So you can buy realistic looking firing weapons in the UK (airsoft) but you can't buy a resin replica blaster??:confused
You UK peeps are lucky if you can buy airsoft...the gun laws here in OZ are very strict...no airsoft, no real guns. You can buy real weapons, but you have to join a gun club, take a course, have the correct storage etc....
The laws here are weird and randomly enforced :wacko
Theoretically you can't import or buy what they cal a RIF (realistic imitation firearm). That means if it is based on any realworld gun made post 1870, you can only buy it if a certain percentage is painted a bright colour, hence the two-tone and transparent airsoft guns that are all over UK airsoft shops. If you play airsoft regularly, you get an exception code which allows you to buy any airsoft.
Theoretically, if it isn't based on a real-world weapon it's okay. But what about Solo Blasters, Pulse Rifles, and any other props that incorporate real guns? Grey area, dependent on the customs guy who opens your package. These guys are not going on comprehensive courses that allow them to recognise any real-world firearms, so the only truly safe method is the paint-it-green thing.
Generally speaking, you are fairly safe sending anything internally, since Royal Mail would only x-ray something if it was suspect. Try and export, it's a different story. I sold a RIF to a US member a few years ago, at the UK international terminal, it just disappeared off the tracking. No explanation. I had to wait a month for it to be declared lost, then fill in a form.
Several weeks later I was informed by RM that it had been put on a boat, since it was not allowed on a plane. Around 2 months later it finally arrived with the buyer, in a battered and broken condition.
As a result of this and a few other horror stories on here, I am now extremely reluctant to sell any weapon props outside of the UK unless they are in parts.
The VCRA gives the final middle finger to us by allowing ANY real gun to be sold to anyone so long as it is deactivated. So, theoretically, I can buy a real Desert Eagle, but be prosecuted for a buying or selling a resin Mauser or Mal Pistol.
The other exception for RIFs is theatrical use, museum use or re-enactors.
Zellcendo, it may be worth contacting the company in the first link I posted to the Denix and ask them if they would paint the metal parts Orange, or whatever for an extra fee, or if they could dissemble it and send the parts.
I would suggested playing a few games of airsoft and joining UKARA so you could legitimately buy the ICS M1, but at that price you might as well hold out for a deac.