Category: Companies

Addictive Paintball o Paintball Adictivo

Addictive paintball is a new internet magazine that reports on anything paintball related in Latin America. The title is somewhat misleading, it’s in english but the entire magazine is in spanish. If I were fluent in spanish then maybe I could give a better review of this online magazine but I’m not so I can’t.

Anyways, the design of the site/magazine is mediocre. To go from page to page, you have to click on a link for each page of the magazine, 1-53. Even just browsing through the damn thing gets annoying. They need to learn how to make it like a real magazine. IE – be able to turn the pages like in the catalogue on empire’s site. That way it’s much more user friendly.

The magazine seems like it’ll have your usual paintball magazine info such as tourney coverage, gun tech, and product reviews. So they’re in the right direction, but they’re still doing it wrong.

From the pictures, it looked like they were having a tourney old school style in the woods with spools and whatever as bunkers but it was 5-man. I found that rather odd. Shitty field but the players have the money to get eg07’s and what not. If they[the players] want to get better, they should stop spending their money and invest it by getting an airball field. Then again I don’t know the whole story for what’s going on down there so…they can do whatever they want, I don’t really care.

http://www.addictivepaintball.com/index.html

Tadao Signs Deal With The Devil

Err, Smart Parts.

Smart Parts was able to put another company in their pocket. This time it’s little ol’ board-maker Tadao.

Usually, they go after gun companies for all their fancy/bullshit patents they have on electronic paintball guns, like the fact that they have a switch. Going after just a board-maker was probably a fresh change for them.

It could be because of their patent on Ion boards. Yup, if you make a board that looks like that, not including all those holes, no matter what the use, you gonna get sued.

Or for their Ion eye board. Make a u-shaped board with LED’s on it, you’re screwed.

So I’m thinking it’s for their Raider Ion board.

Now, it could mean that their coming out with a gun in the near future, which would be freakin’ sweet, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

So to anyone looking to make a baord for the Ion, you might have some troubles with the big ol’ devil Smart Parts.

ICD, No More Paintball For Us

icdlogo.jpgAha, there is news. I knew it.

Indian Creek Design, ICD, the company that made mediocre guns like the Freestyle, Promaster, BKO, and the B2K, is now getting out of the paintball business. And since they didn’t have any business but paintball business, it means they’re going out of business.

Vaporworks, a company that makes custom parts for bushies and freestyles, is taking over the servicing.

ICD’s time came and went. They did decently with their BKO and Bushmaster back in the day, but newer and better guns kept coming along. They tried to make a come back with the Freestyle and Promaster, but with neither really took off. They had a following, just nowhere near as big as others. Mainly because the guns just weren’t that great and you could get better, or what people thought to be better, for less. Was the Freestyle a good gun? Yes. Great? No. It worked, it was light, it was quiet, but it just wasn’t that spectacular.

Also, ICD name just wasn’t that well respected. People remember their old BKO or bushy, remember having problems with it (caused by themselves or not, it doesn’t matter), and couldn’t think of ICD as really anything else. The same can be said about Spyder. If they do make a high-end, most people will shun it off because, it’s, well, Spyder.

Some will most definitely point at Smart Parts and other bigger companies pushing out the smaller companies. That may be part of the case, but really, ICD had made nice, cool markers, they could still be in it, but you have small companies like Dangerous Power (with a name like that, how could you lose) coming into the game, and doing pretty well for themselves. True, they get nowhere near as many sales as the bigger companies, but they are there, and as time goes by will probably still be there.

Anyways, here’s the whole post on ICDO.

Taking on more work! Send it our way!

Vaporworks was one of the first factory certified repair centers for ICD markers outside of the factory. Now after nearly 8 years of servicing these paintball markers, ICD is handing the reigns to us. They are stepping away from the paintball business and we are taking over their service work for them. In the new year, ICD will stop doing all service work on their markers and sending customers to Vaporworks for repair and service work.

We have long been a doing our best to support ICD products and will now do our best to carry on work on their markers for them. You’ll get the same service level you’d expect from ICD, only in Kansas instead of Idaho!

PB2X Bought By Pacific Paintball, Now More Official

We had this story 5 days ago, but now the NPPL is announcing that PB2X magazine has been bought by Pacific Paintball who also happen to own them.

No new information has been released really, and I don’t really feel like typing up a lot for this, so here’s the whole press release.

Pacific Paintball is pleased to announce the acquisition of Paintball 2Xtremes Magazine, the preeminent paintball industry magazine. “Pacific Paintball is dedicated to building the finest media based company in paintball. We are a one stop shop for anyone who wants to market to the paintball world,” said Shawn Walker, President of Pacific Paintball. “Now with the industry’s top magazine – Paintball 2Xtremes, the greatest Paintball Tournament Series in the world – the NPPL, the highly successful regional league – the XPSL, the popular live tournament web cast – NPPLLive.com, the upcoming paintball television series airing on Fox Sports Net beginning this October, Pacific Paintball is uniquely positioned to provide industry and non-industry advertisers with a variety of media opportunities that reach paintball’s highly sought after audience and to continue its leadership role as a key supporter of the paintball industry.”

Paintball 2Xtremes Magazine (PB2X) was established in 1996 by John and Mike Henry and later purchased by National Paintball Supply in 2000. John Amodea, who was brought in as the magazine editor in 2000, will continue to serve as editor-in-chief of PB2X. Cheryl Amaya, Publisher of PB2X, said, “We are very excited about joining the Pacific Paintball family and about their desire to continue to grow PB2X. We are also pleased that all of our current management team will be staying with the magazine. This will allow us to continue to provide our readers with the best coverage of all aspects of paintball including; scenario ball, recreational ball, tournament play, professional teams, technical reviews, market news, and local coverage.”

Mr. Walker added, “We plan to invest significant time and resources into PB2X to increase all aspects of the magazine’s offerings, which readers will see over time. The transition will be seamless, with the October issue the first under Pacific Paintball’s management.”

Pacific Paintball was formed by Pacific Merchant Capital (“PMC”), a Santa Barbara, California based investment group. The principals at PMC have owned/operated middle market radio stations as well as built several niche media companies, including the largest taxi top advertising company in the United States, which is currently an integral part of Clear Channel Communications’ outdoor division. In addition to Pacific Paintball, PMC is currently building Brite Media Group, a leading alternative media business.

[Via Mailing List]

Smart Parts And KEE Settle Patent Dispute

Smart Parts and KEE Action Sports settled a suit brought on by Smart Parts which accused KEE of infringing on patents 5,881,707, 5,967,133 6,035,843, 6,474,326, 6,637,421, and 7,100,593. The settlement included a royalty-bearing license for KEE to produce electronic markers, KEE having to stop production on insert barrel kits, namely the Empire Revolver, and KEE is now an official distributer of Smart Parts goods.

Rack up another one for sue happy Smart Parts and all their patents, though KEE isn’t exactly innocent.

[Via]