The Tokyo Marui Glock 18C is part of a small but growing group of fully automatic Gas Blow Back machine pistols. The TM variant isn’t alone though, with a KWA/KSC version of the same gun, and in a similar vein sits the TM Hi-Capa X-Treme with it’s raucous fully-auto blasting capabilities.
With the 18C, Tokyo Marui bring us not only the undoubted skirmish-ability and reliability we are familiar with from the brand, but also a handy fire selector to switch from indiscriminate fully automatic fire, to a slighly more reserved single shot setting. On paper, the 18C seems to offer you a highly versatile package in terms of skimish capabilities.
Should that be enough to tempt you into purchasing the feisty little glock, which given TM’s track record, you’d be forgiven for taking a punt on, you’ll have to part with around £140. For that you get the usual fine packaging from Marui, with a full colour box lid and polystyrene inner tray. It all seems much less “shady” than some of the grease stained, one-colour print affairs encasing certain other manufacturers guns. Of course that doesn’t really matter a great deal once you’ve dived into the box, but it’s nice to know your new gun has been well protected along the way.
In terms of proportions, it’s roughly the same size as its stable-mate, the Glock 17, but with a slighly lighter, more plasticy feel. There, I said it… It does actually feel a bit plasticy, in fact, like all TM pistols, the externals are all ABS plastic, and racking the slide isn’t the solid, macho experience it can be with some GBB guns. A solid, real feel just isn’t this guns strong point. This all makes sense when you take a closer look at the top slide. There are weight saving cut-outs and holes machined into the blocky slide, just like on the real thing, minimising the weight of the moving parts and making the gun cycle faster. The details on the real steel gun are replicated down to the inclusion of slots cut into the outer barrel. These act as a recoil compensator on the real gun, venting some of the expanding gasses upwards through the barrel in an effort to prevent uncontrollable barrel rise, they just look darn cool on the airsoft version…
The sights are just a simple post and notch affair, but they are highlighted with white edging to make sighting in low light a little easier, and the other controls around the gun are easily located and instantly familiar to anyone that has spent any time getting used to the ergonomics of a Glock, in fact, in the hand, it’s nigh indistinguishable from the Glock 17. The mag catch on the review model didn’t feel quite as positive as it could at first, but after a little use, it seemed to “bed in” and become a little more snappy, leaving you confident that the freshly inserted mag would be retained. The low profile metal slide catch is easily accessed with the thumb, but as with other Glocks the slide release is a fiddly procedure, so removing the slide to adjust the hop, achieved with the effective TM wheel design, is something best done in advance and with both hands free. The gun is devoid of any really useable “safety” other than the multi-stage trigger, but on the underside of the frame, ahead of the trigger guard, there is a lock-out switch, which completely prevents the gun from firing.
The control that does stand out is the fire selector. It’s positioned at the rear of the slide and is just about accessible with the thumb. It’s shape is fairly similar to that of the fire selector on most rifles, offering two positions, single and auto.
Firing the gun on single is a snappy, accurate affair, achieving around 280fps using .20g BBs and Cybergun gas at room temperature, which surprisingly was around 10fps faster than the TM Glock 17 chronoed at the same time. Range is impressive, with grouping plenty tight enough to suppress a shooter taking cover in a window at around 35m whilst skirmishing. No doubt down to the quality of the TM hop, which can be cranked up enough to keep a .28g BB level for a decent distance. Switching to full auto, the accuracy and consistency of the shots varies considerably, with the odd BB dropping off prematurely, but the bark of the gun is more than enough to keep any heads down.
Cool-down didn’t present itself to be a problem shooting on single, with the 18C comfortable emptying nearly three fills of BBs to every gas fill at room temperature, and operating happily, but at a slightly reduced efficiency, at around 11*C. At room temperature you can happily blaze through whole magazines on full auto, without even a hint of a slow down until the 3rd fill of BBs. Even at 11*C, shorter bursts allowed for some full auto fun, but cool-down was much more of a factor.
The Glock 18C for me represents a brilliant skirmish gun, with almost unparalleled versatility. It’s compact and lightweight, accurate and efficient but at the flick of a switch transforms into a BB blasting, slide-rattling monster. It has the added benefit of being based on a real steel weapon, if that appeals to you, plus it’s Marui, so you know what to expect. At the time of writing, there are already a raft of upgrade parts available, including extended mags, metal slides, oversize compensators and carbine conversion kits, but if you can get past the slight plastic feel of the 18C, you’ll be hard pressed to justify changing anything, it certainly doesn’t leave me wanting when it comes to performance.
