What is the Best Brand for Airsoft Guns?
On the one hand, finding the best airsoft guns today is a whole lot easier than it ever used to be 20 or 30 years ago.
These kinds of guns used to only be available exclusively in Japan, later in China and throughout the rest of Asia, and much later you could find them in the US, and Europe, and other parts of the world.
On the other hand, though, with so many companies making airsoft guns these days finding high-quality options is a whole lot harder – if only because there are so many out there to pick and choose from!
That’s why we have put together this quick guide.
Below we really dig into the ins and outs of what is the best brand for airsoft guns right now, what you need to look for in an airsoft gun brand, and how to know that you have found a quality airsoft gun you’ll be able to trust when you are getting into the sport and hobby.
Let’s jump right in!
What is the Best Brand for Airsoft Guns Today?
There are a couple of different things you want to think about when researching different airsoft gun brands today, including (but not limited to):
- The longevity of that brand in the airsoft business
- The track record for producing innovative and effective new airsoft guns
- The quality of the materials and engineering behind the airsoft guns a brand makes
… And that’s just the tip of the iceberg!
We can tell you right now that the airsoft gun industry, like every other major industry, is very much a “copycat” kind of business.
There are a handful of companies that are out there leading the charge when it comes to innovation and creativity. Behind them are a number of companies copying everything they do well and iterating that success – some of them successfully, others not so much.
After doing a bit of digging into the major players in the airsoft gun world, though, we came to a pretty obvious conclusion that one company stands head and shoulders above the rest of the pack.
If you really want to make sure that you’ve invested your money well in an airsoft gun – particularly an electric driven rifle (called an AEG in the airsoft world) – you’ll want to go with Tokyo Marui.
The Best Airsoft Gun Brand Today is Tokyo Marui
One of the original manufacturers of airsoft guns on the planet, Tokyo Marui started off as a regular toy company back in the early 1960s before they really started to get into airsoft in 1969.
It only took them about a year to start rolling out some of the most impressive airsoft weapons available, and almost overnight they had developed a reputation as one of the real industry leaders in this field.
The original airsoft guns made by Tokyo Marui were pretty primitive by today’s standards, even if they were specifically designed and engineered to look like traditional firearms. Most of them were single-shot, manually cocked, and manually pistol driven – though some of the early Tokyo Marui designs also took advantage of compressed air and CO2 cartridges (though the designs would later be scrapped in the 1990s).
It wasn’t until 1992 that absolutely everything changed for Tokyo Marui and the world of airsoft in general.
This Japanese company had been working on an electronically driven motor system or a couple of years, and by 1992 they had perfected the technology enough to release it to the world at large – creating the very first Automatic Electric Gun (AEG) using this system.
Today almost every single airsoft company on the planet has modeled their automatic airsoft guns off of this AEG platform. Even still, nobody does it quite as well as the originator and the true innovators at Tokyo Marui.
The Tokyo Marui Difference
There are a couple of different things that help to separate Tokyo Marui from the rest of the pack, but the first has to be a commitment to build quality that you just aren’t going to find with a lot of other manufacturers (in Japan or anywhere else, for that matter).
Every single one of the AEG rifles made by this company starts off being built around the latest generation of that electric gearbox is driven piston system pioneered back the 1990s.
Over the years this technology has been improved significantly to be more powerful and more efficiently and ever before, and Tokyo Marui AEG rifles are universally praised as being more reliable more consistent, and more effective than any other AEG in the airsoft universe.
Another big advantage that Tokyo Marui has over other manufacturers is that the company has a number of legitimate licenses with traditional firearms manufacturers that allow this Japanese company to produce carbon copies of real rifles and real weapons.
This gives Tokyo Marui the chance to make firearms that don’t just sort of look like the “real deal”, but are just as close to those legitimate firearms as it gets – producing these airsoft weapons out of high-quality ABS, aluminum, and sometimes steel to give them authentic weight and feel.
Other companies that do not have licenses are stuck having to modify different components so that they do not run afoul of legal issues – turning instantly recognizable weapons into some sort of Frankenstein concoction – but that’s a problem the folks at Tokyo Marui don’t have to worry about at all.
Tokyo Marui has also innovated quite a bit when it comes to the gas blowback (GBB) systems designed to be used with more powerful sniper rifles and pistols in the airsoft world. They are beloved for launching the very first Desert Eagle gas blowback pistol in 1995, an airsoft gun that has become highly collectible over the years.
Their GBB guns are not quite as popular as their AEG options (yet) but the quality is up there with the best of the best – and they are getting more popular every day.
At the end of the day, though, it’s the commitment to excellence that Tokyo Marui displays with each and every one of their products that make them so much better than other options.
There’s a reason why these airsoft guns are chosen by the best airsoft players on the planet, why Hollywood uses them in their movies as firearm props, and why a lot of police and military units around the world use Tokyo Marui airsoft guns in training sessions.
You just won’t find this caliber of quality elsewhere.
Closing Thoughts on Airsoft Brands
At the end of the day, if you want to be sure that the money you are spending on an airsoft gun – particularly AEG rifles (some of the most expensive airsoft guns out there) – is well spent and smartly invested in high-quality equipment you can’t do better than Tokyo Marui.
The build quality of these rifles is off the charts, the attention to detail in the overall design is stunning, and the reliability and durability you’ll be able to get out of these AEG rifles are the best in the business.
With so many different legitimately licensed firearm designs to pick and choose from it’s hard to imagine the Tokyo Marui catalog not filled to the brim with airsoft guns, you love to all.
Combine all of that with top-tier customer service, some of the best warranties in the business, all kinds of aftermarket parts made for this legendary manufacturer, and a never-ending commitment to innovation and excellence and it’s really a no-brainer to go with Tokyo Marui when you’re looking to outfit your airsoft arsenal.