Paintball

[Nobody]

damn, need we forget that ICD/Line SI should be in there too?

[Blackmane]

Went with Tippmann because, yeah, that's 80-90% of the rental markers at my field, and 50+% of the owned markers. However, I think that BT/Empire should have been on the list because there's a ton of minis and BT4 variants kicking around too.

[alpha434]

Oh... You mean Ben Tippmann 4 variants. Yeah.

It's that average number of owners combined with how long Tippmann has been around.

And since they've been around since the beginning.... They have a 20 something year head start on the kee. A valuable head start, since the late 90s and early 2k boasted an estimated 6 million players worldwide. Poor math aside, those estimates are down to 2 million these days. If kee eliminated Tippmann from the market, it might take them 60 years to catch up.

Ps... I'm not a Tippmann fan in the slightest. But I have to admit to having a dozen of them in my collection. Owning one seems Effing inevitable.

[DashHopes]

Originally Posted by alpha434

Oh... You mean Ben Tippmann 4 variants. Yeah.

It's that average number of owners combined with how long Tippmann has been around.

And since they've been around since the beginning.... They have a 20 something year head start on the kee.

Agreed in full.

[RedRumLive999]

Originally Posted by DocsMachine

-Tippmann predates every name on that list, often by decades. As I recall, the original SL-68 came out in '86, which I think predates even the Sniper (or at least, the mass-produced Snipers anyway.)

It's possible Brass Eagle came out a little earlier than Tippmann, but I'm not sure- even if they did, though, Tippy had a clear edge in production even back then.

AGD didn't start making a gun until '90, Kingman until '95 and Smart Parts 'til '96. DYE didn't start making a marker 'til... what, the Matrix in '00 or '01? PE didn't start making a full marker 'til something like '02 or '03, and by that time, there were well over half a million Tippmanns out there.

Doc.

Um I don't disagree with everyone's statement of Tippmann being the winner. But I do want to give a little bit of knowledge by saying, WGP was born in 85. Tippmann does not pre date it.

[DashHopes]

I thought WGP was born in 87?

[DocsMachine]

Originally Posted by RedRumLive999

Um I don't disagree with everyone's statement of Tippmann being the winner. But I do want to give a little bit of knowledge by saying, WGP was born in 85. Tippmann does not pre date it.

-I stand corrected, if true.

I wasn't sure when Bud came out with the first Sniper, but I do know he spent at least a year hand-making them in his garage, before ramping up true mass-production with the Sniper-2.

Of course, if you want to get technical, Tippmann was around as a company prior to their switch to paintball. Originally they made miniature machine guns (like this half-scale Browning 1919A4 air-cooled) basically as collector's items.

The Gun Control Act of 1986 put the stop to new production of full-auto guns for civillian use, so Tippmann was stuck with a factory full of machines and employees, but no product they could legally build.

He'd heard of this new sport of paintball, did a little research, and eventually started producing the SL-68 pump. The rest, as they say, is history.

Doc.

[RedRumLive999]

Very cool! I didn't know that about Tippmann. Doesn't surprise me that they made real guns though but wasn't expecting mini machine guns! Awesome!

Here's a Lil proof of wgp '85

[leathalh]

Picture looks like a a centerfeed 2 finger hinge frame cocker to me. Bud must have seen the future.

[The Inflicted]

Originally Posted by leathalh

Picture looks like a a centerfeed 2 finger hinge frame cocker to me. Bud must have seen the future.

...or a Palmer Hurricane...