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Please forgive my bad English, it’s not my native language.

By 2-3 days, the postman should ring at my door to give me a highly anticipated replica, I called the M1 carbine manufactured by King Arms.
Announced more than 2 years ago, the wait was rough and I have high hopes.
At first there was Marushin gas models, known for their extreme fragility and poor performance.
Then came the model “CDX” running on CO2 with an entry level of $200, with an ABS imitation wood stock, allowing everyone to equip a relatively playable replica but with multiple small defects.
It is now the turn of King Arms to release its replica, still a mixture between two rifles, neither a real M1 nor a M2 , a model between two who won’t satisfy WWII purists nor those for subsequent periods like Indo-China or Korea. But we must recognize that King Arms has nevertheless made a great effort by planning to propose a M1A1 replica , the paratrooper version with skeleton folding stock. The balance sheet on the outside is already mixed before the release like the balance sheet on the internal. Indeed as I preach in my article of March 2014 findable here: https://oioiairsoft.wordpress.com/2014/03/14/m1-king-arms-copie-marushin/ the model feels counterfeit since comparisons with Marushin CO2 model are multiple starting with the choice of CO2 employment. Magazines and nozzle seem identical, so we can anticipate a copied replica from Marushin mechanical. To this we can find some interest as the ability to use the Marushin magazines in the King Arms model but it remains limited. Unfortunately there is a lot of negative points about this choice from King Arms, essentially a low kick, relatively frequent freezings, just average performance and mags that will not fit in the appropriate pouches. Note, however, that I had seen that King Arms spoke of standard AEG hop-up bucking and internal barrel, very positive point, that allows you to eventually improve replica performance according to your needs.

To go back to basics and summarize my remarks, King Arms comes exactly in the same market segment as Marushin ($ 365 vs $ 385) with evidently a copied replica from the Japanese one, in short nothing new. Why this choice? There’s hope that the engineers from King Arms have anticipated this thing by providing us real surprises rather than a poor copy whose only interest is to use the image of the brand ; King Arms doing really playable current replicas while Marushin innovates by offering exotic replicas for collectors rather than players. So King Arms is sentenced to do better.

Having sold my Marushin replica because I wasn’t fully satisfied despite heavy modifications, I expect lot of King Arms model and therefore plan to make a full review as comprehensive as possible. In order to dissect this replica, here are some points that I plan to study, like a list of specifications of what can be expected.

The bare minimum that we are able to require given the price :
– A manual. It’s stupid but not systematic.
– Spare magazines available soon.
– Not too expensive magazines, <$ 40.
– No freezing or other inadvertent shooting incident.
– No leakage on the mag.
– An exemplary finish given the price.
– Absence of ABS and other plastic externals.
– Durability.
– No wobbling parts.
– Playable out of box.
– No lemon.

Where King Arms could earn extra points :
– Compatible parts with standard and available parts like hop-up bucking and inner barrel.
– Available spare parts.
– Strong kick.
– Rapid fire cadence.
– Good regularity of shots.
– Playable in cold weather.
– Magazines that fit appropriate pouches.
– Optimized capacity of mags.
– A fonctionnal slide stop at the end of a mag.
– Some steel mechanical parts.
– <400fps in 0.20g.
– Presence of markings and realistic ones.
– Compatibility with Marushin mags.
– A real M1 or at least a current model.
– Adaptable bayonet without changes.
– A wood stock that doesn't need to be reworked.

What would be really great but not exigeable :
– A hole in the mag for using a gas capsule and not a CO2 one.
– Some steel external parts.
– An available NPAS if necessary.
– RA-Tech working on this replica.
– A doable ultra fast maintenance.
– Banana mags availability.

If other issues come to mind, please leave a comment below, I’ll take care of them more easily during the review rather than once the replica stored.
See you soon !
Oioi.

To learn more about the currently available M1 carbine models : https://oioiairsoft.wordpress.com/2014/07/07/catalogue-des-m1/
Former article on similarities King Arms / Marushin : https://oioiairsoft.wordpress.com/2014/03/14/m1-king-arms-copie-marushin/