The Tokyo Marui Festival is the last major event for the venerable Japanese airsoft company to make major announcements in terms of product announcements and product plans. For the 4th Tokyo Marui Festival, the company has revealed more gas blowback products, especially gas blowback rifles that airsoft players can look forward to next year.

For customers and fans of the company, the event, which took place last 11-12 November 2017 in Akihabara, the excitement of new products from the company made them queue up near the entrance as early as 8 in the morning. Long lines were observed as loyal customers and those who are curious about airsoft and Tokyo Marui waited for the opening of the event.

In the earlier events such as the Shizuoka Hobby Show and the All Japan Model & Hobby Show, it is more of the AES and New Generation AEGs that were prioritised especially with the SGR-12 and its special big brother, the Thor’s Hammer for Capcom’s Resident Evil 7 “Not A Hero” DLC; and the latest electric blowback and recoil new generation AEG , the AK47 Type 3 NEG.

By this time, most of you have probably aware of the new products that were unveiled at the Festival: the Type 89 GBB Rifle, MTR-16 GBB Rifle, Scorpion Mod M AEG SMG, and the M45A1 Gas Blowback Pistol.

This is feature is not more about what happened at the event, but what we have observed about the direction the company is taking in producing new airsoft products:

More M-LOK

We noticed that Tokyo Marui prefer developing new airsoft guns that use the M-Lok Rail System, rather than the KeyMod. Examples are the SGR-12 and the Thor’s Hammer AES, the MTR-16 GBB, and the Scorpion Mod M4 AEG. Many airsoft manufacturers are now shifting from KeyMod to M-Lok realising the advantages of the latter, but it is Tokyo Marui that is solely making airsoft guns with the M-Lok.

Will they be releasing more AEGs, AESes, NEGs, and Gas Airsoft Guns that will have the M-Lok as the mainstay handguard? With the 4 examples above, we may just see more.

More Original Designs

With the revelation of the SGR-12, the company just announced to the whole world that is getting more adventurous in terms of coming out with airsoft guns that are designed in house. Though it is not the first airsoft company to put out original gun designs, as ICS and G&G Armament have gone ahead with their own designs.

The MTR-16, or the Multi Tactical Rifle 16 Inch, is a gas blowback rifle that is the second original design from the company. It does use the MWS-ZET gas blowback rifle system as seen in the M4 GBBs Tokyo Marui released, it is still is an AR-style GBB rifle.

The Scorpion Mod M Electric Airsoft Machine Pistol will immediately give us an impression that it is based on a CZ Škorpion vz. 61 Machine Pistol that has been updated for the 21st Century. However, there is no real world Scorpion Mod M made by Česká zbrojovka, making us conclude that is an original airsoft design by Tokyo Marui that probably takes its inspiration from the Škorpion vz. 61.

Whether it was intentional or a coincidence, the Scorpion Mod M was announced 10 years after the release of the Tokyo Marui Škorpion vz. 61  AEP in 2007.

The Type 89 Gas Blowback Rifle

The main star of the 4th Tokyo Marui Festival is the Type 89 Gas Blowback Rifle as the company catered mainly to a Japanese audience and thus presenting an indigenous design for them to appreciate what the company does. It is the second Type 89 released by the company with the first one being an AEG.

The Type 89 GBB has a realistic take down, ambidextrous controls as well as a three-round burst. The dimensions are exactly the same as the real Type 89 that is in use in the JGSDF. It is expected to be released in Spring 2018.

Apart from the new releases, the visitors were treated to handling the airsoft guns that were on display, listen to presentations, check the illustrations of guns and girls with the Tokyo Marui guns of course, try to shoot some of the guns as well as buy merchandise from the offline version of the Tokyo Marui Webstore.

The next major event that Tokyo Marui shall announce new products will be at the Shizuoka Hobby Show 2018 which will take place in May. For now, we wait for the company to release the new products to distributors and resellers for the Holiday season and Spring next year.

Photos of the 4th Tokyo Marui Festival at the Popular Airsoft Facebook Page.