Tokyo Marui is exploiting its blowback and recoil engine technology to the fullest, releasing new models and not content on just relying on its AK and M4 lineup. What it has found for itself is an open market where it has no peer, not even one its of closest competitors has come closest to the new playing experience that its technology can provide. With their new product releases, they have left others in the dust.

While gas blowbacks rifles are really great developments in the previous months, they have kind of limited themselves to lowcap games, which will suit a smaller market of airsoft enthusiasts --- the military simulation groups who have embraced these with much gusto. However, a majority of airsoft players are casual gamers, who despite dipping their toes into some milsim games, would need an airsoft gun which is very much adaptive to what airsoft games they get into, whether milsim, or the regular weekend games where high capacity magazines are very much the norm.

Besides the limited market of milsim enthusiasts, gas blowback rifles also give you a higher cost of ownership, in the form of the expensive gas magazines that are always incompatible to any given brand. Thus, we see very much a fragmented market, and a very small fragmented market at that.

Furthermore, the gas issues in cold weather also leaves much room for improvement for these rifles. They're limited to warmer climates for all year use, and for colder environments, you'll have to wait for the summer season for you to use them properly. That is, if your summer season is warm enough to play with gas guns.

Tokyo Marui's blowback and recoil engine provides the versatility that AEGs have over gas blowbacks, that is an all-year round capability. While an all-weather capability is what cannot be said about AEGs, it is suffice to say that electric airsoft guns have the edge over gas blowback rifles in the casual gaming market.

Going back to having said that a more adaptive airsoft gun that can provide a better gaming/shooting experience in airsoft is needed, the new generation Tokyo Marui airsoft guns fit the bill, as compared to the other airsoft guns from the Far East. Let me explain further:

Feedback - one important thing in shooting airsoft guns, is the shooting experience. Feedback gives you the a whole level of gaming experience, and when you think of airsoft guns giving you that good shooting experience, the Tokyo Marui new generation series lord it over other airsoft guns as they can quite provide you something closer to the real steel shooting experience in terms of AEGs.  Not quite as good as the gas blowback rifles that have natural recoil with their strong blowback, but is getting there.

Versatility - many players who dip their toes in milsim experience, but are more of the casual types may not have the money to have different guns for different playing scenarios. They will prefer an airsoft gun that would allow them to shift from casual gaming to the hardcore ones. The requirements of the low-capacity magazines in the latter game type can be met with Tokyo Marui's standard magazine that comes in the box. And you can later on purchase the high capacity magazines for the usual gun and run games during weekends. Gas Blowback rifles limit you to low-capacity magazine and you will be outgunned by the high cap mag players.

All-year round - AEGs have that distinct advantage of being able to play on batteries without worrying about temperature issues, unless it's really extreme temperature (and who plays in extreme temperatures in airsoft?). Thus TM AEGs provide you that.

Magazine issues and costs - Gas Blowback magazines have the cool down effect that will keep you from consistent shooting. Plus the costs of having these magazines is almost prohibitive that the adoption is quite slow. Leakage issues, valve issues --- the gas magazine is the most complicated part in any airsoft gas gun. While the new generation TM magazine will cost you initially as you cannot use the old generation TM magazines that are still the standard in the market, in the long run, they will pay for themselves as compared to gas magazines.

I have mentioned these to explain that for now Tokyo Marui gives you the best of both worlds, lower cost of ownership, and a very practical airsoft gun that you can use for almost any type of airsoft gaming scenario or event and can be comparable to gas blowbacks. While I love my gas blowback rifle, I also think in practical terms as to what casual gamers would prefer to handle. But since casual gamers also have their preferred brands such as CA, Ares, G&P, JG, etc. they have been limited their manufacturers who cannot even come close to the shooting experience the TM new gens provide.

The closest they can is the blowback which is already a technology that has been in place for years. But then, "just blowback" does not give the feedback (or force feedback if you want to call it) that TM new gens provide. The "just blowback" has been reviled by many players as a useless feature and they would rather disable it.

Then why have the TM competitors have not released something similar to the TM new gens? I cannot say, but TM has patented its blowback and recoil engine so it might be aggressive in its intellectual property enforcement.

Have they tried licensing the technology? It's another question that needs to be answered by the manufacturers themselves if they have  tried reaching out to TM to have these features in their own offerings, or TM is refusing to license it to have the market of new generation AEGs for themselves. They have been getting licenses for trademarks and external features, then why not try the internal engine licensed from TM?

If you'll notice, there have been lots of groans in airsoft forums of "not another M4 or AK" which still rely on the old TM gearbox standards where improvements or innovations have been incremental that we can all say *hohum* if there are new announcements. The clones have been very much stuck in the old TM standards, and nowhere else to go. Players will not accept any improvement such as carbon-fiber or MOSFET switches as truly innovative.

So it's a wake-up call for other manufacturers who especialize more on AEGs, they better improve their products to come up with something similar or close to the new generatio Tokyo Marui AEGs. There will be limited acceptance of gas blowbacks in the casual gaming market, and it's the electric, battery-operated airsoft rifle with feedback and recoil that will dominate. That is, if they will be able to compete head-on with Tokyo Marui with its long history of innovation in airsoft.