Creasy of 1st Protocol Airsoft has emailed us announcing that they're taking pre-orders for the UTG M4 Tactical Full Size and also a review... "The AEG's packaging was very nice.  A pictured detail of the gun shows in front of the package. opening the box, the first thing i noticed was it included a battery and a charger, right away I assumed this was just another clone. Looking at the AEG from a standpoint it looked heavy due to all the accessories it was packing, I was pretty impressed by its external look."

External accessories included

• 11 2" modular rail covers
• 1pc rail system, it was very stable, it didn't cradle against the metal body
• tri-rail unit for the front sight. also very stable
• 2pc interchangeable outer barrel (you can switch to cqb look by unscrewing the front piece)
• utg metal body (heavy casting similar to guarder first generation)
• hollow full stock (will easily fit a 9.6v large type battery)
• iron front and rear sights
• 300 round hicap with easy wind key
• 8.4v 1500mah battery and standard wall charger

Now I was opening the gearbox, this was decent for field barrel adjustments. The top receiver and bottom receiver came apart by taking out the front pin. after taking apart the receiver i was impressed to see that it had a 1 pc hop up similar to that of guarder's. The inner barrel was a stock 363mm. This gun came apart like classic army's M15A4. When i got to the gearbox i was curious to see whats inside, although it had a UTG badge engraved on the gearbox, it had all the familiar symptoms of a clone. dealing with many types of gearboxes, I was able to profile that this rolled out of the same factory as many other clones, like echo1 and jing gong. These type of gearboxes required certain brand of upgrade parts to make the gearbox work, one specific manufacturer will not make the upgrades work, instead a combination of well fitted parts. To my dismay I unscrewed the "Echo1-like" allen screws and discovered it was an Echo1 gearbox. I have nothing against the Echo1's family of AEGs, but as a technician I know first hand the horrors I had to go through to upgrade these guns. Here is a detail of its gearbox.

• polycarbonate cylinder head
• polycarbonate piston head (i had a screw stab right through it's piston once)
• polycarbonate piston
• ported polished cylinder (i have included this in some upgrades and the compression was pretty good)
• steel gears (these gears were similar to classic army's, i haven't had one strip on me yet so i would say its pretty good)
• metal spring guide (this was built "skinny" to keep from other springs from locking up)
• m100 spring pumping out 340-350fps
• polycarbonate wire housing (the plastic may not withstand high heat)
• polycarbonate tappet plate
• plastic nozzle

These internals were exactly similar to echo1's family of m4s. The only difference in the gearbox is the UTG badge imprinted in it. To check the gearbox's integrity i gave it a basic upgrade with a MAD BULL M110 SPRING and a set of HURRICANE 6MM BUSHINGS. After 1 hour of shimming, i soon realized that the bushing needed to have a flatter base to keep the gears spinning, otherwise there wasn't enough space to shim, nor allow the gears to spin. I left the OEM spring spacer with the M110 spring as well as the metal spring guide. After putting the gearbox together the gun chronoed between 370-380fps. With about 12bbs per second on an 8.4v large type battery. The feeding was consistant as well. The hop up adjustment was easy, similar to that of guarder's plastic 1pc hop up.

The gearbox has potential for upgrades, although some combination of parts may be limited, unlocking the proper PARTS combination will give this gearbox a proper tuning. Afterall, this is an m4 version2 gearbox.

Review by,

Villain"

The AEG's packaging was very nice. A pictured detail of the gun shows in front of the package.

Upon opening the box, the first thing I noticed was it included a battery and a charger, right away I assumed this was just another clone. Looking at the AEG it looked heavy due to all the accessories it was packing. 

• 11 2" modular rail covers
• 1pc rail system, it was very stable, it didn't cradle against the metal body
• tri-rail unit for the front sight. also very stable
• 2pc interchangeable outer barrel (you can switch to cqb look by unscrewing the front piece)
• UTG metal body (heavy casting similar to guarder first generation)
• hollow full stock (will easily fit a 9.6v large type battery)
• iron front and rear sights
• 300 round hicap with easy wind key
• 8.4v 1500mah battery and standard wall charger
  

This UTG comes with a 2 piece barrel similar to the King Arms Barrels, which makes this gun very sturdy.

The body is solid and feels good. Almost like Classic Army.

The UTG M4 comes with a Hi-Cap Magazine and an Ergo Grip.

The Dust Cover opens just like the Echo1 and Tokyo Maruis.

Once again the build quality on this Metal M4. The selector switch didn`t feel as good but it's ok.

Close up of the ergo grip by UTG.

This M4 comes with a plastic one piece hop-up that is similar to Guarder. And of course the inner barrel is a typical 363mm. The manual states though that this is a tight bore barrel.

Gearbox opened.

Exactly like the clones we see in the market today.

Close-up of the gearbox.

The only thing different about the UTG is the cyclinder. It came as you see it in the picture.

The gears are actually steel gears which is a plus.