From Taiwan with Guns: Wa Shan (1)

Reading newcomer Martin's (aka denisonsmock - welcome!) posts on Wa Shan I was urged to post something from my last visit to Taipei...

I spent 3 days of the Chinese New Year (2 months back) in Taipei - apart from fooling around my main mission was to visit the Wa Shan Shops (found the addresses by chance late last year). After hotel check-in I immediately rushed to the MRT (The Tube in Taiwan) and 2 stations later (and of course a fair bit of walk as well) I found myself on the door of the Wa Shan main shop:



It was getting dark so I walked in and try to get as many as possible out of it - apart from being a nuisance I kindly asked for the permission to take shots around the shop:







Although fascinated by the loads of Wa Shan guns I'd also spotted something rather disappointing: the SIG SAUER logo on these new batch of P220 was dropped and the same for PPK/s & the Glocks...

After further talks with the young shopkeeper "Pan" I'd learnt that the shops were opened for around a year (apart from this main shop in Chung Shan there's another smaller shop located at Shi Lin - the most famous night market in Taipei) - what he didn't revealed: Wa Shan are forced to establish their own retail outlets because after a converted silver Beretta M84 was used to wound the former President, the toy gun laws were changed dramatically and nobody in the Taiwan's toy gun industry wants to involve with Wa Shan (even before, the Wa Shan guns were notorious as readily-convertible weapons for small-time crooks).

Then, the cap cabinet:


This is the first time to see the caps stored in a glass cabinet with temperature/humidity control - and the first time to see so many disposable Wa Shan blanks in one spot...and the prices (if the memory serves me right): TWD $500~$800 for a box of 50 (depends)...

According to current Taiwan toy gun laws regarding modelguns - apart from the grandfathered & the registered pfc guns, only dummy guns are allowed to be imported/manufactured (therefore no new pfc guns can be found in Taiwan anymore and nobody bothered to import any new Japanese-made modelgun in order to avoid trouble) - so every gun shown on the pics above are only fitted with ABS slides & dummy firing pin block...[Excerpt deleted for legal reason]...I'll reveal what I'd ended up getting on my next post, stay tuned...

Although this is a Wa Shan Pro Shop - different brands of guns are also available (not too interested - because there are more choices in HK and the prices are 1/3 cheaper) and the biggest surprise for me:


Circled is a Wa Shan modelgun as well - a full metal over & under (i.e. 2 shots) pistol in .22 calibre disguised as a lighter (something like what John Malkovich used for the assassination on "In The Line Of Fire"?). I was tempted to buy this one (especially at just TWD $3600) but then I asked myself: supposed I'm buying toy guns for the looks - then what's the point of getting this one when a remote control looks better than this (most importantly I ran out of cash at that particular moment). But again, this is a very special piece and I think I'll end up getting it in my next visit...

The 2nd part will be posted very soon after I edited my photo album...thanks for watching!

Hi Jim,

It's good to hear from you again I'm glad to see you're still travelling around and finding all these specialist model gun shops most of us can only dream about

The first question that came to my mind was this... would the Wa Shan main dealership you visited be interested in, or able to export parts, cartridges, especially the disposable ones, and perhaps complete models to individuals around the world

I've yet to find anywhere selling spare parts and accessories for Wa Shan models. A dealer like this could be extremely useful and helpful.

We'll be looking forwards to part #2 with great interest

Take care,

Hi Jim,

Your post on the For Sale/Wanted section included this... " When I was at the Wa Shan shops I'd asked if they accept international online orders and the answer is no - because none of the staff is English literate..." so that's my first question answered then

Grat pics mate, not sure i could leave that shop withought buying a few of the models. really suprised about the easy to convert side of things though as i have a few of these models and no way would i want to fire anything more than a cap through them. Plastic slide does not sound good the whole point for me on wa shan models was them being full metal, i would have to spend the extra on a new slide.

gee....I want to buy some there....

s

I'd shop 'til i drop...

Great thread Jim ,If I had known you was going I would of asked you to get me the M1934 model,i've been after a wa shan version forever

Kickback

What a cool shop, I see the Dolphin, what other select fire models do they have, or long-arms?

Also, can they ship to the US, I can get them without the orange muzzle, but some other buyers in the US will need the muzzle painted orange and blocked.


JJ

OH my fault...I'll delete that part immediately - thanks for the kind reminder!