G-Max Shockers were a joint project between CCM, All American player Garrett Maxwell, and Smart Parts. This marker had a new approach to the traditional Shocker design, which ended up making it the lightest Shocker body available from Smart Parts. These bodies were the closest to an "ultralite" Shocker body made by SP, with a few areas of minimal styling added over the basic Shocker body shape.
Below is a short list of the marker's notable changes:
- Eye covers and detents from a Bob Long Intimidator
- Autococker barrel threads
- Despite having eye covers on both sides of the body, these markers use Shocker SFT reflective eyes.
- CCM Shocker frame, feedneck, vertical adapter, and other parts
- Bob Long regulator
History:
The G-Max Shocker was prototyped in 2005 then a small handful of pre-production models were created then assembled, but the markers were never released for sale. The final goals for the design and sale aren't quite clear since the marker never progressed that far, and it's also unknown why the marker was never released. The marker is listed in Smart parts' 2005 catalog as one of many private label Shockers available, however they were never released to the public.
Update 2017: it's rumored that CCM and SP couldn't agree about the manufacturing process for the markers in regard to who owns the rights to the sale and other details.
Only 7 prototype G-Max Shockers were were fabricated (machined by CCM), which are now in the hands of various Shocker collectors. Reportably, one of the markers was damaged and could not be repaired.
Most players would agree that these unique Shockers hold one of the higher resales on the secondhand market; they are less rare than a Pre-Cup Strange Shocker, but more rare than a Waffle Dynasty Shocker, but the discontinued design lends itself to controversy (which increases value) and the overall design is improved compared to typical Shocker SFT markers.
G-Max Shockers are common collectors items in the current market, but they are still bought and sold on ebay and paintball buy/sell/trade forums. They're all in varying condition, apparently depending on the level of use or non-use. Some are obviously more used than others.
A black faded G-Max. Picture courtesy TylerFare@mcarterbrown
A blue faded G-Max. Picture courtesy TylerFare@mcarterbrown
Picture courtesy bankhead
Black and blue G-Max Shockers. Picture courtesy notcal13
Seen above is arguably the best-condition G-Max Shocker, which was professionally restored by CS900 from the PBNation Shocker community. The marker had many custom parts installed, in addition to common repairs, then finished off with a clean reanodizing job.
New-old-stock G-Max Shocker parts: (2016)
In 2016, a PBNation member called VPREATR (former employee of CCM) made a sale post for a number of previously-unknown G-max components along with a repository of CAD files associated with them. It had been rumored that additional pre-production bodies were created back in 2005, but the parts were never assembled as full markers, unlike the 7 complete markers that were shown above on this page for the previous decade.
At this point, the G-max is no longer the most rare PL Shocker since the total has been increased to 20 markers. As a result, the most rare PL Shocker is now the Pre-Cup Strange Shocker.
Ultimately the availability of these G-max items decreased the high value of the original G-max Shockers, and a new division was created between the 7 original and 12 "new G-max" markers. In addition to those 19, an additional marker is still owned by Garrett Maxwell at the time of this writing. The "new G-max" markers were eventually assembled into finished markers with fresh 2017-2019 anodizing, which allows them to be presented in much better condition compared to the original markers from 2005. A Shocker collector must decide whether the term "good condition" describes the actual condition or the faithfulness of the original 7 markers from 2005. There's no inherent way to value either group to be more or less valuable than the other group.
A post-sale G-max Shocker with raw parts that had been assembled with other Shocker items (picture from TorontoCore@pbnation)
A post-sale G-max Shocker with new anodizing (picture from zzAnguishzz@pbnation).
A post-sale G-max Shocker with new anodizing (picture from zzAnguishzz@pbnation). This blue/black marker may be difficult to discern from the original Shockers, but the fresh anodizing gives it away.
A post-sale G-max Shocker with new anodizing (picture from zzAnguishzz@pbnation).