MacDev Droid
Released in 2007 the Droid was MacDev’s first foray into modern spool valve paintball markers and what a statement it was. Compact and light this great shooting marker was well received by tournament players across the world.
Some players did criticise the design because of the large number of o-rings in the spool valve assembly though. Personally I have no issue with this. The only o-rings that need replacing in my experience are the bolt bumper and tip o-rings and then only occasionally. If you clean and lube the Droid on a regular basis you will have no issues.
My only real quibble with the design is the small screw in the top of the receiver that must be removed before the spool valve can be pulled out of the back of the marker once the back cap is unscrewed. It just seems out of place in an otherwise elegant design.
The Droid is also from an era before displays were all that common. This means that a tedious sequence of flashes and colours from a single LED are required to program it. The original boards were also limited to a minimum of 11 bps which made them ineligible for many of today’s capped tournaments (replacement boards did become available but by then the world had moved on).
All in all this is still one of my favourite paintball markers.