Tosh Tanaka and I recorded this video on July 17th, 2014 in Santa Cruz, California. Driving up to Northern California from Los Angeles, I stopped in Santa Cruz on the 17th to meet with Tosh and convinced him to talk a little about each of his Annihilators before he sold them to me.
Tosh started playing in the late 80s, and living around Gardena, California frequented Indoor Warfare, Warzone, SC Village. Tosh remembers his friends from high school, Lennie Pandilla and Lennie’s cousin Raymond, worked at Indoor Warfare so he was able to get in and play for free there. During that time it was run by I&I.
Tanaka goes on to talk about purchasing this Mac 1 Annihilator new from Tim McMurray at Mac 1, in “1989 or 90.” Tosh says that Tim built this Annihilator for him off a PGP lower tube (or action as Tim calls them).
Tosh also mentions how he purchased this Stan Russell “Stan Stock” from Stan in Hawthone, California. Stan Russell’s normal stocks are as far as I can tell, essentially the same as Colin Thompson’s Lapco stocks of the same time since Colin and Stan worked together occasionally out of Stan’s shop and Stan would probably do the welding on the stocks that Colin offered on his Ghosts. The “Lightened Stan Stock” is a rare variant that I’ve only come across a few of and they virtually weight nothing since so much has been taken away from the bar stock.
Tosh has done several subtle modifications over the years to modernize this Annihilator and customize it for his style of play, and in my opinion these customizations add some real character to this Sheridan based paintgun.
In the late 90s, Tosh sent his 1st generation Stan Russell Annihilators in to be converted to a Semi Automatic Stroker by Palmer’s Pursuit Shop.
Around this time, Tosh took this opportunity to purchase some add ons for this MK1 Annihilator (as pictured in this article). From Palmer’s Pursuit Shop, Tosh added a quick release bolt system, a Palmer’s ball detent (to prevent double feeds), a ghost site rail and several other small changes.
The unique neat features on Tosh’s MK1 Mac 1 Annihilator include:
•Mac 1 Quick config 12 gram quick change and drop out.
•Slightly longer and lightened “Stan Stock” built by Stan Russell. The Stock has classic bottomline holes (1.25 inches) and mounts to a Stan Russell bottomline bracket (classic length holes as well).
•Tosh added Palmers quick strip bolt parts
•PMI wood grips that Tosh cut for his fingers and laquard
•Palmer’s ball detent
•Palmer’s Ghost ring
•RVA from palmers (or Mac 1?).
He also talks about cutting his name and drivers license number into the body of the Annihilator and grip/UMB plate.
Tosh also mentioned an APG article covering the Mac 1 Quick Config but I’m not sure if he meant this particular Annihilator was the paintgun photographed for the article or just that the Mac 1 Quick Config was featured. I’ll be looking more into that and posting the scans when I find them. I’ll also post scan eventually to differentiate the MK1 Annihilator (made by A++ Machining) from the Stan Russell and Earon Carter Annihilators.
Find Tosh’s first video and article at:
https://paintballhistory.com/tosh-tanaka-mac-1-annihilators