Need help sorting this out..

I was on a page on Facebook and someone posted a pic of an older Freestyle. I am posting this here because I am sure many of you may have the true story on this. The person says it's an 05 Russian Legion Freestyle. Now the conflicting reports are there were only 3 made, then there is rumor that 7 were made. I know the exact body design is advertized on VaporWorx site. I am curious if anyone has the true story on this.

BTW I am a FS 8 owner...just waiting to try my Stella Barrel on it. Also looking for any spare parts or someone who can help me out with balancing the regs because I've tried and I apparently am bad at it lol.

I designed them. I have one prototype that is raw and different to the others, and then two that are red and black anodized like the one on Facebook. They were never released and we weren't aware of any others at the time. I guess the factory had a few more prototypes that they have since sold/let get out. So I have three, and obviously there are more, so 7 is possible.

I have a confirmed count of 4, the 3 that Simon has and one other in Idaho. I don't know if that pic you saw was on3 of my pics of Simon's guns or that 4th gun, but ICD made an unknown number of Russian Legion bodies.

Simon, if you are allowed to talk about it, what was the process that transpired for you to design them? I imagine you were with a competing paintball firm at the time. Did ICD contact you or was it a design you created for another party on your own time?

The "back room" dealings are always the ones that interest me the most. They're a far better reflection on the industry rather than all promotional/marketing fluff.

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Originally Posted by Jaccen

Simon, if you are allowed to talk about it, what was the process that transpired for you to design them? I imagine you were with a competing paintball firm at the time. Did ICD contact you or was it a design you created for another party on your own time?

The "back room" dealings are always the ones that interest me the most. They're a far better reflection on the industry rather than all promotional/marketing fluff.

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I was working for NPS at the time, and NPS and ICD were working together in order to get a license on the Smart Parts IP for ICD.

NPS Sponsored the Russian Legion at that point and thought that having them shoot Freestyles as well as the Timmy would help sales of the ICD products. Hence designing the gun body for them. That was one of the first gun bodies I ever designed with the intention that it would be machined with continuous 4 axis programs. Maybe the only gun in history like that? At least that I know of.

Russian Legion moved to different sponsors (maybe even Smart Parts IIRC) before we got the gun and board working the way they needed.

Right, they went from shooting Timmies and the odd Freestyle to stock SFT's right before getting their RL NXT's.

What I thought was kind of interesting/odd was that the Naughty Dogs did exactly the same thing. SP must have been seriously throwing money around to be drawing in teams at that time.

Oh, they were throwing money around. Rocky also went to work for them for a while. Not my story to tell, but money was thrown around for a lot of things there. Lots of cash and poor management of it.

Yeah at one point their sponsorships to teams included cash figures in the $100,000+ a year range. That's how Strange got their bus...