As it stands, I only had a brief look at the thing yesterday when it arrived, as I wanted to go out to see my girlfriend - after all, girls are (only just) more fun than guns - so will get a better look at the thing later tonight. But, I did put a few rounds through it and apart from being crap in the cold weather, as all GBBs are, it works okay.
Other things I noticed: It's not as heavy as I thought it might be (which is good, some airsoft weapons end up heavier than the real thing).
It was well packaged (apart from that bloody polystyrene, which meant I had to clean little polystyrene balls out of the internals), being in transit with the top receiver cover open and the return spring popped out so that the spring wasn't weakened by sitting under tension while it's in a warehouse (again good).
The mag is a bit awkward to load, with the included speed loader being about as cheap and nasty as speed loaders usually are, and with a rather clumsily fitted adapter precariously attached to it to facilitate filling the SRC mag (not good, but might be a case of getting used to it, may have to glue the adapter in place on the speed loader, as it isn't very securely attached).
Foregrip wood colour, density and finish is pretty good, a lot like a real one (i.e actually slightly cheap and nasty lol), so no need to re-stain it unless you wanted a particularly different appearance (good).
The folding stock is good and is very reminiscent of a real one - this is in comparison it to my (real) folding stock variant Chicom (type 56) AK that I have - it folds nicely and doesn't rattle about. Seems to be about the same gauge metal as a real one too (good).
Black finish is fairly basic (a lot like many real AKs) but it is paint and not blued metal. Nevertheless, the overall quality of the external parts is nice, including the side rail adapter, which is a bit blued, although TBH, side rails on shorty AKs are often pretty academic, since the CQB rear sight often fouls a lot or rail adapters. It will probably look better with a bit of wear and tear on the finish. (good).
Manual is not bad, with, loading instructions etc, plus an exploded diagram of the magazine internals and one of the GBB mechanism too, plus a spares list (but see above comments on potential spares availability issues), although as ever with airsoft weapons, I think the word 'manual' is stretching it a bit; 'pamphlet' is a bit more like it. Having said that, it is well printed and is in colour (good).
ROF is pretty slow, like the real thing, and accuracy seemed good straight out of the box. Although I'll be honest, my experience on firing real AKs with live ammunition is limited to having fired an old AK47 a few times and an AK74 once, and that AK74 which i fired wasn't the shortened version either, so I've never actually fired a real AKS-74U. Very little kick at all from the SRC when on either single or full auto, which is a bit like the real (full wooden stock) AK74 I fired, in that it had not a lot of recoil (unlike the AK47 which I had a go with, which nearly broke my frigging shoulder blade when on full auto lol). The action certainly clangs and rings like the real thing as it cycles, so I reckon it'll be important to lube the living crap out of the thing to minimise wear and tear, but then again, anyone who has ever handled a real AK will know that they fecking stink of Cosmoline and also clang and ring like crazy, so it's not like you don't have to do that on a real AK either (good).
