Upgrading airsoft electric pistols is historically known for being a bit of a headache due to tiny, specialized parts. Fulcrum walks viewers through a JG Scorpion VZ61 that only has two modifications under the hood. The first fix was wiring it to run on a lipo battery, a change that became necessary after the original battery door went missing. While this power swap makes the replica much more responsive, it does nothing to alter its actual shooting distance or accuracy.

The real magic happens with the second alteration, which involves swapping in a PDI W-hold hop-up bucking. Costing roughly ten pounds and taking about fifteen minutes to install, this cheap rubber component slips onto the proprietary barrel with zero fuss. To squeeze out as much range as possible, the hop-up is deliberately turned up high to give the plastic BBs a hefty amount of backspin, which is helpful when dealing with mechanical power constraints.

During a backyard test session, the pistol clocks in at under 200 feet per second, making it quite weak on paper. However, it still manages to send rounds downrange toward a target roughly 50 meters away, even while fighting an incoming headwind. While the tiny barrel means it will never be a precision sniper rifle at that distance, the simple rubber swap proves that you do not need to spend a fortune to get surprising results from a pocket-sized airsoft gun.