Hi guys, sorry to necro-post but I have some insight into this topic you might want to know. I am an admin over at
www.classicairsoft.org. I am also a collector of "pre classic" airsoft guns. I happen to own both the 7mm Thunderbolt as well as the 6mm Thunderbolt S. I recently did a write-up on the two guns on our site. You guys are welcome to use my pictures and articles on the gun here if you'd like.
You can find a picture of a 7mm Thunderbolt next to other classic airsoft guns on the Wikipedia article for Classic Airsoft. The picture is of a selection of my guns that I posted when I wrote said article a few years back.
I'll offer a bit more info no this gun for you. The Thunderbolt was produced by Masudaya in the early 80s. It was an advancement of their Bolt888, which was the first gun in their "Long Range" series. At the time there was no single ammo type for airsoft, every company tried to make their own. Masudaya wanted to standardize things so they hoped their LR ammo would take off. It didn't, mainly due to the realization round bbs work better and are universal. So the 6mm ammo came alnog and 7mm stuff disappeared. Masudaya licensed the thunderbolt design out and it was produced in 6mm as the S model by KHC under both their name and under a brand called Pointo.
The 6mm Thunderbolt didn't really take off either as by then, companies like JAC, MGC, and Asahi had begun manufacturing gas powered guns using the BV system.
Because of this fact, 7mm guns never really made it outside of Japan. The only ones that made it to the US were brought here by tourists or Japanese nationals. It's believed that most 7mm have zero specimens in the US. My Thunderbolt 7mm version was imported by me. Believe it or not, as 7mm guns go, the thunderbolt is actually "common". Meaning, there are maybe ten of them in the US by some estimates. Remember, even in Japan these are VERY rare now. But the good news is, due to the fact they are strictly collector's items and useless for airsoft skirmishing (even the 6mm version) they can be had for fairly cheap if you can locate one.
There were a lot of futuristic looking guns made back in the lare 70s and early 80s. Masudaya made one called a Falcon-077 (also seen in the wikipedia picture i mentioned) under their TradeMark brand that looked kind of sci-fi-ish.
But I also learned something new today by visiting this frorum. I had no idea the Thunderbolt was used as a prop in a movie. Now I'll have to track down this Spacehunter movie. I'm into older sci fi films so it looks interesting. Thanks.