Manufacturer: Airsoft Innovations
Package: Tornado Impact Grenade, manual, 1 x bottle of grenade oil.
Type: Grenade
Retail Price: $99 USD
Rating: 5/5

Airsoft Innovations, the company that (in my opinion) finally got the non-pyrotechnic airsoft grenade right, recently pushed out a new version of their venerable Tornado Grenade coined the “impact” grenade. The impact version is “detonated” at the point of impact, doing away with the timer system of the original version. The advantages of the impact version make it a must-have for a grenade/kaboom junkie like me, namely the booby-trap and not having to deal with finicky timer issues.

Like the timer version, the impact version is larger than a dummy frag grenade but a tad smaller than an smoke grenade. Most standard smoke/flashbang pouches will accommodate the impact grenade, even with the vertical pin position. I use Bulle smoke grenade pouches on my molle rigs which keeps the grenade snug and safe from snags. The valve cover safety and durable polymer coating are where the similarities between the two grenades stop.

The firing mechanism on the timer is a set of steel stems and discs that are aligned vertically via the pin and when under pressure, are held firmly in place between the shuttle body and cap. It sounds complicated, but in reality, it’s quite simple. Initially I thought it would be a fragile, easily detonated device, but despite my best effort to shake the crap out of it… the grenade stayed in the armed position. The cool part is dropping it only one foot will set it off. This translates into my having to have better aim and NOT knock the edge of a wall/door when tossing it into a room. Yea, that’s experience talking. Unlike the timer, the impact grenade is unforgiving and will detonate on hard surface despite my best intentions! With the timer, I can let it ricochet and not be as mindful of the impact location. This is probably the only real downside to the impact grenade, and it’s 100% user error.

To arm the impact grenade, follow the below steps:

1) Unscrew the valve cover.
2) Unscrew the top cap.
3) Insert the pin.
4) Stack the stems & cams in this order:
— Big stem
— Offset disc
— Slide disc
— Small stem
5) Align top cap so that the pin fits into the hole in the shuttle & screw on the top cap.
6) Fill with propane.
7) Fill with BBs.
8 ) Screw on the valve cover.

In conclusion, the AI Impact Tornado is by far my favorite bb-throwing airsoft grenade to date. It’s simple, robust and extremely effective. Even if you already have a timer grenade, I would still suggest picking up the impact model as it’s above mentioned characteristics come in quite handy. The impact model retails for around $99 USD at most major airsoft dealers, I picked up mine from Airsoft Extreme.