I discovered airsoft by accident in the autumn of 2002, stumbling over a picture thread in the hobbies forum at tech site [H]ardOCP. I'd built a fair few of what are now called "springers" from plastic kits in my early teens (one of them is still in the display cabinet here, even now), but although I'd occasionally noticed replicas in model shops over the intervening years I'd had no idea that the technology had advanced so much! In fact, even as a some-time aficionado of the real thing I was extremely impressed by how realistic the best of the replicas were. A few minutes into the thread I opened extra windows to search for reviews and UK suppliers - it was already obvious that I was going to buy something, the only question was what...