Tokyo Marui's strength is in creating motor-powered toys, as evidenced in their popular line of RC toys during the golden age of RC. With in-depth knowledge of electric toys, they decided to use this to create a revolutionary way of playing airsoft and freeing up the airsoft player from being tethered to tanks. They released their FA-MAS airsoft gun in 1991, the first airsoft Automatic Electric Gun (AEG) that uses an electric gearbox and started the march of the company to be in a dominant position in the airsoft industry.

Marui thought if cocking can be done with an electric power source, they can make exciting guns. They thought about it in 1981, 10 years before the FA-MAS AEG was released. Back then there was no small-sized and strong electric motor and battery to power that motor. They thought they could achieve producing electric guns with technical advances in electric motor and batteries in future. Thinking long term and always updating themselves in new techniques, they decided after 7 years passed, they could seriously started developing electric guns.

(Photo: Tokyo Marui 1991 FAMAS 556F1 AEG)

The release of the Tokyo Marui FA-MAS AEG was also great timing for the company, as competitors started melting away due to wrong investments they made when the Japanese economic bubble popped as the real estate and stock markets were greatly inflated. Tokyo Marui had the airsoft technology that no one else had and stood as the strongest survivor.

The company immediately followed up the FA-MAS AEG, by releasing the Colt M16A1 AEG. Previous to its release, airsoft players were used to shouldering their airsoft rifles that were connected to air or gas tanks and it took a while before they got familiar with the AEG.  Tokyo Marui released innovative electric guns that needed time to be accepted by the fans at that time, which was the experience with the first FA-MAS AEG.

(Photo: Tokyo Marui Colt M16A1 AEG)

The Colt M16A1 AEG model was launched with a video commercial that features the "Marui member"  armed with the M16A1 AEG outgunning the bad guys using the classic gas-powered and tethered airsoft rifles. This same video introduced wind-up magazines, tracer units, and tracer BBs. With such an introduction and accessories to go with it, this AEG became a big hit in Japan.

With Marui AEG guns being hits in Japan, other airsoft makers such as JAC, TOYTEC, Marushin, FTC, etc. released their own AEG offerings. These companies used their own mechanisms when they produced their AEG guns; however, Marui’s high-quality mechanism exceeded them.

Accordingly, some airsoft survival game players criticized Marui AEG guns for “poor power.” They powered up their airsoft guns to shoot far and they were called the “power group.” Back then, Airsoft's legal velocity has not been decided by Japanese authorities. To shoot further, many players customised and powered up their guns. With high-powered airsoft guns, being hit with a BB from one  will be painful and bloody. Many people felt that airsoft survival games were too painful and soon many left the survival game.

The Marui AEG FA-MAS SV was released in 1993 with the objective of stopping high-powered airsoft shooting. To shoot further, a power-up was required, which then sacrificed hit probability. The first Marui FA-MAS SV with the hop-up system had low power but with a longer reach and a high hit probability using the Magnus effect. The introduction of the hop-up system in airsoft was a wise move, with high-powered airsoft shooting lessened and airsoft survival games shifted to safe low-power shooting. This also increased again the number of airsoft players. For a period, the AEG exceeded other companies' airsoft offerings.

With such a strong position in the airsoft industry, this afforded the company to put some attention back to create model hobby toys.

In the same year, they released the 1954 Godzilla model (Shodai-Gojira). It was made with a realistic skin that was used in filming and can be controlled remotely. With the remote hand controller, it can be made to walk forward on its two legs, swing left to right, arms and head that actually moved, and swing the tail. What was even more surprising was that it can open its mouth to let out a load roar. Each of the feature can be managed by the remote controller. Since the Marui Godzilla’s looks and actions are as realistic just like in the movie, it attracted many Godzilla fans. This is a collector's item these days with an unopened box fetching up to US$3,000 on eBay.

(Photo: Tokyo Marui RC 1954 Godzilla)

The introduction of the AEG made it unnecessary to wield airsoft guns that use air or gas tanks, and with the hop-up to increase range and accuracy for low powered airsoft guns, the situation for airsoft games improved. Novice players could feel free to join in airsoft survival games and player numbers began to increase again. Of course, the players were now playing with Tokyo Marui AEGs.

By 1995, the gas blowback airsoft pistol became used as back up guns for airsoft survival games. At the same time, they also became valuable as collector items as well as playing at home. Tokyo Marui revealed a new gas blowback system with the release of the Desert Eagle .50AE gas blowback pistol. This system met the expectations of fans who desired “realistic” items and this pistol had good response and strong blowback that an AEG doesn’t have.

(Photo: Tokyo MArui Desert Eagle .50AE GBB Pistol)

With many airsoft players using Marui products by the late 1990s, Tokyo Marui grabbed a big share of the airsoft market. This also spurred other companies to start building "Marui Clones" or copies of Tokyo Marui AEGs. Many airsoft products produced by other airsoft manufacturers, especially outside of Japan, usually are labeled "Marui-compatible", meaning that many of their airsoft parts and magazines are compatible with Tokyo Marui airsoft products.

In 1998, they also completed the expansion of their headquarters in Ayase to what everyone nowadays are familiar with as the Tokyo Marui building.

(Photo: Tokyo Marui Headquarters In Ayase)

To be continued... Tomorrow, read about the Tokyo Marui heading into the 21st Century.

• Read: 50 Years Of Tokyo Marui Part 1: The First Ten Years
• Read: 50 Years Of Tokyo Marui Part 2: Model Cars & Model Cap Firing Guns
• Read: 50 Years Of Tokyo Marui Part 3: The Company Bets On Airsoft
• Read: 50 Years Of Tokyo Marui Part 5: Entering The 21st Century
• Read: 50 Years Of Tokyo Marui Part 6: 20 Years Of The AEG & Going Strong