Spitlebug
06-21-2007, 03:07 AM
So I just had a look at the Dangerous Power Fusion that Dances with Tribals bought and something startled me.
This marker, by appearance looks like a George and Michael Spurlock product.
Some of you may not know, but George and Michael Spurlock have been in the paintball community for quite some time now. I classify them in similar terms as Mr. Louvette...
George and Michael were behind M3/Black Dragun/Dragun Empire/OGI and more recently "designed" a loader for DraXXus and a marker for Diablo. Now having said that you might recognize these two paintball products as the DraXXus Pulse and Diablo Wrath.
Following me so far? Let's go a little in depth into paintball history...
M3 got their start by cloning the cloners and offering them at cheaper prices and one upping the competition by incorporating faster than 13bps boards, which at the time were stock in all electro Spyders. They had American consumers eating out of the palms of their hands by offering "Stars and Stripes" and "Sniper" variants of their popular markers. They did this however, by outsourcing to Taiwan which was even poorer in quality than those parts being produced in Japan by Kingman. Not to mention the marker designs were not their own and were actually the brain child of PRECO Corp of Taiwan. Eventually, but not after a long while did the Spurlocks have a falling out with PRECO and moved on to other manufacturers. During such time, M3 went through three name changes (M3, Black Dragun, Dragun Empire International) all to avoid taxes and to continue to produce electro paintball markers while staying out of reach of U.S. patent law (Smart Parts anyone?).
Dragun Empire is famous for producing the T.E.S. and The One markers. The T.E.S. was for the most part, the first blowback to incorporate electronic eyes (bounce beam). It sold for the same price as competing Spyder markers. The One was, a rip off of the BKO. It was a "FASOR" marker. Foward air, spring operated return. Again this isn't new because Spyder copied the BKO with the EM-1. After this the Spurlocks sought to enter the 'Cocker market by producing the Dragunfly and Draillion markers. But what of M3 and Black Dragun? Essentially the company was renamed to avoid taxes and the Spurlocks ran off with a lot of dealers money in un-delivered product.
Enter OGI. A merger of Oddysee and Dragun Empire. The Spurlocks continued to do business under yet another name. I assume at the time the Oddysee guys thought the Spurlocks were on the level, but it was not so. OGI came out with a slew of "new" markers (03, 03M etc...) but these were just repackaged Dragun Markers with a little milling change. Uh-oh, financial troubles for Oddysee. Seems the Spurlocks heaped OGI with a lot of debt and Oddysee was forced to join up with NPS or face some serious creditors. Thus you get repackaged Oddysee products under the Empire Label. It was around this time when they severed ties with PRECO and moved to MARCASITE INDUSTRIAL CO. George and Michael (as far as I know) made off with some of PRECO Corps paintball plans. While working for NPS, Michael Spurlock re-released yet another "FASOR" marker as the Diablo Wrath. See a trend happening here?
Next, Michael and George defected to what is now known as ProCaps. With that they took plans from Oddysee for their Halo loader and re-packaged them as the DraXXus Pulse loader. Well that's a good way to piss off NPS off isn't it? Some of you may recognize some of these names from the recent NPS vs. ProCaps lawsuit. The funny thing is, NPS is pissed off that Michael and George have ripped off the Halo, but NPS would never have owned that intellectual property if it weren't for the Spurlocks.
Now we move on to the Dangerous Power Fusion. It looks a lot like the 03, just a little more refined. One might say "Oh all paintball markers look similar" but you can tell a Bob Long product just as one might recognize a Glen Palmer product.
Upon looking at the Dangerous Power website I can quote this:
WHO WE ARE
Dangerous Power™ was created by a team of world class engineers who share a vision in creating the most innovative, groundbreaking products the paintball world will ever experience. They vowed to be leaders, and never followers. With the aid of the most advanced software, machinery, and technical ‘know-how’ stemming from over thirty years of combined experience, Dangerous Power™ aims to dispel the belief that ‘high-end’ has to come at exorbitant prices!
This doesn't really tell you much about who they actually are does it? I would be curious as to who is behind Dangerous Power. I did a little more digging and I did a WHOIS on the Domain of dangerouspower.com. Seems someone has gone through a lot of effort to remain anonymous. You will notice that Dangerous Power does not list a Phone number as most reputable businesses do because that can be attributed to a name.
If anyone else here has any valid info on who is actually behind Dangerous Power I would be all ears.
/I hate the Spurlocks because they wreck paintball rant.
This marker, by appearance looks like a George and Michael Spurlock product.
Some of you may not know, but George and Michael Spurlock have been in the paintball community for quite some time now. I classify them in similar terms as Mr. Louvette...
George and Michael were behind M3/Black Dragun/Dragun Empire/OGI and more recently "designed" a loader for DraXXus and a marker for Diablo. Now having said that you might recognize these two paintball products as the DraXXus Pulse and Diablo Wrath.
Following me so far? Let's go a little in depth into paintball history...
M3 got their start by cloning the cloners and offering them at cheaper prices and one upping the competition by incorporating faster than 13bps boards, which at the time were stock in all electro Spyders. They had American consumers eating out of the palms of their hands by offering "Stars and Stripes" and "Sniper" variants of their popular markers. They did this however, by outsourcing to Taiwan which was even poorer in quality than those parts being produced in Japan by Kingman. Not to mention the marker designs were not their own and were actually the brain child of PRECO Corp of Taiwan. Eventually, but not after a long while did the Spurlocks have a falling out with PRECO and moved on to other manufacturers. During such time, M3 went through three name changes (M3, Black Dragun, Dragun Empire International) all to avoid taxes and to continue to produce electro paintball markers while staying out of reach of U.S. patent law (Smart Parts anyone?).
Dragun Empire is famous for producing the T.E.S. and The One markers. The T.E.S. was for the most part, the first blowback to incorporate electronic eyes (bounce beam). It sold for the same price as competing Spyder markers. The One was, a rip off of the BKO. It was a "FASOR" marker. Foward air, spring operated return. Again this isn't new because Spyder copied the BKO with the EM-1. After this the Spurlocks sought to enter the 'Cocker market by producing the Dragunfly and Draillion markers. But what of M3 and Black Dragun? Essentially the company was renamed to avoid taxes and the Spurlocks ran off with a lot of dealers money in un-delivered product.
Enter OGI. A merger of Oddysee and Dragun Empire. The Spurlocks continued to do business under yet another name. I assume at the time the Oddysee guys thought the Spurlocks were on the level, but it was not so. OGI came out with a slew of "new" markers (03, 03M etc...) but these were just repackaged Dragun Markers with a little milling change. Uh-oh, financial troubles for Oddysee. Seems the Spurlocks heaped OGI with a lot of debt and Oddysee was forced to join up with NPS or face some serious creditors. Thus you get repackaged Oddysee products under the Empire Label. It was around this time when they severed ties with PRECO and moved to MARCASITE INDUSTRIAL CO. George and Michael (as far as I know) made off with some of PRECO Corps paintball plans. While working for NPS, Michael Spurlock re-released yet another "FASOR" marker as the Diablo Wrath. See a trend happening here?
Next, Michael and George defected to what is now known as ProCaps. With that they took plans from Oddysee for their Halo loader and re-packaged them as the DraXXus Pulse loader. Well that's a good way to piss off NPS off isn't it? Some of you may recognize some of these names from the recent NPS vs. ProCaps lawsuit. The funny thing is, NPS is pissed off that Michael and George have ripped off the Halo, but NPS would never have owned that intellectual property if it weren't for the Spurlocks.
Now we move on to the Dangerous Power Fusion. It looks a lot like the 03, just a little more refined. One might say "Oh all paintball markers look similar" but you can tell a Bob Long product just as one might recognize a Glen Palmer product.
Upon looking at the Dangerous Power website I can quote this:
WHO WE ARE
Dangerous Power™ was created by a team of world class engineers who share a vision in creating the most innovative, groundbreaking products the paintball world will ever experience. They vowed to be leaders, and never followers. With the aid of the most advanced software, machinery, and technical ‘know-how’ stemming from over thirty years of combined experience, Dangerous Power™ aims to dispel the belief that ‘high-end’ has to come at exorbitant prices!
This doesn't really tell you much about who they actually are does it? I would be curious as to who is behind Dangerous Power. I did a little more digging and I did a WHOIS on the Domain of dangerouspower.com. Seems someone has gone through a lot of effort to remain anonymous. You will notice that Dangerous Power does not list a Phone number as most reputable businesses do because that can be attributed to a name.
If anyone else here has any valid info on who is actually behind Dangerous Power I would be all ears.
/I hate the Spurlocks because they wreck paintball rant.