Nasty wrote:So Black Fox, as I am hell bent on getting a 240B with my joining bonus, I have a couple questions (sorry if these have been asked/answered before);
First, are these worth the $1500 they go for, or would it be better to wait for the Echo1/clone version to be released?
Second, are there gas blow back conversion kits available for these, similar to those available for 249s?
Are the Trigger Happy M240s worth $1,500. To be honest, I think it's a bit over priced. However, I've seen them priced around $1,250 now which is a little bit better but still a little high. But since they are the only ones on the market I don't expect it to drop any time soon. Once the Echo-1 version comes out it may drop further or Trigger Happy may stop producing them altogether. Rumors that I've been hearing is that the Echo-1 M240 is going to be priced around $500. If this is true, TH will have to drop their price or no one will want to buy them.
So, should you wait for an Echo-1? Well I guess it all depends on what you want.
Now I haven't seen the Echo-1 M240 but here are my thoughts on what it will be like. I'm basing this on comparing the Echo-1 M249 to the Classic Army M249. When you compare them side by side you can see that the CA M249 is a higher quality gun. It has a much nicer finish on it. And if you look at the parts you will notice that the CA parts are much smoother and fit more precisely. The Echo-1 had some rough file marks on the outer body as well as on the hop-up chamber. I also noticed that the Echo-1 outer barrel had a slight warp to it and the thickness of the metal seemed to be a bit thinner (But it didn't seem to affect the shooting performance). I think it's slightly heavier because they use cheaper metals.
So when it comes out I think you will still find the Trigger Happy M240 to be over all a much nicer and better quality gun. It will have a nicer finish, made with better and lighter quality metals and parts more precisely machined.
On a performance level though I think both guns will be about the same.
So to answer your questions as to which gun you should get I guess it comes down to this. If you want an M240 that will do the job then I would probably say get the Echo-1. But if you want something that is top of the line then I would say get the TH M240. The question is, are you willing to pay the price for the extra quality?
That said, there are two more comments I need to add.
I've noticed that the quality of the Echo-1 guns have been improving. The Echo-1 M240 could be their next bump up in their efforts to make a better quality gun and could potentially narrow the quality gap. Time will only tell.
The other one is customer service. Customer service from Trigger Happy & Spartan Imports in providing spare parts have been non-existent. I contacted Spartan Imports and the told me that they had some frame parts for the ammo box and said they would give me one. But they just gave me the jerk around and never sent me anything. I'm expecting that with Echo-1, that they you will get much better customer service as well as spare parts. For that reason alone I would strongly recommend waiting for the Echo-1 M240.