Modelguns

Modelguns are Japanese replica or toy guns, which are usually made of zinc-alloy or plastic materials. Most modelguns commonly available today are designed to highly replicate the physical outlook (some bear the authentic trademarks and markings too) and in full scale of the real gun counterpart. Many are even made to highly replicate the internal mechanisms so that they are able to strip-down exactly and imitate closely the functionalities of the real counterparts. They operate exactly like the real ones using a tiny bit of gunpowder (the cap) to produce firing sound, spark and the blowback operation (for automatic models), but strictly not able to shoot any projectile. There are very strict gun control laws in Japan to restrain the mechanisms and material of modelguns so that modelguns appeared in the Japanese market are safe and cannot be converted into something that can fire any live cartridge or projectile. Their highly resemblance to the real guns and complete safeness make them very attractive to many gun enthusiasts especially in those countries with very strict real gun control. Modelguns are legal to own in many countries and don’t require license for ownership. Besides private collection by hobbyists, they are often used in movie production, re-enactment, authority training and museum display purposes. On the other hand, even the airsoft guns look very close to the real guns, their internal design is very different from the respective real ones. Therefore airsoft is generally not regarded as modelgun.

History

Modelguns were developed after the Second World War due to tight restrictions on firearm ownership by civilians in Japan. As a result, toy guns became popular to many Japanese gun enthusiast. The early toy guns were imported cap guns (mainly Mattel, Hubley and Nichols) from the United States from late 1950s. Some of the companies or shops notably MGC, Nakata, Ehara store (later Tokyo CMC) importing or retailing the cap guns later transformed to key modelgun makers and played a key role in modelgun history. These cap guns were fairly crude approximations of actual firearms and with very few operational features. Strictly speaking they are not classified as modelguns as their design / markings and even size is very different from the real counterparts. Nevertheless, these imported cap guns formed foundation for subsequent modelgun development and set good insight for forthcoming modelgun design in Japan.

From 1960, the retail shops / import companies started some modifications (e.g. surface finish from silver to black color) on the imported cap guns locally to make them more realistic and attractive. In 1960-61, MGC (ModelGuns Corporation) released modified Mattel Snub Nose and Hubley Automatic (from a normal cap gun to a cartridge ejection model) which is one step closer to Japanese originated modelgun.

The imported cap guns were eventually replaced with more realistic Japanese indigenous designed and elegantly produced modelguns. The first Japanese designed modelguns were released to market in 1962. At nearly the same time in 1962, MGC produced the Walther VP-2 and Hudson Industry produced the Mauser Military Model M1896.

In the next few years, MGC wholesale its modelgun products to other re-seller companies and sold under individual brand name. In 1965, MGC started to sell its products in its own shop "MGC Bondshop”. Meanwhile 7 re-seller companies notably Nakata, Tokyo CMC, Hudson, Kokusai and Malugo formed an allied association Nippon Kokyu Gangu Kumiai (NKG) or Japan Premium Toy Retailers' Union. The NKG member companies stopped buying from MGC and competed directly with MGC starting with some MGC products being copied by some NKG members in 1966. The competition heat was intensified when NKG members also had their own design of models which were produced by a modelgun manufacturing company Tokyo Replica Corp. (TRC) formed by Marushin Die Casting Industry and Nakata as joint venture. Since then, the modelgun industry boom accelerated and popularity grew tremendously. The first major change in the Firearms and Swords law in 1971 did not have much impact to the growth trend.

Until 1977 when the second change in the law came to effective to heavily regulate the products, metal modelguns dominated the market and plastic models were not popular. These early produced full metal modelguns are now sought-after collectables even though they are a bit less precise and detailed as real ones. Since 1977, plastic modelguns led the market as only very limited handgun models can be made in full metal.

From 1970 to mid-80s, many modelguns (mostly from MGC) were exported to USA and sold under RMI brand by Replica Models, Inc. (which later transformed to Collector’s Armoury, Inc.).

As time goes by, modelguns were much enhanced technically with more realistic appearance with detailed construction and improved operation like real guns because of continuous competition among makers.

However, the roll out of more airsoft since mid-80s has big impact to the traditional modelgun industry. The continuous fall in popularity and sales volume of modelguns in the next 30 years forced some modelgun makers either out of business or switching to mainly airsoft production.

Legends

The Japanese modelgun/airsoft inventor Tanio Kobayashi (小林太三) is considered by many Japanese to be the "father" of the modelgun, He joined MGC as chief engineer in 1961. Kobayashi's innovative internal modelgun design (known as Tanio or Slide action which makes the slide cycle to load and eject the cartridge when the trigger is pulled) in MGC Walther VP-2 completely revolutionized the simple cap gun design and led to the modern version of the modelgun. He also led MGC to innovate the cap blowback system and the development of safe plastic cap exclusively for modelgun. In 1978, The Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) awarded Kobayashi (then Director of Design and Development Division of MGC) Honorable Prize for the development of Model Gun Reviving Safety Construction Method and contribution to the development of the modelgun industry. He left MGC and established his company Tanio Koba in 1992. His company continues to produce quality airsoft and modelgun at present.

Noboru Mutobe (六人部登) is a very important and highly reputable modelgun designer. He was a craft-worker and joined Nakata in 1962 to design and prototype modelguns for Nakata. His indigenous designed and prototyped models which produced by Nakata and later TRC directly competed with MGC products. He left Nakata in 1967 and established his company Rokkaku with products in Rokken brand. The Rokken brand modelguns were only produced in very small quantity. Many of the Rokken products which were made in solid brass are also known as high grade luxury models and they are now expensive sought-after collectables. However, the modelgun production from Rokkaku ceased after the amendment of the Firearms and Swords law in 1977. Mutobe also worked as an independent freelance designer to design and prototype many products for other modelgun companies such as CMC, Suzuki. His work is characterised as very realistic replica both the appearance and mechanism as the real ones. His contribution to the Japanese modelgun history is always remembered.

Regulations

The initial modelguns which were made with full metal were fairly unregulated. When some models were made very close to real firearms both appearance and functionally, people were alerted that they might be abused for criminal purposes. So the law was changed in different stages to make the products very safe, easily identifiable as toy guns and extremely hard to modify to fire any projectile.

In 1965, the Japanese government began regulating the replica firearms industry. Changes included requiring that the barrels have internal blocks to prevent the firing of projectiles.

In 1966, in accordance with the administrative guidance of the Police, the modelguns have to add a crown mark stamp on the body to distinguish it from real gun. However, they only exist in very small quantity and are hardly found today.

The Firearms and Swords law revision in 1971 introduced more safety changes. It requires all metal model handguns released thereafter have to be block up the barrels in metal and painted in white or yellow color. Since then, all metal model handguns produced were either painted in gold color or gold plated. Even the pre-1971 produced metal model handguns were needed to be blocked up entirely the muzzle and re-painted in yellow / gold color in order to comply with the law. However, ABS plastic modelguns which is not governed by the law and can be produced in black color for more realistic look started to get into the market.

In 1975, most modelguns makers agreed to stamp on a "SM" mark (Safe Model) on the metal modelgun frame for identification purposes.

The second law revision in 1977 is even stricter. It prohibited the use of hard metal other than zinc alloy in main parts of modelguns. The barrel must be completely sealed and also inserted with super hard steel for metal model handguns to prevent modification of structure. Front of cylinder chamber of revolvers must be blocked. The barrel and frame of metal model handguns must not be separable to prevent the interchange of the barrel. This new regulation prohibits further production of many full metal model handguns with separable barrel and slide. The SMG (Safe Model Gun) mark replaced the SM mark on the metal models to identify the models meeting the new regulation. However, the new law did not apply to modelgun made in plastics and so it also stimulated the production of more ABS plastic modelguns by various manufacturers. The Japan Model Gun Manufacturing Cooperative Association (formed in 1974, which later merged into ASGK (日本遊戯銃協同組合)) imposed some restraints (self-regulation) to the plastic modelguns to prevent modification. These include the insert of a hardened piece of steel material in the barrel and blocking cylinder chamber of revolvers. SPG (Safe Plastic Gun) mark started to appear on the plastic models to indicate the conformance to the regulation thereafter. However, as it is not legal binding requirement, SPG mark may not be shown on some plastic modelguns.

Types

Modelguns can be found in many configurations and types. These range from small pistols/revolvers to rifles, shotguns, assault rifles and sub-machinegun, machineguns models. Among these, handgun models were and are still more popular in Japan.

The earliest models have much simple construction and crude appearance. The so-called “automatic” handgun models only make use of gunpowder for ignition. The shell ejection and loading of cartridge action requires manually pulling the slide. In 1962, the invention of Tanio or Slide Action models enables the slide movement with trigger pull action so that cartridge can be ejected and loaded with a trigger. The construction and operation of these early stage modelguns are not comparable to the real guns. In 1968, MGC developed blowback model for the automatic modelguns which imitate the automated operation more closely with their real counterparts.

The commonly available modelguns today are generally classified into display-only (or dummy) and cap-firing (or ignition) versions. Relatively there are far fewer “dummy” models than the “ignition” models in the market. Most dummy versions still highly replicate the appearance and internal mechanism of real counterparts with all moving parts work such that chamber / cycling dummy shells and field striping like real ones. The cap-firing modelguns besides highly replicate the appearance and internal mechanism as real guns like the dummy version, they are also able to “fire” the cartridge to produce spark, smoke, bang sound and slide cycling action on automatic models.

The modelguns frame are made with materials either in all-metal or plastic. The metal version is mainly made with zinc alloy. For plastic version, it may be made with ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene) or Heavy Weight (HW) plastics. Though modelguns made with ABS plastics does not look and feel good, they are much cheaper and durable and have better cap blowback performance over metal versions. Most of the ABS plastic models are black in color but some are chrome or nickel plated to replicate the stainless-steel counterparts. The Heavy Weight (a MGC invention) plastic is the ABS resin mixed with some fine metal (usually zinc or iron) powder so that it weighs heavier and looks less plastic. In 1992, MGC released 'Super Real Heavy Weight' or SRH models which were a lot heavier than the normal HW plastic and so look and feel even more realistic. It contained high component ratio of metallic (iron) powder such that it can be attracted to a magnet. Since the SRH material is more brittle, the MGC SRH models were only made for some revolvers and a few dummy semi-auto handguns but sadly the production only last for a short period of several months. However, the idea of SRH came back later on with Kokusai released “Mega Heavy Weight” version and Marushin also released “Giga Maxi Weight” version for some of their products.

There are 2 different cap firing systems for automatic modelguns.

The earlier models are with Side fire system. The "firing block" (where supposed to have the firing pins for real guns) is in fact a stamped steel block which hits the cartridge rim area when hit by hammer. This system drives the entire cartridge case with cap into the detonator in the barrel to fire the internal cap. This system of course is very different from the design of the real guns.

In contrast, the later or newer models are Center fire system. They are very close replica to the real guns with the firing pin in the slide design. The firing pin hits the center of the cartridge "primer" which push the cap to the detonator to fire the cap.

Cartridges

The modelguns cannot use any live or blank cartridges. Instead, the modelguns use special designed cartridges dedicated to each model. The design of cartridges changed along with the evolution of modelguns and cap technology. Modelgun cartridges were developed and evolved over time for improved performance and realism. The "firing" of the cap inside the cartridge of commonly available modelguns today produces the visual effect of sparks/smoke, audible effect of bang sound and blowback action for automatic models. After firing, these cartridges can be reusable upon cleaning and refilling the cap. Modelgun cartridges are in general not compatible among different manufacturers or different models.

The very early stage modelgun cartridge is just for ignition purpose with the cap sitting at the tip of the one-piece metal cartridge. It cannot perform blowback operation on automatic models. Anyway, it is unlikely that people will fire these precious models today.

In 1968, MGC developed MG-Blowback cartridge for open detonator type blow back operation for their blowback models. The cartridge is extremely simple in construction and does not look like a real cartridge at all. It is typically just a brass open "tube" closed at one end with a machined extractor groove, thus also known as open cartridge. It uses paper caps and is difficult to achieve stable blowback performance.

In 1979, plastic cap with a phosphorus composition filler specially designed for modelgun was invented.

In 1980, Marushin developed its own closed type blowback design and it is called Plug Fire Cartridge (PFC). The cartridge has size and shape similar to real cartridges but can be screwed separable. It is made with machined brass multi-piece consisting of a simulated primer, base, piston and the "bullet". The plastic cap is plugged inside and sit on a piston which helps to keep the pressure of exploded gas to provide the blowback force. The blowback performance is much improved and cleanup is also easier.

Following the Marushin PFC, other modelgun makers adopted similar closed cartridge design - Piston Push Cartridge from Tokyo CMC, Blowback CTG Cartridge from Kokusai, Piston Fire Cartridge from Hudson. In 1982, MGC also developed CP-Blowback cartridge (CP is an MGC acronym for Cap Piston that relates to the "piston" design of the MGC cartridges) to change from open cartridge to closed type cartridge. Since then, closed type cartridge design is adopted by all modelgun makers for their blowback systems. Later various modelgun makers further enhanced the design with additional rubber o-ring to further enhance the air-seal inside the cartridge. It provides even better blowback performance especially for the Heavy Weight models. MGC called CP-HW cartridge. Hudson called New Piston Fire cartridge. Marushin called New Plug Fire Cartridge. Different manufacturers have their own cartridge design as well as the parts count/description.

For revolvers, the cap is plugged at the front tip of the cartridge for MGC, CMC, Marui and Kokusai (early models) design. However, the cap is plugged inside the cartridge for KSC, Marushin, HWS and newer Kokusai design revolvers.

The recent models of Tanaka and HWS even make their cartridge’s “bullet” portion screw separable and in silver color so that they look very realistic lead bullet cartridge. Mulberry Field and KSC also make very realistic look blowback cartridges with detectable copper “bullet” for some compatible automatic models and dummy cartridges with genuine markings as well.

Caps

In the early days of modelguns, the caps were quite similar to the paper roll caps that were common in the United States. However, the Japanese paper caps were "printed" on flat sheets of red paper. But paper caps had safety problem. Paper caps also had problems such as clogging of the burning residue of the baseboard and high corrosive of the gunpowder itself. Blowback performance by paper caps is unstable and malfunction frequently occurs in most models.

In 1979, a Japanese gunpowder manufacturer Kaneko developed plastic bodied cap exclusively for modelgun in collaboration with MGC (MGC named it as M.G. Cap). With the gunpowder contained in a small plastic cup, the cap is safer to handle and easier to load. The gunpowder used is less corrosive and less residue after burning. The plastic bodied cap also enhances the blowback performance as the cap acts as a seal inside the cartridge to maintain the exploded pressure. The caps are standardized to be either 7mm or 5mm in diameter for normal size and compact size cartridge, These Kaneko produced modelgun caps eventually became universal and adopted by all modelgun manufacturers. Marushin named it as “Plug Fire Cap”. The most common type is marked as “Automatic” which uses gunpowder with lower burning speed to enhance the blowback operation for automatic models. A variant is called Kanecap of Real Flame Cap which contains a metallic content that sparks brightly as well as smoke when the cap ignites to enhance the firing effect.

Manufacturers

The MGC and Hudson Industry are the 2 most famous modelgun makers which first produced the original Japanese designed modelguns in 1962 and subsequently produced many different models in next few decades. Unfortunately, both of them were gone.

MGC went bankrupt in 1994. Most of the molds and production was taken over by Taito and Shin Nippon Mokei. The modelgun production was continued and trading as New MGC until second closing down in 2007.

In December 2009, Hudson Industry closed down and ceased all modelgun production.

Other early key makers are Tokyo CMC, Nakata and Kokusai which started modelgun production in mid-60s. Nakata and Tokyo CMC ceased modelgun business respectively in late 70s and 1985. Kokusai suffered factory fire in early 90s but still survived to continue modelgun production even after the Company taken over. However, its modelgun production finally closed down in January 2018.

There were some other smaller makers around 70s-80s like Malugo, KKS (Komoda Shoten), Suzuki and Matsushiro but they only produced just a very few models..

Before the closing down of the aforesaid manufacturers, it is fortunate that some or all their molds and manufacturing equipment were sold to other modelgun manufacturers to continue the model production.

Western Arms once produced a few modelgun models in 70s-80s. Tokyo Marui also produced some plastic modelgun kits in 1990s-2000s. Both Western Arms and Tokyo Marui make airsoft only at present.

The current modelgun manufacturers in Japan are Marushin, Tanaka Works, HWS (Hartford Work Shop), KSC, CAW (Craft Apple Works), Tanio Koba and Shoei. Among them, Marushin and HWS also offer modelgun kits for sale.

There are 2 other companies producing modelguns outside Japan. HwaSan (or Hawsan / Wa Shan) (a Taiwanese Company) is the only company which produces some cap firing capable modelguns outside Japan. HwaSan is famous with cap firing full metal semi-automatic handguns and in black or silver color which are not allowed in Japan. It also produces one time use disposable cartridges with pre-installed cap. Denix (a Spanish Company) produces small amount of dummy display only full metal modelguns which are generally ignored by most modelgun collectors.