Paintball Planet/Planet Eclipse was founded in 1991 in the Uk and boasts a lead designer by the name of Jack Wood. Over the years, PE has brought a range of innovative products to the cocker field - and worked together with Worr Games to keep a factory warranty (as did Belsales).
Early models starting in the mid 90's often featured elaborate splash annodizing that is very similar to their peers at Belsales (who seem to have shared a lot of parts of the years). Trigger jobs, upgraded pneumatics, and a matching Smart Parts barrel brought the tab up to ~$1000. They are easily spotted by the shark gill windows cut through the bolt tube, and matching cuts on the bottom tube. If that isn't enough, they have an Eclipse decal and later laser engraving on the body. Additionally, the site rail is milled down to the body, and the shroud is often unmilled.
The next series of bodies in the early 00's also offered relatively subtle milling at a time when crazy milling was being explored more by shops such as Boston Paintball. It will stand out with its 60 degree slants in the main body, and sight rail milling. Also of note with these is that Planet Eclipse continued to use WGP bodies, so their official serial number was still intact. Added features included a reverse "P" block, a tapered verticle adapter with a timing rod support set screw, and later WGP threaded feednecks and their famous E-blade - which arrived in late 2002. Along with Racegun's frame, the E-blade really brough renewed energy to the autococker line and gave them a period back at the forefront of the tournament circuit. This model was originally only offered in 3 fades, 3 splashes, and one solid color.
That changed in 2002 when Eclipse offered a limited run of ~10 "aurora" markers. Possibly the most rare/famous limited production run, it is the result not of anodizing, but of a method of plating called spectrum physical vapor disposition that requires between 20k and 40k volts to pass through the piece. It ends up looking like an oil slick and Eclipse had to stop making them because the high voltage led to high failure rates which made the cost to producing them prohibitive.
Eclipse's last line was the Factory & Nexus autocockers, and subsequently their Directors Cut DC1 & DC2 lines. All of these models came with E-blades on them, and offered some high end features such as: integrated front blocks (like on a Rudy Dean cocker), a ram bracket, a channel for the solenoid wire to go to the E-blade frame, and QEV's. On later DC2 models they also included an integrated beaver tail/snatch grip on the included E-blade 2 frame. These were the most high tech (non half blocked) autocockers ever produced.
In 2005 PE left the autococker market. In an interview on PaintHR, Jack Wood summarized the decision:
PaintHR: Why did planet eclipse leave the cocker platform?
Jack Wood: For many reasons. We wanted to produce our own gun. To do that you cannot endorse and improve a rival product. It would be like Mercedes AMG having a tuning factory to work on BMWs. It is just not good business sense. Plus WGP was in a time of upheaval with its sale to K” and they were becoming more difficult to work with.
Early models starting in the mid 90's often featured elaborate splash annodizing that is very similar to their peers at Belsales (who seem to have shared a lot of parts of the years). Trigger jobs, upgraded pneumatics, and a matching Smart Parts barrel brought the tab up to ~$1000. They are easily spotted by the shark gill windows cut through the bolt tube, and matching cuts on the bottom tube. If that isn't enough, they have an Eclipse decal and later laser engraving on the body. Additionally, the site rail is milled down to the body, and the shroud is often unmilled.
The next series of bodies in the early 00's also offered relatively subtle milling at a time when crazy milling was being explored more by shops such as Boston Paintball. It will stand out with its 60 degree slants in the main body, and sight rail milling. Also of note with these is that Planet Eclipse continued to use WGP bodies, so their official serial number was still intact. Added features included a reverse "P" block, a tapered verticle adapter with a timing rod support set screw, and later WGP threaded feednecks and their famous E-blade - which arrived in late 2002. Along with Racegun's frame, the E-blade really brough renewed energy to the autococker line and gave them a period back at the forefront of the tournament circuit. This model was originally only offered in 3 fades, 3 splashes, and one solid color.
That changed in 2002 when Eclipse offered a limited run of ~10 "aurora" markers. Possibly the most rare/famous limited production run, it is the result not of anodizing, but of a method of plating called spectrum physical vapor disposition that requires between 20k and 40k volts to pass through the piece. It ends up looking like an oil slick and Eclipse had to stop making them because the high voltage led to high failure rates which made the cost to producing them prohibitive.
Eclipse's last line was the Factory & Nexus autocockers, and subsequently their Directors Cut DC1 & DC2 lines. All of these models came with E-blades on them, and offered some high end features such as: integrated front blocks (like on a Rudy Dean cocker), a ram bracket, a channel for the solenoid wire to go to the E-blade frame, and QEV's. On later DC2 models they also included an integrated beaver tail/snatch grip on the included E-blade 2 frame. These were the most high tech (non half blocked) autocockers ever produced.
In 2005 PE left the autococker market. In an interview on PaintHR, Jack Wood summarized the decision:
PaintHR: Why did planet eclipse leave the cocker platform?
Jack Wood: For many reasons. We wanted to produce our own gun. To do that you cannot endorse and improve a rival product. It would be like Mercedes AMG having a tuning factory to work on BMWs. It is just not good business sense. Plus WGP was in a time of upheaval with its sale to K” and they were becoming more difficult to work with.