what happened to all the good paint brands?

[latches109]

HK paint has been great!

Another paint thread:
https://www.mcarterbrown.com/forum/p...ntry-of-origin

[Raven911]

I don’t know, I despised HK back in the day. All the little tweeners running around making up words like agg. May have to give it a try though.

[Raven911]

Interesting that several of you mentioned the lack of soul. I feel that as well. It seems that there isn’t a lot of variety that there used to be. The small custom shops, and small gear makers, it’s like it’s just 2 big companies now. And all the high end guns look the same to me. Other than maybe color. It’s boring. No one mills anymore?

[BenoitOWN]

Inception, Freeflow and dye lab.

[gabe]

AKA, Docfire, Doc, Shocktech, a bunch of guys on Facebook....

Plenty of custom stuff to go around.

[JeeperCreeper]

He meant factory special edition type milling. And I do agree all the new guns look the same. None of them are as customizable as the older stuff. Look at Spyders, Cockers, Ions, Tippmans, etc. You could basically build one from parts off the web. Now I struggle to find a new feedneck for my CVO ( I broke the lever and I have to order from 2 sites to get the parts to fix it.) The stuff isn't even available on the SP website.

Maybe all of us that took a decade vacation from the sport is the cause, me included. The new generation seems to just want stuff of the shelf that works fine the way it comes. We are a dying breed here at MCB. That's why most of us BST all of our gear to each other from yesteryear. The Golden age of paintball will likely always be behind us. It's just up to us to keep the memory alive.

[gabe]

I wouldn't say there's a "lack of soul". It's just different now than it used to be but there's still lots of soul left. You have the mech revival which has brought back autocockers in a big way with even Dye coming back to making 'cocker parts. Then you have JT coming back in a big way and others. I'd say we're in a revival phase now which is nice. Still lots of people out there doing custom work.

[chrislognshot]

what wrong with social paintballs

[the_matrix_guy]

I wouldn't say there's a "lack of soul". It's just different now than it used to be but there's still lots of soul left. You have the mech revival which has brought back autocockers in a big way with even Dye coming back to making 'cocker parts. Then you have JT coming back in a big way and others. I'd say we're in a revival phase now which is nice. Still lots of people out there doing custom work.

The revival of mech only, 7-10 man format, woodsball and hyperball is the industry doing a major soul-search. A much needed soul search and yes those are steps in the right direction. Im happy to see it and im happy to see the smaller custom shops making a come back and making cockers again. But it has all been corrective. People have felt like something great got lost along the way for a long time and this is the industry making the correction from 2015 onward.

[JeeperCreeper]

I bought a case of "winter shell" Graffiti and it was the worst box of paint I have probably ever bought. I mean barrel breaks every 10-15 shots. Didn't matter what I shot it out of, it was the same result. I tried paint matching, over boring, you name it. I'm considering just throwing it in the trash

[ChuckLove]

Damn was this purchase at Hoth? If so I'd guess it was heat cycled a lot with the way our temps have been fluctuating. I had indoor stored Graffiti purchased two weeks prior and it shot great.

[JeeperCreeper]

Yeah it was from Hoth. They had it in a heated trailer there and it was a fresh shipment.

I know Graffiti is usually better than this

[paintmann111]

Nelson still makes Anarchy and sounds like they have made efforts to return to their former standard of quality. Still $80 a case though.

This is exactly the problem though. People don't want to pay for quality. How much was helfire, marbs, etc back in 2000-2004? Close to $80 or more a case? That was 22 years ago! In today's money that is $130.00 per case. If we want quality back we have to be willing to pay for it. However, with a smaller active player pool, high per player paint usage vs 2000 and the demand for less expensive paint it will never happen. In the 90's and early 2000's you still had lots of doctors, lawyers and professionals playing and willing to spend the money for quality. That player base is no longer the majority, but now a tiny sliver of the player population. Besides, the cost of shipping since April of 2020 has gone insane, which is squeezing any margin left for these companies.

FYI a new Angel LCD in 2000 with a tank would have been about $1500, which in today's dollars is almost $2500.00

[JeeperCreeper]

I'm pretty sure this thread shows a lot of us are willing to pay more for quality. Hell first strikes should prove that, being 10x as expensive. Also paintball has pretty much always been a sport for everyone. There's only less "doctors and lawyers" playing because there's just less people playing overall.

The popularity of the sport peaked back then.

[Paradigm 117]

I would for sure pay 20-40% more for quality paint. Playing pump nothing worse than having your shot ruined by crappy paint...

[paintmann111]

I just think that if a paint company did it, it wouldn't sell in the quantities needed to justify the cost of production. The best paint I've found is Pro-Shar, but being a Moscow based company that's going away soon most likely.

[MrBarraclough]

Technically Amsterdam based and Dutch owned (the Russian founder died in 2019, leaving his Dutch partner), but production is still in Russia. Per a statement released by the owner recently, they are looking into moving production out of Russia, but even if they decided to do that today, it would take a while to accomplish and would likely face significant pushback from the Russian authorities.

[maninblack2k]

Overall PB has been disappointing since the 2008 timeframe. I'm fortunate to have a really good field owner around my area but the quality of people to play with has dropped dramatically and I find I'm one of the oldest ever playing and I'm not old. Field paint is Valken Graffiti and then Infinity(Whatever the next step up is) is offered for $10 per case more and quality on both is solid. Seems like online gaming has really reduced the younger player pool and willingness to get shot plus complaining about everything.

[MrBarraclough]

Infinity is being upsold as an upgrade from Graffiti? That's surprising.

My home field allows BYOP, except for Infinity and Monster, which are banned for being too hard.

[Raven911]

Too hard? Ha. They would have loved Proball lol

[PBGunny]

Truth spoken here... We used to use Proball to clear brush & shrubbery on the back end of the field where you couldn't see thru. Solid, thick fill paint. Those were the days.

[MrBarraclough]

Wasn't Proball the one back in the day (mid/late 90s) that was made slightly undersized and then wax coated, in order to eliminate the seam dimple?

[Cunha]

These comments talking about awesome paint from the good old days hurt. So many good paintballs lost in time like tears in rain.

[Raven911]

I remember we got some brand in the shop in 99 that was a gel ball. I took a case to play some outlaw with and it shot really well. Don’t remember what the name was.