Mini Questions

[Paintball636]

Okay, I'm thinking about getting an Invert Mini, and my question is...

Is it still really hit and miss? What I mean is, are the Mini's still luck of the draw, can you buy one and it be awesome, while somebody else gets one that is complete trash?

I know this was happening a lot, a while back, but I want to know if the most of the problems have been cleared up, and now ship well, and work correctly, a good majority (or all of the time...) right out of the box.

Thanks =)

[Dees_Troy]

Me and my crew started switching to Minis last year around April or so. We've bought 5 or 6 of them and haven't had a problem with any of them so far. The problems you speak of were cleared up a LONG time ago.

There were really only 2 problems that occured with Minis. The first was the electronic board draining batteries real fast. This problem was identified and fixed very very early on, probably within the first 500 or 1000 sold. They pulled any unsold Minis from the shelves and replaced the boards (they actually stopped selling Minis for a little while during this time). For anyone that bought one that had a bad board, they replaced for free under warranty. The chances of you finding one of the Optimus 1.1 boards is almost nill and it'd almost be worth keeping it as a collector's item. It's also worth noting that some of the 1.1 boards worked fine.

The second problem was an improperly drilled poppet. This problem was a little more widespread and the bad poppets had massive blowback that caused ball breaks in the hopper (often mistaken as chopping). This problem was identified around March of 2007. Anyone that claimed to have a bad poppet was shipped a brand new and working poppet for free under warranty. Since this problem occurred over a year ago, the only way you'd get one is if you bought one used or from a store that has really old inventory. If bought new, the 1 year warranty will get your Mini fixed for free. A brand new spring poppet (newer design) can be had for ~$15 shipped if you don't have or don't want to mess with a warranty.

If you absolutely MUST be sure you don't get a Mini with a bad board or poppet, get one of the "newer" colors. Any olive, sunset orange, titanium, or black chrome Mini will have been made after the bad poppets and boards were fixed. Any Mini coming in a cardboard box instead of the locking gun case will be one of the newer Minis. The titanium or black chrome are the newest colors and should come with the newest spring poppet already installed. Other colors may come with the newest spring poppet, but you can't be 100% guaranteed. No one in my crew has a spring poppet and ours work fine, so you don't need a spring poppet.

[paingwin238]

damn i wish they still had the locking gun cases those were awesome

[Paintball636]

Dees Troy.

Thanks, I take it that all mini's are fixed and should come good in the mail, and even if it does not, they have very good customer support? That's good, I'm coming from a Smart Parts Epiphany, and my field manager told me wherever I purchased it from was used, the website itself, and smart parts haven't responded, and the customer support is not that helpful for me.

Long story short, I am in the process of getting it back to the old company and buying a new gun.

Also, the Idea about buying one of the newer colors is a good idea, did not think of that, works out since i wanted a Sunset Orange one anyway... Only think it will look a little odd with my blue Empire Reloader B.

Otherwise, thanks for the info!

[Dees_Troy]

Just bear in mind that the orange color is not legal in most major tournaments. Orange is considered a "protected color" and is often the color of the fill in the paint used in those tournaments. This does not mean that the Mini isn't tournament legal, just that anything orange (marker, hopper, clothes, etc.) is not legal.

[paingwin238]

which i see as really lame

[Paintball636]

Yeah, that is pretty stupid, but I don't play any major tournaments or many for that matter, only problem with getting the Orange mini for me is, that it is going to look very odd with my BLUE Reloader B... Haha.

[paingwin238]

dude it looks even cooler with off color hoppers imo

[pblwespbl]

some tournys even ban yellow

[paingwin238]

i think that they should ban black lol. I dont really get why they would ban orange or yellow or any other color its just imo stupid.