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Most users ever online was 5808 on June 25, 2008 at 05:34 AM.
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Meatball's Featured Reviews |
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Airsoft Core |
By Meatball
Published: December 20, 2003
Updated: October 10, 2008
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First Impressions
This gun really deserves a first impression section in its review... I purchased this gun from a guy from HK off of ebay, in an attempt to get it as early as possible. But that did not work as well as I planned, since he was selling it, before he even got it himself. So that didn't help me any. But either way it came in, and I took off the packaging paper, to reveal the beautiful shiny box that you see above. First gun that I have recieved with such a nice shiny box... Not that it matters at all, but it is kind of nice. Nice enough for me to take a picture of it. Anyway I opened the box and quite honestly I was very disappointed.
What I saw looked like it came from the aisles of Toys 'R' Us, due to its very toyish look, and small size. It is smaller than I expected, considerably smaller than the M4a1, and the M4 is already a pretty small gun. To further inspect the gun, the next obvious step was to pick up the gun... This doubled my disappointment in the gun. It is very very light compared to any AEG, and even compared to GBB's I have. The gun wieghs in barely over a kilogram, where all regular AEGs double that, and a lot of times triple that amount of weight. I must say though, I don't know how light it would have been to me when I was 10 years old. These guns are designed for about that age, so that may be the perfect weight for them, I don't really know. Either weight the combination of light weight, and cheap plastic sent me back to the springer days of my airsoft career, and I expected a little better from Marui. But I guess it evens out since they are only about $100 shipped, and that isn't too bad for an AEG of anykind made by Marui.
The gun inside the box, with all that it comes with. Small box of BB's, gun, magazine, and a fake battery compartment. (batteries not included.
Another big disappointment was the magazine. When they advertise this 180-round magazine, I am expecting a 180 round hi-cap type magazine. Instead it is more of a STTI G3a3 reservoir magazine. You pour 180 rounds in, but you have to pull down the spring, and shake about 25-30 rounds in each time. Then release the spring, and shoot those, and repeat the process until all the rounds are out. I'll have more on the magazine later on.
Looks
This gun really does not look all that bad. When you compare it to an AEG, the AEG of course looks a lot better, but for the price, and compared to any spring weapon I have seen, it looks a lot better. The colors of the gun are all pretty accurate even though the materials aren't accurate. It does have full trademarks with the same clearness and quality as any gun out there. The trademarks really help the looks out. They appear on the left side of the main body, as well as on the outer barrel.
In the picture above you'll see the colt logo on the top left, and under that:
PROPERTY
OF U.S. GOVT.
M4a1 CARBINE
CAL. 5.66 MM.
M301730
And on the right side about the trigger is:
COLT'S FIREARMS DIVISION
COLT INDUSTRIES
HARTFORD CONN
U.S.A.
On the barrel you'll see:
C MP
5.56 NATO 1/7
The gun also has the little knobs to release the handle on the real version, and AEG version. On this version those two metal knobs have no function, and the carry handle is not removable. The knobs do make for some good, realistic looks. The gun is pretty accurate for its size, and that is why in a lot of pictures the gun seems to be full size, or at least a lot bigger than it really is. This gun is pretty small, so don't expect it to be like an M4a1 when it comes to size. Here are some comparison pictures:
You can see that it is smaller than the SG 552 (which is a small gun), and you'll also see that the M9 pistol, and 6" revolver are also pretty big in comparison to this gun.
The Hop-Up
This gun deserves a lot of credit for the hop-up system. It is very simple, and still adjustable. Perfect for the use of a 10 year old, as they advertise it for. As you know the AEG hop-ups you have to open the dust cover and it reveals the knob, that it sometimes difficult to move, and keep stable. It also is adjustable to a wide range of weights, and that could possibly get confusing. For this boys version AEG, you'll see that there is just a simple sliding knob. Slide to the left, the BB goes up... Slide to the right the BB goes down. It is only for .12g BB's, and there really isn't a wide range of hop-up options, making it very easy to get the perfect hop-up setting for your conditions. Like on the AEG version, the dust cover hides the hop-up. But unfortunately on the boys AEG version, the T-charging handle does not move, or have any function, so you have to pull the dust cover down yourself, to reveal the hop-up. Overall though, nicely done by Marui.
The hop-up unit, with the dust cover down.
The Magazine
The magazine has a different function from your AEG function, which is kind of disappointing since their idea for the regular AEGs is perfect. This design for the boys AEG is more of a spring gun type of magazine, and really makes extra magazines a valuable investment for people who choose to play seriously with these guns.
Here is the magazine with the side view. You're looking into the inside of the magazines curve.
As you can see in the picture, there is a long plastic strip, covering a little less then half of the opening. This plastic piece has the ridges at the bottom to help get a grip of the piece of plastic. The pieces purpose is to charge the spring. You pull this plastic piece down, and it pulls the spring down, and charges it, and leaves the spring down (you don't have to hold the spring down, it automatically locks). Then you can release the plastic piece, and it will return to the top, but the spring will still be charged to allow BB's to come in. You most likely have to shake the BB's into the magazine, or angle it so they gravitate into the magazine, through the opening that the charged spring forms. You can look through the opening to see how many BB's are in there, and then you use the Button on the side of the magazine, to release the spring, and the magazine is charged.
This is the little button that releases the spring to load up the gun.
It is hard to tell how many BB's this magazine can actually shoot with one spring load. It seems to be somewhere in the 25-30 round range, which is a lot like the real one. Also since the magazine goes far up into the gun (farther than regular AEGs) it shoots all the rounds charged, and won't leave 2-3 BB's like the regular AEG's will. The BB's are double stacked, and it is hard to completely fill the magazine quickly, so if you need to reload quickly, you probably will get only 20-25 BB's in there, since the last 5-10 are the hardest to fill.
The side of the magazine, completely loaded. You can see the BB's double stacked inside of the magazine.
This magazine is of course smaller than the real magazines, and there for smaller than the airsoft magazines, for the full size AEGs. It is made out of cheaper plastic like the rest of the boys version AEG. Not metal like the full size AEGs. It is also a noticable amount smaller. It also is a little longer, since it goes farther up, right into the gearbox, and has a slightly different shape at the top.
Boys AEG magazine in the middle, straddled by two marui hi-cap magazines.
Battery Compartment
This gun runs on 6 AA batteries, and are supposed to last about 500 rounds. I have not shot 5000 rounds yet, so I don't know for sure. But if it is any different than 5000 rounds I'll be sure to update everyone. To put the batteries in, you pull back the handguard ring, and pull off the top handguard. The bottom handguard is not removable. Then you quite simply place the 6 batteryes in, with four in the middle, and one on each side, and lower than the other four. The handgaurd can easily be removed and secured, and is done just like the regular TM M4a1. The batteries so far seem to be very secure, and powerful enough to give the gun a good ROF.
Sorry for the fuzziness, but here is the compartment with the top handguard removed.
The Sights
The Boys M4 AEG has adjustable sights, which was quite a surprise to me. Mainly since it is completely unnecessary due to the poor accuracy and light BB's make it even more inconsistent. It is accurate for what it is, but not accurate enough to really zero in your sights. First you have the flip up and down option between two different sights. Your regular, larger assault sight, and the smaller hole, that allows for more of a sharpshooting sight. One is used for more careful aiming, while the other is for faster aiming. Both of these sights are plastic.
Your assault site...
Smaller sniper sight. Sorry for the poor picture, it is kind of hard to focue in on the small hole.
Now there is more adjustability than that of course. The sights will slide along the threaded screw, so they can be adjusted from left to right, by turning the vertical knob on the right side of the gun (which is metal). So you can adjust it in that respect. The sights are not able to adjust up and down, like on the real, and full size AEG version, but there is very little need. They sill have the horizontal knob, that usually moves the sights up and down, but it can't be moved and is simply for looks, and realism. The only metal part on the sights is the knob, and the screw that the sights slide on. The rest is plastic.
Here you can see the metal vertical knob at the top, and the plastic horizontal (fake) knob underneath of it.
Shooting and Function
Okay, enough of that fancy stuff, how does it shoot? Well first off I was quite impressed with the shooting. I dry fired it once just to hear it before shooting, and it gave a pretty bad mini-like sound. It really sounds just like a mini, except faster, and a little bit better when it is shooting BB's. On full auto the sound is very high pitched, and screachy, but on semi when you aren't dry firing, it gives a quite nice soft sount. The sound indoors resembles a silenced M4, with a simple clicking and shooting noice, that sounds quite awesome if I do say so myself. That is really the only good sound it makes. It sounds worse outside, and a lot worse on full auto. But it is acceptable after awhile.
When I first began shooting, I was quite impressed. 135 fps turned out to be more powerful than I expected. I could get this gun to shoot about 95 feet maximum, but it took so long for the BB to get there, and it wasn't really accurate. The combat range would probably be a maximum of 50 feet, and the closer the better. The main issue is that they go slow enough that you can dodge them if you get any farther away. The gun shoots pretty fast on full auto, but it takes a little longer to get going on full auto than your regular AEG. With a very slightly less ROF than the full size AEG, it is quite impressive. The trigger pull on this gun is quite long though, for safety issues I'm sure, so you can't really shoot on semi as fast as on your regular AEG's, and that is part of why full auto takes a little longer to get going.
There is a safety button where the middle finger would go on the pistol grip. This is shown and advertised by Marui, so Im sure most already knew about this. The button has to be full pressed for the gun to shoot at all, and can cause some problems when shooting, since you may think that it's pressed when it isn't. Overall though it is pretty simple to get used to, and you usually won't have any problems with shooting the gun. The button will automatically go down when the gun is held properly.
The gun like on all versions of it, has three fire options: Safety, semi automatic, and fully automatic. You can get to these by moving the selector switch seen in pictures above, and it is above the pistol grip. This switch does not move as easily as the regular AEGs switches do, again a safety feature. But it does stay on the fire options, a lot easier than the regular TM's. It won't move with a little bit of pressure, and it really clicks and locks into the option that you select. This kind of wears off on the regular AEGs, so this one seems to be an improvement to me. But it may wear out just as easily.
When it comes to combat, this thing would really be awesome for indoors. If you have any kind of section of your house, or someone elses where you can play airsoft safely and legally, this gun would be an absolute blast. It is a lot more accurate indoors, and a lot more fun at close ranges. It won't really break anything unless it is at close ranges, or really weak, but can make marks in weaker dry wall at close ranges. The ideal arena would be a unfinished basement with a lot of obstacles. This thing really would be fun for indoors, and if you have a place to play, this gun may just be perfect for you. Out doors, it isn't really fun at all if you get out in the open, or in the woods. You have to have a lot of obstacles in close area, and most likely this will be around peoples houses. Make sure to be careful when playing around your house, so that no one thinks the gun is real, and you won't get into any kind of legal trouble. Let your neighbors know what it is. Outdoors this gun doesn't thrive as much, but can be fun. You have to have a small area, with a lot of obstacles to have fun in, and that isn't really available to most people.
The guns inner barrel is like a pistols. The inner barrel does not go out farther than the handguards. Probably since the outer barrel of the gun, is plastic, and would break very easily in a fall. Any kind of fall on a hard surface probably has a 50/50 chance of breaking something. The outer barrel would probably be the first thing to break, and if the inner barrel was in it, it would break the barrel too. So Marui probably decided to make it so the outer barrel can break due to an accident, and the gun will still function properly.... They could have made the outer barrel a little better, but I guess that would just be too easy or something...
Accessories
I don't really know what accessories you'll have for this gun. There is a hole in the carry handle that in the future may be able to mount a red dot or something. But the awkward size does not allow for any kind of aftermarket parts, which is kind of shame. So for now only the magazine is available as an accessory for the weapon. A sling would not be such a bad idea either, since it does have a decent, and sturdy spots for the slings to go. Other than that though, you can only get the gun and BB's.
Overall
Overally this is good gun if you plan to play in and around the house, and are a younger guy, or just don't have a place to play with a real AEG. Inside would be the most fun, but it can be fun outside too. It is kind of fun for target shooting, but also kind of dangerous since it will bounce back at you very easily, since it doesn't have the power to go through things. Fun though just for shooting around.
This gun has a very low force to it. Due to hop-up, and the light weight BB's, these guns can shoot far, and quite fast, but not have much force to them. When they kit any kind of clothing, they won't hurt at all, and even on skin at close ranges, they don't hurt all that bad, and you can get over it quite quickly. It is reccomended that you always wear full face protection, since these guns can still be dangerous to the face, and the eyes especially. This gun looks good, feels light and toyish, shoots decently, and in the right situations can be an absolute blast... Is this gun for you? Well are you willing to spend $100 on what is said above? Than yes it is worth it.
The TM Boys AEGs will probably be very successful due to the Marui reputation, and the cheap price for the AEGs, and full/semi auto option that is very appealing. In addition to this M4a1, they plan to release the MP5a5, FN P90, G36c, L85a1, and AK Beita Spetsnaz. These all should be very interesting guns, and it will be interesting to see how far they take the series. The L85a1 is interesting since that is not even a full size AEG version by Marui. It is also interesting that the spetsnaz stock and handguard are wood colored in the poster. The gun came with a poster of all the guns above, in case you are wondering. Also very ineresting is that the picture of the G36c does have the dummy bullets in it... That kind of scares me, since 10 year olds will have these. But those kind of debates are for forums, not reviews.
NOTE: The rating is a five, for what it is. I took points off for the toyish plastic, the cheap weight, the not so great magazine design, the not so great outdoor play, and everything else mentioned in the review. It would be a higher rating for some, but this for overall play in all situations, and its versatility.- Meatball
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