Airsoft is a sport in which participants eliminate opponents by hitting each other with spherical non-metallic pellets launched via replica weapons called airsoft guns. Airsoft is commonly compared to paintball, with some key differences being:

1. Unlike paintballs, airsoft pellets do not mark their target and hits are not always visibly apparent. Airsoft pellets may leave red marks or "welts" to their target however rare that might be. The airsoft relies on an honor system in which it is the ethical duty of the person who has been hit to call themselves out regardless of whether or not anyone saw it happen.
2. Most airsoft guns are magazine-fed with some, especially pistols, having co2 canisters, and tend to much more closely replicate real guns. This makes them more popular especially for military simulation and historical reenactments.
3. For casual players airsoft is much cheaper to try than paintball, with manual-cocking pistols costing as little as $5 a piece and airsoft pellets costing as little as a twentieth of a cent per round.

Gameplay varies in style and composition but often range from short-term skirmishes, organized scenarios, C.Q.B. (Close Quarters Battle), field, military simulations (MilSim) or historical reenactments. They are played in some indoor courses, and outdoor (fields). Combat situations on the battlefield may involve the use of military tactics to achieve objectives set in each game. Participants may attempt to emulate the tactical equipment and accessories used by modern military and police organizations. A game is normally kept safe by a trained professional and the weapons are usually powered by gas or various types of batteries. A gun's power is checked through a chronograph and usually measured in feet per second. Different game sites allow a different amount of FPS but different countries also have a set FPS and a gun shooting over the required FPS can be confiscated or not allowed to be used on airsoft sites; for instance, a sniper would usually have a higher FPS than a sub machine gun, since a sniper needs a minimum engagement range to reduce the danger from being hit at close range by a powerful weapon.

History

The airsoft gun originated from Japan in the early 1980s. The name "Soft-Air" referred to the green gas used as a propellant. Originally designed for target shooting, their bullets could also hit humans without injury and thus became popular for casual war-games. Airsoft guns spread to the UK in the late 1980s and early 1990s with a company called LS. The guns were sold in pieces and had to be assembled before they were capable of firing pellets. Airsoft equipment was designed to closely emulate real guns. Since the mid-1980s, airsoft guns have been adapted with a purely recreational application in mind, and the sport is enjoyed by all ages. Airsoft replicas are produced globally, with the majority being manufactured in Asia. Many law enforcement agencies and military units within the US use Airsoft for force-on-force training drills.

Ballistics and velocity

On impact, the pain an airsoft pellet causes is directly related with the kinetic energy it has. This energy is directly proportional to its mass and the square of its velocity. It is important to note that doubling the velocity of a pellet will quadruple its kinetic energy. As a reference value, a 0.20 gram BB, which is the most common size, traveling at 100 metres per second (330 ft/s) has one joule of kinetic energy.

A typical set of velocity for sanctioned fields in the United States on guns may be 110 metres per second (350 ft/s) and under for Close Quarters Battle (CQB), 120 metres per second (400 ft/s) and under for outdoor play with fully automatic AEGs, 120â€"140 metres per second (400â€"450 ft/s) for semi-auto "DMR" style AEG's, and 140â€"150 metres per second (450â€"500 ft/s) for bolt-action sniper rifles, for a 0.20 g pellet.

The maximum effective range of field-legal airsoft guns is all around 100 m (110 yd) with a highly upgraded sniper rifle replica. Most airsoft guns used for field play will have an effective range of around 43â€"67 metres, depending on the intended role of the weapon. Most Airsoft guns are capable of shooting from 60 m/s (200 ft/s) to 125 m/s (410 ft/s), although it is also possible to purchase upgraded internals for some Airsoft guns that will enable the gun to shoot up to 170 m/s (550 ft/s) or higher. In California a common limit for CQB is 110 m/s (350 ft/s). In Ireland, Italy, and Japan the energy limit for Airsoft guns is one joule regardless of the type of game play. Some UK sites allow semi-automatic-only weapons up to 88 m/s (290 ft/s) and bolt-action rifles up to 95 m/s (310 ft/s). However, the majority of UK sites allow both semi-automatic weapons and bolt-action rifles up to 107 m/s (350 ft/s). Northern Ireland has a maximum velocity of 100 m/s (330 ft /s) with 0.20 g pellets, without regard to the type of weapon.

The ballistics of spring or electric powered airsoft guns differ from real firearms in that a longer barrel will not always result in better accuracy. In spring/electric airsoft weapons, barrel length does not have a significant effect on accuracy. The "sweet spot" for barrel length in a spring/electric powered airsoft gun is around 450 mm. Past that length, added barrel length will not improve accuracy. In any case, barrel quality, velocity consistency, and hopup quality/design are more important factors with regard to accuracy. Added barrel length will result in slightly increased velocity if the cylinder size and compression are appropriate for the barrel length. For example, a gun with a large cylinder and a long barrel will shoot slightly harder than a gun with a small cylinder and a short barrel (ceteris paribus). This rule will apply even for barrels longer than 500 mm, if there is enough cylinder volume and air compression to propel the pellet through the barrel. However , the resulting velocity increase will be hardly noticeable. The only considerable advantage of using a longer inner barrel in an AEG or spring powered gun is that it generally will make the gun quieter.

Gas powered replicas function more like real firearms. In gas powered guns, added barrel length (to an appropriate degree) will result in significantly increased velocity, and increased accuracy to a degree. Tighter bore barrels will increase velocity because there will be less space between the pellet and the barrel for the air to escape through. Most stock airsoft guns have 6.05-6.08 mm bore barrels, but best performance is usually seen with "tightbore" barrels, which are 6.01 to 6.05 in diameter. However, the tighter the bore, the more likely the chance of a pellet jam, and subsequently, tightbores need to be cleaned regularly. It is generally agreed upon that a good quality 6.01-6.02 mm barrel will provide the highest muzzle velocity, while a good quality 6.03 mm or 6.05 mm barrel will provide the best compromise between power, accuracy, and ease of maintenance. The actual accuracy difference between tightbore sizes is debatable and usually outweighed by bore consistency. Pdi, Prometheus and edgi tight bores are considered the best manufacturers.

Safety

Many manufacturers and retailers suggest treating an airsoft gun like a real gun at all times. This will help alleviate safety issues resulting in a misfire to an unknowing target or an airsoft gun being mistaken for a real firearm. Most manufacturers include an orange tip on the barrel of the airsoft gun for safety purposes. Manufacturers and retailers urge consumers to not remove the orange tip of the airsoft rifle as it is used to help distinguish them from a real firearm. The orange tip serves many purposes, one of them being for law enforcement to help discern airsoft guns from real firearms.

The minimum safe level of gear required to participate in most games includes a pair of Ballistic eye wear ANSI Z87.1 (impact-rated) goggles to protect participants' eyes. Traditional prescription glasses and sunglasses, or goggles not designed specifically for use with airsoft or paintball marker, may break or shatter upon being struck, causing injury to the eye. Airsoft guns are not to be confused with BB guns, which fire metal BBs and are not safe to fire at a person even with protective goggles.

Community safety precautions

Rules such as a maximum muzzle velocity and engagement distance guidelines are used by different groups. Some organizations have created common safety rules and guidelines.

When not actively playing, some fields require "barrel bags", also known as barrel socks, barrel condoms, barrel blockers, or barrel sleeves, to be placed over the muzzle of the gun. The magazine is usually removed as well, and the gun fired to clear the chamber. Most fields also require players to leave their guns set to the safety position when they are not shooting, a practice common when using real firearms. In certain countries, such as the Philippines, additional special rules have been adopted.

Legal restrictions

Airsoft is legal in most parts of the world. Some countries have specific restrictions, such as maximum muzzle velocity and "unrealistic" colouring to distinguish them from actual firearms. They are legal throughout the United States, but restrictions do exist in certain cities such as Chicago, Illinois and Detroit, Michigan. The states of New Mexico, New Jersey, and Michigan, however, do not allow airsoft guns to be used or handled publicly because of the resemblance to real firearms. They may be used on private property with the consent of the owner. The Customs and Border Protection FAQ page states that Airsoft guns are considered look-alike firearms which require the special blaze orange marking.

In the Republic of Ireland Airsoft guns are classified as Realistic Imitation Firearms but not restricted as much as in the United Kingdom. Under the Criminal Justice Act of 2006 Airsoft guns are legal in the Republic. One can buy, sell and import Airsoft guns without notifying relevant law enforcement authorities. They do not need to be painted in fluorescent colors, they do not need to have an orange tip, but they cannot launch the projectile with a kinetic energy exceeding 1 joule. However, carrying an imitation firearm in public is prohibited, and a gun carry case is required, as for real firearms. Airsoft shops are spread over the country, and buyers must be aged 16 or over to purchase an airsoft gun. There is no age limit on Airsoft, as long as a minor has an adult's permission.

In the United Kingdom, some Airsoft guns are classified as realistic imitation firearms or RIFs. The sale, manufacture, or importation of these is restricted to activities that are exempted or have been granted a defense by the Home Office under the Violent Crime Reduction Act (VCRA) of 2006. Airsoft skirmishing has been granted a specific defense against the requirements of the act, and a skirmisher as defined under British law is allowed to sell, import and manufacture airsoft replicas, and convert them into RIFs. Purchase from other vendors is not illegal, but the sale is - the crime is committed by the vendor. All are still, however, crimes under British law that can be defended successfully (in theory â€" this has never been tried to date) by fulfilling criteria suggested in the guidelines accompanying the VCRA. The most accepted method of proving entitlement to the defense is to be a member of a site that holds public liability insurance. An association set up by UK retailer s, called the United Kingdom Airsoft Retailers Association (UKARA), in line with the Home Office documentation accompanying the VCRA, recommends that an airsoft site only give membership to a player who has played at least three games over a period of no less than two months. It is also possible for a member of an insured reenactment society or the film or television industry to purchase an Airsoft replica (this is a full exemption from, and not a defense against, the VCRA). The right to buy a RIF (or IF) is still reserved for individuals age 18 and over.

Many retailers are part of the UKARA scheme and will only sell to players who are registered to a skirmish site that fulfills the desired requirements for the VCRA Defense. Retailers must renew their membership annually. The Association has a database of registered players from approved airsoft sites that is updated on a regular basis by the sites themselves. Retailers who are members of UKARA have access to the database and can check for proof of eligibility for purchasing access to the player's site membership number before selling any RIFs to private individuals.

Other schemes have been attempted to allow Airsoft players to comply with the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006, but none have been successfully implemented. The use or possession of any kind of replica weaponâ€"loaded or otherwiseâ€"in a public place without valid reason is an offense under UK law and can carry heavy penalties.

As an alternative to RIFs, IFs (Imitation Firearms, including 'two tones') are available. These are RIFs which have been painted a bright colour (excluding white/silver/gold) over 51% of the item. No specific defense is required for purchase of IFs. They cannot be bought by those under the age of 18, and offer an entry to those unable to claim a defence under the VCRA.

In Canada, there are laws pertaining to airsoft importing. All airsoft guns that are bought in Canada are legal, but when importing it, the gun has to have between 366FPS and 500FPS to pass inspection at customs, otherwise the gun will be shipped back or destroyed.

In certain countries use of lasers of any kind is illegal, including airsoft gun scopes with integrated lasers.

Orange-tipped airsoft gun muzzles

Although airsoft guns in the United States are generally sold with a 6mm (0.24in.) or longer orange tip on the barrel in order to distinguish them from real firearms, this is not in fact required by federal law. Manufacturers and importers may cite Title 15 of the Code of Federal Regulations, which stipulates that "no person shall manufacture, enter into commerce, ship, transport, or receive any toy, look-alike, or imitation firearm" without approved markings; these may include an orange tip, orange barrel plug, brightly colored exterior of the whole toy, or transparent construction (part 272.2, formerly part 1150.2). However, section 272.1 (formerly 1150.1) clearly indicates that these restrictions shall not apply to "traditional B-B, paint-ball, or pellet-firing air guns that expel a projectile through the force of compressed air, compressed gas or mechanical spring action, or any combination thereof." This language clearly exempts airsoft guns from these requirements, placing them in the same category as bb-guns, pellet, air, and paintball, none of which are conventionally sold or used with an orange tip, and many of which bear as much resemblance to real firearms as airsoft guns do. Another difficulty the airsoft-playing community has with a legal or mandatory requirement for any orange-tipped or bright-colored paint on all airsoft guns is that lawless elements could deliberately paint real guns to have orange-tips or make them look like airsoft guns and thus cause more harm or alarm for the public.

Airsoft guns

The guns used in airsoft are typically imitation firearms. They have a mechanism for shooting projectiles 6 mm or 8 mm in diameter.

Airsoft guns are classified according to their operating principle, which can be spring-loaded, electric (battery-powered Automatic Electric Guns, Airsoft Electric Guns or "AEGs"), or gas-powered (if these have a blowback feature they are known as "GBBs"). Some companies produce full replicas of counterpart grenade launchers which fire a projectile spray of 6mm pellets by use of a high-powered spring mechanism or a compressed gas propellant (i.e. green gas, propane, compressed air, or CO₂). There is also a type of airsoft gun that is powered by a single (HPA) high-pressure air tank and a battery pack to power the internal FCU "Fire Control Unit" computer board. These guns are often known for their high and adjustable ROF or "rate of fire" and durability. These HPA replicas are most often referred to as "PolarStars", although this refers to a popular brand of HPA engines and accessories.

Newer guns, especially those made in Taiwan and China, have metal internal and external parts. Japan has specific rules about producing airsoft guns with metal parts. A typical airsoft gun is noticeably lighter than its "real steel" counterpart due to the use of aluminum, alloy, and plastic, though some have weights in them for a more realistic feel. Smoke caps, as well as noise amplifiers, are available for certain airsoft guns to add realism.

Gas handgun magazines usually contain 10 to 30 pellets in a standard capacity magazine; however, some are high capacity magazines and can hold 50 rounds or more. In the case of AEG rifles, magazines come in either real-capacity (equivalent to the capacity of its real steel counterpart), low-capacity (10-50 rounds), mid-capacity (75-160 rounds), or high-capacity (190+ rounds). These magazines are spring-loaded. The high-cap magazines often have a ratchet wheel that can be wound up periodically to force pellets up from the holding chamber of the magazine to the feeding chute. Due to loose pellets in the reservoir, they often make a rattling noise when running or walking. Some airsoft guns have a battery-powered box or drum magazine that holds thousands of pellets, but these are usually only used and allowed on LMGs (light machine gun)type replicas.

It is common for owners to "tech" or modify their guns. The majority of gearboxes are made to Tokyo Marui specifications and have upgrade parts available. Some gearboxes are proprietary in design. It is also possible to perform DIY modifications.

Hop-up

The "hop-up" system, which is installed in most stock airsoft rifles and in most pistols, is used to add extra range by putting backspin on the pellets. The Magnus effect causes them to rise upward as they are fired. A small rubber nub protrudes into the top of the barrel through a small hole, and it catches the top of the pellet as it flies past. Adjusting the Hop-Up makes the nub protrude more or less into the barrel, so that backspin is increased or reduced. Ideally, the Hop-Up should be adjusted so that the pellets fly as far as possible in a straight line without curving upward too far, or dropping to the ground too quickly. Hop-Up does decrease the velocity of the projectile (a gun firing 340 ft/s (100 m/s) with the hop fully unwound can drop to as low as 300 ft/s (91 m/s)). Ease and location of adjustment varies by gun design; some weapons provide controls that can be adjusted quickly during gameplay, while others may require partial dis-assembly. For example, a common location for Hop-Up adjustment is where the ejection port would be on a real firearm, which allows the mechanism to be covered while still allowing quick access to adjust the Hop-Up.

Airsoft projectiles

Most airsoft guns fire round plastic pellets, usually white, but black "invisible" or phosphorescent are common as well. The pellets mostly range from 0.12 to 0.48 g. However, the most popular weights for AEGs (automatic electric guns) and GBB* (Gas Blow-Back guns) are 0.20 g and 0.25 g (*These weights are generally specified for pistols whose muzzle velocity ranges from approximately 250 ft/s (76 m/s) to 400 ft/s (120 m/s)). Mid to high end AEGs use 0.20â€"0.30 g pellets, while heavier rounds (0.30â€"0.43 g) are typically used in long range and sniper applications since they are more stable in flight and less easily deflected by wind.

Pellets are usually bought in bags or bottles of 2,000 to 5,000, but other sizes are available, such as a 250,000 round (65 kg) package of tournament grade pellets. Biodegradable pellets are a fraction more expensive than non-bio counterparts, but many fields require them. Pellets are typically 6 mm in diameter, though 8 mm pellets do exist. Pellets vary by diameter depending on the brand (e.g. Matrix pellets are 5.95 mm in diameter and let less air slip past it during travel through the barrel, whereas Crosman pellets are 5.93 mm in diameter and allow more air to slip past during travel through the barrel and allow for less velocity). Pellets are used for the majority of play, although foam balls may be used to represent M203 styled grenade launcher shells.

Customization

Some players customize their airsoft guns, either to improve performance or for purely aesthetic reasons. Additions include scopes, lasers, and flashlights. The most popular scope is the red dot sight. Mounted flashlights can be used tactically in games played in dark environments.

Even though in certain countries lasers are illegal, they are popular modifications in the U.S. and Europe. Lasers are more for their appearance than any practical effect.

Airsoft and military training

Airsoft technology is used in military and law enforcement training. Due to airsoft’s realism, relatively safe projectiles, and economical ammunition, it is well-suited to war games and scenarios to train troops. Multiple airsoft inventions were developed originally for military and law enforcement use.

Marking rounds were invented by Kerry T. Bowden to allow trainees to see where each projectile landed. Much like paintball and Simunitions, these marking round BB’s would break upon impact, marking the target with luminescent liquid. Unlike traditional plastic BB’s, marking rounds are heavier to ensure breakage of the shell on impact. The weight can be adjusted by adding heavier liquid. Marking rounds are critical for trainees because they allow the shooter to see exactly where they hit the target. This allows them to extrapolate their mistakes and improve their aim.

Reusable grenades were improved by Scott Frank to emulate the fragmentation of a real grenade in war games and scenarios. The grenade can be loaded with paint or BB’s. It uses a quick release of highly pressurized gas to break the shell and quickly disperse BB’s or paint in all directions. Frank’s grenade, although not the first, aimed to be as realistic and predictable as an actual grenade. He developed a more accurate timing mechanism and secondary safety mechanisms to prevent accidental discharge. Both marking rounds and reusable grenades gave airsoft the edge it needed to enter into military and law enforcement training grounds.

The airsoft guns used for training differ from civilian models. Guns manufactured for professional training are made to replicate the weight, feel and sound of its real steel counterpart. In general, professional training airsoft guns are GBB models and enhanced with a weighted blow back mechanism to increase the force of the kick. Although some are AEG’s and are built with a blowback mechanism. They are also outfitted with muzzle protectors that amplify the sound to a decibel level comparable to that of a real firearm. The average FPS for a professional training airsoft guns is higher than civilian models. Economically, airsoft is cheaper than Simunition training. Maj. Benjamin Kratz, Fort Jackson’s battalion executive officer, said that one blank M16 round can cost as much as 32 airsoft rounds. And with decreasing military and law enforcement budgets, airsoft adds a number of necessary practice hours.

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Tom Sachs (born July 26, 1966) is an American contemporary artist who lives and works in New York City.

Life and early career

Born in New York City on July 26, 1966, Sachs grew up in Westport, Connecticut, and attended Greens Farms Academy for high school. He attended Bennington College in Vermont. Following graduation, he studied architecture at London's Architectural Association School of Architecture before deciding to return to the States, where he spent two years working in Frank Gehry's L.A. furniture shop. It is here that he began using the term knolling.

Sachs moved from L.A. to New York City around 1990 and found a studio in the disappearing machinery district downtown. His studio, Allied Cultural Prosthetics, took its name from the previous tenantâ€"Allied Machine Exchangeâ€"implying that contemporary culture had become nothing but a prosthetic for real culture.

For a few years Sachs worked odd jobs, including lighting displays at Barneys New York. In 1994, he was invited to create a scene for their Christmas displays and titled it Hello Kitty Nativity, in which the Virgin Mary was replaced by Hello Kitty with an open Chanel bra, the three Kings were Bart Simpsons, and the stable was marked by a McDonald's logo. This contemporary revision of the nativity scene received great attention (not all of it positive) and demonstrated Sachs' interest in the phenomena of consumerism, branding, and the cultural fetishization of products.

Career

In the mid and late 1990s, Sachs' career began to take off. His first major solo show, "Cultural Prosthetics"[1], opened at New York's Morris-Healy Gallery in 1995. Many works from the show conflated fashion and violence, as with HG (Hermès Hand Grenade) (1995) and Tiffany Glock (Model 19) (1995)[2], both of which were models made with Hermès or Tiffany packaging. Although these sculptures were non-functional, another piece - Hecho in Switzerland (1995) - was an actual working homemade gun. Sachs and his assistants would make similar guns and sell them back to the city as part of New York's gun buyback program (for up to $300 each).

His next major show, "Creativity is the Enemy", opened in 1998 at New York's Thomas Healy Gallery and Paris' Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac. It built on the discourse established in "Cultural Prosthetics" with sculptures like Chanel Guillotine (1998)[3] and Prada Deathcamp (1998). Other pieces, like Hermés Value Meal (1998)[4], moved away from explicit references to violence and paired fashion with other successful brands, like McDonald's. Also included in the show were gaffer's tape versions of Piet Mondrian's famous compositions [5][6]. Like the Hermes sculptures, the Mondrian paintings were things Sachs desired but could not have. So he made them instead. As Sachs puts it, "making it is a way of having it."

Similar shows opened the following year at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in Salzburg, Austria and Mary Boone Gallery in New York, where Boone was famously arrested after Sachs allowed visitors to take live ammunition from an Alvar Aalto vase. Around the same time, Sachs' SONY Outsider (1998) opened at SITE Santa Fe in New Mexico. The sculpture was outwardly a full-scale model of the atomic bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki, and was a leap from handmade art into expensive outsourced fabrication. Ultimately, it was not well received by critics or even the artist himself - he later published a zine titled "The Failure of SONY Outsider"). For many, including Roberta Smith, the well-known New York Times art critic, the piece "bore no trace of Mr. Sachs's hand" and "could have been the work of several other artists." As Sachs says about the piece: "At the time I didn't fully grasp the value of my handcrafted things... I should leave it to Sony or Motorola to make those perfect things."

Learning from this experience, Sachs fully embraced the practice of "bricolage". For Sachs, a bricoleur is one "who hobbles together functional contraptions out of already given or collected materials, which he re-tools and re-signifies into new objects with novel uses, but more importantly, which he regenerates into a new, oscillating syntax: one of loss, gain, and more than anything, one of play." After the failure of Sony Outsider, Sachs began to focus on leaving visible traces of his work, saying this a few years later:

"We have our system of making things out of certain materials... and of showing the scars of our labor and the history of our efforts... We have the 'your way', 'my way', and 'the right way,' and I must insist everything is done my way, even if it takes longer."

On a related note, Sachs organized an exhibition at Sperone Westwater in 2000 entitled "American Bricolage" that featured the work of 12 artists including Alexander Calder, Greg Colson, and Tom Friedman.

After several solo exhibitions in New York and abroad, "Nutsy's" opened at the Bohen Foundation (New York City) in 2002 and Deutsche Guggenheim (Berlin) in 2003. The large-scale installation covered a whole floor, and invited viewers to interact by driving remote-controlled vehicles on asphalt tracks throughout the installation. Several of Sachs' most famous works debuted at this exhibition, including Unité, Nutsy's McDonald's, and Barcelona Pavilion. Unité, in particular, is one of Sachs' masterpiecesâ€"a 1:25 recreation of Le Corbusier's Unité d'Habitation made completely out of foamcore. The Neistat Brothers, who began their careers working for Sachs, were instrumental in the operation of "Nutsy's".

In 2006, the artist had two major survey exhibitions mounted in Europe, first at the Astrup Fearnley Museet for Moderne Kunst and next at the Fondazione Prada, Milan. His work can be found in major museum collections worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.

As Germano Celant writes in his monograph on the artist published by the Fondazione Prada, Milan, "The images and objects that make up the militarized space of consumption and fashion are at the very heart of Tom Sachs's visual passion."

The Des Moines Art Center and Rose Art Museum hosted a solo exhibition titled Logjam featuring the artist in 2007.

Sachs is represented by Sperone Westwater, New York and Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris and Salzburg.

Space Program

Sachs had built numerous space-related sculptures throughout his career (such as Crawler, 2003 and Lunar Module (1:18), 1999). His obsession with space, and specifically the Apollo program of the 60s and 70s, culminated with his Space Program in 2007. Sachs built a 1:1 model of the Apollo lunar module, a mission control with 29 closed-circuit video monitors, and outfitted two female astronauts with handmade Tyvek space suits. In October 2007 at Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles, Sachs launched his spacecraft, landed on the moon, and explored its surface. This video made by Sachs and the Neistat Brothers captures the event.

While the Apollo program was source of precedent, much of Sachs' Space Program is historically inaccurate, often humorously. The Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) was built full scale, but had many modifications that were probably not on any Apollo mission, including a fully stocked Vodka bar and a library (with titles such as Woman's Almanac). After the astronauts' first step, they used Sachs' handmade shotguns to "patrol the surface", before planting a flag and taking rock samplesâ€"by drilling into the gallery floor. Much of Apollo's TV footage was restaged using special effects sculptures that Sachs made himself, including ones that reproduced the Saturn V takeoff, the moon landing, and the reentry of Apollo's capsule in Earth's atmosphere.

Sachs continues to work on developing the Space Program, noting after the exhibition in 2008, "The Space Program continues in full force... Such is the nature of improvised construction technique.". After collecting twelve pounds of "moon rock", Sachs named each significant piece and encased them in carefully constructed display boxes, like with Florida. In addition, Sachs allows followers to download an up-to-date "Moon Rock Report" that includes detailed information on each collected sample.

In May 2012, Sachs opened the Space Program 2.0: MARS exhibit at the Park Avenue Armory in New York. Much of the 2007 Space Program equipment was included, as well as new bricolage sculptures for the challenges of colonizing Mars: Terraforming with poppy plantsâ€"and an accompanying opium tea ceremonyâ€"a Mars rover, and a solar-powered boombox.

Bronze Collection

In 2008 and 2009, the artist's Bronze Collection was shown at Lever House, Baldwin Gallery (in Aspen, CO), and the Trocadero in Paris. The collection featured large white bronze casts of foamcore Hello Kitty and Miffy foamcore sculpturesâ€"a particular style distinctive to the artist. In addition, unpainted casts of battery towers, a skateboarding halfpipe, and Le Corbusier's lamps were also shown. As of April 2010, the Wind-Up Hello Kitty sculpture is still up at Lever House.

External links

• Tom Sachs official website
• Tom Sachs at Lance Armstrong 2009 Charity Exhibition "STAGES"
• This Is His Life: A Blue Whale and Hello Kitty, Hilarie M. Sheets, New York Times, May 4, 2008.
• Tom Sachs; A Visit to Nutsy's, C International Contemporary Art, #77, Spring 2003.
• McDonough, Tom (1 July 2003). "A day at the races". Art in America. 91 (7): 58. (subscription required (help)). 
• Tom Sachs. Disaster, at www.paris-art.com (French)
• The way we live now: 3-10-02: questions for Tom Sachs, Deborah Solomon, New York Times, March 10, 2002.

Notes

References

• Celant, Germano (2006). Tom Sachs (2nd ed.). Fondazione Prada. ISBN 88-87029-37-7. 
• Fleming, Jeff (2007). Logjam. Des Moines Art Center. ISBN 978-1-879003-49-1. 
• Sachs, Tom (2008). Space Program. Gagosian Gallery. ISBN 978-0-8478-3226-2. 

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Nerf Blaster is a toy gun made by Hasbro that fires foam darts, discs, or, in some cases, foam balls. The term "Nerf gun" is often used to describe the toy; however, it is often used as a blanket term for any foam dart blaster, regardless of whether or not it has the Nerf brand name. Nerf blasters are manufactured in multiple forms, including pistols, rifles, and light machine guns. The first Nerf blasters emerged in the late 1980s with the release of the Nerf Blast-a-Ball and the Arrowstorm.

The Nerf blaster line currently consists of fourteen lines: N-Strike Elite, Alien Menace, Dart Tag, Vortex, Zombie Strike, Modulus, Mega, N-Strike, RIVAL, Doomlands, Super Soaker, Accustrike, and Rebelle. Cross-promotional models have also been released, themed around Marvel Comics, Star Wars, G.I. Joe and Transformers.

All Nerf blasters come packaged with a set of foam darts or mega darts matched to fit into their chambers. Refill darts can also be purchased separately. Most Nerf dart blasters are compatible with the different types of foam darts available; but the Clip System blasters will only take Streamline darts, which have smaller diameter tips. In 2013, Elite darts became the new standard darts, as they are compatible with both regular and Clip System blasters.

Numerous accessories for Nerf blasters are available separately or supplied with selected blasters. These consist of ammunition holders or attachments that enhance the functional or aesthetic elements of Nerf blasters, as well as some Super Soaker blasters.

The Nerf line is also sold in Japan by Takara Tomy, which sells other Hasbro products in the country. For marketing reasons, some blasters have been given different names in Japan. For example, the Stampede ECS is called "Blazing Burst ECS", while the Longstrike CS-6 is called "Sniper Shot CS-6"; nevertheless, these blasters still have their original names molded on them.

In 2011, the Nerf N-Strike Stampede ECS was awarded "Boy Toy of the Year" at the 11th Annual Toy of the Year Awards, which is held at the American International Toy Fair in New York City. In 2014, the Nerf Zombie Strike Crossfire Bow won the award for "Best Action Toy" at the 2014 U.K. Toy Fair.

Product lines

N-Strike (discontinued)

N-Strike is the main line of the Blasters toy series. This line consists of toy guns that fire rubber-tipped foam darts. While the blasters have been offered in several different colors, the N-Strike's main colors are yellow and orange, despite some models being offered mainly in blue. Blasters released before mid-2010 bear the original N-Strike badge, which has the motto: "Enlist, Engage, Enforce". The N-Strike name was formerly used for one set of three blasters (Titan AS-V.1, Hornet AS-6 and Scout IX-3), which has since been renamed the Unity Power System.

The Recon CS-6 is a "build-your-own" Nerf Clip-System Blaster that was released in 2008 under the N-Strike series. It has five interchangeable parts: a barrel extension, flip up sight, dual-mode light beam, stock and main blaster. It resembles the M4 Carbine Rifle.

In 2010, the Stampede ECS - a bipod-mounted, battery-powered gun which is loaded with ammo magazines - was awarded "Boy Toy of the Year" at the 11th Annual Toy of the Year Awards, which is held at the American International Toy Fair in New York City. Popular Mechanics praised it as "the best overall Nerf gun ever", being easy to use and less prone to jamming than earlier battery-powered Nerf models.

N-Strike Elite

On August 1, 2012, the N-Strike line was succeeded by the N-Strike Elite, which consists mainly of existing blasters with improved internal mechanisms for better firing distances. Firing distances are up to 75 feet (23 m) feet for the U.S. models, while international models (identifiable by their gray triggers) have a maximum firing distance of 15 metres (49 ft). The primary colors of N-Strike Elite are blue, white and orange.

Elite XD is a sub-series of N-Strike Elite, but with advertised ranges of 85 to 90 feet (26 to 27 m) for the US version and 22 metres (72 ft) for the international model. Although advertised as having a longer range than the Elite, the only difference in design is the blue-on-white coloring. It started in the beginning of 2014 with the Demolisher 2-in-1 and Nerfcam ECS-12. The N-Strike Elite Mega line was launched in 2013, with the Centurion as its flagship blaster. It is another sub-series of the N-Strike Elite series. This series comes with a custom type of mega dart.

Dart Tag (Discontinued)

Dart Tag is a Nerf sub-line that differentiates itself from the main N-Strike line by being more competition-oriented. The line consists of blasters that fire Velcro-tipped foam darts. Players wear Dart Tag vests or jerseys lined with patches of Velcro, and scoring is determined by where the opponents are hit with the darts. Over the years, Dart Tag blasters have been sold in different colors and mostly in pairs - either red and blue or orange and green. From 2011 forward, the main color of the blasters is yellow, while the jerseys and eyewear are offered in different colors.

In 2009, Hasbro started the Nerf Dart Tag League, an official Nerf sport held annually in the United States. The most recent event in 2011 was held at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

The current Dart Tag lineup was first introduced in mid-2011, featuring a more uniform yellow, black and blue color scheme in contrast to the multicolored blasters of the previous lineups. In 2012, Hasbro retooled the internals of the blasters to make them fire darts at longer distances. These improved blasters are distinguished by their blue triggers and highlights.

Nerf Vortex (Discontinued)

Unlike the N-Strike and Dart Tag lines, which use foam darts, Vortex uses XLR (Xtra Long Range) discs - green, white or glow-in-the-dark plastic discs wrapped in foam. These discs are capable of traveling at greater distances than foam darts (up to 65 feet) and also ricocheting off of walls. As with other current Nerf and Super Soaker blasters, the Vortex blasters are designed with tactical rails to accommodate scopes and other accessories. The Praxis and Nitron have accessories that are also compatible with other Nerf blasters. To further differentiate from the yellow-colored N-Strike and Dart Tag blasters, the Vortex blasters are colored kelly green and vermilion except the Pyragon, Revonix360, and Diatron, which are colored white, gray and vermilion.

Zombie Strike

Zombie Strike is a sub-line introduced in mid-2013 for fans of Humans vs. Zombies games. The sub-line consists of N-Strike Elite and Vortex blasters that sport post-apocalyptic designs. An N-Force sword is also included in the sub-line.

Combat Creatures

The Combat Creatures lineup is a joint project between Nerf and Wow! Stuff. It features remote-controlled robots that can fire Elite darts. The first robot, the Terradrone, was released in Fall 2014. There is now a new edition, the TerraScout; a fully automatic clip system remote controlled blaster-like drone that has the ability to fire darts. It comes packaged with a 720p video camera, which can be equipped and viewed through the remote on an integrated LCD screen; this can be doubled as a portable aiming device.

Rebelle

Rebelle is a sub-line introduced in fall 2013 aimed at the female demographic. As such, the Rebelle blasters incorporate feminine designs and pastel colors. Its slogan is Step Up and Stand Out.

Mega

Mega is a line of blasters which fire red-colored ammunition larger than elite darts in both size and diameter. Nerf had advertised them to fire at "mega" ranges of up to 100 feet. In addition, they are also designed to "whistle" through the air.

Rival

Rival is a line of ball blasters aimed at 14- to 20-year-old males that was released in the fall of 2015. The current line of blasters to be listed are the Zeus MXV-1200, Apollo XV-700, Khaos MXV-4000, Atlas MXV-1200 and the Artemis MXV-3000. Its ammunition can reach up to 100FPS.

Doomlands

Nerf Doomlands is a line of blasters set in a catastrophic future. They use N-strike elite streamline darts that are orange with a black tip. There are currently 3 blasters in this line and a sub-line called "Impact Zone" will be released fall 2016. The main line's blasters are orange with clear parts and the "Impact Zone" sub-line will have white blasters also with clear parts.

Accustrike

Accustrike is a line of Nerf blasters released in December 2016. It has darts designed for accuracy, with rifling in the dart tips. The blasters get less range then N-Strike Elite blasters, but with better accuracy.

The current blasters in the line are the AlphaHawk and the FalconFire.

Ammunition and accessories

All Nerf blasters come packaged with a set of foam darts or mega darts matched to fit into their chambers. However, refill darts are also available in packs of 16, 32, 36, 160 or 216, or with ammo boxes/bags, "clip" (magazine) or bandolier kits. With the exception of the Clip System blasters, most Nerf dart blasters are compatible with the different types of foam darts available; the Clip System blasters will only take Streamline darts, which have smaller diameter tips. In 2013, Elite darts became the new standard darts, as they are compatible with both regular and Clip System blasters.

Types of ammunition include:

• Suction darts - Blue or black-tipped foam darts with suction cups that stick to glass windows or flat surfaces. Also available in forest camouflage when purchased with the Ammo Bag.
• Whistler darts - Black-tipped darts with holes on their sides, which emit whistling sounds when fired. Also available in forest camouflage when purchased with the Ammo Bag.
• Sonic micro darts - Reverse-colored Whistler darts in black with orange tips. Currently, the Reflex IX-1 is the only blaster packaged with these darts, as other regular blasters come packaged with Whistler darts. Also available with the Ammo Box.
• Clip System (Streamline) darts - Orange-tipped darts with a smaller diameter, designed to fit in Clip System magazines. Also available in forest camouflage when purchased with the Ammo Bag.
• Glow-in-the-dark darts - White suction darts that glow in the dark. They only glow, though, if shot by certain blasters like the Firefly REV-8.
• Glow-in-the-dark Clip System darts - White Streamline darts that glow in the dark when exposed to a lighting system such as the Rayven CS-18's Firefly Tech magazines.
• Elite darts - Blue foam darts introduced in the N-Strike Elite line. They resemble the Streamline darts, but are slightly thicker in diameter.
• Glow-in-the-dark Elite darts - White Elite darts that glow in the dark when exposed to a lighting system such as the Elite Rayven CS-18's Firefly Tech magazine.
• Rebelle darts - Similar in shape to the Elite darts, but in pastel colors (including white, green, pink, purple and black) resembling those of the weapons of the Rebelle sub-line.
• High Impact Rounds (foam balls) - Similar to older ball blasters, these balls come in yellow. The balls are similar in shape to golf balls as they have dimples. Their range is better than normal darts and can sting a bit when fired.
• Mega darts - red-colored foam darts designed for the Nerf Mega line that are larger than Elite darts in both size and diameter. They are also designed to "whistle" through the air.
• Accustrike darts (expected spring 2017) - designed for accuracy

Numerous accessories for Nerf blasters are available separately or supplied with selected blasters. These consist of ammunition holders or attachments that enhance the functional or aesthetic elements of Nerf blasters, as well as some Super Soaker blasters.

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A & B High Performance Firearms was a competition pistol manufacturer. Products included the "Limited Class" and "Open Class" semi-automatic pistols, both available in .40 S&W and .45 ACP. A & B sold directly to consumers.

References

External links

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The Not in This Lifetime... tour is an ongoing series of concerts by hard rock band Guns N' Roses, featuring classic lineup members Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan, marking the first time since the Use Your Illusion Tour in 1993 that the three performed together.

After the previous tour in 2014, guitarists DJ Ashba & Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal, bassist Tommy Stinson and keyboardist Chris Pitman left Guns N' Roses, leaving the band with several open spots. Former members Slash and McKagan rejoined the band and Melissa Reese joined as keyboardist. The group embarked on the world tour that spanned several continents, with 100 shows performed or scheduled so far. The group welcomed former drummer Steven Adler to the stage for several shows as a guest spot, the first time he had played with the group since 1990. The tour was a financial success, grossing over $192 million, and was the highest earning per-show concert tour of 2016, and the fourth highest grossing.

Overview

Background

After their last tour ended in 2014, there was some uncertainty surrounding the band, especially the guitarist situation. Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal had hinted during the last part of the tour that these would be his last shows with Guns N’ Roses. However, after the tour ended, no official word on the situation was given, neither from Guns N’ Roses nor Thal himself. During several South American shows on the tour, Duff McKagan had filled in for bassist Tommy Stinson, who fulfilled previous commitments with his other band The Replacements.

Almost a year after the tour ended, on May 7, 2015 Slash revealed in an interview on CBS This Morning that much of the tension that had existed between Axl and himself was gone, saying: "Well, we haven't really talked in a long time. But a lot of the tension that you were talking about has dissipated. We don't have all those issues anymore." When asked specifically about the chances of Guns N' Roses reuniting, he said: "I gotta be careful what I say there. I mean, if everybody wanted to do it and do it for the right reasons, you know, I think the fans would love it. I think it might be fun at some point to try and do that, but…it just starts to get into a whole complex thing. But anyway, it's really between the guys in the band." This sparked the start of what would prove to be a long period of speculation on the reunion subject by both the fans and the media.

Suddenly, on July 27, 2015 the news broke that Guns N’ Roses’ second lead guitarist, DJ Ashba, was leaving the band. He wrote a letter explaining that he was going to focus his work on his other group, Sixx:A.M., which he had formed with bassist Nikki Sixx and vocalist James Michael in 2007. At the same time he thanked Rose for the opportunity he was given by playing with Guns N’ Roses and it seemed like they had left things on good terms. While this news story was picking up, it was at the same time confirmed by a representative of Guns N' Roses that Thal was officially out of the band. The leaving of both Ashba and Thal, combined with Slash’s comments on a reunion only a couple months before, further fueled both the media’s and the fans’ speculation about a reunion being in the works.

Furthermore, on August 22, 2015, Slash stated to the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, that Axl and he had spoken recently. This was considered a big news story because it was almost common knowledge that the two of them had not spoken together ever since he left the band in 1996. When asked about the re-connection with Rose, Slash commented "It was probably way overdue". Rumors of a reunited Guns N’ Roses started to pick up more and more during the fall of 2015. More reports came in claiming to have a confirmation that a reunion would happen, but no official statement was made during this period. One of the questions on people’s minds was if this was going to be a full reunion of the "classic line-up" or if it would be just one or two people from that line-up returning to the band. Steven Adler (the drummer from Guns N’ Roses’ "classic line-up") admitted during a radio interview with Eddie Trunk that he had not heard anything from Guns N’ Roses about a reunio n. Classic-era member Izzy Stradlin later confirmed to Rolling Stone that he will have no involvement with the new lineup. Former drummer Matt Sorum stated he was not asked to be part of the reunion, while departed guitarist Ashba claimed he was asked by Rose to be a part of the lineup but had turned it down, citing his commitment to Sixx:A.M. Stradlin explained his absence on the tour stating "they didn't want to split the loot equally".

Announcement

In late December 2015, the Guns N' Roses website was updated, scrapping much of the content and displaying the classic Guns N' Roses bullet-logo. The logo had not been used in official promotion since the Use Your Illusion days. Then, on Christmas Day, a teaser trailer debuted before the new Star Wars movie. The 15-second video showed black and white shots of a concert audience with the opening words of "Welcome to the Jungle" played. No additional narration or text accompanied the trailer.

On December 29, 2015, Billboard reported that Slash was set to rejoin the band and a "reunited" lineup would headline Coachella 2016. Rose was set to appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live! the following week to talk about the future of the band, but his appearance was cancelled due to "unforeseen circumstances". Guns N' Roses were officially announced as the headliner of Coachella on January 4, 2016, with KROQ reporting Slash and Duff McKagan were rejoining the band. The Coachella festival then confirmed via press release that McKagan and Slash were rejoining. April concerts in Las Vegas and Mexico City were announced subsequently.

The full tour announcement came on April 1, 2016, when the band announced 20 cities as part of a North American leg of the tour dubbed "Not in This Lifetime...". The tour's name is a reference to a 2012 interview in which Rose, when asked about when a potential reunion would happen, responded "not in this lifetime." The reunion was billed as a "regrouping" by the band instead of a full reunion, since Slash and McKagan were filling empty spots in the existing band lineup. Additional dates in Chicago, New England, New York, and Los Angeles were announced on April 25 due to shows selling out. On May 18, Alice In Chains and Lenny Kravitz were announced as openers for select shows of the tour. Two weeks before the tour began, The Cult, Chris Stapleton, Billy Talent, and Skrillex were announced as additional openers for select shows. On June 30, Wolfmother and Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown were announced for several shows. Zakk Wylde was added as an additional opener to the band's August 15 show in Glendale, Arizona.

Additional legs of the tour were announced throughout the year, including a Latin American leg and a leg covering Asia and Oceania. Babymetal was announced as openers for the Japanese shows in 2017. In late November, commercials started airing in the United States with footage from the tour with the tagline "They're back for more in 2017", teasing a return to North America. On December 5, the band announced 35 North American and European dates for 2017, including a return to St. Louis for the first time since the 1991 Riverport Riot.

On March 7, 2017 the band was announced as part of the 2017 edition of Rock in Rio, playing on September 23. A YouTube video was released promoting this announcement, revealing that the band would co-headline their day with The Who. This marks the fourth appearance by Guns N' Roses with the festival in Rio de Janeiro, with the second edition in 1991 being their first time there.

Notable events

While originally slated to commence in Las Vegas on April 8, 2016, a previously unannounced warmup gig at the Troubadour in Los Angeles took place on April 1, 2016. Rumors of the secret show had started the night before, and fans were starting to gather outside the old Tower Records building at Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. Rumblings that a ticket sale for the show would take place there started a line of people that grew during the night and into the early morning of April 1. Then, during the morning, the announcement came that the rumors were true and tickets for the club show would go on sale at 12 pm at the Tower Records building. They charged a $10 "retro" ticket price for the show. Later in the evening, as the band took the stage at the Troubadour, it was revealed that Melissa Reese, who has previously worked with former drummer Bryan "Brain" Mantia on several projects, had replaced longtime second keyboardist Chris Pitman for the tour. During the show at the Troubadou r, Rose fell and broke his foot. For the following concerts, Rose was given Dave Grohl's customized throne that Grohl used to perform when he broke his leg at a concert.

The band's first scheduled concerts with Slash and McKagan took place at the newly opened T-Mobile Arena on April 8 and 9, 2016. Alice in Chains were the opening act for the Las Vegas shows, while The Cult opened the first two shows outside the United States in Mexico City on April 19 and 20.

Former Skid Row singer Sebastian Bach joined the band on stage during the second of the two Las Vegas shows in April 2016, sharing the lead vocals with Rose on the song "My Michelle". Bach has guested on the same song in a similar fashion on many previous Guns N' Roses tours, but this was the first time performing it alongside the returned Slash and McKagan. Rose Tattoo singer Angry Anderson joined the band onstage to help them cover the Rose Tattoo song "Nice Boys" at their concert in Australia in February 2017.

On April 16, 2016, just hours before their performance at the Coachella Festival's first weekend was scheduled to start, the news broke that Rose would be joining AC/DC to fill in as the lead vocalist for the remaining dates of their Rock or Bust tour. Brian Johnson had to leave the group previously due to risk of hearing loss. During Guns N' Roses' show that night, AC/DC guitarist Angus Young guested with the band for performances of the AC/DC classics "Whole Lotta Rosie" and "Riff Raff", giving the audience an early preview of how the guitarist's sound and Rose's voice sounded together. Young joined the band for three more shows on the tour in early 2017.

During the April 23 Coachella concert, McKagan had Prince's symbol featured on his bass guitar as a tribute, due to his death just days prior. Rose talked about them being fans of Prince, but did not have enough time to get together a song of his to perform in honor of him. Instead, they dedicated the whole concert to his memory.

Steven Adler joined the band on stage for the first time in 26 years during the July 6, 2016 concert in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he performed "Out Ta Get Me" and "My Michelle". The drummer's last performance with the band was at the Farm Aid concert on April 7, 1990 in Indianapolis, Indiana, although he did perform alongside Slash, McKagan, Sorum and Gilby Clarke during Guns N' Roses' induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012, with Rose being absent from the ceremony. Previously, Adler was rumored to take part in the surprise April 1, 2016 show at the Troubadour before back surgery forced him to cancel. Adler repeated his appearance at the July 9, 2016 concert in Nashville, Tennessee. Towards the end of the North American trek, once again the drummer sat behind the drum set when performing the same two songs at the second of the two Dodger Stadium shows in Los Angeles, California. During the Latin American leg, Adler joined the band for a song each of the two nig hts in Buenos Aires.

When the band and crew were traveling between Philadelphia and Toronto on July 15, 2016, they were stopped and detained at the Canadian border for having a gun on board their transportation. Rose revealed this while on stage in Toronto on July 16, saying "... so we weren’t exactly arrested, we were detained", and further remarked of the customs officers "They were very nice. They were very nice". He then jokingly added "They were very understanding. You know, it happens -- you can forget you had a f---in' gun". A band representative later confirmed the story while adding that the gun did not belong to any member of the band. During a show in Mexico on November 30, the band invited several fans onstage to smash a large Donald Trump piñata. Rose had previously altered lyrics to "Civil War" during a concert to reference Trump.

Personnel

Guns N' Roses

• Axl Rose â€" lead vocals, piano
• Slash â€" lead guitar
• Duff McKagan â€" bass, backing vocals
• Dizzy Reed â€" keyboards, piano, backing vocals, percussion
• Richard Fortus â€" rhythm guitar, backing vocals
• Frank Ferrer â€" drums, percussion
• Melissa Reese â€" keyboards, synthesizers, backing vocals, percussion

Guest appearances

• Sebastian Bach (performed "My Michelle" during the April 9, 2016 concert.)
• Angus Young (performed "Whole Lotta Rosie" and "Riff Raff" during the April 16, 2016 and February 10, February 11 and February 14, 2017 concerts.)
• Steven Adler (performed "Out Ta Get Me" and/or "My Michelle" during the July 6, July 9, August 19 and November 4 and November 5, 2016 concerts.)
• Angry Anderson (performed "Nice Boys" during the February 11, 2017 concert.)

Concert broadcast and recordings

On April 8, 2016, before the first show at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Guns N' Roses posted a video in social media showing a recap of the event at the former Tower Records building and concert at the Troubadour in West Hollywood that took place a week earlier, on April 1. The three-minute video showed cuts from different songs played at the concert, as well as a time-lapse of the set-up of the Guns N' Roses museum that was temporarily placed inside the Tower Records building. Small snippets with comments from fans outside the museum was also featured in the clip.

The Coachella Festival had a live internet broadcast via YouTube of select performances during the first weekend of the festival. The Guns N' Roses concert was not shown in its entirety, but rather two songs from the set, namely "Welcome to the Jungle" and "November Rain". During the second weekend of the festival there was a 360° live feed from the festival, and again two songs from the Guns N' Roses set were selected for broadcast. This time they showed "November Rain" and "Knockin' on Heaven's Door".

Box Office

The first leg of the tour featured sold-out shows in West Hollywood, Las Vegas and Mexico City grossing a total of $15.5 million. In addition Guns N' Roses headlined one day each weekend of the Coachella Festival earning an unknown figure. On June 23, 2016 the second leg of the tour started, featuring stadiums in the United States as well as one show in Toronto, Canada. The box office numbers reported for the leg added up to $116.8 million, with twelve of the total 25 performances being sold-out shows. The Latin American leg yielded up to a total gross of $56.5 million with more than 565,000 tickets sold. They played 13 shows in 11 cities, selling out 8 of them. By the end of 2016 the band had played for over 1.8 million people and grossed $192 million. The 2017 European and North American legs of the tour sold one million tickets just 24 hours after going on sale in late 2016. The tour was the highest earning per-show concert tour in 2016, making $5.5 million per show, as well as the fourth highest grossing tour of 2016.

Additionally, the tour was the second highest grossing North American Tour (the highest grossing of any band) for 2016, grossing $130.8 million in North America. The shows at MetLife Stadium on July 23 and 24 were ranked as the 9th highest grossing of the year by Pollstar, earning a combined $11.2 million. The band also sold over 350,000 tickets in Australia and New Zealand.

Opening acts

Alice in Chains was the first band announced as an opening act on the tour. They played both of the Las Vegas shows in April 2016, while returning for select dates during the following summer leg of North America. Duff McKagan has ties with the band as he toured with the them in 2006 and also expressing interest in writing a biography on them. Another band with previous ties with Guns N’ Roses was selected for the Mexican dates in April â€" The Cult. As part of their Appetite for Destruction Tour, Guns N’ Roses opened for The Cult for a whole North American leg in August and September 1987. A later drummer of The Cult, Matt Sorum, would eventually join Guns N’ Roses in 1990 and stay until 1997. The Cult also returned to support the band during the summer of 2016.

Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown was selected for numerous dates both in North America and Singapore. Before opening for Guns N’ Roses they had been the opening band for AC/DC during the European leg of their Rock or Bust Tour in which Axl Rose served as the replacement singer. Chris Stapleton was a surprising selection as opener for the Nashville show, as Guns N’ Roses usually picks artists within the same music genre as themselves, though it proved a successful choice for the Tennessee audience. Wolfmother opened their first show on the tour on July 12 in Pittsburgh, and would continue to appear as a supporting act throughout the tour. The singer, Andrew Stockdale has a past working relationship with Slash, appearing on the 2010 single "By The Sword" from Slash’s first solo album.

Canadian punk rock band Billy Talent opened the only Canada date in Toronto during the summer North American leg of the tour. For the two double shows in Foxborough and East Rutherford, long-time friend of the band Lenny Kravitz was the supporting act. Slash has recorded with Kravitz in the past, noteably the first single from the album Mama Said, "Always On The Run". Kravitz has also appeared on stage with Guns N’ Roses before, during the June 6, 1992 Use Your Illusion Tour stop in Paris, France, where they played the single live. The guitarist/singer was also spotted in the audience of Guns N’ Roses’ April 1 surprise show at the Troubadour, where he said that he had re-connected with the band.

Another unusual choice as opening act was Skrillex, who performed in Houston, Texas on August 5. British band The Struts was handpicked to open the show in San Francisco on August 9. Similarly to Guns N' Roses, the band lists Queen and The Rolling Stones as influences on their music. At McKagan's homecoming show in Seattle on August 12, his daughter Grace's band The Pink Slips opened the event alongside Alice in Chains. Zakk Wylde has ties to Guns N' Roses back to 1995 when he was in the studio with the band. He was chosen as opener on the August 15 show. Wylde had also previously played as a guest with Guns N' Roses on stage back in 2011, where he also performed as an opening act with his band Black Label Society.

Stage design and show production

Planning and preparation for the tour started in January 2016. TAIT Towers was brought in by long time client production manager, Dale "Opie" Skjerset, to produce the stage and show itself. They have previously built and designed world tours with artists such as The Rolling Stones, Taylor Swift, U2 and Madonna. The set was designed by Phil Ealy, previously the light designer on the Use Your Illusion tour. They built a 71 ft. wide main stage including band risers, LED staircases made with P9 LED video tiles, LED fascia and amp stacks, and a self-climber piano lift used for Rose’s performance of “November Rain.” Additionally, they developed an 80 ft. automated video track truss system installed with power transmission units to automate Screenworks background video screens. TAIT Navigator, a proprietary automation platform, operated and controlled the self-climber piano lift as well as automated Screenworks’ video screens into variations of three to six columns.

The stage had staircases on each side as well as in the middle, leading up to the drum-kit. There was a walkway extending all the way around the drummer and two keyboardists, with staircases implemented into the riser, allowing the band members to freely move up amongst the keyboardists and the drummer during the show. At the center of the stage, there was a catwalk extending 28 ft. into the audience pit area hosting the self-climber piano lift. This catwalk was not assembled for the first seven shows as a result of Rose’s foot injury and he was subsequently forced to have a seat on the main stage instead. An extensive lighting rig was assembled in the center stage area which featured Atomic 3000 LED and MAC III AirFX fixtures by Martin. The band members wanted a stage show experience similar to their Use Your Illusion tour, with updated technology. Each side of the stage had big LED video screens, primarily used to show close-ups of the band during the show. Roughly 250 professional and local crew members (125 of each) were needed to set up the staging, speakers and video boards. The setup process took three days and more than 20 production trucks to transfer from each city. Additionally there were three fleets of 16 steel trucks each, carrying the skeleton of the stage, making them able to set up the basis of the stage in three different venues at any time.

Motion graphics agency Creative Works London were brought back to do the visuals package for the stage show after having worked on the 2014 tours of South America and the Las Vegas residency. The new footage and graphics included familiar elements associated with many of the songs, like animations of old-school TV sets with the band members’ skull drawings made famous by the cover of the Appetite For Destruction album. The TV sets were a throwback to the "Welcome to the Jungle" music video. "You Could Be Mine" graphics consisted of the band stylized as a resemblance to Terminators, influenced by the song having been used as the soundtrack on the Terminator 2 movie and original music video. Elements from the Chinese Democracy alternative art series were used in songs such as "Chinese Democracy" and "Catcher in the Rye". A set of changing backgrounds with rain and rose petals featured during "November Rain", whilst a black crow inspired from the official music video, was made to fly across the screens during "Don't Cry". Slash’s signature skull with a top-hat, smoking a cigarette, was displayed on the main screen during his solo performance of "The Godfather theme", with a similar skull graphic during Duff’s vocal performance. Pyrotechnics were used for a selection of the songs: "Welcome to the Jungle", "Live and Let Die", "Better", "November Rain" and "Paradise City" amongst a few more.

The intro to the show featured either the classic Guns N’ Roses bullet-logo made to look like a neon sign, blinking on the big screen on center stage, or an animated bullet-logo with the revolvers firing shots. The "Merrie Melodies" intro tune played, and then the whole venue went dark with the theme from The Equalizer playing over the PA system for a few minutes before the band then started the first song of the set. The show ended with a considerable amount of pyrotechnics on stage, and confetti was shot out over the crowd during the ending of "Paradise City". When they played outdoor venues, an extensive fireworks display was added.

Show overview

As this was a semi-reunion of the "classic line-up" of Guns N’ Roses, many were curious about which songs they would play at the concerts. Mainly if they would add songs from the Use Your Illusion albums to their setlist, and if they would continue to play songs from their latest release, the 2008 album Chinese Democracy â€" which Slash and McKagan were not a part of creating or recording. McKagan had previously performed songs from Chinese Democracy with Guns N' Roses in 2014, when he stepped in as a substitute for Tommy Stinson while he was busy playing shows with The Replacements.

After the first show â€" the surprise performance at the Troubadour â€" some questions were answered. They did bring back "Double Talkin’ Jive" from Use Your Illusion I, while they also played tracks from Chinese Democracy, "Chinese Democracy" and "Better". This development continued at the first arena-sized show at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas where they further extended the setlist with songs like "Coma" and "This I Love", where the former had not been performed by the band since 1993. "The Godfather theme", which used to be a staple Slash solo number during past tours, was also brought back into the set. A few shows into the first leg, during the second show in Mexico City, they debuted "There Was a Time", another song from the Chinese Democracy album. "Sorry" and "Catcher in the Rye" were later debuted during shows in July. It is also notable that Slash had altered some guitar parts of the songs from this album.

Core set

The band continued, as they had done in past tours, to keep the core set which included their most well-known songs. The core set largely consisted of songs from their debut album Appetite For Destruction, namely "Welcome to the Jungle", "It’s So Easy", "Nightrain", "Mr. Brownstone", "Paradise City", "Sweet Child o' Mine" and "Rocket Queen". The remaining core songs were tracks from the Use Your Illusion albums and Chinese Democracy. This included some of the aforementioned songs: the newly added "Double Talkin’ Jive", as well as "Chinese Democracy", "Better" and "This I Love". In addition, "Live and Let Die", "November Rain", "Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door", "Estranged", and "You Could Be Mine" were played at every concert (except "November Rain" and "Estranged", which were not played at the shorter club show at the Troubadour).

Opening songs

In all tours from 2001 and on, Guns N’ Roses had (with few exceptions) opened their show with either "Welcome to the Jungle" or "Chinese Democracy". For this tour, they changed things up and were now using the song "It’s So Easy" as the opening song. "Chinese Democracy" and "Welcome to the Jungle" took the number 3 and 4 spots in the set, with "Mr. Brownstone" being the second song played, as was common during their older tours.

Solo spots

In past tours, an extensive number of solo spots were a usual part of the setlist. They cut this down to a minimum, keeping the set quite tight with the performance of regular songs as the main focus. Slash did have a solo spot with "The Godfather theme", a guitar instrumental piece with the rest of the band backing up and functioning as a lead-in to "Sweet Child o' Mine". As a second new addition, Fortus and Slash were doing a guitar instrumental version of the Pink Floyd song "Wish You Were Here", which worked as a prelude to "November Rain". McKagan took the lead vocals during a regular spot in the set, singing a song from the Guns N' Roses punk cover album "The Spaghetti Incident?". From show to show, he alternated between "New Rose" â€" the debut single of the British punk rock group The Damned, "Raw Power" â€" a song by Iggy Pop and the Stooges which he had previously performed at some of the Guns N' Roses shows in 2014, and "Attitude" â€" a Misfits song he played reg ularly on the Use Your Illusion Tour and in 2014.

Encore

The band ended their concerts with the song "Paradise City", but the total length of the encore set varied. The songs included in this set, with the exception of "Paradise City", were different ones from show to show, including "The Seeker", "Patience", "Don't Cry", "Yesterdays", "Used To Love Her", "Catcher In The Rye" and "Sorry" in various combinations.

Show setlists

Leg 1

Leg 2

Leg 3

Leg 4

Leg 5

Leg 6

Leg 7

Tour dates

References

Notes

Citations

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The Man with the Golden Gun is a 1974 British spy film, the ninth entry in the James Bond series and the second to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. A loose adaptation of Ian Fleming's novel of same name, the film has Bond sent after the Solex Agitator, a device that can harness the power of the sun, while facing the assassin Francisco Scaramanga, the "Man with the Golden Gun". The action culminates in a duel between them that settles the fate of the Solex.

The Man with the Golden Gun was the fourth and final film in the series directed by Guy Hamilton. The script was written by Richard Maibaum and Tom Mankiewicz. The film was set in the face of the 1973 energy crisis, a dominant theme in the script. Britain had still not yet fully overcome the crisis when the film was released in December 1974. The film also reflects the then popular martial arts film craze, with several kung fu scenes and a predominantly Asian location, being set and shot in Thailand, Hong Kong, and Macau. Part of the film is also set in Beirut, Lebanon, but it was not shot there.

The film saw mixed reviews. Christopher Lee's performance as Scaramanga, intended to be a villain of similar skill and ability to Bond, was praised, but reviewers criticized the film as a whole, particularly the comedic approach, and some critics described it as the lowest point in the canon. Although the film was profitable, it is the fourth lowest grossing Bond film in the series. It was also the last film to be co-produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, with Saltzman selling his 50% stake in Danjaq, LLC, the parent company of Eon Productions, after the release of the film.

Plot

In London, a golden bullet with James Bond's code "007" etched into its surface is received by MI6. It is believed that it was sent by famed assassin Francisco Scaramanga, who uses a golden gun, to intimidate the agent. Because of the perceived threat to the agent's life, M relieves Bond of a mission revolving around the work of a scientist named Gibson, thought to be in possession of information crucial to solving the energy crisis with solar power. Bond sets out unofficially to find Scaramanga.

After retrieving a spent golden bullet from a belly dancer in Beirut and tracking its manufacturer to Macau, Bond sees Andrea Anders, Scaramanga's mistress, collecting the shipment of golden bullets at a casino. Bond follows her to Hong Kong and in her Peninsula Hotel room pressures her to tell him about Scaramanga, his appearance and his plans; she directs him to the Bottoms Up Club. The club proves to be the location of Scaramanga's next 'hit', Gibson, from whom Scaramanga's dwarf henchman Nick Nack steals the "Solex agitator", a key component of a solar power station. Before Bond can assert his innocence, however, Lieutenant Hip escorts him away from the scene, taking him to meet M and Q in a hidden headquarters in the wreck of the RMS Queen Elizabeth in the harbour. M assigns 007 to retrieve the Solex Agitator.

Bond then travels to Bangkok to meet Hai Fat, a wealthy Thai entrepreneur suspected of arranging Gibson's murder. Bond poses as Scaramanga, but his plan backfires because unbeknown to him, Scaramanga himself is operating at Hai Fat's estate. 007 is captured and placed in Fat's dojo, where the fighters are instructed to kill him. After escaping with the aid of Hip and his nieces, Bond speeds away on a long tail boat along the river and reunites with his assistant Mary Goodnight. Scaramanga subsequently kills Hai Fat and usurps control of his empire, taking the Solex with him.

Anders visits Bond, revealing that she had sent the bullet to London and wants Bond to kill Scaramanga. In payment, she promises to hand the Solex over to him at a Muay Thai venue the next day. At the match, Bond discovers Anders dead and meets Scaramanga. Bond spots the Solex on the floor and is able to smuggle it away to Hip, who passes it to Goodnight. Attempting to place a homing device on Scaramanga's car, she is locked into the vehicle's boot. Bond sees Scaramanga driving away and steals an AMC showroom car to give chase, coincidentally with vacationing Sheriff J.W. Pepper seated within it. Bond and Pepper follow Scaramanga in a car chase across Bangkok, which concludes when Scaramanga's car transforms into a plane, which flies him, Nick Nack and Goodnight to his private island.

Picking up Goodnight's tracking device, Bond flies a seaplane into Red Chinese waters and lands at Scaramanga's island. Scaramanga welcomes Bond and shows him the solar power plant operation that he has taken over, the technology for which he intends to sell to the highest bidder. While demonstrating the equipment, Scaramanga uses a powerful energy beam to destroy Bond's plane.

Scaramanga then proposes a pistol duel with Bond on the beach; the two men stand back to back and are instructed by Nick Nack to take twenty paces, but when Bond turns and fires, Scaramanga has vanished. Nick Nack leads Bond into Scaramanga's Funhouse where Bond stands in the place of a mannequin of himself; when Scaramanga walks by, Bond takes him by surprise and kills him. Goodnight, in waylaying one of Scaramanga's henchmen who falls into a pool of liquid helium, upsets the balance of the solar plant, which begins to go out of control. Bond retrieves the Solex unit just before the island explodes, and they escape unharmed in Scaramanga's Chinese junk. Bond then fends off a final attack by Nick Nack, who had smuggled himself aboard, subduing him.

Cast

• Roger Moore as James Bond: An MI6 agent who receives a golden bullet, supposedly from Scaramanga, indicating that he is a target of Scaramanga.
• Christopher Lee as Francisco Scaramanga: The main villain and assassin who is identified by his use of a golden gun; he also has a 'superfluous papilla', or supernumerary nipple. Scaramanga plans to misuse solar energy for destructive purposes. Lee was Ian Fleming's step-cousin and regular golf partner. Scaramanga has been called "the best-characterised Bond villain yet."
• Britt Ekland as Mary Goodnight: Bond's assistant. Described by the critic of The Sunday Mirror as being "an astoundingly stupid blonde British agent". Ekland had previously been married to Peter Sellers, who appeared in the 1967 Bond film, Casino Royale.
• Maud Adams as Andrea Anders: Scaramanga's mistress. Adams described the role as "a woman without a lot of choices: she's under the influence of this very rich, strong man, and is fearing for her life most of the time; and when she actually rebels against him and defects is a major step." The Man with the Golden Gun was the first of three Bond films in which Maud Adams appeared; in 1983, she played a different character, Octopussy, in the film of the same name. She would also later have a cameo as an extra in Roger Moore's last Bond film, A View to a Kill.
• Hervé Villechaize as Nick Nack: Scaramanga's dwarf manservant and accomplice. Villechaize was later known to television audiences as Tattoo, in the series Fantasy Island.
• Richard Loo as Hai Fat: A Thai millionaire industrialist who was employing Scaramanga to assassinate the inventor of the "Solex" (a revolutionary solar energy device) and steal the device.
• Soon-Tek Oh as Lieutenant Hip: Bond's local contact in Hong Kong and Bangkok. Soon-Tek Oh trained in martial arts for the role, and his voice was partially dubbed over.
• Clifton James as Sheriff J.W. Pepper: A Louisiana sheriff who happens to be on holiday in Thailand. Hamilton liked Pepper in the previous film, Live and Let Die, and asked Mankewicz to write him into The Man with the Golden Gun as well. Pepper's inclusion has been seen as one of "several ill-advised lurches into comedy" in the film.
• Bernard Lee as M: The head of MI6.
• Marc Lawrence as Rodney: An American gangster who attempts to outshoot Scaramanga in his funhouse. Lawrence also appeared in Diamonds Are Forever.
• Desmond Llewelyn as Q: The head of MI6's technical department.
• Marne Maitland as Lazar: A Portuguese gunsmith based in Macau who manufactures golden bullets for Scaramanga.
• Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny.
• James Cossins as Colthorpe: An MI6 armaments expert who identifies the maker of Scaramanga's golden bullets. The first draft of the script originally called the role Boothroyd until it was realised that was also Q's name and it was subsequently changed.
• Carmen du Sautoy as Saida: A Beirut belly dancer. Saida was originally written as overweight and wearing excessive make-up, but the producers decided to cast a woman closer to the classic Bond girl.

Production

Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman intended to follow You Only Live Twice with The Man with the Golden Gun, inviting Roger Moore to the Bond role. However, filming was planned in Cambodia, and the Samlaut Uprising made filming impractical, leading to the production being cancelled. On Her Majesty's Secret Service was produced instead with George Lazenby as Bond. Lazenby's next Bond film, Saltzman told a reporter, would be either The Man with the Golden Gun or Diamonds Are Forever. The producers chose the latter title, with Sean Connery returning as Bond.

Broccoli and Saltzman then decided to start production on The Man with the Golden Gun after Live and Let Die. This was the final Bond film to be co-produced by Saltzman as his partnership with Broccoli was dissolved after the film's release. Saltzman sold his 50% stake in Eon Productions's parent company, Danjaq, LLC, to United Artists to alleviate his financial problems. The resulting legalities over the Bond property delayed production of the next Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me, for three years.

The novel is mostly set in Jamaica, a location which had been already used in the earlier films, Dr. No and Live and Let Die; The Man with the Golden Gun saw a change in location to put Bond in the Far East for the second time. After considering Beirut, where part of the film is set, Iran, where the location scouting was done but eventually discarded because of the Yom Kippur War, and the Hạ Long Bay in Vietnam, the production team chose Thailand as a primary location, following a suggestion of production designer Peter Murton after he saw pictures of the Phuket bay in a magazine. Saltzman was happy with the choice of the Far East for the setting as he had always wanted to go on location in Thailand and Hong Kong. During the reconnaissance of locations in Hong Kong, Broccoli saw the wreckage of the former RMS Queen Elizabeth and came up with the idea of using it as the base for MI6's Far East operations.

Writing and themes

Tom Mankiewicz wrote a first draft for the script in 1973, delivering a script that was a battle of wills between Bond and Scaramanga, who he saw as Bond's alter ego, "a super-villain of the stature of Bond himself." Tensions between Mankiewicz and Guy Hamilton and Mankiewicz's growing sense that he was "feeling really tapped out on Bond" led to the re-introduction of Richard Maibaum as the Bond screenwriter.

Maibaum, who had worked on six Bond films previously, delivered his own draft based on Mankiewicz's work. Much of the plot involving Scaramanga being Bond's equal was sidelined in later drafts. For one of the two main aspects of the plot, the screenwriters used the 1973 energy crisis as a backdrop to the film, allowing the MacGuffin of the "Solex agitator" to be introduced; Broccoli's stepson Michael G. Wilson researched solar power to create the Solex.

While Live and Let Die had borrowed heavily from the blaxploitation genre, The Man with the Golden Gun borrowed from the martial arts genre that was popular in the 1970s through films such as Fist of Fury (1972) and Enter the Dragon (1973). However, the use of the martial arts for a fight scene in the film "lapses into incredibility" when Lt Hip and his two nieces defeat an entire dojo.

Casting

Originally, the role of Scaramanga was offered to Jack Palance, but he turned the opportunity down. Christopher Lee, who was eventually chosen to portray Scaramanga, was Ian Fleming's step-cousin and Fleming had suggested Lee for the role of Dr. Julius No in the 1962 series opener Dr. No. Lee noted that Fleming was a forgetful man and by the time he mentioned this to Broccoli and Saltzman they had cast Joseph Wiseman in the part. Due to filming on location in Bangkok, his role in the film affected Lee's work the following year, as director Ken Russell was unable to sign Lee to play Specialist in the 1975 film Tommy, a part eventually given to Jack Nicholson.

Two Swedish models were cast as the Bond girls, Britt Ekland and Maud Adams. Ekland had been interested in playing a Bond girl since she had seen Dr. No, and contacted the producers about the main role of Mary Goodnight. Hamilton met Adams in New York, and cast her because "she was elegant and beautiful that it seemed to me she was the perfect Bond girl". When Ekland read the news that Adams had been cast for The Man with the Golden Gun, she became upset, thinking Adams had been selected to play Goodnight. Broccoli then called Ekland to invite her for the main role, as after seeing her in a film, Broccoli thought Ekland's "generous looks" made her a good contrast to Adams. Hamilton decided to put Marc Lawrence, whom he had worked with on Diamonds Are Forever, to play a gangster shot dead by Scaramanga at the start of the film, because he found it an interesting idea to "put sort of a Chicago gangster in the middle of Thailand".

Filming

Filming commenced on 6 November 1973 at the partly submerged wreck of the RMS Queen Elizabeth, which acted as a top-secret MI6 base grounded in Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong. The crew was small, and a stunt double was used for James Bond. Other Hong Kong locations included the Hong Kong Dragon Garden as the estate of Hai Fat, which portrayed a location in Bangkok. The major part of principal photography started on 18 April 1974 in Thailand. Thai locations included Bangkok, Thon Buri, Phuket and the nearby Phang Nga Province, on the islands of Ko Khao Phing Kan (Thai: เกาะเขาพิงกัน) and Ko Tapu (Thai: เกาะตะปู). Scaramanga's hideout is on Ko Khao Phing Kan, and Ko Tapu is often now referred to as James Bond Island both by locals and in tourist guidebooks. The scene during the boxing match used an actual Muay Thai fixture at the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium.

"[A] car chase [in Bangkok occurred] near a [canal or] khlong on Krung Kasem Road".

In late April, production returned to Hong Kong, and also shot in Macau, as the island is famous for its casinos, which Hong Kong does not have. As some scenes in Thailand had to be finished, and also production had to move to studio work in Pinewood Studiosâ€"which included sets such as Scaramanga's solar energy plant and island interiorâ€" Academy Award winner Oswald Morris was hired to finish the job after cinematographer Ted Moore became ill. Morris was initially reluctant, as he did not like his previous experiences taking over other cinematographers' work, but accepted after dining with Broccoli. Production wrapped in Pinewood in August 1974.

One of the main stunts in the film consisted of stunt driver "Bumps" Willard (as James Bond) driving an AMC Hornet leaping a broken bridge and spinning around 360 degrees in mid-air about the longitudinal axis, doing an "aerial twist"; Willard successfully completed the jump on the first take. The stunt was shown in slow motion as the scene was too fast. Composer John Barry added a slide whistle sound effect over the stunt, which Broccoli kept in despite thinking that it "undercouped the stunt". Barry later regretted his decision, thinking the whistle "broke the golden rule" as the stunt was "for what it was all worth, a truly dangerous moment, ... true James Bond style". The sound effect was described as "simply crass". The writer Jim Smith suggested that the stunt "brings into focus the lack of excitement in the rest of the film and is spoilt by the use of 'comedy' sound effects." Eon Productions had licensed the stunt, which had been designed by Raymond McHenry. It was initial ly conceived at Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory (CAL) in Buffalo, New York as a test for their vehicle simulation software. After development in simulation, ramps were built and the stunt was tested at CAL's proving ground. It toured as part of the All American Thrill Show as the Astro Spiral before it was picked up for the film. The television programme Top Gear attempted to repeat the stunt in June 2008, but failed. The scene where Scaramanga's Matador flies was shot at Bovington Camp, with a model inspired by an actual car plane prototype. Bond's duel with Scaramanga, which Mankewicz said was inspired by the climactic faceoff in Shane, was shortened as the producers felt it was causing pacing problems. The trailers featured some of the cut scenes.

Hamilton adapted an idea of his involving Bond in Disneyland for Scaramanga's funhouse. The funhouse was designed to be a place where Scaramanga could get the upper hand by distracting the adversary with obstacles, and was described by Murton as a "melting pot of ideas" which made it "both a funhouse and a horror house". While an actual wax figure of Roger Moore was used, Moore's stunt double Les Crawford was the cowboy figure, and Ray Marione played the Al Capone figure. The canted sets such as the funhouse and the Queen Elizabeth had inspiration from German Expressionism films such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. For Scaramanga's solar power plant, Hamilton used both the Pinewood set and a miniature projected by Derek Meddings, often cutting between each other to show there was no discernible difference. The destruction of the facility was a combination of practical effects on the set and a destruction of the miniature. Meddings based the island blowing up on foota ge of the Battle of Monte Cassino.

Golden Gun prop

Three Golden Gun props were made; a solid piece, one that could be fired with a cap and one that could be assembled and disassembled, although Christopher Lee said that the process "was extremely difficult." The gun was "one of the more memorable props in the Bond series" and consisted of an interlocking fountain pen (the barrel), cigarette lighter (the bullet chamber), cigarette case (the handle) and cufflink (the trigger) with the bullet secured in Scaramanga's belt buckle. The gun was designed to accept a single 4.2-millimeter, 23-carat gold bullet produced by Lazar, a gunsmith in Macau who specialized in custom weapons and ammunition. The Golden Gun ranked sixth in a 2008 20th Century Fox poll of the most popular film weapons, which surveyed approximately 2,000 film fans.

On 10 October 2008, it was discovered that one of the golden guns used in the film, which is estimated to be worth around £80,000, was missing (suspected stolen) from Elstree Props, a company based at Hertfordshire studios.

Music

The theme tune to The Man with the Golden Gun, released in 1974, was performed by Scottish singer Lulu and composed by John Barry. Tony Bramwell, who worked for Harry Saltzman's music-publishing company "Hilary Music", wanted Elton John or Cat Stevens to sing the title song. However, by this time the producers were taking turns producing the films; Albert Broccoli â€" whose turn it was to produce â€" rejected Bramwell's suggestions. The lyrics to the Lulu song were written by Don Black and have been described variously as "ludicrous", "inane" and "one long stream of smut", because of its sexual innuendo. Bramwell subsequently dismissed the Barry-Lulu tune as "mundane".

Alice Cooper wrote a song titled "Man with the Golden Gun" to be used by the producers of the film, but they opted for Lulu's song instead. Cooper released his song in his album Muscle of Love.

Barry had only three weeks to score The Man with the Golden Gun and the theme tune and score are generally considered by critics to be among the weakest of Barry's contributions to the seriesâ€"an opinion shared by Barry himself: "It's the one I hate most ... it just never happened for me." The Man with the Golden Gun was also the first to drop the distinctive plucked guitar from the theme heard over the gun barrel opening. A sample from one of the songs, "Hip's Trip", was used by The Prodigy in the "Mindfields" track on the album The Fat of the Land.

Release and reception

The Man with the Golden Gun was premiered at the Odeon Leicester Square in London on 19 December 1974, with general release in the United Kingdom the same day. The film was made with an estimated budget of $7 million; despite initial good returns from the box office, The Man with the Golden Gun grossed a total of $97.6 million at the worldwide box office, with $21 million earned in the USA, making it the fourth lowest-grossing Bond film in the series.

The promotion of the film had "one of the more anaemic advertising campaigns of the series" and there were few products available, apart from the soundtrack and paperback book, although Lone Star Toys produced a "James Bond 007 pistol" in gold; this differed from the weapon used by Scaramanga in the film as it was little more than a Walther P38 with a silencer fitted.

Contemporary reviews

The Man with the Golden Gun met with mixed reviews upon its release. Derek Malcolm in The Guardian savaged the film, saying that "the script is the limpest of the lot and ... Roger Moore as 007 is the last man on earth to make it sound better than it is." There was some praise from Malcolm, although it was muted, saying that "Christopher Lee ... makes a goodish villain and Britt Ekland a passable Mary Goodnight ... Up to scratch in production values ... the film is otherwise merely a potboiler. Maybe enough's enough." Tom Milne, writing in The Guardian's sister paper, The Observer was even more caustic, writing that "This series, which has been scraping the bottom of the barrel for some time, is now through the bottom ... with depressing borrowings from Hong Kong kung fu movies, not to mention even more depressing echoes of the 'Carry On' smut." He summed up the film by saying it was "sadly lacking in wit or imagination."

David Robinson, the film critic at The Times dismissed the film and Moore's performance, saying that Moore was "substituting non-acting for Connery's throwaway", while Britt Ekland was "his beautiful, idiot side-kick ... the least appealing of the Bond heroines." Robinson was equally damning of the changes in the production crew, observing that Ken Adam, an "attraction of the early Bond films," had been "replaced by decorators of competence but little of his flair." The writers "get progressively more naive in their creation of a suburban dream of epicureanism and adventure." Writing for The New York Times, Nora Sayre considered the film to suffer from "poverty of invention and excitement", criticising the writing and Moore's performance and finding Villechaize and Lee as the only positive points for their "sinister vitality that cuts through the narrative dough."

The Sunday Mirror critic observed that The Man with the Golden Gun "isn't the best Bond ever" but found it "remarkable that Messrs. Saltzman and Broccoli can still produce such slick and inventive entertainment". Arthur Thirkwell, writing in the Sunday Mirror's sister paper, the Daily Mirror concentrated more on lead actor Roger Moore than the film itself: "What Sean Connery used to achieve with a touch of sardonic sadism, Roger Moore conveys with roguish schoolboy charm and the odd, dry quip." Thirkwell also said that Moore "manages to make even this reduced-voltage Bond a character with plenty of sparkle." Judith Crist of New York Magazine gave a positive review, saying "the scenery's grand, the lines nice and the gadgetry entertaining", also describing the production as a film that "capture[s] the free-wheeling, whooshing non-sense of early Fleming's fairy tale for grown-ups orientation".

Jay Cocks, writing in Time, focused on gadgets such as Scaramanga's flying car, as what is wrong with both The Man with the Golden Gun and the more recent films in the Bond series, calling them "Overtricky, uninspired, these exercises show the strain of stretching fantasy well past wit." Cocks also criticised the actors, saying that Moore "lacks all Connery's strengths and has several deep deficiencies", while Lee was "an unusually unimpressive villain".

Reflective reviews

Opinion on The Man with the Golden Gun has not changed with the passing of time: as of November 2015, the film holds a 45% rating from Rotten Tomatoes (although these contain contemporary reviews), while Ian Freer of Empire found the film "an entertaining 007 adventure, something that tonally, if not qualitatively, could happily sit within the Connery era." IGN chose The Man with the Golden Gun as the worst Bond film, claiming it "has a great concept ... but the execution is sloppy and silly", and Entertainment Weekly chose it as the fourth worst, saying that the "plot is almost as puny as the sidekick". On the other hand, Norman Wilner of MSN chose it as the tenth best, with much praise for Christopher Lee's performance.

Some critics saw the film as uninspired, tired and boring. Roger Moore was also criticised for playing Bond against type, in a style more reminiscent of Sean Connery, although Lee's performance received acclaim. Danny Peary wrote that The Man with the Golden Gun "lacks invention ... is one of the least interesting Bond films" and "a very laboured movie, with Bond a stiff bore, Adams and Britt Ekland uninspired leading ladies". Peary believes that the shootout between Bond and Scaramanga in the funhouse "is the one good scene in the movie, and even it has an unsatisfying finish" and also bemoaned the presence of Clifton James, "unfortunately reprising his unfunny redneck sheriff from Live and Let Die."

Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly argues that Scaramanga is the best villain of the Roger Moore James Bond films, while listing Mary Goodnight among the worst Bond girls, saying that "Ekland may have had one of the series' best bikinis, but her dopey, doltish portrayal was a turnoff as much to filmgoers as to fans of Ian Fleming's novels". The Times put Scaramanga as the fifth best Bond villain in their list, and Ekland was the third in their list of the top 10 most fashionable Bond girls. Maxim listed Goodnight at fourth in their Top Bond Babes list, saying that "Agent Goodnight is the clumsiest spy alive. But who cares as long as she's using her perfect bikini bottom to muck things up?"

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