Tokyo Marui M4A1 New Type

[Skladfin]

Okay, Most of you guys might be thinking, reading the title, "Why the hell is this guy doing another review on a 2 year old release?"

Well,

I've read some TM M4A1 New Type(from here and on, TM M4) reviews myself but they were written by some minors who didn't really understand Airsoft themselves(Or, at least I couldn't find a good one). With some Gearbox experience and having disassembled the gun a gazillion times from top to bottom, I think I'm more than qualified to do this review. And this gun is probably the most popular/commonly sold gun in the airsoft industry. So I think it deserves an adequate review(or so I think).



Okay let's start with the Specs(Taken from WGC)

Retail Price in Canada about $500~$590
Features:
*Aluminium one-piece outer barrel
*Metal inserts in upper receiver
*6-Position Stock

Specification:
Built Material - ABS & Aluminium
Gear Box - Version 2
Motor - EG1000
Magazine - 68 Rounds ( 6mm )
Length - 767mm / 851mm
Weight - 2950g
Velocity - 285FPS ~ 300FPS
Battery - Mini Type ( Not Included )
Package includes (AEG, Magazine, 200 TM 0.25g BBs, Manual(WITH ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS), Barrel Cleaner(Jam fixer), 70 round quick loader, and TM Catalogue)
Barrel is Silencer compatible. 14mm Anti-Clock Wise(a.k.a Counter Clock wise) threaded
Inner Barrel length: 363mm, 407mm would also fit but shows in the muzzle.

For this review, I have used the Sanyo 8.4v 600Mah Mini Battery and Excel 0.2g BBs.

Shopping for the gun:
I got this gun from SpecArms(now raided and closed) a year ago, along with the battery, a bag of Excel BBs, Marui Charger, and the guy also gave me a free bottle of Airsoft Innovation Lubricant

The total came out to be about $610, not really bad of an amount to start with.

First Impression:
I got this more than a year ago, so I can't really remember very well of my first impression, but I still remember the gun looking a little uglier than I thought it would look. But I assume that is because I looked at too many pictures of Fully Customized M4s on Goggle and such, so I'm not complaining. When I first held it in my hands, it wasn't too heavy, it only weighs about 6+ lbs with Batteries and mag inserted. The material that it was made out was good, with the first look, I couldn't distinguish which part is metal or plastic unless the gun was shined by a good light(The contrast between the receiver(plastic) and front end of the gun(mostly metal) is quite noticeable in good light). But the feeling you get when you hold it on the receiver is definitely different from holding a full metal version.

By the way, I'm not going to talk too much about the box that it came in. All I can tell you is that it was really grey and had a picture of M4 on it, saying M4A1

Weight:
6+lbs(3kg) with mag and battery. Very Balanced with the battery in foregrip, 10/10. Nothing much to talk about here. By the way, the Mini battery goes into the foregrip. I measured the length of the battery space available. It seems that 9.6v Mini Batteries won't fit at all.

Build Quality:
It seems more or less that I'm not liking a lot of the exterior quality of this product. There are OKAY amount of metal parts that comes with this gun. The parts are : Front Sight, Rear sight(Not the whole carry handle), Charging Handle, Outer Barrel, Bolt, Bolt Catch, Mag release, Trigger Guard, and the LoCap Mag. They are pretty solid and nice, but most of the stuff like receiver, stock, and fore grip are all High Quality ABS Plastic.

Now, the TM M4 is rumoured everywhere that it wobbles on the outer barrel, and although it saddens me to tell you this, but yes, it does start wobbling over a short period of time. But it's fine, you can just tighten the screw at the end part of the outer barrel(which you can just take off the foregrip to get access to) and fix it, and it's quite easy. So that's not really the problem here, but the problem lies in other places.

There are 2 other places of the gun which wobbles like a fuck as well, and it pisses me off just to talk about it. They are the front sight(Along with the Foregrip), and the stock. The wobble on the Foregrip wasn't there in the first place, but it started appearing overtime, about half a year or so. But the wobble on the stock was there from the BEGINNING. And when it wobbles, it makes some plastic-hitting-plastic sound that gets very annoying. You can actually fix the wobble if you have some tape. I fixed it by taking off the stock and taped one or two layers of tape inside the stock so that it fits the stick which the stock holds on to- perfectly. But now the stock doesn't go back and forth as smoothly as it was without the tape, not that it really matter because I just wanted to get the wobble out of it. Now, for the foregrip/front sight wobble, unfortunately I haven't found any solution to fixing it yet. I've stuffed a good amount of cleanex in there to stuff the spaces that's causing the wobble but it just won't STOP. And front sight is the most important thing here, when you are aiming with the Iron Sight, you are shooting the enemy with it, your not going to be trying to get the stupid front sight to line up. That is probably the worst thing about this gun, the wobbles.

The sights:
There's 2 types of different rear sight here, in which you can just flip the sight to change between the two. They are the CQB version and the Marksman version. CQB version has wider vision of view and the Marksman version with smaller vision of view but makes your vision 20/20 while you're looking through it(CRAZY!!). You can adjust the windage and elevation on the rear sight with no tools at all, just turn the knob and that's it. As for the front sight, you need this tool with 4 legs that comes with the gun to adjust the elevation, but you can't adjust the windage on the front sight. Also note the wobble in the "Build Quality" section, last paragraph.


CQB Sight

Marksman Sight

Trademarks:
Very nice trademark, but not painted white to show its sexiness to the max. So I crayoned in the trades to make it look better, and it's also easier for the readers here to take a look at the trades.



Mag:
It's low cap, holds 68rounds and the last 2 rounds won't be fired unless you invert the gun. That's usual for all mags, nothing wrong with it here. No mis feeds, all good. It's also made out of metal. I've thrown my mag onto concrete ground a few times and it started wobbling on the bottom.


Crayoned the bottom trades(And no, it doesn't come with the camo stripe, I did that myself if you're wondering)

Internals:
The disassembly is average, take out the pins, open up the upper receiver to access the hop up and the barrel to fix jams and such. If you want to take out the gearbox, you'd have to take off the motor first by screwing off the grip on the receiver. The gearbox itself is version 2, very common to find parts for. I've opened it once to upgrade the spring and the bushings, nothing to complain about here, except for the Nylon bushings that are used in all Marui Guns. I do question their reliability but it's fine if you are never going to upgrade the Spring, works perfect in its stock form. Putting back the motor is a bitch to do though, unlike Version 3 mechboxes, the motor flows inside the grip, so it gets INSANELY hard to put it back in the right place. It's SO freaking frustrating that, Even if I get a new spring guide and a cylinder head upgrade for free, I wouldn't do it.

Performance:
This is the most important thing here, performance.

First test shots were done with Excel 0.2g BBs, at 50feet. And it constantly hit with only 2~3 inch deviance! Superb accuracy. Unfortunately I am unable to provide you with a proof because mine's already upgraded with KM TN tightbore barrel and a stronger spring. But the initial range was about 120~140feet.

Now, to the velocity talk. I don't own a chrono, and I don't live near anyone with chrono, so I can't really give you a exact number as to what FPS it was producing, but with poorman's chrono at redwolf, it pierced one side and dented the other side slightly. So that should give it any velocity from 290FPS - 310FPS. I'm guessing it's around 300FPS and less.

With the tightbore and PDI 130% spring, it penetrated both sides

Modification:
The M4 is probably the MOST customizable gun in the Airsoft industry, there are too much stuff that you can put on it that I don't even want to start listing it. Carry handle rail, RIS, RAS.... Stock.... Sights.... CQBR kits... SPR kits... so many stuff to list. But I will just show you mine, I call it "Sniper Machine Gun"(The pictures should give you a good 360 degrees view of the stock body as well)

What I did to the gun was the following:

-"Crayon" Marking of the Trade marks.
-covered the holes on the lower foregrip so that the yellow Batteries won't show up.
-Bushnell 4X Scope(No idea about the length), taken from Ariakon SIM4 Paintball Marker
-Z Type Carry Handle Rail with Side rails on the lower side(from SIM4)
-Laser(from SIM4)
-A&K 5000rd Box Mag
-Some Camo stripe work on the Stock(PLA Winter Camo)
-Extra Long(407mm) KM TN 6.04mm Inner Barrel(You can actually see if you look at the muzzle)
-PDI 130% (6.8inch) Spring






You don't need to spend insane amounts of money to buy all the RIS stuff to make it beutiful

Pro's and Cons:

Pros:
* TM reliability(Internals only)
* HUGE amounts of upgrade parts to choose from
* Great Range and Accuracy

Cons:
* Common
* Color contrast between metal and plastic parts on body.
* Mini Battery only, unless you get the Crane stock.
* WOBBLES GRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DAMNIT!!!!
* WOBBLES GRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DAMNIT!!!!
* WOBBLES GRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DAMNIT!!!!
* INSANELY hard to put back the motor.

Conclusion:
Other than the external turn offs including the wobbles, it has VERY good performance out of the box and good quality/balanced internals. It should last you a LONG time. Also, do not start upgrading your Armalite like crazy, it just doesn't end. I will tell you right now that it will burn a hole through your wallet GUARANTEED.

If you have any questions or comments, please either reply to the thread or PM me, and I will answer you to the best of my knowledge, Thanks

[Sierra_Hotel]

I was putting the TM M4 on my list along with an Sr-16 ( didnt know what to get) But those wobbles kinda scare me... spending on a costly toy like this.

[Ronan]

When you buy/install the RIS system, does it still wobble (even a bit)?

[Cushak]

I had a King Arms MRE RAS - due to the fact that this made it a free floating barrel, no stress was ever put on the outer barrel, I never had any wobble.

[HellRanger]

When it comes to barrel wobble, look at the doctor's section and you will find a fix for it.

And if I'm not mistaking the what you refer to as a "CQB sight" and a "Marksman sight"... Aren't they actual "night" and "day" sights? In low light condition, you would be using the one with the big opening and in day light you woudl use the smaller one. Fire using the night sight during the day and you grouping will be shitty (With real steel mind you). But I might be wrong...

Instictive shooting is usualy used for CQB (when no others aiming aid is used).

[frankiet]

Originally Posted by HellRanger

And if I'm not mistaking the what you refer to as a "CQB sight" and a "Marksman sight"... Aren't they actual "night" and "day" sights? In low light condition, you would be using the one with the big opening and in day light you woudl use the smaller one. Fire using the night sight during the day and you grouping will be shitty (With real steel mind you). But I might be wrong...

The original poster is correct. The smaller peep is for higher accuracy (for both airsoft and RS). I've used the smaller peep sight during the day, and it works wonders for accuracy (assuming the gun is up for it).

As for night, neither are really visible to me, so both are useless.

[Styrak]

Technically the bigger sight is for shorter range, and the smaller sight is for longer range (better accuracy). You basically get the same FOV using them at their proper distances, I believe.

[Skladfin]

I might get some type of RIS system to go with this thing so that it won't wobble anymore on the front sight. But if that doesn't work, I think I can just buy a RIS sight anyways.

But that's alot of $$

As for the barrel wobble, Yea I know how to fix it. It says how I fixed it in the review if you read it carefully.

[Moderate]

I'm glad someone finally did a good review on the new type m4, I've been browsing around for a good one for awhile now. Thanks Skladfin

[Skladfin]

Your welcome, any questions, ask on the thread or PM

[Omi-san]

Shouldn't a third party one piece metal barrel solve all wobble issues?

[Skladfin]

that's totally wrong.

the stock has nothing to do with the barrel. I mean, why would it? I fixed it by taping the inside of the stock.

the barrel wobble, you can fix just with a allen wrench. tighten the screw and simple as that, not a big deal.

as for the front sight wobble(along with the grip), it has nothing to do with the outer barrel neither. I can't find the source of wobble, so I can't manage to fix it. But I figure that a free floating RIS would eliminate the wobble completely.

Also, I didn't mention, the mag wobbles when its on the gun as well. I fixed this one by taping around the mag to make it fatter, so that it fits better.

[Omi-san]

Just the mag that came with it or all mags?

[Andres]

Got a bit "trigger happy" with the sharpening tool, eh? Effects came out nice anyway

[philstructo]

I came up with a neme for your gun SMG sniper machine gun

anyways I had a Marui M4 a few months back it wasnt as god as the ISC I now own but it was pretty smexy I must admit