I’m doing an NCR Trooper cosplay and what I’ve noticed is that buying an M16A1 airsoft gun and some brown paint for the furniture is WAYYYYY cheaper than buying a non-functioning prop. Like, the website I saw listed an M1 Carbine Airsoft gun as 250 dollars but the prop version is over 1000. What gives?
Props are low volume specialty products for professionals. Airsoft guns are high volume toys for the mass market.
A theater or film production company can afford expensive quality props, because they are an organization with an orginizarion sized budget. Airsoft guns have to be cost cut and mass produced to a low price point because they sell to normal people with human scale budgets.
Also the brown furniture on the NCR service rifle is wood. Be authentic, learn carpentry.
Lol, I’ve already ordered an M16A1 with faux wooden furniture off of this website, pretty cheap too, only 50 or 60 bucks
I see a lot of slightly incorrect, or rather incomplete, answers and I actually have a little experience here. Good replicas are almost 1:1 copies. Complete with metal (and moving) parts. They are also highly regulated and certified. They need to do almost everything the original does except fire, and cannot be converted. And you can’t just file down the firing pin/striker, plug the barrel, remove the hammer Then you have the economy of scale thing. But the original manufacturing is and regulation is where a large amount of the money goes. Otherwise producers would just get some Bear Creek garbage or something from Palmetto State and do what I mentioned.
I remember when I was a kid you could an ak47 for 120$ usd. In the movie lord of war they found it was cheaper getting real AKs than to use props. It always bothered me.
As an airsofter the only two reasons I can think of are
1.airsoft weapons aren’t “perfect” replicas. Whilst I can’t tell the difference, a history or weapons nerd might be able to and it would ruin immersion.
2.airsoft weapons generally lack moving parts. When I fire my rifle, nothing happens except a pellet flies out. A replica might need to eject a pretend cartridge or have some form of recoil if its being used for a movie for instance?
Other than that, I have no idea.
Also, it seems insane to me that airsoft weapons need an orange tip in the USA, a country that famously makes it easy to own a real gun.
Also, it seems insane to me that airsoft weapons need an orange tip in the USA, a country that famously makes it easy to own a real gun.
Given the prevalence of real guns, wouldn’t you want a defining feature? So, if you, hypothetically, see a bunch of teenagers running through the woods with “guns” you don’t call the police. (May or may not have happened to me in my youth.)
My guess is detail and economy of scale. Airsoft guns commonly use the design of a really world gun either licensed or legally distanced so can be very close to reality in looks. Airsoft is also quite a popular hobby so many manufacturers are involved. You are also looking at an M4 variant which is the single most popular Airsoft gun in the world. There are literally hundreds of variants running from cheap manual springs to high pressure air tanks and costing thousands. Prop guns are more niche, they are detail orientated and don’t need to function the same way. Maybe they make a pop and eject a case from the side of the gun which is more complex to do mechanically than send a little plastic bb out the barrel. There are less people buying each type of prop gun though so it will cost comparably more per item even if it technically doesn’t do as much.
Some gun models are so old you don’t even need a license to copy the pattern. For example all the core patents on the AR-15 pattern have expired. Any company firearm or airsoft can just make one, it’s effectively open source.
I think the market for each is quite a bit different. Prop guns, whether functioning or not, are often regulated in law as “replica firearms” because while they may (or not) be functional, the issue is that they are intentionally similar to the real thing. Hence, some jurisdictions have limits on who can sell replica firearms and who can buy them.
One rank below firearms and replica firearms, air/pellet guns and BB guns propel small balls or shuttlecocks (?) made of metal using compressed air or spring power. These could still be harmful to people, but aren’t usually fatal, which makes them effective for pest control or target practice, in lieu of live firearms. Accordingly, these are often regulated like how knives are: don’t just hand a pellet gun to a child without supervision, and don’t assault people. Otherwise, do as thou whilst.
Meanwhile, airsoft guns propels small plastic balls using springs, compressed air, or electro-pneumatic pressure. By sheer virtue of having less density, a plastic airsoft projectile carries less energy than a BB pellet, and certainly a lot less than a live-fire bullet. Also, whereas firearms can attain supersonic velocities, the speed of sound puts a firm cap on what a plastic, ball-shaped projectile can achieve, when not using chemical-based propulsion (ie gunpowder).
Only 8 US States regulate airsoft guns, and even those that do are not restricting them as heavily as firearms (except New Jersey?). The common requirement is that an airsoft gun should have an orange tip. That means a majority of Americans are potential customers for airsoft, and that means an environment will form that host matches, competitions, and so on. Big market means lots of producers, so lots of variety, high quality, and lower prices for all.
Whereas, what’s the market for replica firearms? Show business? Gun enthusiasts?
Volume and model design reproduction accuracy.
I would assume a decent amount also comes down to marketing. Airsoft guns are used by teenagers or just not seen as important to spend money on, while if you are idk, someone making a movie or whatever, you have more money to spend and thus the same/similar thing can be sold for more.
I would exercise caution for being too real, and carried in the wrong public setting. Otherwise have fun! All guns are expensive anymore haha.
Maybe you found a stupid expensive one or it was real and made to be non firing. This looks like the same price range as an airsoft version.
