First interview, starring “Mr.Boyi”
A promise is a debt, so here we are, presenting you the first of a series of interviews with the ACM world big men. This time we talk to “Mr.Boyi”, sorry, but we can´t post names in this case.
Wait no more, click on to read the interview.
ACMgear: First of all, we, at the blog of ACMgear want to thank you for your time and answers to our questions.
Boyi Airsoft: Don’t mention it, its my pleasure to be with you
ACMgear: So, lets start with an easy one, the history of Boyi Airsoft, when did you start at the business? When did you start making Airsoft products?
Boyi: We opened our factory in 2006 and started making Airsoft toy guns in the same 2006 year.
ACMgear: Tell us about you, what is your role on the company? I mean, what do you do when you are not answering the questions of “a bit too curious” blogger?
Boyi Airsoft: (smiles) Well, I am the Vice General Manager of toys and General Manager of Airsoft business… yeah, not very descriptive… let me explain it a bit. My main job is about marketing, pricing politics, market research, managing customer relationships to ensure communications between them and the factory/brand work smoothly for both.
ACMgear: Sounds nice…
Boyi Airsoft: (smiles) Yes, its nice, but I have to handle a lot of different daily things, so its not always so nice…
ACMgear: Every great man has a great rival, a great brand must have one too… who do you consider is your greatest rival in the ACM market?
Boyi Airsoft: Well, things have changed a lot this year and all the ACM factories have improved greatly, not to mention the new challengers in the game, but we believe Jing Gong (Golden Bow) is at the moment, our biggest rival in the game.
ACMgear: Show off Boyi, which do you think are the main strengths for Boyi Airsoft products compared to the other factories in China?
Boyi Airsoft: We produce a lot of variants of popular models to please our customers, but not only externally, internally our products are reliable and with a nice performance. Our AK series are one of the best on the market thanks to the steel production and perfect wood finish, giving the customer a very realistic replica at a very competitive price. We aim to be the leaders in the AEG market, so the only way to achieve it is giving the best of us.
ACMgear: You mention your AK line, branded “Kalash”, but, when was Kalash brand born? You were already one of the best ACM M4 type makers, how did you realize that making AKs was a good move? Also, when was Dboys brand created?
Boyi Airsoft: We started making AKs under the Kalash brand in 2007 and decided to do so as AKs and M4 are classical guns everybody love, so after receiving such a good response about our m4 series, we decided to start making AKs and customers gave us such a good feedback that we kept producing and improving our AK series with better wood and steel manufacture.
Dboys brand was created in 2006 as we started on the business because we wanted our own brand and promote it from the very beginning.
ACMgear: Lets get technical, which equipment do you use to make your toy guns and where did you buy them from?
Boyi Airsoft: Nothing special actually we use CNC, Lathe, and Milling machines and so on. Thanks to these machines, we can keep the prices competitive while offering a good product.
We bought the main machines from Germany and Japan, but some small ones are from China.
ACMgear: We heard you have a roadmap for next 18 months, could you tell us some timetable for your plans and for upcoming models, when they are the RK-01 GAS, Scar-Heavy, RK-15 full metal and Steel, PKM/PKM-S coming?
Boyi Airsoft:
We plan to have more new products, but we cant talk more about them before we can show some photos and introduce them to the market, but we want to have around 5 or 6 new products in the next half year.
The Scar-H is in the final production stages, RK-01 GAS has already been in the market for a while but due to supply problems its not very widespread yet. We expect to release our RK-15 around April or May of this year.
ACMgear: Now something our readers will want to read… how you choose what will you produce next? And what is your R&D department size (persons)? What computer programs you use for creating new models?
Boyi Airsoft: First we collect the information from the market, and do some the research about the products on the market, also, we need advice from the customers, as they are the ones who will buy and judge our products. After that, we decide if we produce the new design or not.
If we are very confident on the new design, we do our best to release it at our full production capability as soon as possible, but if we are unsure about its success, we prefer to release a small quantity of it so we can test the market response to it before we go all out for it, or cancel the production if its not successful enough.
Our R&D department is composed by more than 10 people who, among other tools, use AutoCAD and Proe for 3D design and Photoshop for 2D
ACMgear: Do you plan on moving to a bigger factory or facilities in order to grow?
Boyi Airsoft: Yes, but it depends on the market, if it goes well, we will need a bigger factory
ACMgear: What kind metal do you use on your toy guns? Also what kind of wood you use for the wooden versions?
Boyi Airsoft: For the metal, we use both of imported metal and metal from China, It depends on the parts of the toy guns, in some parts we use imported metal and in others we use domestic metal, while for wood, we use Oak.
ACMgear: What about your electric motors? They are very important for an AEG performance and reliability, do you do produce them yourself or outsource from other factory? If you outsource them, what do you think are the benefits of it, and why them?
Boyi Airsoft: We produce them ourselves so we can keep track of the overall quality and maintain it at desirable levels.
ACMgear: That’s all for now, thanks for your time and your sincere answers, but don’t go too far as we will contact you with more questions, and this time will be directly from our readers and your customers…
Boyi Airsoft: (smiles) scary! No… just kidding, it was my pleasure to be with you and I will be pleased to answer again to your questions.
ACMgear: Of course! Thanks again
Boyi Airsoft: Don’t mention it.
Hope you liked our interview, leave your messages, critics and of course questions you would like to be answered on our next interview.
Thanks for your support.
Nice to know more about those airsoft producers…
very interesting interview, continue like that.
An interview with the bosses of jing gong and cyma are also important to know their position.
Theire is so many question I would ask to ACM factorys…..
thanks for this !
Tanks ACM-Gear
maybe one with the boss of A&K would be cool because they produce a lot of different style of AEGs (like the masada or the stg44 or the lr300)
Nice to read, but i dont see any questions about, the fact thats its forbidden to produce airsoft in china… how they can take them out of mainland, how is the gvt pressure those days, why they dont have enough employee on the line to produce. For the motor, i really strongly doubt they make them inhouse, as as for the barrel.