A hard to find piece of paintball history that popped up on eBay last month, an ACI Sonic Griffin which premiered around summer to fall of 2001.
The Sonic conversion kit turns the entry level Griffin into a Poppet valve electro pneumatic paintgun!
I believe this kit was a collaboration between ACI and PGI since it uses the PGI reg which premiered on Novas and later went to PGI’s markers and ACI’s Mayhem.
The seller claimed this example leaks and Chris at MountainView Paintball remembers servicing leaking front chambers (lpr?) to be a pain to nearly impossible based on tips from Designer Brian Sullivan (ACI).
Serial is marked 05010114. Could this mean this was the 114th produced as of May of 2001?
ACI Sports Sonic Griffin History on Warpig
The Sonic conversion kits are mentioned on Warpig as premiering at the International Amateur Open in August of 2001.
Bill Mills, of Warpig writes, “ACI’s Jerry Sullivan introduced the Griffin XP – the low priced Griffon with the additional flash of ACI’s exclusive patterened anodizing. The Sonic electropneumatic conversion transforms Griffins, Spyders, or Piranhas, coverting them into electropneumatic paintguns.”
Here is another link on a slightly longer article on another Sonic Griffin.
And find standard mechanical Griffin parts here.
And find a scan of the manual on mcb here.
And some more technical details on the Sonic conversion kit on pbnation here.
