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Meatball's Featured Reviews |
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Airsoft Core |
By Meatball
Published: June 3, 2006
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I got my hands on this new product through BlazingToys.com for review, and I also plan to have a contest to kickoff ASC V 3.0 and this is a likely giveaway item (speculation, not a promise, but look forward to the giveaway either way). This is the second ICS AEG product I have reviewed, the other of course being the ICS M4a1. I liked the ICS M4a1 a lot, but at the same time it posed nothing extraordinary or above and beyond other brands. Though the performance of these two ICS AEG’s are similar, I would not consider the AK-74 as something ordinary, simply because of the unique model. The AK-74 has not really been mass produced in the airsoft world making it something special, especially since its going into the constantly growing ICS product line and not a larger company’s line such as Marui’s.
Looks & Feel
The ICS AK-74 arrived very neatly packed box, in a nice cardboard box that doubles as a carrying case. Every piece fit nicely into a slot of the fuzzy burgundy box insides, and really provided a neat experience for the first viewing. I have received a lot of AEGs over the past couple years, and I must say this one had the most impressive packaging. Not that it matters all that much, but I felt the need to acknowledge it, as so many guns come very poorly packed, that the ones that do it nicely deserve to be recognized. The ICS AK-74 is all black as can be seen in the photo, making it easily distinguishable from the AK-47 which typically has the wood grips, and stock. Another unique feature of the ICS model is that it comes standard with a full metal body, which really gives the gun a solid feel to it. Though not excessively heavy, it feels extremely solid as well as feeling quite realistic. When it comes to AEGs, it is typically the plastic parts which take away from the “real steel†feel of the gun, and though the gun is not exactly like a real gun, the plastic grips and stock do feel very solid, and do not take away from the feel as much as some other AEG models would. The outer barrel is a very solid metal as well, and looks very nice as well as providing a real feel, and good balance to the gun.
The gun provides full trademarks, and despite them not being fully realistic they add a lot to the looks of the gun, making the body look much more realistic. On the left side of the gun (looking down the barrel and pictured above) it provides a serial number on the top line: “SSR-85C-2ASâ€, then below that it reads “Cal.6mmâ€. You then see a target type design that says “Armory USA, Houston Texas.â€
On the right side of the gun there are trademarks as well, again along the same lines of being realistic like, but not the same that appear on the real steel model, which means they do not have to be removed. Top line reads “AB 06 00077†and below that the next three lines read, “Licensed To Team SD USA, Manufactured by ICS, Made In Taiwan.â€
In addition to this, the gun has a very realistic take down procedure which can be seen in the AK-74’s manual, and also provides other realistic features. When removing the front hand guard there is a little switch underneath the rear sights, which when you move it upwards, allows you to pull off the top hand guard and then the bottom afterwards. There is also a button behind the top receiver, which when pressed in allows you to easily pop off the top receiver revealing the top of the gun’s gearbox. From there the bolt, and the spring which it operates on, can be lifted off revealing the hop-up system. Disassembly of the cosmetic parts is quite simple, and can easily be put back together. I did not attempt to go any farther into the gun however, nor do I ever when reviewing a gun.
The button you push in order to remove the top receiver
Operation
The gun provides what they describe on their websites as “simple & quickly release, you will sense operation like real gun,†and this is referring to less delay from trigger pull to BB release, if I am not mistaken (English a tad shaky on their website). I noticed this, and it is not a huge deal, but it is kind of nice. It did get me thinking however what effect a higher voltage battery may have on this, so I plugged in a 9.6v battery for a couple shots (the recommended voltage for the gun is 8.4v so I am NOT recommending using a 9.6v at any point on your gun, this was merely an experiment of mine), and found interestingly that it caused a two-round burst effect on semi-automatic. Anyway, it is a unique new feature, but nothing too exciting really, as it is only a split-second difference.
The guns fire select lever is located on the right side of the gun, and in my opinion not as easy to use as the M16 models or the ones on the left side of the gun. I typically have to remove my hand from the trigger in order to move the switch, which is an obvious hindrance in the heat of an airsoft skirmish. A minor issue which you can get used to, but worth mentioning of course. The top mode of the lever is the safety mode, which it can be seen in the picture above. The middle mode is fully automatic with the letters “AB†inscribed into the receiver, and the semi-Automatic mode is “OA†and at the bottom. Another note about the selector lever is that it works realistically with the bolt. The bolt of the AK-74 can be pulled all the way back across the receiver (to chamber a bullet on the real steel), but when the lever is in the safety position it prevents the bolt from being slid back. This is exactly how the airsoft version works as well, except the bolt has no function besides looks, and hiding the hop-up unit. It can be pulled all the way back when on semi or fully-automatic, but gets caught when going back on semi. Simple design, but very cool, and also realistic.
The hop-up unit revealed (Bolt pulled all the way back)
I must say right off the bat that I like the hop-up unit a lot. It is much easier than any AEG hop-up I have used, since there is simply a switch which you can easily move horizontally to adjust the BB’s spin. Backwards moves the BB down, forwards moves the BB up. It moves very smoothly, stay in place, and is probably the easiest to use one I have ever encountered, which undoubtedly would make hop-up adjustments in the field easier, and less risky.
Magazines
Top view of magazines
Another thing I absolutely love about this gun, is that ICS starts you off with two magazines right out of the box, and even better, they are hi-capacity magazines which hold 550rds each. This is great for new airsofters, or even people getting an AK for the first time, as right off the bat you are able to hold over 1000 rounds and are ready to skirmish without the additional charge of more magazines. I think this is a very good move on ICS’s part, and is a nice touch which no other company does for its customers. The magazines are of a solid plastic build, and operate as any hi-cap would, with a hatch to pour BB’s in on the top (pictured above) and the wheel to wind the magazine on the bottom (pictured below). The magazine does not perform flawlessly, but it performs as expected I would say, when it comes to being a 550 round magazine. I went through a couple hi-caps in straight up testing of the magazines, and found that for the first 250-300 rounds or so, the magazine performed fine. After that however it would skip occasionally (every 5th shot or so) when on fully automatic, but still performed fine on semi-auto. It would then get gradually worse, so I would rewind the magazine in order to shoot the last 200 or so shots, and then it would shoot the final BB’s. Not too bad considering its will give you plenty of shots between rewinds, but do not expect to ever go through the entire magazine without skips.
Bottom view of magazines
The magazine clips right into the bottom of the gun, and I use the word clip since it does not really “slide†in as most guns do. The AK models as can be seen clearly in photos, do not have the long magazine chambers to guide in the magazine, so they simply clip into the gun. You then push the lever in front of the trigger guard forward to release the magazine. It may take awhile to get the hang of attaching the magazine, but its pretty simple to operate.
magazine port on the bottom of the gun
Performance
Now for the important stuff; how this gun performs. I was thoroughly impressed with the guns performance, nothing surprising, but it was simple solid all the way around. With the new model, and new gearbox features, I semi-expected some sort of performance issue, but so far so good. There may be a durability issue there, but so far I do not see any signs of that. But of course, as with any model, only time will tell the story of its durability. The gun shoots roughly 325 fps (100 mps) out of the box, which is very nice, and noticeably better than any stock Tokyo Marui model (shooting about 280 fps). The gun shot very consistently out of the box, and also quite accurately. It is a very solid skirmish gun, as it is easy to move around and aim with, has good balance, and shoots off BB’s very quickly with the quick release feature, as well as an impressive ROF powered by a Turbo 2000 motor.
Random pic
The only issues encountered that may be problems I have mentioned above. The skipping issue after about 300 rounds, though perfectly understandable, may get annoying. But that is just a fact of life when it comes to 550-600 round AK magazines. You also have the selector switch issue, which is a minor inconvenience, but when you are not used to it, it may cost you in a skirmish. The gun has a nice rear ladder sight system which you can adjust quite easily, and zero in your gun reasonably well for an airsoft gun. It is more of a neat feature of the gun’s for target shooting use, than an advantage in a skirmish however. The gun packs the large battery, which is a personal preference of mine; I always will take a large battery powered gun over a mini, simply because I do not really like movable stocks and I find changing batteries to be annoying. So if you are like me in that you seriously prefer large batteries, then you are set when it comes to this gun. The 8.4v battery fits in there quite snugly, and will not rattle around at all when it use. Upon getting the gun I did encounter one battery problem however, as the wire became detached from the plastic connector inside of the stock (connected wire with fuse and batter to wire going into gun) but this was simply repaired as the stock is very easy to remove and I simply secured it back into place. Do not feel that it is a problem of the model, but figured I would mention it in case anyone else has encountered anything similar. To put the battery in you simply shift the plastic butt plate down wards and pull it off.
Stock open, butt plate removed and pictured
I feel it also should be mentioned that the gun comes with a bottle of 1000 BB’s, another nice touch by the ICS company. After using nearly the entire bottle, I feel that their BB’s performed extremely well in the AK-74 and I plan on trying them in my other guns as well to be able to review ICS fully as a BB brand. So far though, so good.
ICS BB container in the box
Conclusion
In conclusion I think this is not only a very solid gun, but also quite a deal in the airsoft world assuming the durability of the new model holds out. The gun is currently selling for $295 (including shipping at the moment) at Blazingtoys, and this is extremely a solid price for a new modeled gun, factory upgraded, and also full metal. I feel that throwing in the two hi-cap magazines really makes it a deal, as it saves your $35+ right there from having to buy a hi-cap magazine. Right now it seems like the gun is a deal that can not be beat. It performs very well, has a solid and realistic feel, and also has several features (not to mention a model) that are not available in most of the airsoft world. Possessing this gun also will give you uniqueness on the battlefield, which I know is important to some people out there. I am glad I had the opportunity to review it, and maybe when a contest rolls around you can have your hands on this exact gun!
- Meatball
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