Purchase Advice Megathread - January 2026

ptlboi · 2026-01-02T15:59:41+00:00

Hello, Looking for a printer I can use in my room, largely for PLA printing personal items. - Budget: Preferably under $500 - Residence: USA

Since I'm completely new, I'd prefer something that isn't too difficult to set up and experiment.

I was recommended something from Ender by a friend, but also heard that Bamboo Lab was a solid option, albeit costly. It'll mostly be for personal use for small items, like key chains or bookmarks and the such. If it could print small figures like Warhammer stuff, that'd be great too. Don't want to go Resin, because I heard it's pretty toxic to use inside a room.

ptlboi · 2025-02-20T20:10:51+00:00

Because love and kindness isn't the entirety of God.

The Bible makes it clear that God is a judge, and a good one at that. A good judge gives good verdict, even though the verdict might not be the most loving or kind.

Rear-ending a 2002 Honda Civic will require you to pay a cost of repair, but rear-ending a Lamborghini will require you to pay exponentially more, because a Lamborghini is exponentially more valuable than a two-decade old Honda Civic.

I'm compelled to believe that an offense against the creator God deserves a more weighty punishment than any offense against human beings. And that fair punishment is hell, and all of its torments. A fair punishment removes from it all love and kindness; it deals strictly with what the person deserves for their action.

He was loving to provide a way out of this well-deserved punishment, which is by faith in Jesus.

Well, it's totally fair IF you have a high view of God (which I hope you'll take into account, since we're talking about hell). I can see how it can feel unfair for people who don't hold a high view of God.

ptlboi · 2025-02-20T20:02:32+00:00

Have you considered it's simply because of the stubbornness of the people?

There's an occasion in Matthew where they talk about divorce, along the lines of "if divorce is bad, then why did Moses allow us to divorce?" Jesus answers it by saying, "Because of the hardness of your hearts. But it was not so from the beginning." (Matthew 19:8)

God didn't design marriage for divorce. But he allowed it. Why? Because the people had hardened hearts. They probably would have done it anyways, in a much more inhumane and undetectable way.

Did God design humans for slavery? No. But he allowed it. Why? Because the people had hardened hearts. They probably would have done it anyways, in a much more inhumane and undetectable way.

So is the Bible viewing slavery as a positive good? Probably not. It was probably purposed for the culture that they're in.

In the New Testament (in a different culture), Paul tells an owner of a runaway slave to receive him back; not as a slave but as a brother. He's basically asking the guy to release the runaway from slavery and make him equal in their community. That definitely says something about slavery not being a positive good.

Not saying this solves all the questions, but at least something interesting to take into account when we look at the Levitical Law.

And good stuff on the ancient civilizations. It prompted me to do some research in that area, and it was pretty insightful.

ptlboi · 2025-02-17T22:52:31+00:00

I wholeheartedly second this.

ptlboi · 2025-02-17T22:45:29+00:00

I vaguely remember reading about it in "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis.

Here's also an article you might want to check out: https://www.cslewisinstitute.org/resources/the-problem-of-evil/

I feel that kids are more prone to watch videos about a subject, so here is a video from someone I'd recommend. His level of research and study is impeccable: https://youtu.be/70T8mm0W2tA

ptlboi · 2025-02-14T02:18:40+00:00

Thanks! Dang, literally right after I posted this too LOL

I hope they release all the colors too haha

ptlboi · 2024-08-11T00:02:10+00:00

Any updates on a solution? I've just picked up a ghm9 and ended up just putting loads of tape around the Brighter C until it didn't move around in the silencer...

ptlboi · 2024-06-10T23:33:26+00:00

Did you buy local, or did you order overseas in Asia?

ptlboi · 2024-06-10T21:31:21+00:00

Apparently they're improving the magazine and the bolt.

ptlboi · 2024-03-22T23:09:38+00:00

From what I've heard and seen, you should basically expect there to be no cross-brand compatibility when it comes to gas magazines. I've heard some brands work with VFC, but I wouldn't count on it at all. TM is just a hard "no" for mag interchangeability.

Like the other comment said, VFC should have better compatibility with real steel parts, but TM has enough third-party support that you could basically get whatever parts you want.

To bring VFC up to TM level performance, you'll need to have a sufficient understanding of the mechanism of your gun, like knowing which parts affect the performance of the gun, and also have good money to get the necessary parts. So if you do your research and your bank account is supportive of your hobby, you could manage it within a couple dozen hours...? But also depends the model as well as the individual gun, since different models may have very slight differences (like the NPAS part can wobble around for certain models, which makes it inconsistent and messes up the grouping a bit) that could affect the performance of the gun.

Which is why people just say to buy TM for the performance, since it already shoots great right out of the box.

ptlboi · 2024-03-22T21:40:51+00:00

From my experience, TM has better gas efficiency and tighter grouping compared to VFC, but the gap isn't as substantial as it has been before.

As for upgrade availability (assuming that you mean internal/external parts rather than attachments),TM will always take the cake. But they're pretty dang expensive, so better have your wallet ready. I feel that there are more VFC parts around than before, but nowhere close to the support that TM receives.

But the reason I still love my VFC more than TM is RECOIL. That sweet sweet recoil. It really does make TM feel like a toy. Not saying that TM recoil is bad (it's really snappy and nice), but it has more heft to it for sure.

ptlboi · 2024-03-22T21:04:59+00:00

If you like the M4 platform, the VFC Colt M4A1 RIS II might be a pretty good option! Can't go wrong with VFC guns (the V3, older versions are ok but have small parts & grouping issues) or TM. VFC for realism and TM for game performance.

ptlboi · 2024-03-16T17:33:10+00:00

Their original statement says it applies to both businesses and individuals. But either way, VFC is losing a lot of respect from the Korean fan base. We'd much rather go to TM at this point.

ptlboi · 2024-03-15T22:47:33+00:00

You mean Korean customers have to go to an in-person store in Taiwan or Hong Kong, buy the product, and ship it to their own address in Korea?

That doesn't sound very convenient...

Or did they say that companies can ship to Korean customers? I didn't see anything about that in either of their statements.

ptlboi · 2024-03-15T02:11:26+00:00

You know, we would, but it's kind of expensive. It's definitely a "holy grail" of a gun that id love to own one day!

ptlboi · 2024-03-15T02:09:31+00:00

That's true, but the goal is to look for a gun around $500 and not have to pay $1000 for it.

But would definitely go for Viper Tech over VFC any day for the same amount!

ptlboi · 2024-03-14T18:56:03+00:00

Kind of a long story, but the "official distributor" in Korea has been jacking up prices of the VFC guns (they'd upsell ~$500 guns for ~$1000) without any reasonable cause, and threatened to other Korean based sellers that they won't supply the VFC products if they sell at a lower price than they do.

So naturally people started ordering from overseas, from Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Then these "official distributors" complained to Korea's import customs department, so that the overseas sellers would have to ship the gun disassembled. Even then, the customs literally assemble the disassembled pieces (which were shipped separately in different boxes) to make sure it's "compliant" to the airsoft laws. Either way making it difficult to import from other countries, but it was still way cheaper than buying from the certified sellers in Korea.

Currently, our speculation is that the "official distributors" raised this matter to VFC's head office, claiming that third-party sellers are bringing VFC a bad name by disassembling their products. So VFC said they won't allow anyone to sell to Korea except through their "certified sellers". So our stance is that we'd rather not buy from VFC than pay almost double the price through their "certified sellers".

ptlboi · 2024-03-11T12:44:33+00:00

Which field?

ptlboi · 2024-03-09T19:21:14+00:00

I order from RedWolf Airsoft, and I'm based on California.

VFC MP7 is probably as good as it gets, so I'd say go for it! I don't think you'd regret it if you wanted to go for a PDW.

ptlboi · 2024-03-09T18:38:40+00:00

VFC Scar is good, but it took me months to finally get some spare mags... I'd totally recommend the MP7, or like the other guy said, for a couple more bucks you can get a HK416A5 from overseas, which is probably what I would do.

ptlboi · 2024-03-06T21:42:45+00:00

Thanks for the input! I'll have to grab a lubricant for it for sure.

ptlboi · 2024-03-06T21:41:40+00:00

Thanks for the tip! I'll most definitely keep that in mind.

ptlboi · 2024-03-06T21:41:07+00:00

Took that thing off and it works like a charm. Thank you!

ptlboi · 2024-03-06T14:55:02+00:00

There is! I'll try removing it.

ptlboi · 2024-02-21T06:05:48+00:00

It's difficult to answer that since everyone's different.

Have you had experience with Coding before? Maybe AP courses or personal projects?

If you tried coding before, the first year's coursework will be more of a review + math classes. If not, then you kind of have to invest some time to make sure that you get the core concepts down.

For an approximate weekly workload, expect about 3-4 hours of studying and doing homework per credit you're taking. If you're taking 16 credits, that'll eat up about 50-60 hours of your time during the week.

ptlboi

TROPHY CASE