This is a bad gun... It bit me only moments after I unpacked it, catching the side of my thumb in the hinge of the folding stock and cutting me quite nastily. I still haven't quite broken it to my will, either, with occasional mis-feeds causing shells to jam between the magazine tube and the chamber - if time and bedding-in doesn't take of it, I may have to resort to a little gunsmithing! When all is working well, though, it's quite remarkable - a loud boom as the trigger is pulled, then a long, sliding metal-on-metal sound and brief glimpse in the peripheral vision of a bright blue shotshell flying up and outwards. I'm trying it with lightweight .11g BBs at present, and it's certainly not the most powerful replica I own even so - but it's also capable of putting a five shot group into the target around two inches wide at the short range I'm using, ejecting and reloading about as fast as I can pull the trigger... It's just so much fun... :-)

However, I'm sure that a little fiddling and tweaking will help both problems, and the gun is certainly an impressive replica overall. It's heavy enough to feel good in use, but not too heavy that (at a pinch!) it couldn't be fired one-handed as in the Terminator movies... The blued finish is excellent, if evidently not very tough, and the ABS/polycarbonate mixture of the plastic outer barrel is just as convincing an imitation metal as that of my Western Arms Beretta.

This gun is going to be a long-term project, I think, with various additions and modifications already on the cards. As well as smoothing and polishing the magazine ramp to prevent mis-feeds, the spring that flips the butt-plate down when the stock is unfolded is a touch weedy and could do with replacing if I can find an equivalent. The next major step, however, involves a set of cosmetic add-ons to give that tactical look - a perforated metal heat-shield to fit over the barrel, a snap-in shell-holder for the metal stock, and an extended magazine tube at the front of the fore-grip. The latter may well be problematic - the standard version increases capacity from four rounds to seven, but is sized for the full-length barrel and may be too long for this slightly shortened variant! If so, I expect an hour or two with hacksaw and Dremel will suffice, and the bad-ass look of the doubled fore-end should be well worth the effort.