Airsoft weapons fire 6mm plastic pellets (or BBs) at varying speeds (between 100 and 500 feet per second or 30 to 150 meters per second), fast enough to feel but not to cause too much damage (less painful than a paintball hit). Airsoft weapons are real imitation firearms, they look and feel like the real thing but cannot be converted to fire live ammunition, it is essentially a toy and classed as one!

Airsoft as we know it originated in Japan in the early 1980's as the Japanese answer to the American craze of Paintball. Whilst the first airsoft guns were probably made in the US, it was not until Tokyo Marui started putting their electrically powered gearbox into their static replicas that airsoft as we know it developed. Across Japan, South East Asia, North America and Europe there are thousands of players who put on their combats, heave on their webbing and grab their rifles each weekend!