Just rather unexpectedly got an Army Armament R85A2 a couple of weeks ago... Despite being not as top notch as the more expensive replicas I'm rather impressed with it really and it's by far the cheapest way of getting an L85 with a rail. And so long as I look after it I'm sure it'll be fine... famous last words.
My dad's got an ICS L85, or SA80 as he'd call it, and you can feel the difference in build quality between the two, but if you're not fussed about little things like some lack of bevelling on a few more intricate parts, and most glaringly some rather cheap plastic on the dust cover and bolt release (I'm sure you could probably replace these relatively easily and I may do so myself, the grip and butt are nice materials mind) then it's really a good deal, considering this was about £170 on sale from BBGuns4Less.co.uk (Sometimes a bit of a gamble with them but this payed off) and the ICS is about 300 and a bit pounds typically. Not to mention, although a tad temperamental, this comes with an optional Electric Blow Back system, which I'm a fan of. It makes me grin! It can just be turned off by locking back the bolt though, if you're running low on battery or just particularly boring. (P.S - Almost forgot, it does have an L85A1 bolt pull, which can also be easily replaced and I may also do so at a later date.)
You'll certainly see the box coming! I did have some issue with getting this thing delivered, but that was only because of a note in the order asking for the Non-two tone version which was listed as out of stock even though it hadn't been the day before my order; but as it turns out they were just waiting for a new shipment in. Not that they told us that to begin with of course.
After a bit of a rebuild to fix the slightly wobbly front rail - and tighten quite a few other bits as it seems all they did in the factory is put the screws in, turn them twice, and leave it, it felt a lot more solid. Bit of a nightmare to get the upper and lower receiver back together, but I've heard that's the case with all L85s, and I imagine perhaps even the real one. Put the ACOG off my CM18 on in place of the carry handle and iron sights, which I was surprised fit on the 19mm rail but then again the scope's off Amazon so perhaps it's not exactly 20mm. Looks bloody smexy though!
As I'd heard in reviews the feeding and magazines seem to be the biggest functional downfall of the Army Armament R85, and in direct comparison to the ICS the mag-well is indeed visually smaller. Although once you get the hang of it, it doesn't hamper you too much. I found it doesn't like hi-caps though, which is fine by me because I don't either, but my dad's ICS hi-caps which we tried for setting the hop caused the well documented issue of the gun jamming in repetition fire, needing to be changed to and fired in auto before it would fire again. While I can't say for sure, it seemed switching to my new Nuprol Mid/Real cap mags (which I love by the way) solved this as I had no feeding issues using them, but I didn't exactly fire off a billion rounds to test this so it might have just been pot luck. Still, as a collection piece this thing feels great, looks the part, and should, hopefully, fingers crossed, work in a game... If not though I'll have the trusty G&G CM18 to back me up.
Although I wasn't there to open them (or get a better picture of them), given I've just gone back to uni after getting the L85 on a break, my new lovely hand made wooden rifle rack and pistol stand arrived at home the other day... can't wait to go back and get my ever expanding collection on them! Even if my wallet is rapidly deflating... Why do I want all the things?
And finally, I got a little patch alongside the L85, that of the famous 7th Armoured Division 'Desert Rats', which is also the name my old War Thunder & Arma squadron operated under.
Now, to spend even more money on attachments!...
*Wallet cries*
P.S - Blimey that turned into a full review, that wasn't supposed to happen!