A couple of times a year, TM fanboys gather around their screens and await little peeks at what’s upcoming in the next 12 to 24 months from Japanese airsoft manufacturers.

I say TM fanboys because that’s generally what is focussed upon, sure there are releases from other Far Eastern airsoft businesses but for the most part they have their own marketing take care of releasing information to the wider world… Something TM have taken an unusual step in avoiding, certainly when you consider how well prepared their marketing is within Japan itself.

Anyway, what’s new this year? Well so far… not a great deal. There was the below image that made its way around a few weeks ago, a typical TM teaser shot which Impulse 101 dissected within hours.

From the left…

HK45 Tactical in black, so nothing new there. In my opinion a new colour isn’t worthy of its own release promo but hey… when I own my own airsoft company I can do what I want 😂

Type 89, correctly guessed to be a folding stock variant. Showing that Marui like to milk a design more times than a perverted dairy farmer. If there’s one positive to be gained from this it’s that a Mk46 Mod 1 is probably on the cards a year or so after the Mod 0 release.

A Springfield V10 Ultra in chrome, again it’s not a new release but a nice looking pistol nonetheless.

There are the usual collection of TM appearances…

A new Desert Eagle (cretins who call it a deagle deserve a painful death) with a stupidly long barrel and the nerd baiting Resident Evil scheme and design that TM milk even more than their next-gen M4/416 series.

A pink compact 1911, named the Vorpal Bunny. Sounds more like something you’d find in your sisters bedside cabinet (Why on earth were you looking in there? 😬).

What I can only decipher as a new extended mag for the AEP Hi-Cappa pistol. Great if that’s your bag but I’m not a fan of hi-cappa pistols or AEPs.

A new 20 round MWS compatible mag in the same design as the Howa 30 rounder already released. This will probably be the supplied magazine for the folding stock Type 89 but it will be available separately should you want it, It should be cross compatible but why you’d want it for an M4 platform I don’t know. TM would be better off releasing an MWS PMAG without the issues of the Iron Airsoft magazines.

More shots of the new FNX 45 have appeared and it’s looking good for an early summer release for the large polymer framed man stopper. Looking at the displays it seems Marui will be releasing the Suppressor separately which is both good and bad, it should keep the pistol below the £150 mark but it will mean a more costly purchase if you should wish to use the Marui lightweight suppressor.

One of the more interesting reveals is one that might not make it into production, A “Gold Match” MTR16 was showcased but sources say this is only a proof of concept, I’d be wary of writing it off as such… but Marui did build a few odd looking AEGs for the Tokyo Model Show back in December so you never know.

The final replica, the one were all looking forward to seeing is the Mk46 Mod 0. There’s still no firm release date so it could still be a year or so before we see it released. My guess would be early next year or possibly just before Christmas, but we won’t know for sure until the Japanese exporters such as Impulse101 and Echigoya give us the nod.

Those speaking with Marui reps at the show have reported several figures… “more than ¥100’000 but not more than ¥200’000 which is hardly a concrete answer, a figure that ranges from £700 to £1400, I’d say bang in the middle is where we’re likely to see the price after taking into account import duty and tax, the danger is that with many releases the hype is such that we shoot ourselves in the foot.

If you endlessly shout “shut up and take my money” to a retailer, there’s only one logical outcome. The price will go up, that alongside my feeling that it’ll be a small quantity manufactured initially makes me think it’ll be one of those replicas that holds its price far better than the M4s you see for 50/60% of retail second hand.

The other issue is that whilst you can whack an M100 spring and a mosfet in the M4 and 416 replicas, a support weapon is designed to be used for suppressing fire, a new design with a proprietary recoil gearbox might not be easy to work on and it might not actually stand up to an increase in spring tension.

These are all hypothetical questions but I’m tempted to wait until other, better people have ripped apart theirs to see if making it a 350fps replica is achievable.

Overall a very poor turnout from the Japanese manufacturer, still no recoil MP5/MP7 and surprisingly no M4/416 with a different rail on etc… still, there always the Marui Model Show in December.