The Spyder VS1

Spyder has been a name synonymous with good value for a good price ever since the introduction of the Hammer Pump Marker in the early 90's.  Spyder can also be credited with making major contributions to the expansion of the sport with its introduction of the industry's first all-aluminum semi-auto for under $150.00 with the Spyder Compact; many of today's pros got their start with this marker, a 12 ounce tank and a 40 round box loader.

Spyder has continued to tremendously expand their product line since the early 90s, offering a sometimes bewildering variety of standard and electronic markers, upgrades and packagings.  Along with Tippmann and Brass Eagle, their products occupy a good percentage of the shelf space in the box stores and it is a rare paintball shop that doesn’t keep at least a few of their offerings on hand.

For the past several years, the company has sought to break into to upper-echelons of marker product offerings with mixed success.  Their reliance on the stacked-bolt blowback design (in both standard and electronic markers) has allowed them to keep their prices competitive while still offering high-end features (a mix of firing modes, double triggers, in-line regulators) but has cost them a bit in the perception department in the face of designs featuring alternative technologies, such as dump valves and fasor bolt systems.

They have also remained faithful to two basic body-styles (with the occasional departure) a stacked rounded tube design (Victor, Compact) or a boxier body (Xtra, Pilot), which doesn't resonate well with players looking for unique styling.

The company's newest rendition-the VS Series-seems to be Spyder's answer, at least so far as body-styling and upper-echelon technologies are concerned.

The test rig for this review was an Olive VS1, the 'one' indicating that this is the introductory, or base model of the line. (The VS2 and VS3 have also been released, incorporating more advanced electronics than the base model.)  We fed the marker using a high pressure version of the Centerflag 420SV and paint stuffing duties were handled by a VL Eye-Force, Reloader B, and Pulse loaders.  The VS1 and it's brothers use Spyder's 9.6V rechargeable battery, and comes with a charger.  Standard alkaline batteries won't work.

The first thing to be noticed is the adoption of a 'saddle-back' body style, reminiscent of today's higher-end offerings, with several beauty cuts culminating in a body design that is anything but two boxy stacked tubes.  It's sleek and fast and, while not cut down to the bare minimum or sculpted like something on display at the Museum of Modern Art, has a very appealing, unique look.  The various features are well-integrated into the design – so much so that you might almost miss the top-cocking knob.

The VS1's stock delrin bolt

Anodizing and finish are typical of Spyder production quality-no machine marks, smooth and uniform.

The base marker features a scalloped double trigger that is fairly well-balanced and user-adjustable:  its pretty trippy and fairly easy to walk and has 3-way adjustment.  The grip frame is a polymer frame incorporating wraparound finger-grooved grips that have a good all-around feel out of the box.  An in-line expansion chamber comes as a fore-grip attachement and is pretty comfortable in the off-hand and air is introduced through a standard bottomline and hose arrangement.  Rounding out the picture of standards are a ten inch factory barrel that will provide better than decent performance (of course everyone and his brother offers Spyder-threaded barrels) and a nicely-rounded volumizer attached to the valve chamber up front.

It is a Spyder as anyone will immediately recognize (not bad for the product placement department), lightweight and compact, but it's also a standout of the line.

What also stands out immediately are the eye covers.  Yes, that's right.  Spyder has now introduced an electronic marker with eyes.  And it's a good thing, because the VS1 is capable of spitting out up to 20 balls per second of tournament grade paint.

Which brings us to the second innovation found in the VS:  this marker has drastically reduced kick due to the introduction of a lightened striker and a Delrin bolt.  The valve assembly has undergone a radical redesign to accommodate these innovations.  

These two new features combine to give this stacked-tube blowback the ability to shoot fragile paint, which is an absolute must for those participating in competition play.

Blowback designs rely on excess gas to reset the striker for the next shot.  Until now, this has required a fair volume of gas and a pretty heavy striker.  Spyder has tinkered around with the relationships between blowback volume, main spring strength, striker and bolt weight and has managed to shave quite a bit of weight off of the system, allowing them to reduce the amount of gas required per shot and seriously lessen the return kick caused by the recocking of the striker.

What this translates into is greater accuracy downrange; the marker's barrel is not deflected off target nearly as much and players will be able to keep on target through a string of shots.

This increased potential for accuracy (after all, it does require a shooter behind the trigger to complete the picture) is rewarded even further with the introduction of the electronic eyes, complimented by dual ball detents.  Shooting brittle paint is a must on the competition field because a bounced shot can literally mean the difference between victory and defeat.  Blowback style markers are usually fairly rough on paint, restricting users to thicker, less fragile brands of paintballs if they don't want to be cleaning broken balls out of their barrels all of the time.

The gentler impulse offered by the VS1 combined with electronic eyes allows brittle paint to enter the picture with this marker, as the eyes will detect a potential jam or misfeed (particularly in high rate of fire scenarios) and prevent a break from occurring.

The VS1's valve chamber and expansion chamber

The VS1 comes standard with Eyes-On Semi-Auto, Eyes-Off Semi-Auto and 3-Round burst modes already built into the electronics.  It also features a tournament lock on the firing modes so that the marker can be safely placed in the appropriate operating mode for whatever rules are in effect.

Out on the field (where it counts, of course) anyone familiar with Spyder markers will immediately notice the difference.  Kick has been reduced significantly over previous Spyders, walking the trigger produced a nearly uninterrupted stream of paint (don't you just love watching those long dotted strings between your barrel and the target?) and, although hardly required to do their job, the eyes worked just as they were supposed to.  (We tried causing a jam to observe their operation and were hard-pressed to do so.)

The mode-selector was easy to use and, for those not restricted by tournament rules, switching back and forth between semi and three-round burst was an easy task.

The VS1, along with its partners the VS2 (higher ROF of 25 BPS, two-tone body styling) and VS3 (higher ROF of 30 BPS, 'Balanced Valve' and rocking trigger) represent the apex of the Spyder line and are serious contenders for players looking for a reasonably priced tournament level marker.  The MSRP for the VS1 is $199.95.  For more information, check out www.spyder.tv

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