VL2000 question

[wthomas333]

So awhile ago I picked this up somewhere and it went into my tub of old VL hoppers that I wanted to save. I was looking through them recently and I guess I just got curious about it. I haven’t ever seen any of the squishy VL2000s that wasn’t black. This is the only one I’ve ever seen that was a different color. Were there other colors?
IMG_9674.jpg IMG_9677.jpg

[ATBen]

There was a podcast done with David Bell where he explained the squishy shells. I'll have to rewatch it. It was either the General Paintball Museum's show or Fred Shultz's. As I remember it, someone at the factory wanted to see what would happen if they put the squishy plastic in the hopper shell molds and it worked. So they made a limited run with whatever soft plastic colours they had. I forgot what he said they used the soft plastic for, I want to say it was their pull through squeegees? I've never seen an olive squeegee tho? Maybe it was a limited run after they found out the soft plastic worked in the revy molds?

[wthomas333]

That’s interesting. I’ll try and track down that podcast. Thanks.

[ATBen]

I found the Facebook post but can't find the video?

[Trbo323]

This is the first I'm ever hearing about this. This is pretty cool though, do they get some bounces with that?

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[DocsMachine]

Yep, those were a special limited run from... geeze, back in '96 or so. I used to have a couple of them.

The idea- or so I was told- was that some tournaments didn't allow the neoprene loader covers, since that promoted bounces. (Same reason the banned Smart Parts' "Gogglelauge".) So Viewloader tried a softer rubber compound, to get the same effect- a "soft" loader that was more likely to get a bounce than a break.

And, actually, they kinda of worked- I personally saw a few- though only a few- bounces off of them.

Unfortunately, unless your loader was damn near empty, that force was often transmitted to the balls inside, making a mess.

On top of that, the soft feed neck didn't like staying in the elbow (they were all elbows back then ) nd even with the little PVC insert, you often couldn't tighten it enough to get a solid fit.

They were a neat idea, and had potential, but today are just essentially collectible curiosities.

Doc.

[StaticShocked]

Yep, those were a special limited run from... geeze, back in '96 or so. I used to have a couple of them.

The idea- or so I was told- was that some tournaments didn't allow the neoprene loader covers, since that promoted bounces. (Same reason the banned Smart Parts' "Gogglelauge".) So Viewloader tried a softer rubber compound, to get the same effect- a "soft" loader that was more likely to get a bounce than a break.

And, actually, they kinda of worked- I personally saw a few- though only a few- bounces off of them.

Unfortunately, unless your loader was damn near empty, that force was often transmitted to the balls inside, making a mess.

On top of that, the soft feed neck didn't like staying in the elbow (they were all elbows back then ) nd even with the little PVC insert, you often couldn't tighten it enough to get a solid fit.

They were a neat idea, and had potential, but today are just essentially collectible curiosities.

Doc.

I have never heard of or seen one of these before. That is a really cool concept! Love that its creation was from experimenting with different plastics in the molds. I am going to go look up that podcast that ATBen mentioned.

[Trbo323]

Wonder if it would work for modern hoppers if it was just the top half

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[ATBen]

Anyone know where Kenny from the General Paintball Museum keeps his videos? Can't find it on Facebook or YouTube, but found this!

[StaticShocked]

I was looking as well. It appears they were originally stored on the General Paintball Museum facebook page, as i found the old links to the "nite at the museum" podcasts for the General Paintball Museum but all of the links from years ago say "This video isn't available anymore". So i donno? Maybe they were removed intentionally? I would have thought that they would put them on their youtube channel as well but they are not there.

[ATBen]

Might have been a Streamyard thing? I know their membership levels can get stingy.

[PBGunny]

And, actually, they kinda of worked- I personally saw a few- though only a few- bounces off of them.

Unfortunately, unless your loader was damn near empty, that force was often transmitted to the balls inside, making a mess.

On top of that, the soft feed neck didn't like staying in the elbow (they were all elbows back then ) nd even with the little PVC insert, you often couldn't tighten it enough to get a solid fit.
Doc.

I remember those back in the day... They were the latest thing till it was discovered you could really mess up someone by shooting the loader.
Then they became the instant target of the day.
They were a huge mess when you hit them and sometimes you would hit the jackpot and knock the loader off the marker.
People figured out it just wasn't worth getting a bounce vs losing your loader capabilities.
I think I got more bounces off my Vents with the skull cap on it than this did.

[uv_halo]

I almost completely forgot about the squishy viewloaders. I vaguely remember folks complaining about bad hits busting balls in the hopper.