Whilst everyone's looking for airsoft versions of some of the coolest or baddest real steel firearms in the world, and indeed there are some coming out this year, we got a tip from our on-off source who is based in Mainland China. An obscure Chinese company is slowly building what they claim to be the most badass airsoft gun ever to be made in recent years.

We were given a blurry cam image, most probably taken secretly from a camera phone of this airsoft gun that is being tested by Hù Nong Co., Ltd. which our source say is based in Hangzhou, Zheijang Province in Mainland China. Rather than making airsoft gun designs based on existing real steel guns, and earn the wrath of the Chinese authorities, the company was set-up to specialise in new airsoft gun designs just dedicated for the airsoft market that don't have any similarity to existing firearms.

Called the "Dāi Zi Super Airsoft Gun", this airsoft gun prototype boasts 12 rotating barrels mounted in two 6-barrel sets. Looking more like a gun taken from  sci-fi movie, the gun weighs around 10 kilograms (empty), which is really heavy. Both rotating barrel sets can be fired simultaneously which can fire 8000 rounds per second according to initial tests. But our source says that the designers are looking into double the rate of the CAW M134 Minigun, which has a manufacturer-claimed ROF of 6,000 rounds per second. Now if you double that, then the Dāi Zi Super Airsoft Gun is looking into a 12,000 round per second ROF. I don't want to be in the receiving end of that, even if the velocity is 100fps. I'd be tenderised so well.

Given the ROF, firing it accidentally is a no-no. The designers have included two large ambidextrous safeties. The first ambidextrous safety is located near the feeding point to the barrels and the other is a trigger safety. In order to fire the Dāi Zi Super Airsoft Gun, you will need two remove both safeties, and they also put as an extra precaution a 5-second timer in which 5-LED lights turn up from red to green, green meaning that it is now ready to fire. So you can't fire the gun immediately even if the safeties are off as the LED lights also engage an electronic switch that will allow you to fire when the lights turn green. This precautionary measure gives you time to switch back to safe in case you have made a mistake in turning the gun on. Just imagine an airsoft gun that has an ROF of 8,000-12,000bps accidentally fired in a safe zone. You would ruin a whole day's game with that.

Since the Dāi Zi Super Airsoft Gun is already very much front heavy, with the rotating barrels, the designers made the rear of the gun to be the BB loading area. It is said that you can pour up to 5kg's worth of BBs into the rear. If fully loaded, that airsoft gun would weigh 15 kilos! Feeding the BBs from the rear to the front, a tube which is mounted on is where the BBs pass through and also acts as carry handle. A 9v battery is used to power the feeding mechanism.

The whole airsoft gun is fully CNC'D aluminium and there are no rail mounts for mounting optics since this is a spray and pray airsoft gun, no need for precision shooting --- just point the gun in the direction where you want to shoot and fire away. Those who are in the BBs' path would surely scamper away. The tripod can be folded and comes with a laser which was added to provide a meaner look for it.

No details yet on pricing and when it's going to be officially released as the designers are still ekking out whatever firepower they can get from it. We don't know if you like the look or not but one thing for sure: we don't want to be on the opposite team when this one gets deployed in airsoft games.

(Update: Colten Legion got it right that it's a watergun).