Viva Sten MkII

Hey Guys (and any Gals

please accept my apologies for the delay in uploading a link to this review. There was a valid issue with a couple of other airsoft dealers in the UK who were concerned about our review damaging potential sales if they imported this gun themselves. However after speaking to them and showing the review to the parties involved, they also agreed that it would be a bit short-sighted to sell these on in their current spec.

Have a look and make your own minds up.... http://files.me.com/stevemadley/8dohzo.mov

Apologies for the rambling in the vid, it's completely off-the-cuff and unedited Oh, and 223Meg

Steve

Thanks for the vid... It makes interesting watching.

I can see what you mean about the bolt handle and the trigger switch, however both should be fixable after market.

The trouble you had with the mag well just about corresponds correctly with what I found with my very well put together blank firer. It doesn't concern me at all.

It's a real shame its not full-steel as advertised...

I think the thing for me is that in the end it is a Sten MKII. I was quite prepared to pay £350 to get one as one was just not available before this. I have been waiting for one for about 2 years so to finally have my mitts on one will be wonderful. People who bought the original Maruzen MP40 probably felt the same way as I do about this.

Problems it may have, but they're problems that can be fixed. Apart from all the external M14 selector nonsense, which this I would assume doesn't have, the Version 7 gearbox is actually nice and simple so it should be okay to work on.

This is clearly not a gun for a first timer, but I'm not a first timer, so I don't mind.

I can understand 100% why you as a retailer wouldn't want to stock them. You'd have to support them as well and that's going to be quite a bit of hassle.

Of course, if it doesn't work at all I'll be heartbroken...

Thanks for an interesting video review. It's a bit of a kick in the cock to see how Viva have cut so many corners when they could have procduced something really special. However, like Yith says, I'm no noob and (granted, at extra expense) faults like crappy trigger switches and bolt handles CAN be sorted. Considering the availability of aeg Stens (ie, almost zero), this is still a viable, albeit very expensive, base for a solid skirmish weapon.

Yes I agree, although the ejection port cover would be a bit of a bugger to fix with a stronger replacement, but then I'm no metalworker.

The main point we are concerned with is that we give China the message that we are 'stupid' enough to pay what is essentilaly a huge sum money for a VERY simple and basic gun. We sell full metal AEG's four times the physical size of this, they are 80% CNC'd and come with upgraded gearboxes....they retail for around £130 to £150. There is simply no justification for the high price of this beastie other than Viva trying to quickly cash in on a 'novelty' AEG.

Unlike Japan and the Western world, China very rarely price their products towards the market. They base their prices as a margin above material and labour costs, that's it. They sometimes add a tenner to the price because it's a new model and all the importers are fighting over 'first dibs' but they have no Western capitalist traits whereby they bump the price based on projected popularity and demand from end users.

Once we start paying upwards of £200-300 for Chinese AEG's, all the other factories will follow suit and there will be no going back.

Steve

All valid points Steve. I'm sure that, once people don't buy Stens in large numbers (especially if retailers don't stock them because of quality issues), the Chinese will realise that the airsoft buying public aren't the mugs they wish they were and get real with their pricing. In fact, if it were made in practically any other country, we'd have a case for false advertising against Viva for advertising a "full steel" gun and then making it with aluminium.

There is a flip side to not purchasing the Stens though and the type of message the lack of purchases could send to chinese airsoft companies.

Poor sales of WW2 weapons sends the message that the market does not want WW2 guns. Im sure other companies are watching VIVAs sales and useing those to determine if the market wants a Sten. But at the same time if consumers pay a high price companies will want that high price. Oh what to do!

TommyGunner

so frustrating my computer doesn't recognise the file, please someone post it on youtube so I can see
lol

It's an M-PEG4 file. If you download the latest quicktime, you'll be able to view it.

I just watched Steve's video - very interesting and I am disappointed at the manufacturer and some of the stupid things that they have done.

I think 'we the few' work together with idea's, solutions etc to make the CiA custom version of the VIVA Mk.II the best we can.

There is a flip side to not purchasing the Stens though and the type of message the lack of purchases could send to chinese airsoft companies.

Poor sales of WW2 weapons sends the message that the market does not want WW2 guns. Im sure other companies are watching VIVAs sales and useing those to determine if the market wants a Sten. But at the same time if consumers pay a high price companies will want that high price. Oh what to do!

TommyGunner

I wouldn't worry about that, I've already had a threatening email from one of the Chinese exporters, so they are fully aware of this thread:

"i can not believe you can do so bad thing.
i know you speak a lot of shit on VIVA STEN.

if you are a MAN. you must delete it in half an hours. and make a new declare on the same place to say sorry to VIVA STEN. and tell every one that all the bad words from you is lie!!

you can do nothing.

but i will do whatever i can to revenge you."

It looks like I'm going to have to wear my Ninja costume when I go back over

Steve

With the video, change the extension to mov (from m4v) and older versions of Quicktime will play it no problem.

It's a tough one. Although I would love to see a cheap Sten, to me its not worth voting with my feet with this one. I want a Sten and hence everyone with a lower expendable income can go shoot...

lol

In actual fact I'd rather see a cheap No4 or SMLE. That way we'd have a closer to correct distribution of weapons.

We need to show that there is a desire for the guns to be produced but that retailers aren't going to distribute over-expensive weapons. This seems to be what we've said, so that's good!

I understand there were only ever going to be 50 Viva Stens made anyway, do we know if all 50 have been bought? I know that Jamie has got us 10 of them, but I don't know what has happened to the other 40.

"i can not believe you can do so bad thing.
i know you speak a lot of shit on VIVA STEN.

if you are a MAN. you must delete it in half an hours. and make a new declare on the same place to say sorry to VIVA STEN. and tell every one that all the bad words from you is lie!!

you can do nothing.

but i will do whatever i can to revenge you."

It looks like I'm going to have to wear my Ninja costume when I go back over

Steve

They've got a bloody nerve! If THEY were men of any sort, they'd have made them out of steel (as they advertised them!) and used a good quality trigger switch. I hope they ARE reading this thread, then they can see that I, as a person who's bought one of their Stens, think that Viva are a bunch of liars.

Making idle threats to someone who's telling the truth about a product is pretty to be honest. I'd have thought that the onus would be on Viva themselves to disprove Steves' comments.

Hmm..As i was watching the vid i thought "Hey! a bit pricey but i can work with that..!" but then i came to my senses..
It's kinda bad when all you get for 300 is another "project-gun"..

The chinese airsoft mafia sound like a scary bunch though,if judged by their grammar..

WOW that is not the correct way to ensure good public relations! I would never have expected a company to send that type of e-mail when they are worried about thier product and reputaion.

A better e-mail would have been something along the lines of "Thank you for brining some issues up to us and we will try to fix them on our next batch"

Viva had alot of promise and I was very much wanting them to get a good product to the market, but the wording of that e-mail is what has lost my respect for them more than the product!

TommyGunner

To be fair Steve said that email was from a Chinese exporter (who clearly lost some sales!!) not VIVA themselves. I'm sure Steve will correct me if I'm wrong but anyway, you are right, it's a funny way to foster good sales relations!

I'm expecting a D.O.S. attack any day now for distributing EATG's 'shit & lies' on the interweb!

Maybe you should forward that mail to Viva...

Ahh sorry I misread, it does cleary say a distributor sent the e-mail and not Viva them selfs.

Still the fact that Viva is caught in this mess does not bode well for their own public relations.

Who was the distributor?

TommyGunner

Thanks for a frank and honest view Steve!

I'd love a Sten but there's no way I can pay £350 for a shoddy gun that's only going to get used a few times a year - not now I've had a play with a TM SOPMOD that I'd use every month at least.

My dosh is staying the piggy bank until AGM or CYMA comes up with a decent AEG or your GBB appears... Just make sure the FPS stays under 350

Welcome to the forum Dapher, excellent English! Thank you for taking the time and trouble to address your potential customers directly and so publicly - very unusual for a manufacturer and so this is very much appreciated.

I also am quite depressed - I have ordered one of your guns and I'm looking forward to receiving it very much. But seeing the pictures you have just posted I now realise I want a whole rack of them!

Once the first batch land in the UK you can be sure that we will give a full account of pros and cons and its good to know that you will take criticism into account for further production.

Yes very good to hear from you. I don't think any AEG manufacturer (except Warren) has posted on a public forum in the UK before.

We are very honoured indeed. In the same thread we have guys from AirsoftWorld and Viva posting... This sort of customer interaction is superb.

Anyway, it's very interesting to see in your pic that you point out that a lot of the parts that Steve identified as being aluminium, as being steel.

With two conflicting reports I'll be very interested indeed to see what mine turns up with. I'm really hoping that Steve was totally wrong!

they do look pretty nice, can't wait!