The HK Army Speed is not really a new product, it used to be called the Pinokio Speed, but in the summer of 2018 HK acquired Pinokio Hoppers and rebranded the Pinokio Speed the HK Army Speed.
- Weight 15.4 ounces with (2) 9 volt batteries | Constructed with a Nylon Shell to eliminate feed neck breakage
- Single-button, one-touch on/off | Easy to clean with Patented nose release from Shell
- Standard with upgraded "P" board for increase feed rate | Perfectly balanced with center of gravity over feed neck
- Smaller lighter and faster than any loader on the current market | Jam-free and gentle on fragile paintballs
- Compatible with HK Army Universal Speed Feed | Tool-free battery door
Pinokio is mainly known for making the original Pinokio hopper. Inside the Pinokio was a pretty mundane standard electronic loader, it was very similar to the JT Revolution. On the outside is where the Pinokio name comes from, you can add a comically large nose on the front to make the overall capacity 400 paintballs.
- Lightweight compact folaable design
- Robust Injection Molded Polymer
- Securely holds your paintball marker with tank and loader
Needless to say the Pinokio never really caught on, it had some mild success with a scenario and big game players, but its size just made the thing a bit unrealistic, the top of the gun is just so heavy with all that paint on it its kinda awful to use.
After about 5-6 years selling the first Pinokio, Pinokio released the speed in 2014. It saw very very little use and honestly, no one cared, the issue was not really the loader it was the image that Pinokio had from the OG Pinokio. People thought about Pinokio as that weird company that makes that huge loader thing, not many paintball stores carry Pinokio products, so the Speed just never ended up in stores.
Then in 2018 HK bought Pinokio and everything changed, Dynasty started using the Speed and since HK sells products to nearly every paintball store and park, most stores can easily stock them now.
I was thinking about this review and wanted to say something like this – The Speed is not HK Army’s main loader, it just kind of helps argument HKs loader offerings, right now they also have the TFX2 a loader that competes against the Dye Rotor R2 and Spire III it’s a $200 high-end loader, wheres the Speed is $80 and not HK’s main loader.
I’m not sure that true, the TFX is a better loader but I’m not sure it HK’s main loader.
I think HK would like it that way, but no one is buying the TFX2, It is not that bad, the Spire III is just fantastic.
I’m not sure that is really relevant to this at all, but just an observation.
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So this puppy is small, it is the smallest electronic hopper on the market and it also much lighter than everything else, that’s in the same category.
Hopper weights- no batteries
Speed – 344 grams, Spire IR – 444 grams, GI LVL – 450 grams, Spire III – 466 grams, Dye Rotor R2 – 506 grams, LTR – 550 grams, Halo Too – 591 grams
It’s pretty crazy just how much lighter the Speed is when it’s on a gun filled with paintballs I really can tell the difference.
Having a lighter loader on top makes everything easier. Because the hopper sits on top of the gun, and we are moving the thing from side to side so much, having a lighter loader makes that movements quicker, and it’s just easier to move around.
It’s light for two reasons, overall profiles so good design and material use.
The performance of the speed is good. Feeds quickly, consistent and it’s not loud.
One of my concerns with the Speed was that it was going to be really loud. Sometimes loaders that are made from polystyrene like the Speed can be loud when paintballs are bouncing around inside, but the Speed is not, it’s normal.
The times that I have used the speed I didn’t run into any issues, it just worked. I have used one on my Emek, and 170R and it worked great. I don’t shoot super fast, but on my 170R I’m able to get consistently around 14 BPS with no issues. That’s not super fast, but I don’t think it really matters. Back in the day it might have mattered more, but the game has changed all tournaments are capped at 10 bps, and even then I don’t think people are as fixated on high-rate of fire like they used to be.
