Tokyo Marui – Colt 1911 Gas Blowback Review
The Colt model of 1911 was the brain child of gunsmith and weapons designer John Moses Browning when the search began in the late 1890’s for a reliable self-loading pistol for use by the military, to replace the various revolvers of that era. During WW2 over 1.9 million pistols were produced for the various armed forces at the time, and long after the war, the Colt 1911 remained the standard military service pistol up until 1985, being replaced by Berretta 92F (or M9 as the military designated it). Pressure from NATO for the US armed forces to adopt their standard 9mm round, as opposed to the .45 ACP round the 1911 utilised, was the primary reason for it’s withdrawal of service. This was met with some resistance as the .45 ACP was favoured for it’s stopping power. The demand for a new and improved .45 service pistol gave birth the MK23 SOCOM, which had a higher magazine capacity that the 1911, lower recoil and a whole host of accessories utilised on special operations.
The Colt 1911 has been a very popular model with the Airsoft community, with Western Arms dominating the market with their replicas of pretty much all of the 1911 variants (and believe me, there are lots!). Up until recently Western Arms has been the only manufacturer to product a high quality version of this much loved pistol. Until now… Tokyo Marui released the 1911 some months ago, and it was an eagerly awaited product, much like their Sig P226. But has it disappointed all of those who waited patiently to get their hands on one? We find out.
The first thing about the Tokyo Marui 1911 which catches your eye is the box. Now some might say that the packaging is not very important, perhaps true if you’re the average weekend skirmisher. But if you’re a collector, the packaging can be equally as important as the gun itself. Marui have presented this pistol in what can only be described as a collectors case, much like they did with the M14. Olive green in design, and with military style print on the box, to look at it you wouldn’t think it’s an Airsoft replica at all, all of the text quotes the specifications of the real-steel. It’s a work of art in itself, and when you take off the lid it gets better… Inside the box, they’ve neatly placed the gun in polystyrene foam lined with olive drab cloth, a really nice touch I think. Further more, there is a small box which holds your usual 100 or so 0.2g Marui rounds, the red barrel stop, and a ‘bushing wrench’. This small box is also in olive green, laid out with military style text outlining its content, don’t worry there are 6mm BB’s in there, not .45 FMJ rounds as it would have you believe!
Removing the gun from it’s container, even before the magazine is inserted it has a nice weight to it (798g, 1106g for the real steel), which is pretty evenly distributed. With the magazine in place, it fits very comfortably in the hand and remains nice and parallel when you point it at the target, probably helped by the very slim grips. Unlike some of the Western Arms models, Marui have opted to make this magazine a ‘double stacker’, which means as you load the BB’s they sit diagonally to each other, allowing you to fit more into the space, as opposed to a ‘single stacker’ which means the BB’s sit in line on top of each other. Using this approach Marui manage to squeeze 26 rounds into the magazine, which is a lot thinner than your average Glock or USP mag. Loading the rounds is a fairly easy affair. As with most GBB pistols, you pull down the BB follower catch, keeping it held down with your thumb, whilst you push the rounds into the front of the magazine in the recess provided. This is where the ‘bushing wrench’ tool comes in handy. You can hook the wrench onto the BB’ follower, slide it up the magazine and lock it into place, which makes it a whole lot easier to use, but not essential. Filling the gas reservoir is as normal, although it doesn’t seem to take as much gas as some of the other GBB’s I’ve used. The magazine slides into place with a nice positive click and locks in firmly with no rattle. 
The gun itself is constructed mainly of high-quality ABS plastic, as with most of Marui’s models. It has a nice dull matt finish to it and doesn’t display any sort of ‘plastic shine’. External metal parts on this model are the trigger, magazine release button, lanyard mounting point, slide lock lever, manual trigger safety, hammer and the secondary ‘grip’ safety. The internal metal parts include the hop-up chamber and mechanism, the spring guide rod plus the actual slide rails themselves, something that was plastic on the P226.
This model displays accurate Colt trademarks and serial numbers, something which are likely to be taped over or putty filled in the USA. Over here in the UK, we’re lucky enough not to have those problems, so the markings can be fully appreciated. A nice touch in relation to these, is that the instruction manual details which factory was responsible for producing that model. Our test model had the serial number 871072 (most likely the same on all of the Marui 1911’s) which lists it was an original Colt manufactured item, but the real steel was also reproduced under licence by Remington, Singer (yes, the sewing machine manufacturer) Union Switch and Signal Co, and Ithaca. The last page of the instruction manual also details where all the markings on the gun are, and what they mean. Whilst we’re on the topic of the instruction manual, it is the usual Marui affair, mostly in Japanese with the occasional English paragraph or so. It also includes a two page exploded schematic diagram and spare parts listing.
So lets move on to actually firing the pistol…
If you remember earlier, I mentioned about the ‘bushing wrench’ tool as Marui call it, well this is where I found how useful it was. Pulling down on the BB’s follower on the magazine, and keeping it place isn’t easy if like me you bite your fingernails! So I utilised their clever little device and it made loading the mag so much easier, but not entirely necessary especially if you have a speedloader. I chose 0.2g Excel BB’s, and found that 26 of these fitted snugly in the magazine. I filled the magazine up with gas, pushed it into the pistol’s slim frame and racked the slide. The gun is single action only, which means you have to pull the hammer back before you can fire it. Not entirely safe to carry around holstered in this state, Colt introduced several safety features. The first being the manual trigger safety, a lever towards the rear of the gun you push up once the gun is cocked. This stops the trigger from engaging, and also stops the slide from moving backwards too. The second, and the most clever is the grip safety. If you do not hold the gun correctly, it will not fire. A metal lever the width of the frame is located at the back-strap of the gun, when held correctly it is engaged with the hand and the gun will fire.
The first thing you notice is the noise, even racking the slide gives a grin inducing ‘ker-klunk’, and firing it gets even better. Pointing the gun at my standard 10 metre pistol target and gently pulling the trigger, the first round left with an almighty bang with a very nice recoil indeed. Marui quote on their box ‘Hi-Kick, Hi-Grouping…’, well they certainly haven’t let you down with the kick side of things. I was using Winter Gas, and the temperature outside was about 12 degrees centigrade. As for accuracy… well. It certainly isn’t going to win any competitions, but that isn’t what this pistol is designed for. The grouping itself wasn’t exactly small. Measuring about 4 inches wide, by about 6 inches high, but that is smaller than your average head size target, so increasing the range to say 15 metres, you’d have no problem hitting someone on the bonce.
Marui quote a range of about 40 metres (found in very small print on the front of the manual), but I would say that 30-35 metres is the effective range of this pistol. But hey, this is a side-arm, and 30 metres is quite sufficient for what it was intended. We mention the hop-up, well Marui have kept their system of the small wheel under the top slide, which works so well and I much favour over KSC’s design. Removing the top slide is fairly easy once you’ve deciphered the manual to work it out. Remove the magazine, rack the slide, then pull it back until the small notch just before the slide lock-back notch is in line with the take down lever. Then push the take-down lever from the right hand side of the gun and pull out. The hop-up wheel was positioned at the half way point, which is spot on, if you really want to increase the range slightly, you’ll need to give this a few clicks, but I found it to be fine. To re-assemble the gun, just follow the above steps in reverse.
If you remember earlier on, I mentioned that the pistol didn’t seem to accept much gas? There is a very good reason for this. Being a very slim style of magazine, the gas reservoir only holds enough gas for around only 28 shots, but you get 26 shots in a mag. Unlike a lot of GBB’s, this magazine does not hold enough gas for a BB refill. I can see this putting a lot of people off, but to me it doesn’t detract from the gun itself. I would either carry a can of gas around me in the field, or purchase another magazine. And I don’t think for the die hard 1911 fans, this would be that much of a problem.
Conclusion?
Well, there is not much more that I can say about this gun. I like it. Personally I’ve always wanted a 1911 in some shape or form, just to add to the collection. I’ve been put off in the past by the prices of the Western Arms models, and I don’t really see what extra you are getting for the money. Now Marui have bought in an alternative, this is where my money will be going. For around £109, you really can’t go wrong. The gun is robust enough to take the knocks of skirmishing, and pretty enough to be a collectors piece. Fans of the Marui Hi-Cap 5.1 or 4.3 should consider getting one of these to finish the collection off, it is then you appreciate that in over 95 years, we’ve not come a long way at all, we’re still using the same design, so revolutionary and ahead of it’s time. The Colt 1911 is a legend. Just as the Peacemaker was in taming the wild wild west, I can see plenty of Marui Colt 1911’s taming the wild wild skirmish sites around the world.
