L & S 1:1 scale guns

[Simon Cornes]

Can someone tell me what happened to these? I have a Luger P-08 and a broom handle Mauser but I keep them hidden in my parents loft because they are what they are! I bought these in the late 70's and now you don't see them. What happened? I can imagine the Police or Home Office banning imports because they look like the real thing but then you can buy air weapons that look like the real thing too.

If there was some sort of ban on such 'models' then I could do with knowing about it and whether its safe to take my pair out of 'deep storage'! Maybe I have to take them to the Police station in a box (certainly coudn't walk in with one in each hand!) so that they know I have them?

[Mike]

The Violent Crime Reduction Act (VCRA) took away your average punter's right to buy or manufacture Realistic Immitation Firearms (RIF). It doesn't take away your right to own them if you already do though. There's also a hefty penalty if you're caught brandishing them in public places, so always transport them in a bag or container. As usual, a law that stops the law abiding from doing what they probably wouldn't do anyway, and the law breakers don't give a stuff about and carry on as normal

Saying that, I've not seen these 1:1 kits in a long time, so their demise may not be connected?

[mungo1974]

I had lots of those back in the mid late 80's.....all hanging on my bedroom wall.

I had 3 M16's(standard,with M203 grenade,and Vietnam commando version)AK-47,L-85,Uzi,Thompson SMG,plus 3 or 4 pistols and replica grenades.

They dissapeared almost overnight from hobbyshops thanks to the heavy rule changes the government made after incidents like the Hungerford shootings.

The kits can still be found at carboots and on overseas Ebay sites.....but i don't think id risk trying to bring one in from Hong Kong thesedays.

A number of the handguns M1911,Luger etc were reboxed by Academy,but ive never seen the SMG's/Assult Rifle's in anything other than original LS boxings

[Pilgrim_UK]

There's also a hefty penalty if you're caught brandishing them in public places

You are prosecuted as if they are real weapons the law does not distinguish between fake or real. ( or so I am led to believe)

[pte1643]

I have a few of these knocking about in the loft somewhere.

M16 and SA80 come to mind, there's a couple of .22 target pistols too that "fire" little orange plastic bullet things that clip into the cartridge cases.

I'm not sure if the M1911 is/was L+S, but it is equipped with Brass hollow bullets that you can fit percussion caps into and the "Self Load" action actually works (or worked).

Not seen these (L+S) for ages either, but I did notice some 1/3rd scale weapons in Hannants the other week, down the Dragon? aisle IIRC.

[Simon Cornes]

of course, if you're caught brandishing them in public places you might get shot by a couple of policemen - just in case!

Good advice Mike - move them from A to B in a box!

[Panzer Vor!!!]

i suppose this includes bb guns???? ive one a revovler in a mates loft

[Mike]

i suppose this includes bb guns???? ive one a revovler in a mates loft

Yep - BB guns or their posh title - Airsoft weapons. An invention by Tokyo Marui, who made the jump from toy guns to realistic looking BB guns and coined the name Airsoft. If you owned it before the VCRA came in (2007?), you're ok, but if you bought it after, you technically broke the law.

[Panzer Vor!!!]

Yep - BB guns or their posh title - Airsoft weapons. An invention by Tokyo Marui, who made the jump from toy guns to realistic looking BB guns and coined the name Airsoft. If you owned it before the VCRA came in (2007?), you're ok, but if you bought it after, you technically broke the law.

got them on a weekend away at steam fair !!!!! bored on a nite so got two set up targets in a field just killing time havent had them out for years defo before 2007

[Pilgrim_UK]

This shows how severe the courts look on firearms even for Halfwits.

Guy gets 5 years

Edited September 24, 2011 by Pilgrim_UK

[mungo1974]

This shows how severe the courts look on firearms even for Halfwits.

Guy gets 5 years

I belive thats the minimum sentence thesedays if one gets caught with illeagal firearms,same sentence applys if you get caught with replica's....you have been warned

[Niall]

L&S seems to have gone out of business in the 1990's.

Some of their moulds were bought by a company called Arii. The only replica firearm produced by that company was the M72A1 66mm light anti-tank weapon. However it was not imported into the UK even before the VCRA.

[TheModeller]

I'm not sure if the M1911 is/was L+S, but it is equipped with Brass hollow bullets that you can fit percussion caps into and the "Self Load" action actually works (or worked).

I had the M-16, I don't remember it being able to 'fire' anything, the rounds were just plated plastic and although the feed mechanism could be cycled it was much too fragile to have let a cap off in it as I recall, mine fell apart with alarming regularity and creaked and squeaked every time I picked it up!

[Nick Millman]

"Maybe I have to take them to the Police station in a box (certainly coudn't walk in with one in each hand!) so that they know I have them?"

Sounds like a risky strategy to me. You might end up as a tick in the box of a crime fighter's targets. They take down the details and 24 hours later your house is the target of a SWAT team.

Edited September 24, 2011 by Nick Millman

[kspriss]

i also have the L+S M-16..as well as BB versions of the SA80, CAR-15, MP5, Uzi, Beretta 92, desert eagle. Also 2 air rifles and pistol. These are kept in a locked cupboard though due to having small children

every time there is a gun related incident, i troop off to our local police station, list in hand and ask if i need to register them. The response is usually..no you dont, but we dont want to see you carrying them in public..as you seem to be a sensible guy we think you know not to.

...might help when i show them my RAF Form 7257 RCO and coaching ticket and my NSRA shooting qualifictions though

think the rule of thumb here is if you look like a sensible guy to the local constabulary, you wont get a visit in the small hours by a bunch of guys in black toting MP5s

steve

Edited September 25, 2011 by kspriss

[Simon Cornes]

"Maybe I have to take them to the Police station in a box (certainly coudn't walk in with one in each hand!) so that they know I have them?"

Sounds like a risky strategy to me. You might end up as a tick in the box of a crime fighter's targets. They take down the details and 24 hours later your house is the target of a SWAT team.

Nick I think that in certain parts of the country you may well be right! I like the idea of being 'above board' but I think the 'sneak it home in a box and keep Mum' might be the best approach!

[kspriss]

Nick I think that in certain parts of the country you may well be right! I like the idea of being 'above board' but I think the 'sneak it home in a box and keep Mum' might be the best approach!

i use this technique to get most of my kits past SWMBO!!

steve

[Niall]

Yep - BB guns or their posh title - Airsoft weapons. An invention by Tokyo Marui, who made the jump from toy guns to realistic looking BB guns and coined the name Airsoft. If you owned it before the VCRA came in (2007?), you're ok, but if you bought it after, you technically broke the law.

A few corrections -

BB and airsoft BB guns are completely different things!

BB(BALL BEARING) guns are air guns made for the American market. They fire 4.5mm diameter copper plated steel balls.

Airsoft BB(BALL BULLET) guns are made for airsoft wargames. They fire plastic(will mineral filler) or compressed wheat flour 6mm or 8mm balls. The term was NOT coined by Tokyo-Marui but by other Japanese manufacturers, possibly JAK. Toyko Marui invented the AEG(Automatic Electric Gun), the older manufacturers used a gas bottle as a power source.

If the BB revolver previously refered to fires ball bearings(ie steel balls) from a cartridge based air supply it must be licenced or surrendered to the police; it is illegal to sell or give the weapon to another person(2003 anti-social behaviour act). If it fires ball bullet("plastic" balls) it is an airsoft gun.

[hacker]

Pretty sure here in Canada they are out right banned from being imported

[Giorgio N]

LS gun kits always had a patchy distrubution outside Japan. I' pretty sure at least some of them could use caps to reproduce the cycle of the real weapon. Of course they were way too expensive for me and now that I could afford one they are long gone, with LS closing in the late '80s. However with airsoft guns available, I'm not sure LS kits would be interesting anymore, as airsofts look like the real thing, some of them are now full metal and canbe great fun to shoot. Before anyone starts worrying, where I live airsoft replicas are legal to buy without licence. Only problem is that the couple of L1A1 replicas that hit the market a few years ago are now impossible to find....

LS was not the only company to do 1/1 gun replicas: Marushin in Japan did a few, academy has already been mentioned and Pyro had a line of ancient arms, ome of them reboxed by Lindberg.

If you can read spanish, this site has some info on 1/1 scale gun models

http://model-kit-ls-scale-1-1.blogspot.com/

[Karl]

I also had quite a few LS (L&S?) 1:1 gun models.

What I liked about them over air-soft/BB types was that they contained most of the parts a real firearm would, albeit in ABS plastic. For example the rotary locking bolt actually worked in the M16 - really good, but quite fragile.

Karl

[Smudger2]

I remember going into my local model shop in the 1980's and the guy behind the counter demonstrated the Colt M1911 automatic pistol,it was 1:1 scale but i can't recall the make,it had brass coloured effect shell caseings which could hold some form of cap which when fired made a right noise.

I was very impressed by the demo but never bought one,as aicraft and AFV's were my thing.

Many years later i bought my son an AK47 assult rifle "BB" GUN ,some younger members of my workplace used to have "BB " pistol battles at work in the warehouse ,i was always finding myself targetted by them and never felt a thing when shot by them,due to this,i thought they were harmless which is why i let my lad have the AK-47 and let my wife shoot me at close range with it,she fired it at my stomach and the yellow "BB" pellet pentrated my clothes and imbedded itself in my flesh,i had to have it dug out,i still have the scar 11 years on,some of these weopons are nothing more than toys and some of them rightfully so should be banned as they could be deadly when missused.

I let him have more of these replica weopons simply because they look so good and were cheaper than toy guns from toys-are-us but we always took the pellets away.

SMUDGER

[Karl]

I remember going into my local model shop in the 1980's and the guy behind the counter demonstrated the Colt M1911 automatic pistol,it was 1:1 scale but i can't recall the make,it had brass coloured effect shell caseings which could hold some form of cap which when fired made a right noise.

SMUDGER

I think it might have been a Tokyo-Marui kit; I had one of these and the brass effect cartridge was metal and was supposed to have a cap in it to (I think) work the blow-back mechanism.

It looked a lot more realistic than the old L&S M1911; that one looked like it was chambered for a 9mm round..

Karl

[mrvr6]

Yep - BB guns or their posh title - Airsoft weapons. An invention by Tokyo Marui, who made the jump from toy guns to realistic looking BB guns and coined the name Airsoft. If you owned it before the VCRA came in (2007?), you're ok, but if you bought it after, you technically broke the law.

iv got a g3 airsoft rifle (i made it fire 1200 rpm!) and needed a ukara liscense to buy it. you can buy airsoft guns without a liscense but they have to be mainly very bright colours (so theyr obviously fake??)

a bunch of us dropped a clanger once about 10 of us standing around all with rifles/smgs down a little track into a forrest and all of us forgot the butty van was delivering that day. poor woman nearly had a heart attack when she drove down a little track to be confonted by all of us lol

[Derbyeomanry]

You're fine with them as long as you dont go waving them around the High street. Theyre non firing replicas. Just keep them at home and enjoy them. They dont need to be registered.