Last summer I sold my SRC G36 AEG (a good gun by the way) and purchased an ICS M16A3 full metal. I had always ignored ICS until one of the team members picked up a sportline M4. I was instantly astonished by the split gearbox and functioning forward assist. So after much consideration of other options, I chose the ICS.
The Store: I ordered the gun from Mach1airsoft. Surprisingly, despite all the positive comments I've heard regarding Mach1, I had a terrible experience. I purchased expedited shipping so the gun would arrive before my next big game. But instead of getting what I payed for, it took Mach1 at least a week to finally ship the 450$ purchase. That was only after several emails and phone calls. What's worse is, for the longest time, Mach1 told me it had already been shipped until finally some one said they had just shipped it that day (it was a full week later and the game was in two days). So I will be avoiding that store in the future without a doubt.
The Gun: After it finally arrived, I got the chance to look over my new AEG. It came with a nice big 3300mah 8.4v Nimh battery. The finish was nice, and the logo, I must say, looked pretty cool. Everything was well lubricated. The metal is nice and solid, yet the gun is lighter than a lot of M4's so that was a bonus. The gun also came with two high caps, one 300rd and one 450rd.
 |
| Note: The deans connector was installed later. |
I charged up the battery it came with and loaded up one of the high caps with .2's. I was pleased to find the wiring is high quality, likely 16 gauge, and a car fuse is already installed (better than a regular fuse). I was super excited to see what the ICS turbo motor could do as it was one of the upgraded features of the full metal version. So I took some shots and was instantly amazed by the crisp RoF and accuracy/range. On .2's with the stock hop up adjusted I could hit targets at 200ft! Of course my 9.6v batteries were even more impressive. The only issue I found with it initially was the two pieces of the plastic hand guard don't lock together and wobble a lot.
I found the guns weakest area to be the internals. The split gear box fits snugly and the gears are shimmed well. However, the spring guide, piston/piston head, and cylinder head, are all made of the same cheap plastic as the sportline. In fact, the only difference between the sportline version and this on is the motor. Naturally, I replaced those parts with upgraded versions. The hop up unit is plastic but that doesn't seem to effect performance.
 |
| As you can see, the gearbox fits well inside the receiver. |
 |
| Some of the cheap parts it came with that I replaced. |
|
The functioning forward assist is definitely a nice touch. Being able to decompress the spring so easily has actually fixed the gun on many occasions, when something got a little messed up, for whatever reason. I didn't use the stock internals for long but I can say they do the job. I have another buddy who uses a stock ICS without issues. I swapped mine out mainly because I have more trust in metal parts especially in cold weather games. The split gear box always draws attention from other players at games. Whenever I take out the pin to inspect my internals someone wants to know all about it. So it can be a good or bad thing depending on how much attention you like.
Overall this is a really solid gun that works really well as a primary. It can take a decent amount of abuse from players like me who have a fairly rough playing style. The body is solid for the most part excluding the barrel assembly. I would like it to come with better internals considering the price you pay for it. The split gearbox also has some minor drawbacks as you can't ensure a perfectly consistent fit encase you wanted to make it an ultra high performance AEG. But for players looking for a reliable gun that can withstand some hard-core gameplay, I would definitely recommend the ICS M16 Full metal.
Overall rating: 4/5
Pros: Sturdy body, split gear box, functional forward assist, good range/RoF
Cons: Barrel assembly wobbles, cheap internal parts, not good for ultra high performance upgrades, a little expensive
