This Green Minicocker was posted on the Custom Cockers forum by Chris Canfield in September of 2014. It originally belonged to Canfield’s father, Carl, who passed away. In his post, Canfield was looking for clues on the origin and identification, and described this Minicocker as a “prototype Autococker from the early 90’s” and that “it was always referred to as the “Green Machine.”
Find this post on Custom Cockers at:
http://customcockers.com/forum/showthread.php?54870-Need-Help
I replied that it looked “like one of Russell Breeden’s Phase 3 Minicockers,” and posted links to a few write ups on Russell Breeden’s Autocockers.
Since September 2014, this Minicocker surfaced two additional times before I eventually purchased it from a different owner, Justin Bedford. I haven’t been able to get in contact with Chris Canfield, but after acquiring this “Green Machine” I started looking for more info on Russell Breeden, and earlier this month (April 2015) got in contact with him.
Russell was the south east’s certified Worr Games Service Representative and played on the Doom Troopers, Team Sasquatch and the Jacksonville Warriors. He remembers building his first Minicockers “almost like it was yesterday.”
Breeden writes:
“I had built custom mini Sniper pump guns with auto triggers for the Doom Trooper prior to the release of the auto cocker and Bud was impressed with the design and work that I did, and the fact that we were winning with them.
After having spent some time with Bud over drinks at a hotel bar during a tournament in late 1991 and I became the south east service rep for WGP.“
Under his company, RKB Engineering, Russell customized Autocockers from 1992-1998. He writes:
“I made Mini Cockers from 1992-1998, I want to say around 550ish total.”
Russell classified his custom semi automatic Autocockers and Minicockers into Levels or Stages based on what accessories and modifications the paintguns received.
Russell’s “Machine’ Minicockers were P-blocked, the sight was cut off, most were side tapped into the valve (prior to inline regs), later models featured the Pro Teams Products Feeds and all incoorporated Breeden’s rods and pins made from alloys other than plan steel, which would end up rusting. Over the years producing his Autococker parts he made accessories from stainless, aluminum, brass and titanium.
Breeden explains the levels of customization as:
“Lvl 1 had the aluminum 3way , Rock regulator , polished internals with all stainless steel rods and knobs.”
“Lvl 2 had the front cut off and turned into a mini , aluminum 3way ,Rock , polished internals and anodized with all stainless steel rods and knobs.”
“Lvl 3 was a machined body cut into a mini , aluminum 3way , Rock , polished internals , anodized and included the Pro Team Products billet power feed , custom machined and polished barrel with stainless steel rods and knobs.”
Based on the build date, certain aspects would differ. An example is that Russell preferred the WGP Sledgehammer over the Palmer’s Rock Regulators so he began using these when WGP released them. Breeden explains, “Slight tweaks and adjustments to the WGP LPR [Sledgehammer] and it worked flawlessly at half the weight [of the Rock].”
Carl Canfield’s Minicocker, pictured in this article and video, was likely, according to Breeden, “an older mini revamped with a newer sledgehammer iirc.”
And not all Machine Minicockers used Pro Team Products feednecks after they were released. Russell writes:
“Forest [Hatcher] and Doug [Zander] [of Gun F/X and Pro Team Products] made the power feed with the dove tail interface first in 94 for the gen 1 Micromag and the bolt on feed came out in 95 and that’s when I started using it on my builds. All the lvl 3 mini’s had the bolt on power feed after 95 . It was a $150.00 add-on to the gun and some ppl chose to go with the standard feed tube or lvl 2.5 so to speak.”
I would also assume that Minicockers built after 1994/95 had the 1/8th npt bottom inlet on the front block, although it was not necessarily always used, since some would still run side taps.
During the late 80s and early 90s, Russell was playing on the Doom Troopers. He explains:
“There were no real teams in Orlando so we started our own , “The Doom Troopers”
I was the original captain for the first 7 years before joining “Sasquatch”.”
According to Russell, the first 20 of his Lvl III Machine Minicockers were anodized Matte Green by “A&M Metal Finishing in Orlando.”
Russell remembers:
“The first 20 lvl 3 mini’s were anodized satin green and were called “Green Machines,” after that they were called “The Machine”.”
“The first 20 [Green Machines] were made for Doom Troopers and a few went out to the public.” remembers Russell.
This Minicocker was likely one of those first 20 “Green Machines” since it came from a Doom Trooper player, lacks the Pro Teams Feedneck, does not have an 1/8th npt input on the base of the front block and is the same satin green. Lacking a serial on the body, it was likely cut from a full bodied Autococker around 1992-1993 by RKB.
After the original batch of 20 Green Machine Minicockers, RKB started having Minicockers anodized in different colors, and as Russell remembers, the name was changed from “Green Machine” to “The Machine.”
Before paintball took over the majority of his work schedule, Russell was working in animatronics. He writes:
“I worked for Creative Engineering and Animation World of Orlando for many years building Chuck-e-Cheese and Show Biz Pizza Time robots as well as stuff for amusement parks like disney and universal.”
After his paintball work started to pick up, he left animatronics to start his own company, RKB Engineering. According to Breeden, “I had to quit my day job to make stainless steel auto triggers, pump rods, 3way trigger couplings and cocking rods that were selling by the hundreds/thousands to National Paintball, Pacific Paintball, Pro Teams Products ,Ground Zero and other mail order houses in paintball.”
During the early 90s, RKB Engineering was at the forefront of Autococker customization and his innovative Level III Machine Minicockers were top of the line.
Russell had many firsts during these years. He was the first to build an aftermarket aluminum bodied 3way / switch, the first to produce an aftermarket Autococker ram, many of his non steel alloy rods featured innovations were original designs, he side tapped his valves bodies, made back bottle adapters for snipers, make stainless auto triggers, did fancy aesthetic milling and much more. Many of these customizations were unheard of in 1992-1993 and are part of the reason why his early Machine Minicockers are so exciting.
Before inline regulators and high pressure air gained popularity, in around 1993-1994, co2 was often run straight into the valve from the vertical asa. On Russell’s Minicockers he ran the air line from the bottomline straight into the valve chamber via the side tap in the Machine Minicocker’s body.
In the video I neglected to point out the stainless pump arm, which is male on the back block side and female (drilled and tapped for the rams shaft) on the ram side. Although somewhat commonplace later on, this design was actually Russell’s, and like many of his improvements, ended up being common place on even stock WGP Autocockers as time progressed
The common pump arms on WGP Snipers and “Autococking Snipers” of that time (1992-96?) used two piece steel pump arm shafts. The main length which was male 10×32 threads on both ends, and the shorter collar was female on both sides. The short collar piece was 10×32 by 6×32 (or the older smaller clippard threads). These would inevitably end up rusting.
Breeden writes:
“WGP used painted steel rods on all the Snipers and Autocockers that rusted really fast, so I made everything out of stainless steel and aluminum and sold close to 100,000 cocker parts before getting out of paintball in 05 when K2 took over everything.”
More articles on Russell Breeden and RKB Engineering will be posted in the next few weeks with detailed information about the photos Russell has been sending me, some of which are pictured in this article.
Find more articles relating to Russell Breeden at:
https://paintballhistory.com/tag/russell-breeden
Thanks to Russell Breeden for answering all my questions and for the photos. And thanks to Tina “GoldenGirl” Ruzzo, for the photos of the RKB shirt.
Russell Breeden / RKB Engineering can be reached at the information listed below.
Russell Breeden
RKB Engineering
5308 McIntosh Point
Sanford Florida 32773
407-321-5133 Shop
rkbeng at cfl dot rr dot com
And Tina is currently helping Bob Gurnsey with his Paintball Creator Memorabilia site, which can be found at:
http://www.bobgurnsey.com
[…] Read more on the Green Machine Minicockers on BacciPaintball. […]