Aluminum power tubes DO offer an advantage over the new plastic one's (why did tippmann start making everything plastic on the Custom's, they're like brass eagle with their markers these days) if you drop the aluminum one on a hard surface, say, oh, the floor, it won't break into pieces as say, a plastic one would. They're just more durable is all (which makes one wonder why tippmann would have stopped using them and putting cheap crap in their markers...)