��The Glock 26 comes from a family of new Glock designs, commonly called "Baby Glocks" due to their small size. The 26 in particular is a 9mm Glock that practically fits in the palm of your hand, and yet has a ten round magazine coupled with Glock's famous reliability. It can also accept larger Glock magazines if more firepower is needed. A real Glock 26 only weighs 20 ounces unloaded, which is considerably lighter than most any other 9mm handgun on the market.

Appearance

��Academy's Glock 26 Airsoft is kind of disappointing in the appearance department. It is cast in a light grey plastic, and it seems a little too shiny on top of that. Also, the proportions seem a little off somehow - the grip looks a little funny to me. I don't have a real G26 in front of me to compare, so I'm just going on a hunch. The sights on this are molded to resemble Glock adjustable sights, which is odd; I don't think any of the Baby Glocks ever come with adjustable sights. What would be the point? The sights are really low profile, which makes target acquisition a little difficult when time is of the essence, or under low light conditions. Of course, this is a sub-compact pistol which is designed primarily for in-close instinctive shooting. This is not a primary combat handgun - it is a last resort backup gun, or for deep cover concealed carry use. The magazine looks fine but is also victim to the shiny grey plastic effect.

UPDATE: I have heard from several people that Korean regulations dictate that the materials to be used in airsoft guns should differ significantly in appearance to those of the real gun, which is why this particular (Korean-made) airsoft has such a different appearance.

NEW UPDATE 9-23-00: I just had a chance to compare Academy's Glock 26 airsoft with the real thing. Aside from the obvious differences (weight, material, etc.), my earlier hunch about the shape of the grip turns out to be correct. The back of the airsoft's grip is straighter than that of the real G26. One big difference is that the whole front of the real Glock is longer than the airsoft - the barrel, slide, frame, and even the trigger guard extend farther forward on the real steel. This makes the airsoft more compact than the real thing, but that's not necessarily bad considering the pistol's likely role in deep cover applications. This particular actual Glock 26 had night sights, which are the same night sights that appear on other Glocks. The low adjustable-style sights on the airsoft still seem out of place. I did take two reference photos of the comparison:

Function

��This pistol functions exactly like Tokyo Marui's Glock pistols - even the safety is the same. The slide requires the same amount of effort to pull back as Marui's guns. You can even use Marui Glock magazines in this one if you want increased firepower. Firepower is definitely an issue here since the Academy Glock 26 magazine only holds nine BBs as opposed to a Marui's twenty or so. As noted before, the sights are a little inadequate, but that's not such a big issue with a pistol like this. The magazine loads differently than a Marui mag; this one you have to pull the BB follower down along the front of the magazine and load BB's into a loading slot while holding the magazine upside down. All the extra space in the magazine is for what? They could at least have thrown a weight in there and made it a heavy-weight model. The Glock 26 functioned flawlessly during the accuracy and power tests with both its own magazine and a Marui Glock 17 magazine. As far as power goes: This pistol leaves a lot to be desired. It has the same amount of space available for a piston and spring, so why can't it be as powerful as Marui's Glock 17? The barrel's about and inch and a half shorter than a Glock 17, but that shouldn't affect power that much. The Hop-up on this pistol seems to have little effect; perhaps I ruined the rubber patch when I was cleaning the paint out of the barrel though. Whoever painted the Glock 26's barrel orange got a little crazy with the paint and I had to soak patches in paint thinner and run them down the barrel to get all the paint out. In retrospect, this probably did ruin the Hop-up patch, but if I hadn't cleaned the paint out of the barrel, it might not have fired at all. But back to the power issue - this pistol barely leaves a mark on cereal box cardboard at seven yards. The BB moves really slowly. At least it will punch through paper at seven yards, which means it is still decent for "up close and personal diplomacy" in the Airsoft world. [Supplemental] I tested another Academy Glock 26 that had been more carefully cleaned out, and the test results were nearly identical as to power and accuracy, even with .2 and .25g BB's. With the .25g BB's, the point of impact was about four inches below the point of aim. UPDATE: As noted above, Korean regulations are a factor in the manufacture of airsoft guns in that country. Airsofts are limited in power and velocity, so this pistol operates within those guidelines since it was manufactured in Korea.

Accuracy

��Accuracy is acceptable for a pistol of this size. It's better than Marui's Sig P228, but nowhere near as good as their Glock 17. The group seems to be centered about an inch low and an inch to the left, so the main limiting factor in this pistol's use is probably going to be its lack of power.

Overall Impressions

��This would be a really nice pistol to use for an absolute backup - say for CQB when you've already got a submachine gun and a combat handgun. This pistol would also be ideal for concealed carry scenarios due to its small size. The lack of power and finish on the gun are somewhat disappointing, but it's perfectly functional. Not to mention it's a good bit less expensive than other typical spring pistols.