Loose Direct from manufacturer?

Easy & Simple has finally launched their “loose parts system” Click Here To Visit The ES Loose Parts System .

From my understanding, this was a project long in the making. With inspiration from the Ubisoft Ghost Recon Future Soldier, COD Modern Warfare (2019) Gunsmiths. The foundation of this is to provide collectors with a deeper set of tools to customize their 1/6 collection.

Currently, i see some nice surprises on the loose parts “system”, some nice L85a3s for the brits and some slim Hk416a5s just to name a few. Also see a moderate selection of accessories to accompany them.

As to whether we will go even deeper into the “Gunsmith” rabbit hole, with ES providing butt stock, buffer tube, barrel, handguards remains to be seen. But my intuition is, this is unlikely, or will take alot of time and coaxing. This deeper level of customization introduces a number of issues, such as pricing, quality control and customer satisfaction. What i meant by the last 2 issues is : what would happen if you bought a, say butt stock and in the process of fitting it to your custom rifle, you found that it didn’t fit well ? Manufacturers often try their best to ensure a weapon or figure set meets certain expectations and quality. This entails slight modification of parts to ensure fit, eg. factory sanding of parts.

What i would see a more likely scenario is ES offering the custom gun route, modifying your rifle for you, based on your selected parts. But this would probably come at a premium and may pose some man power issues at ES side. I mean, they would have to hire a guy just to fix up custom guns for customers, their very own “turkeyshot” ( a well known OSW gun customizer)

The entry into the loose parts business also means that ES might step on the toes of existing players. The part-out sellers that are vital to the industry. Want just that helmet or vest from a new figure release ? The part-out seller on ebay or even some retailers like blackopstoys and monkeydepot may be your friend. The pricing ES chooses for their loose parts system needs to be done just right to stamp out over pricing and yet foster competition. One thing i foresee is the eventual death of price gouging. Yeah, paying near the price of a full figure just for a part out weapon is pure insanity. Ebay part-out sellers have a direct hand in this, jumping on market trends and gouging their customers. With the option to get loose (curated selection) direct from ES , there is a possibility we will see prices drop. I mean look at the image below. At the time of writing, there is a listing on ebay for an L85A3 for $86, while it goes for $35 on the ES loose parts system. Granted it doesnt come with accessories, but again a couple of a mags, optics etc wont cost you an additional $51.

Another issuei foresee is how the loose parts system may affect ES’s own sales. Would you buy a figure / weapon set, or wait for them to be loaded on to the loose parts system? However i believe ES will take precautions and necessary measures to prevent this from happening. E.g loading only selected items or older items on to the loose parts system. Of course ES would have considered this and thought about it thoroughly before embarking on this project.

I see great potential in the ES loose parts system.

As we work collaboratively with ES, you can already find some of our General’s Armoury items on the ES loose parts system. The 1/6 HAMR, MRO and SRS optics which i am proud to say was developed and first brought to market by General’s Armoury are available !

We will also be working closely with ES to add more General’s Armoury items into the loose parts system.