Airsoft can be (and by some is) played in t-shirt, jeans and sneakers. If you count yourself in this group, than you can safely skip this review. This one is for those, who a) play advanced form of milsim airsoft and need storage space for bits and bobs b) like high quality, original (non repro) equipment c) are willing to fork over more money for such products.
Read on, as we have a treat for you.
I’m sure that both Tactical Monkey and Maxpedition don’t need any special introduction. John (aka DJ Monkeyboy) runs a Mil Spec Monkey, an excellent resource of reviews and pictures of tactical products. He developed a Monkey Combat Admin pouch. John (who kindly permitted reproduction of his admin pouch’s pictures) and Maxpedition joined forces in order to introduce Monkey Combat Admin pouch to the market.
John prepared an excellent (and I mean excellent) You Tube video review, which covered all the basics and more. Let’s face it: it is infinitely less tiresome to watch a short video clip than read a static review:
We will therefore focus on our personal observations and thoughts about this product.
Quality of work and materials is perfect. There is a lot of Velcro and I suggest that you took good care of it (nothing more than regular clean up). Lets take a closer look at compartments:
ID flap is a neat function. A slim pocket allows storing of ID cards, mini map or similar flat and often used item. I personally inserted list of brevity codes and radio frequencies- just to double check what code word “Bangladesh” means.
Flap covers the main business area. There are three compartments:
– big compartment with three elasticised spacers which hold individual items (such as multitool, pistol magazine etc). Compartment is big enough to be used as emergency place to store last ditch M16 magazine.
– Slim high security pocket, closed with Velcro. Its use is dictated by its smaller size and you probably want to store smaller high value items (ID, money, keys and such).
– Frontal compartment with further three elasticized spacers. Somewhat smaller than main compartment, I use it to store basic first aid kit.
– Another small pocket.
Also, there is “low profile” back compartment for most valuable items (we put in some bills and ID card for instance). Obviously, they should be as flat as possible.
Front is covered by Velcro and begs to put name tag or motivational patch on- so whole world can see just how cool you are.
As all admin pouches, you will want to mount it on chest area of your vest. And here it is only possible problem. Monkey Admin pouch is bigger (which makes it useful) but on smaller tactical vests may interfere with magazine pouches. Generally, it is meant to be installed on the upper half of the chest area, but can be installed just about anywhere as another multipurpose pouch.
Main function of this product is to keep things neatly organised. For instance, usual configuration of my Monkey admin pouch is small notebook, pens and pencils, basic first aid kit, mobile phone/ GPS, car keys and personal ID – with place to spare.
Monkey Admin pouch uses long Malice clips to mount on tactical equipment. They are not not part of the package and you will need to make a separate purchase. Decision to use Malice clips is a mixed blessing, so to speak. Yes, it is necessary to spend some additional money on them. On the other hand, Malice clips are much more stable mounting option than regular MOLLE/PALS straps.
One of the classic complaints about Maxpedition’s products is that they are over engineered. We will dismiss this one with the simple statement that versatility and over engineering are not synonyms. Maxpedition’s products offer a lot and that means that sometimes some features appear redundant, when in fact, are not. Same goes for Monkey Admin pouch.
In comparison with others, smaller admin pouches, this one is much better. It offers much more carrying space and secondly, it offers a opportunity to finally neatly arrange all the bits and pieces you carry around.
Go get one – you know you want to.
Test item provided by Airsoft Sports
