Post by fido on Jan 19, 2008 10:34:33 GMT -5
So, here it is, my test of the BELL 1911.
In this review I will particularly go into the pros and cons of the clone and show you if its worth the money (~30€ at RSOV) or not.
Go get a cup of coffee, tea, a beer or whatever, lean back and I hope that you will enjoy reading it.
Because i own the TM version too I'm sure i can make a good comparison between the two…
I will especially show up the differences to the MARUI 1911 (yes, even a 100% copy has them) but I suggest that you read a review of the original one too…
If you want to know the history of the real one, then google it
The BELL 1911 comes in a nice plastic case which has foam inlets. I'm sure the case will do its intended job quite well.
Funny detail: on the sticker there is pictured a 1911 with no markings at all, and if you know Resident Evil you will immediately notice the S.T.A.R.S. badge
After opening the case you see a cleaning rod, a loading tool and the pistol itself.
You get also a second loading muzzle in the set, now time will tell if the one BELL used is a POS and therefore they give you a free one, or if its just a nice gift, which I really appreciate.
Don’t loose time looking for a manual, you wont find one…
So, first I have to say that the GBB is a 100% TOKYO MARUI clone. This means that every part that is metal on the MARUI is also metal on the BELL.
The only difference you will notice are the markings: instead of „TOKYO MARUI, MADE IN JAPAN“ and „ASGK“ you will see on BELL´s version: „UNITED STATES PROPERTY“ and „M1911A1 U.S.ARMY“ plus a changed S/N.
I like that fact very much.
There are nowhere producer markings or a „Made in China“ that would give it away as clone.
Just on the (plastic) outer barrel there are no proof marks, but burrs…
Lets continue with the magazine:
BELL´s mag fits the MARUI, it feeds and functions flawless.
The finish is, just like on all metal parts on the gun, a matte black and not as pleasant as you would wish.
Like almost every Chinese clone, this replica suffers too from the bad paint used, which will scratch easily and chip off.
The magazine holds 23 BB´s and with a charge of yellow gas I was able to get 1 ½ mags out!
With my full metal MARUI (guarder kit) I only get out around 13 shots.
But as I always load around 10 BB´s I don’t care too much about that.
The frame is plastic. BELL´s parkerized finish isn’t even close to that one from MARUI. In fact the TM one is painted to achieve the effect of parkerizing, BELL´s isn’t painted at all.
I hope you see the difference on this pic:
On the left BELL, on the right MARUI.
On the one I received you can see traces of the assembly which left some damages to the surface. Generally the materials and screws used are of lower quality, and if you don’t pay attention you will damage the screw-heads fast and wont be able to remove them easily.
On some metal parts you clearly see traces from the casting mold:
And my hop up has a dent too:
But I'm pretty sure that this isn't the case on every BELL 1911 (except they have a guy in china on the payroll especially for denting their HU units)
The hop up looks good to me, the used rubber is just a bit too hard in comparison to the MARUI one.
You should think about changing it to get better results…
The inner barrel looks a bit dirty, and has weird spots on it, but hey its just a barrel and will do what its supposed to.
I forgot to measure the inner diameter, i will do that sometime in the future and update the review…
The inner life of the 1911 is amazingly well made, everything fits nicely together and they used better materials for the hammer pin and the remainder of the shooting mechanism.
Sounds good until now, huh?
The clone didn't explode after the first shot and still works after some FIDO abuse...
So there MUST be something wrong with it you ask?
Yes, indeed, it isn’t perfect at all!
I test fitted my marui frame to the BELL replica, but it isn’t a 100% fit. Because of the lower manufacturing tolerances there are some parts which need modification to fit the MARUI frame. So it will fit, but it wont work properly…only after changing the recoil spring to a harder one the slide went all the way to the front, otherwise you had to manually push it forward to enable it to shoot the next shot.
Very annoying: the barrel bushing is too small!
It won’t even move if you use the MARUI barrel with it, you need to remove the small plastic ring inside it to get it to work. Its an easy fix, but isn’t really necessary BELL isn’t it?
My conclusion is: if you want to use it as a cheap base for a full metal conversion be prepared to spend a bit more time on modding it to fit and work. A friend of mine will soon install a metal frame to his one, then I hope I can tell you how much modifying it involves…
Sadly on my 1911 somebody forgot to put the metal weight in the left grip (or is it RSOV saving on shipping costs =P ) but I'm sure this isn’t the case on all BELL versions, so I didn’t take that to account in my review…if you have such a weight give it to me =D
I emailed RSOV, but im not sure if they will do anything then nothing.
After installing back the BELL frame it worked flawlessly again.
The handling of the clone is similar to the MARUI one. The trigger just hasn’t a smooth pull as the TM, the thumb safety clicks and the slide safety is also a bit rough.
Maybe changing the spring with the 3 legs helps.
The slide catch works with no problems at all.
I especially liked the fact that BELL used a harder magazine release spring then TM.
After dialing in the hop up i made some shooting tests on a target 10m away.
I did this at room temperature, with 0,2g BB´s and yellow gas:
I didnt dial it 100% perfect in, but it achieved good results.
According to the poor-man´s-chrono it clocks at +300 fps on yellow gas.
So, is the BELL clone worth the money?
In my opinion, YES it is!
For ~30€ you get a good copy of a good pistol. I'm impressed which standard the Chinese clones already reached.
They should just improve the quality control a bit more.
PRO:
-cheap
-MARUI compatible
-case
-markings
CONTRA:
-too low manufacturing tolerances
-hop up rubber should be changed
-cheap paint on metal parts
-bad quality control
-barrel bushing
I hope you enjoyed reading the review, and that it helps you with your decision over buying it or not
If you have any questions or want to add (constructive) improvement suggestions, please feel free to do that!
Please ask me if you want to use this review on another site!
In this review I will particularly go into the pros and cons of the clone and show you if its worth the money (~30€ at RSOV) or not.
Go get a cup of coffee, tea, a beer or whatever, lean back and I hope that you will enjoy reading it.
Because i own the TM version too I'm sure i can make a good comparison between the two…
I will especially show up the differences to the MARUI 1911 (yes, even a 100% copy has them) but I suggest that you read a review of the original one too…
If you want to know the history of the real one, then google it
The BELL 1911 comes in a nice plastic case which has foam inlets. I'm sure the case will do its intended job quite well.
Funny detail: on the sticker there is pictured a 1911 with no markings at all, and if you know Resident Evil you will immediately notice the S.T.A.R.S. badge
After opening the case you see a cleaning rod, a loading tool and the pistol itself.
You get also a second loading muzzle in the set, now time will tell if the one BELL used is a POS and therefore they give you a free one, or if its just a nice gift, which I really appreciate.
Don’t loose time looking for a manual, you wont find one…
So, first I have to say that the GBB is a 100% TOKYO MARUI clone. This means that every part that is metal on the MARUI is also metal on the BELL.
The only difference you will notice are the markings: instead of „TOKYO MARUI, MADE IN JAPAN“ and „ASGK“ you will see on BELL´s version: „UNITED STATES PROPERTY“ and „M1911A1 U.S.ARMY“ plus a changed S/N.
I like that fact very much.
There are nowhere producer markings or a „Made in China“ that would give it away as clone.
Just on the (plastic) outer barrel there are no proof marks, but burrs…
Lets continue with the magazine:
BELL´s mag fits the MARUI, it feeds and functions flawless.
The finish is, just like on all metal parts on the gun, a matte black and not as pleasant as you would wish.
Like almost every Chinese clone, this replica suffers too from the bad paint used, which will scratch easily and chip off.
The magazine holds 23 BB´s and with a charge of yellow gas I was able to get 1 ½ mags out!
With my full metal MARUI (guarder kit) I only get out around 13 shots.
But as I always load around 10 BB´s I don’t care too much about that.
The frame is plastic. BELL´s parkerized finish isn’t even close to that one from MARUI. In fact the TM one is painted to achieve the effect of parkerizing, BELL´s isn’t painted at all.
I hope you see the difference on this pic:
On the left BELL, on the right MARUI.
On the one I received you can see traces of the assembly which left some damages to the surface. Generally the materials and screws used are of lower quality, and if you don’t pay attention you will damage the screw-heads fast and wont be able to remove them easily.
On some metal parts you clearly see traces from the casting mold:
And my hop up has a dent too:
But I'm pretty sure that this isn't the case on every BELL 1911 (except they have a guy in china on the payroll especially for denting their HU units)
The hop up looks good to me, the used rubber is just a bit too hard in comparison to the MARUI one.
You should think about changing it to get better results…
The inner barrel looks a bit dirty, and has weird spots on it, but hey its just a barrel and will do what its supposed to.
I forgot to measure the inner diameter, i will do that sometime in the future and update the review…
The inner life of the 1911 is amazingly well made, everything fits nicely together and they used better materials for the hammer pin and the remainder of the shooting mechanism.
Sounds good until now, huh?
The clone didn't explode after the first shot and still works after some FIDO abuse...
So there MUST be something wrong with it you ask?
Yes, indeed, it isn’t perfect at all!
I test fitted my marui frame to the BELL replica, but it isn’t a 100% fit. Because of the lower manufacturing tolerances there are some parts which need modification to fit the MARUI frame. So it will fit, but it wont work properly…only after changing the recoil spring to a harder one the slide went all the way to the front, otherwise you had to manually push it forward to enable it to shoot the next shot.
Very annoying: the barrel bushing is too small!
It won’t even move if you use the MARUI barrel with it, you need to remove the small plastic ring inside it to get it to work. Its an easy fix, but isn’t really necessary BELL isn’t it?
My conclusion is: if you want to use it as a cheap base for a full metal conversion be prepared to spend a bit more time on modding it to fit and work. A friend of mine will soon install a metal frame to his one, then I hope I can tell you how much modifying it involves…
Sadly on my 1911 somebody forgot to put the metal weight in the left grip (or is it RSOV saving on shipping costs =P ) but I'm sure this isn’t the case on all BELL versions, so I didn’t take that to account in my review…if you have such a weight give it to me =D
I emailed RSOV, but im not sure if they will do anything then nothing.
After installing back the BELL frame it worked flawlessly again.
The handling of the clone is similar to the MARUI one. The trigger just hasn’t a smooth pull as the TM, the thumb safety clicks and the slide safety is also a bit rough.
Maybe changing the spring with the 3 legs helps.
The slide catch works with no problems at all.
I especially liked the fact that BELL used a harder magazine release spring then TM.
After dialing in the hop up i made some shooting tests on a target 10m away.
I did this at room temperature, with 0,2g BB´s and yellow gas:
I didnt dial it 100% perfect in, but it achieved good results.
According to the poor-man´s-chrono it clocks at +300 fps on yellow gas.
So, is the BELL clone worth the money?
In my opinion, YES it is!
For ~30€ you get a good copy of a good pistol. I'm impressed which standard the Chinese clones already reached.
They should just improve the quality control a bit more.
PRO:
-cheap
-MARUI compatible
-case
-markings
CONTRA:
-too low manufacturing tolerances
-hop up rubber should be changed
-cheap paint on metal parts
-bad quality control
-barrel bushing
I hope you enjoyed reading the review, and that it helps you with your decision over buying it or not
If you have any questions or want to add (constructive) improvement suggestions, please feel free to do that!
Please ask me if you want to use this review on another site!