Hokum, the admin of the Ukrainian Airsoft website, Airsoft.ua, sends in an update on his latest review which is about the Retro Arms CNC Gearbox with a comparison with the Army Force gearbox... "Just about 7-8 years ago, they were quite rare. One of the first pioneers was the modular gearbox made by Pro-Win which appeared to be like something from NASA back then (because of the price as well). The time went by and after a few more years there were more and more new CNC gearboxes from Chinese brands such as SHS, X High-tech, B&C and others. Which are to be exact, weren't completely machined from the single aluminium block. Moreover, many of those brands came from the same actual factories. Surely, there were also fully machined examples from small custom workshops or local artisans who found their ways to the CNC milling machines.

Today CNC machined gearboxes became a common parts and the airsoft market is full of different offers. The competition between the manufacturers around the world had a positive effect on a gearbox sale price, which went down to $110-130 at the average. And now, as we'll see below, competing companies are trying to excel each other with the quality of their products.

Let's review this on two CNC aluminium gearboxes: Army Force and Retro Arms. Sure, they are equal in their purpose and strength for the extreme mechanical stress. At least I never saw a broken CNC gearbox but if you have - please let me know. At the first glance, the difference between them is in precision and small details. However, sometimes, the small details make BIG differences."

Read the full review here.