Clear loader?

[Downrangepain2]

Been looking to pick up a clear shelled loader, i miss my clear eggy loader from back in the day.
Only thing ive been able to find from retail is a smoke shelled HK Pinokio on ANSGear, which isnt terrible, its just not what i envision.
Anyone have any recommendations for where i can order a clear shell loader from retail or would y'all recommend just heading to the WTB's now?


Also whats the deal with there being nearly no diversity for loader options anymore? Everything is either a refurbished Halo or the new HK gear, which objectively is a great piece of kit, but still.
Byproduct of the increase in Mag-style play?

[Chuck E Ducky]

There are tons of loader options besides HK and the Battery killing Halo. A lot look similar today

My personal favorite is the LTR Rotor and the Pinocchio Speed. Nether come in clear tho.

Not many clear options so that will severely limit your options and quality of hopper choices.

Revvy, Halo, Egg, Pinocchio come to mind when I think of clear hoppers. I don’t think they ever made a clear Speed tho. Most older clear hoppers don’t stay clear for long. Not many sell clear hoppers today it’s not a popular option. Paint stains clear light color equipment, and UV light turns most of them yellow quickly so most of what you are going to find won’t be truly clear with any real use.

[Trbo323]

Also whats the deal with there being nearly no diversity for loader options anymore? Everything is either a refurbished Halo or the new HK gear, which objectively is a great piece of kit, but still.
Byproduct of the increase in Mag-style play?

Spire? Rotor?

Just because they were not released within the last year doesn't mean they don't exist or are not good loaders

As for clear stuff, it's always been my understanding that the clear plastics are not as strong because of the mixture they have to use to make them clear.

No company wants their legacy to be images of hoppers covered in electrical tape. Hence, no clear hoppers

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[Euphie]

I have been a bit frustrated by this too. I used a clear Halo for many years and never had problems with yellowing or shells cracking. I also had a clear Egg, but while it didn't yellow none of my egg shells lasted for more than a year, but I don't think that was because I bought clear ones. What surprises me is the lack of clear aftermarket shells, even if the main company doesn't want to do it.

[Shaftski]

Thought clear shells weren't tournament legal anymore and that's why they are scarce.

[MrBarraclough]

NXL rules prohibit them, at least. Don't know about other tournament series.

[Chuck E Ducky]

Buy an old Halo or Egg if you want a clear hopper that bad. I remember those halo shells being super brittle and feednecks snapping off the egg hoppers never mind the lids on those eggs. Fun for nostalgia but the new hopper tec is light years ahead of the halo and egg. Halo would go threw like $10 in battery’s every few cases.

Out of all the older Clear hoppers the revvy is probably the best one. It will smell like a bag of mashed buttholes and probably be pretty yellowed but it’s going to be more durable then the other hoppers.

Short answer as to why manufacturers don’t make clear is because nobody buys them.

Also keep in mind the reason Mech has skyrocketed in popularity is mainly due to New hoppers that can feed them reliably. A $100 LTR makes the Mech guns rip. Also if you play regularly it’s going to cost you more in battery’s keeping the old hoppers going then it would be just to buy a more efficient better performance hopper. For me it’s a no brainer but I’m function over form. My last rotor lasted 10+ years. Just recently replaced it with an LTR because I broke the rear window on a bad dive. But the LTR top that’s windowless can be put right on my 10 year old hopper. So I keep the tray as a back up.

[Cunha]

People buy them, but they break.

The best smoke (not clear) loader recently is the empire prophecy, and the pinokio which might have actually been available in fullly clear finish

Otherwise you're looking at oldies that are less durable, but more clear.

[Ecapnation]

After 2008 clear loaders were banned in tournament play. So that ended the market for then.

[Downrangepain2]

Thank you all for all this great feedback.

[Trbo323]

After 2008 clear loaders were banned in tournament play. So that ended the market for then.

What was the reasoning?

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[Shaftski]

Too tough to tell the difference between what is a loaded hopper and what is a hit from a distance. Being used for shenanigans.

[Euphie]

Okay a rules change makes much more sense, I really didn’t think it had anything to do with material strengths of plastic, because even if that were true, the manufactures would have been happy to sell more shells, and I know there are 20+ year old clear revolutions out there still in decent shape.

ofc, I don’t play in tournaments so I will still buy a clear halo shell if I see one at a good price.

[Trbo323]

, I really didn’t think it had anything to do with material strengths of plastic, because even if that were true, the manufactures would have been happy to sell more shells, and I know there are 20+ year old clear revolutions out there still in decent shape.

There's clear and then there's matte

I actually delt with this at a past job, not hoppers in specific but clear plastics. I talked with the manufacturer of the plastic cases we were looking to put our products into and basically it broke down to, the crystal clear plastics (think halo) were more brittle and would not flex as much as even a slightly matte clear (revy) plastics

If you make it thick enough it will still hold up (lenses) but if you are looking to use one mold for different colors and everything will have the same thickness, there are ups and downs to different clears

Anyway, I don't claim to be an expert that's just how it was told to me by a manufacturer

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[Euphie]

Sure, but odyssey was happy to sell us clear hoppers regardless of material properties, because that is just more money in their pocket. I have my doubts Empire is any more scrupulous than they were.

I will say though that I used a clear Halo for about 10 years without issue so they made it pretty thick then. The only hopper that just kept breaking was my egg which was clear but the black ones didn’t last long either. I can’t say if the egg was too thin or just designed really poorly, but it flexed all over and the halo really didn’t.

[Brokeass_baller]

The biggest problem with Eggs and Halos were they were made of polycarbonate. They were very strong, when new. I remember a video of the Odyssey boys trying to hammer nails into the side of a Halo, and the shell held up.

But polycarbonate is damaged and weakened by UV rays. So over time, just playing paintball in the sun would make the loaders brittle and crack. That's also why you shouldn't play with goggle lenses for longer than a season, even though they may look ok.

[glaman5266]

^^^ This right here. Polycarbonates pretty much just suck for paintball applications.

Though I am still surprised my Egg held up as long as it did. Owned it for over 10 years, never busted the hinges, batt door or feedneck. Thing was excellent. But I took care of my stuff better than most people around here did. Shouldn’t have sold it.