gun. Making a good clip-fed gun would be a great idea for those interested in MILSIM but speedballers probably wouldn't like it if it didn't hold a lot of paint and/or feed very fast. It would be better if they could make a normal gun like the 98c or A5 and then come out with an upgrade that allows you to use magazines instead of a hopper. Then people can get the gun and not be forced to use a magazine if they don't want to.

The reverse would likely be easier. to creat a magazine fed weapon, and then make a Hopper modification. I mean, were really just talking symantics here,  But creating a magazine feed system is harder to do, so The Hopper should probably be the afterthought rather then the magazine.

I still stand by my statement that the SMG68 was the hottest Gun that Tippmann has ever made.

Personally I like tippmann the way they are. If you want milsim go to armotech or whatever they are called nowadays. If you want speedball markers go out and get a timmy or a imp.

NeoRome wrote: tippman needs to come out with a new line of paintball guns, even though they are currently doing that most likely, but i say they cant all be speedball guns, they should be like say a scenario shotgun, maybe even a sniper rifle, a speedball that looks like maybe...a tommy gun? haha, and some light infantry weapons, m4a1's or M16's. give other companys liek Ariakon and Armotech a run for their money. i have noticed the A-5 has a lot of MP5 mods for it, even tho it was modled after the MP5...their next gun could maybe be an MP5, paintball gun. that would be uber cool, i would buy it. i have some scetches of guns i have drawn up from last time i was in school around may or something when i got board, ill try and scan em in and show you guys em.

since when is a tippmann ever meant to be or considered a speedball gun?

True, it can be a speedball marker, but it's bolt is pretty heavy. Even custom bolts are heavy and causes a lot of recoil. Most MANLY speedballers could deal with it though, unlike those wimpy speedball punks ;)

tippmann needs a gun that can compete with the autococker or the dm4. Could he say tM4?

tippya5-06 wrote:  is it wrong to have a highly upgrade speedball gun to play woodball? all's i would need is camo. speaking of is there any kind of camo that removable? like one day i could play speedball with my a5 and the slip on some camo and go play woodball

Get some camo tape that does not leave any residue. It takes about 10 min to put it on your first time but once you get used to it you can do it in about 5. Its also really easy to remove yet it will stay on while you are playing.

Cappy A-5 wrote: To all those calling the A-5 an mp-5 k you are all wrong..the mp-5k has no sights...the tippmann a-5 is identical to the mp-5ka1 design...the a1 (alteration 1) has sights..as does the a-5.. (just showing off my knowledge)

um yeah it did

edit yeah it does

Maybe what Tippmann should have done was designed the A-5 to the same outside dimensions as an MP5.  That way it would be able to accept all the mods which MP5s can take.

I personally think the A-5 looks alright.  HKs are designed to be functional.  They're very simple with no frills.  The A-5 takes the same HK functional appearance.  It's like if HK made a paintball gun this is what it might look like.