On Wednesday, September 23rd, I saw a Craigslist advertisement pop up for an Autococker along with a Spyder, a harness, and some other junk (that I could list and never sell on baccipaintball.com). The Autococker looked like an Eclipse Pro Series with most of the correct matched parts stripped off.
I typically try not to waste my time with craiglist items unless it’s something I want for my collection, and at first this Autococker didn’t stand out as anything special. I already had a Matte Black Pro series I was assembling as a mechanical and it took a couple years just to find a matte black matching Eclipse Blade Frame.
But upon closer examination, the listed Pro Series had one unique features I hadn’t seen before, a matched WGP Swing Frame? Although it didn’t looked perfectly matched, it did look close. The seller wasn’t too far away, only in Santa Monica, and they could meet late at night after Los Angeles traffic, so I decided to go for it. At least I might be able to dig up some information on this Eclipse Pro Series Autococker.
So I drove out to Santa Monica and met the seller, JR, at about 10:30 pm that night. I asked him where he ordered the Autococker from and he explained that he purchased it from WGP at a scenario game in Corona, California. My first questions was, did he have the original Electronic frame it came with. “No, it was never setup with the electric frame,” JR replied, “I bought it from Worr Games like this.”
Would WGP have sold the Eclipse Pro Series Autocockers? I wasn’t sure, but I definitely didn’t think they would have sold the Pro Series without all the matching electric parts and stickers, but maybe?
This link on Custom Cockers details all the differences in later Eclipse Autococker bodies.
http://customcockers.com/forum/showthread.php?7120-Eclipse-Cocker-Bodies-and-Differences
From this information I would say this was originally a Pro Series Cocker.
According to JR, he was playing on the Southern California scenario team, the Psycho Clown Posse (PCP) in the late 2000s (2007-2009) and had played a few events with them and wanted to upgrade his old school spyder. He met a middle aged man in the WGP booth and bought this Autococker assembled from the booth.
“It was all custom,” JR explained to me, “Custom body, custom frame, custom anodizing…”
Well it wasn’t all custom, but certain aspects of it were unique, the frame wasn’t typical, the back block was raw, the front pneumatics were WGP stock components, and the cocker came gem less (which is custom I guess?).
JR continued that he bought the assembled Autococker and asked about a matched frame. So WGP had one of the WGP Swing frames anodized for him and gave it to him at one of the following games.
So the partially matched WGP Swing Frame wasn’t stock, but it was specially anodized for JR’s cocker and looks pretty good. Or was it? Could it be a matte red to black fade WGP Orracle frame? I think that’s likely the case. Whoever JR purchase it from likely dug around at WGP and came across the correct frame and traded him for his gloss frame.
Another theory that I had is that Technical might have done some of the anodizing on Eclipse Autocockers for WGP?
User dbkid0486, on Custom Cockers, author of the Eclipse Autococker body guide linked above, writes that, “at one time the [anodizing on Planet Eclipse Autococker bodies] was being done by WGP’s anodizers. They also assembled for PE at one point too. This could have fallen into that time frame.”
WGP’s Anodizer that dbkid0486 refers to is Technical.
Find that post at http://customcockers.com/forum/showthread.php?59745-Eclipse-in-need-of-saving
JR played with this Autococker in Southern California for a while but eventually lost interest. I don’t have any Autocockers in my collection with the matched WGP Hinge so this will make a nice addition. Now I need to dig through front blocks for a matched dust block.
So after receiving and going over JR’s Mech Pro Series, it is drilled, as I mentioned earlier, but luckily it was drilled prior to anodizing.
If anyone reading this has a Matte Red Eclipse Pro Series P block they want to part with please email me.
