Planet Eclipse Ego Review
By Andrew C. Syren
Planet Eclipse is a company that prides itself on quality and functionality. I say this with confidence not because I have personally spoken with anybody there, but because I have owned several different products manufactured by them. Entering onto the scene years ago, planet Eclipse brought to us the Autocockers greatest upgrade ever, the E-Blade. Today, Planet Eclipse brings to us the Ego. A true electro-pneumatic marker that is said to be a Timmy clone but to those that have had the opportunity to use the Ego know it is far more than any clone at all.
Upon arrival, the Ego was wrapped in a decent box with foam padding lining the sides, bottom as well as the cover. The barrel was kept safe from getting dinged during shipment and the marker came with a small packet of tools, spare parts and a barrel sock. This was an early shipment Ego as Planet Eclipse now ships all Egos in a well-designed box that is fitted specifically for the marker and looks fantastic. The packaging I received was fine and served its purpose so I have no complaints.
At first glance of the marker, I will say without a doubt that the milling is some of the industries best and can see no evidence of tool marks or poor anodizing. The stock barrel was well polished internally and met with top of the line specifications for milling as well as looks when placed on the Ego. The marker also came complete with it’s own bottom line setup containing a small drop that resembles more of a rail than any drop at all and the Eclipse On/Off Purge System (OOPS). A complete package minus a hopper, tank and some paint.
Small, lightweight and efficient, the Ego is becoming one of the hottest markers on the tournament scene.
The Ego’s electronic settings are displayed on the small yet extremely visible LCD screen at the back of the grip frame.
The OOPS in itself gives us enough cause for talk. It is in fact the nicest on/off system I have seen to this day. It turns on with the twist of the knob like a hot knife through butter and is as easy to turn off. The other benefit to the OOPS is that you can save more tank o-rings since the OOPS releases built up pressure as you turn the knob to the off position thus allowing your tank to be unscrewed with ease. The On/Off Purge System is something you can expect from a company like Planet Eclipse.
After inspecting the Ego for such aspects as milling and quality I fell upon another great trait that this marker excels at. The weight of this marker is the lightest I have felt ever. Weighing in at just around 1.9 pounds the Ego is in fact the lightest marker out there. In comparison, the Bob Long Ripper 2 weighs 2.088 pounds with the inline regulator installed. The Ego weighs .188 pounds less with the same setup! This in my opinion is a very important feature as it helps the player maneuver with less weight. Although .188 pounds is not much to talk about, it still allows the Ego to possess the rights of being the lightest marker in production today.
Being the lightest marker on the market is a quality that the Ego excels at but one last physical characteristic can be seen when holding the Ego. The Ego is extremely small. It has a quality feel to it that gives you the sensation that this marker is no toy like paintball gun but in fact a well built paint slinger but you cannot escape the fact that the Ego feels so small in your hands. Perhaps for guys with bigger hands this marker may feel awkward but for myself it felt perfect.
With some of the standard features of the Ego being the small drop or rail, On/Off purge System and a fantastic barrel I could not forget to include such items as the legendary Eclipse grips that feel as good as the Dye grips that so many have grown to love and the standard clamping feed neck that is reminiscent of the CCM clamping feed neck. With all these such features there would seem to be absolutely no need to add any upgrades as the marker presently set up rocks like mad right out of the box.
Taking the next couple minutes of my review of the Ego I prepped the gun by loading a fresh new battery into the grip frame and lubricating the marker per the instruction manual. This took me about 10 minutes and was rather easy. It’s helpful to have a marker that requires little work to run well and to use a marker that is quick to prep for those faster paced games. I then loaded up my Halo-b (V35 equipped) and grabbed my tank and some paint. The total time for prep and set up was about 15 minutes. Not bad when you factor in the lube/oil needed prior to use. With that I was off to the range for testing.
With the loader installed and my tank now on the gun I turned the OOPS on and the marker gassed up with a slight click. I turned the marker on and was ready to go. The ease of control of the electronics for the Ego is great. It’s a true “turn it on and go” marker. The small LCD screen located at the back of the trigger frame read the battery life, eye mode, and both the Rate OF Fire (ROF) reached at it’s highest point during play and the present ROF being achieved while firing the marker. As long as I knew the first two I could care less about the ROF features but they were nice to see.
Taking a few minutes to shoot the marker at a reasonable speed I found the trigger to need a little adjusting. With the tools provided, I set the trigger up to fit my style of shooting and found it to be a rather easy process. If you have ever adjusted the E-Blade on any Cocker you would find this to be no different. After doing so I turned the marker back on and filled the hopper up again. While walking the trigger I managed to hit 15 balls per second with ease. Some may ask, “What’s so special about 15bps”? In short, the answer is found in allowing the marker to gain shots through trigger bounce as little as possible. Cheating is for the weak so you won’t find my setups allowing much for that type of game play.
Figuring that this marker was suited for massive rates of fire though I decided to take the gun to the test table and make some software adjustments. The manual makes it clear how to do this using the TT Filters so that the user can achieve the highest rates of fire with or without paint. Setting the filters up for the most bounce possible I was able to hit 30 cycles per second per the shot counter on the LCD readout. Way anybody needs a marker capable of that rate is beyond me but when achieving this I could feel that little tingle of excitement run down my spine and if that alone was worth the price of this marker then there are no regrets for buying the Ego.
After having a little fun with the filter settings and running up the shot counter I calculated trough bench testing that the marker was getting roughly 1060 shots out of a fully filled 45/4500 Crossfire HPA Tank. It is quite possible that after the regulators (both the inline and LPR) were broken in a bit that I may get an even better shot count per tank fill. This was using a medium bore paint that fit well with the barrel Planet Eclipse provides with the marker. The shot to shot velocity over the chrono was within a plus/minus 2 feet per second when the marker was set to 280fps. Again, with the regulators fully broken in you can expect these numbers to improve but as measured out of the box it’s safe to say that the Ego operates exceedingly well.
After having run the Ego through the testing I found that the clean up was relatively easy. Rubbing the body down with a damp cloth after a day of play would clear up any debris and remove any paint from the exterior while pulling the bolt out would open the breach up for any pull through swab. Not only is the Ego fast and efficient but easy to maintain and clean, a perfect combination for any avid player that has no time between games on tournament day.
All in all the functionality of the Ego was fantastic. Outside of a slight amount of kick the marker was accurate, fast and efficient. Complete the performance package with the many features that come stock and top it all off with a light weight pack of extra balls and you will be all set!
