Kids With Guns

Private gun ownership all but illegal in Japan? NO PROBLEMO! Tokyo Marui has your back! It's fascinating to see how Japan's incredibly strict gun laws have given rise to an industry specializing in ultra-realistic simulacra of weaponry. These are "airsoft guns," which incorporate a battery-powered mechanism that lets them shoot little plastic BBs instead of bullets. People use these to play "Saba-ge," or "survival games," here in Japan, similar to paintball games in the USA. But unlike paintball guns, these suckers look exactly like real firearms. These pictures were all taken at the 47th Shizuoka Hobby Show, which is being held in (duh) Shizuoka through the 18th.

Awwww! You KNOW it's a good day when you don't even have to use your totally kawaii AK. What could be better for the kids than cuddly l'il assault rifle?

Answer: "Automatic Electric Gun BOYS," a hot new series of replica submachineguns scaled down just for kids! The rumors are true:
all-Caucasian pre-pubescent S.W.A.T. teams are popping up all over Japan.

This M4 is supposed to be a perfect replica of the standard firearms issued to employees of Blackwater and other private military subcontractors. Note the on-the-scene photos of cool corporate commandos in jeans and T-shirts. Over here, it seems, America's guns for hire are just another set of characters from yet another gritty war drama playing out on TV screens. Let's Mercenary!

Comments

[Mr.Dandy]

Guilty pleasure...! I recently found an automatic airsoft P-90, the inspiration for several of Masamune's gun designs. It's just a cheap one (not a genuine Tokyo Marui) but it's really fun to shoot and so forth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r1TxyHlK-0&feature=related

If anyone ever made Deckard's gun from Blade Runner as an airsoft I'd probably want that too.

[Roger]

I wonder how Mr. Kalashnikov would feel about that cutie AK.

[Matt]

Good question. Model companies have to license fighter jet designs from aircraft manufacturers, for example, so one would assume the same is true of replica guns -- at least the modern ones. I wonder how those conversations start: "Hello, we'd like to make a toy of your 'Saturday Night Special'..."

[Steve Harrison]

Mr. Dandy:

Hartford Co. has heard your call.

http://www.hartford.co.jp/m2019/index.htm#m2019stnd

you can thank me by buying me one too... :)

[Davecat]

'Konnichi wa! Watashi wa AK-kun desu!' Aww. :-)

And Tokyo Marui makes lovely replicas, but they're heart attack expensive. The P90 usually averages about $200 - $250. You pay for quality, I guess...

[Fort Max]

I have the P-90 as well, I brought it for about £100 some years ago and got quite a lot of fun out of it shooting ation figures in the backgarden. Since then airsoft guns have been made completely illegal over here and mine hasn't left the loft in years. :(
Davecat, yeah they are very high quality products, the SOC's of faux weaposn if you will.

[digitalboy]

Holy shit! I want! My brother got an airsoft shotgun that might have looked real if it weren't for the big-ass orange thing on the barrel screaming 'I AM NOT A REAL GUN' (thereby making it useless in my movies).

[The Constructivist]

Speaking of dangerous weapons, did you see that Hello Kitty was just named some sort of goodwill ambassador to China?

[Matt]

Is she packing heat?

http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9852603-1.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=Crave

[Mr.Dandy]

@ Steve Harrison:
Awesome! $400 would be worth it, too bad it'd never get though customs...

[The Constructivist]

ANN just has her with a flower

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-05-19/hello-kitty-named-japan-tourism-ambassador-to-china

The Lede's photo is ambiguous at best

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/19/another-cartoon-envoy-in-japan/?hp

Gotta catch that Daily Show clip Nizza mentions...