It's nearly impossible to ignore the phenomenon that is the Tiger King right now. Everywhere you look it's Joe Exotic's face plastered. For those of you who watch the show, he is certainly an eccentric indvidual with a big personality. We decided this week to take a look at one of the more exotic looking pistols available to use, and see if it had the same kind of magic.
This week, we'll be taking a deep dive beneath the proverbial stripes, or in this case insane engravings of the We Tech Floral 1911. Grab your guns and your tactical gear and let's get to it.
This gun is an absolute trip over every inch. Much like the man who inspired this week's review, it has interesting nuance and detail over every inch you can see. Where Joe Exotic has his signature mullet and ridiculous eyebrow piercing, we find the highly detailed engravings all along the slide and grips of this 1911.
Construction quality is solid as a rock. With metal parts on the slide and frame, you can't help but feel the sturdiness of construction. Unfortunately, this doesn't translate to the texture of the pistol. Something about the coating used to maintain the finish leaves the gun feeling cheap and plastic-y. In fact, until the pistol got a little chilly, I couldn't have proven it was metal just by feel alone. This is an unfortunate side affect of the gun's wild appearance, no doubt.
Ergonomically, the grips do make the gun uncomfortable to hold, however, if you bought this gun because it was going to be an easy shooter, you made the wrong purchasing decision before you ever swiped the ol' debit card. The texture of the grips is uneven and varied, which makes finding the sweet spot in your hand difficult. Coupled with the 1911's dated control design, which is no fault of WE-tech's but the gun it replicates, shooting this with any practical interest in performance was unpleasant.
When we get to the inside of this gun, it is not too dissimilar from Joe Exotic. What strikes as a bizarre and other-worldly exterior is met inside by a fairly gentle and non threatening interior that isn't too dissimilar from other members of it's species. Where at his heart, Joe Exotic is just a man (who happens to own a bunch of tigers) this We Tech 1911 is just a We Tech 1911, despite what the exterior might make you think.
It is in every single way the same WE-tech pistol internals you have come to love (or hate) over the years. This gun wasn't trying to change your total perspective in life based on it's performance. It had one job, to wow you with crazy visual appeal, and it succeeded. Everything else was an afterthought.
Testing this in some wet Texas weather, we got a pretty steady 300 FPS using Puff Dino green gas and .20g BB's. It isn't the standard we've used to compare every gun, but it was what we had on hand this week. Trigger was response was acceptable. The gun didn't run into any weird hangups or strange behavior while we tested it. Sights were a little on the unusable side, but the facilitate the aesthetic, so we could live with it.
Is the WE Tech 1911 Floral worth the money at $145 on Airsoft GI?
That's a two part answer. Do you want a quality handgun that won't let you down? Then No.
Is What you want an impeccably flashy show piece for the ultimate on-field flex?
This is the gun for you.
Personally? I'm going to pass. This may be the next airsoft Joe Exotic, but i'm over all the fanfare. It can fizzle out like Joe Exotic's presidential candidacy dreams.