Classic Army the Latest to Go Down?
 

My supplier has told me that CA is no more. He gave a detailed story of what happened, but I am looking for confirmation. Anyone have contact with a CA rep in HK recently?

I have confirmation of this from distributor in Taiwan. Ca president and owner have been imprisoned. Employees have not been getting paid and 98% have quit with 2-3 being the exception.

Similar situation as to what happened to A&K.

Your story matches what I have heard, and it is from a different source.

That's some crazy shit. What was the president imprisoned for?

I keep my hk contacts strictly business, so I'm out of touch on stuff like this.

... Good thing I just got my CA M24 again.

Making replica's of guns. Or owning a company that makes replicas of guns.

And we thought we have tough airsoft laws :S

I am shocked and appalled.

My understanding was that it was a Hong Kong based company. Under their special administration, Chinese laws wouldn't apply. Same goes for G&P, King Arms, Airsoft Surgeon, Deep Fire, Magpul PTS, et al.

I could be totally wrong, though. If CA had their factories on the mainland, then they would be subject to their laws.

ill check first thing in the morning, ill get in contact with friends who work at redwolf and ehobby they would know whats up

CA manufactures some parts in China or assembles them there. Something like that. Anywho president and owner of company are in the pokey and 98% of employees who have not been getting pay have quit.

I should goto their shop in Kwong Wa and raid them of all their metal bodies ...and that gold plated AK in the display shelf LOL

Remind me to stay out of a Hong Kong prison.

Yeeesh!!!!!!!!!!!!

:nod:

Nooooo CA is my favourite. I hope this isn't the case or they find some way to start up again. Good thing I just picked up a new one. Guess its a collectors item at this point.

theres also one in Causeway bay too :)

I thought the HK government had different laws with regards to airsoft and manufacturing no? Guess I was mistaken. Sad day for airsoft if this is the case.

http://ca.classicarmy.com/
http://www.airsoft-barracks.com/foru...s/page__st__30
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Class...36182389729573

These links and information would suggest otherwise....

Woah, wait a minute here! We're not talking about some small ass company, we're talking about one of the biggest, strongest and most known brand?! I mean, if they go down, who can't?

I mean, I love, well lovED, their products, sad day bros :(

+1

Exactly. Classic Army is still alive and kicking with new products. Do your own research. This is off their official facebook page. Don't buy in to the false rumors you heard from your Chinese uncle...go to the source.

What is fucked is that 98% of the workers haven't been payed! That to me sounds more like a problem. Does anyone know if this was a practice of CA not to pay workers or was it caused by the CEO being imprisoned.

It's February right? April first hasn't come and snuck up on us has it?

This doesn't confirm that the president is NOT behind bars... it just says they're still operating...

I will try to get clarification from my distributor is Taiwan. It was they that passed on the info to me. I'm willing to bet the truth somewhere in the middle between all is fine and out of business.

Source: http://www.airsoft-barracks.com/foru...s/page__st__30

Rumour mill has it that it was more about tax evasion/fraud than manufacturing airsoft since AFAIK HK is different from the mainland (HK SAR, same as Macau SAR). Essentially they're "autonomous" provinces of China and can pretty much do whatever the hell they want (except military defense and some other stuff). They have separate legislative and judicial powers from the mainland so unless it's illegal to manufacture airsoft in HK it won't be because of that (and anyways that would mean a tonne of other HK based companies will also have been shut down too).

This is another baseless rumor with zero real factual sources. The only credible people you should be talking to are Classic Army themselves and Spartan Imports. Anything else is hearsay at best. Read the links others and myself have posted up.

Even if the rumour is supposedly baseless, there has been some legitimate information brought up by both parties.

For example: CA is a massive company. If the 2-3% that is still working there are manning the production factories, then that probably would still be a relatively large work force. I may be mistaken.

IF CA, and once again I say IF CA had factories on Mainland PRC, then yes, they would be subject to the discretion of the local police.

Notice how I didn't say 'law'.

Mainland China has no laws whatsoever regarding Airsoft. Technically, from a legal standpoint, Airsoft in China has no limitations for importation, ownership, and trade.

So why is there no Airsoft in China? The police, for 'the better of the country and the people' have resorted to illegally confiscating replicas because of the fact that they cannot distinguish the difference between a real one and a fake one. The people have pleaded for a way to distinguish it, like the Orange barrel tip and the Clear body laws, but the government refuses to act because there is no formal legislation.

If CA were to be bold enough to set up technically illegal (in the eyes of the police) factories producing technically illegal firearms replicas, then I would have no surprise that the president of said company would have been arrested.

However, that said, some part of me still wants to believe CA is well and thriving, which is probably half the story.

Edit: The links are technically still not real proof, as every company will want to at least bias information so that it doesn't lose business.

If the part of the rumor that the president was in jail wasn't true, what makes you believe that the other part of the rumor about 98% of employees having quit is true?

Holy shit, Classic Army is fine; it's a false rumor (or largely exaggerated). Give up on the drama fest.

Sorry...

._.

as far as i know this is just a rumour, many of my friends in HK has been past the classic army store and they are still open.

unless there is hard evidence that CA has been shut down i really doubt it

Keep in mind, when a retail/ manufacturing company is in deep shit they'll try to carry on as normal until they've liquidated as much standing stock and gathered as much potential investment as possible. Then when they've taken umpteen back-orders and handed out deals on old stock citing "New improved line on the way!" they shovel capital into offshore accounts and subsidiaries, consolidate daughter/ front companies, and declare bankruptcy.

I'm not saying that this will happen, but it's happened historically in so many different levels of production/ retail that it wouldn't surprise me at all.
Rumors are rumors, except when they are about large companies, in which case they're half-truths.

What I'm saying is we won't know for sure either way until 3rd or 4th quarter this year. Possibly 1st quarter next year.


Edit:
And I'm not being inflammatory here, but saying "Yeah, but I talked to the guy I know in Sales/ Management whatever and he said it's bullshit.." doesn't hold any water.

Of course they are going to tell you that everything is fine.. that's they're job. Salesmen lie or bend the truth all the goddamn time.
Especially if they need to move overstock. Completing current orders means nothing.
We won't know what's going on until we can look at their closing finances for this year.
I'm hoping that they're doing fine. :(

shouldn't this be locked now that it's confirmed they're fine? Don't want people just reading the first post and freaking out without reading the later reports.

The closing of CA is definitely a rumor. The rumor was started on Airsoftbarracks by someone who has no first hand knowledge of CA who got the information from someone who was let go from CA (I don't know the details of that.) As of the end of January, Yick Fung Industries was still alive and kicking. Classic Army is just a subsidiary company (like so many other companies in the world.) I visited them at the end of January and if they are out of business, they are the most in-business out-of-business company that I have ever seen.

The rumor was started back in November and December, but just won't seem to die.

So this totally explains why we never see much of CA's GBB line...

we don't see much of it cause it's crap lol

even if the rumor WAS true, the only thing people would miss are rock solid German guns.
Their M4 line is crap.

CAs?

Their M4 line is probably the best for the dollar, maybe next to King Arms new ones.

G&P is better but it's also 2-3x the price.

cliffradical makes a good point. so very true when it comes to big business.

The only reason it was ever the main line for so long was because they had the best metal externals until G&P and KA stepped up their game.

KA is less expensive and better in every way shape and form over a CA lol

CA make rock solid G3, G36 and MP5 platforms, their mechbox shells are crap but you can change those lol

I haven't seen a KA M4 yet.. so can't compare lol.

I have a CA M15 and the body is awesome, mechbox shell is pretty good. Overall not a bad gun. I'm really not an M4 fan though anyway. I agree their MP5s are wicked.

It would be nice if CA made more M24 magazines available...

On that note - does anyone have recommendations where to pick some up that are instock?

Sounds Like A LOT Of Hoopla! - YouTube

In all seriousness, I hope CA never bites the dust or their M16VN may never be mine.

I hope its not true, must have been a very far flung rumor for Taiwanese companies to be spreading it.

ok so answers to be understood as fact.
1) CA still lives
2) CA just move from a 4 story factory to a11 story factory
3) the rumor is that and had started 6 months ago and was resulting from one factory of many being absorbed by CA and the owner of the purchaced company getting picked up on a charge.
4) CA is doing great and growing ..... exhale and the sky is blue not falling

The CA store on 'gun street' in Mong Kok, Hong Kong is still running strong last time I was there (last week). In fact, the prices of parts went up! That is not a sign of a failing business.

Someone however mentioned of the CA store in Causeway Bay. That store has been closed since last summer. Again, I went there for their closing down sale (which wasn't really much of a sale)

Thank goodness.

Yeah hopefully it gets taken care of soon! My boss is pretty irritated. I told him about Causeway bay.