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This is my second full review, so don’t be too harsh.


I’m writing this review because I’m tired of people bashing CYMA. CYMA has long been known as the craptastic maker of guns that suck, and people have created many different interpretations of CYMA such as Crap Your Money Away. Well, that all changed with this gun. This gun is the opposite of what CYMA stands for. I’m fine with people bashing specific CYMA guns, but not the company itself now that this gun has been released.


Note: The gun I am reviewing is the CM027 version of the CYMA MP-5J! The other version, the CYMA CM023, is an lpeg and usually goes for around $40, and comes with more accessories:


http://www.airsoftretreat.com/reviews/showproduct.php?product=43&cat=29


When I first heard about the CYMA MP-5J, I was very interested. My friend had just bought the UTG MP5, and I wanted a gun like that (an MPEG). There are a few reasons I bought this gun:


1. It wasn’t as expensive as the UTG
2. It was supposed to perform better than the UTG
3. It had better externals than the UTG
4. Shorty was all out of the v3 UTG (the main reason I bought this gun.)


I was a bit unsure of this, since information was scarce and people were very skeptical. I took a chance, and man did it pay off.


This gun was first reported to be amazing by the people over at ACM forums, who reported the gun firing at over 300 fps stock and having great externals. The only company that carried this gun in the U.S. at the time was Jungletoy, who I highly recommend. For $90, I received this gun, as there was no tax or shipping when I ordered from Jungletoy. Plus, they sent me a cool little screwdriver set and a free broomhandle pistol! (You all know what happened to that…)


A few days after I ordered this gun, Jungletoy ran out. However, I have heard that they will be receiving another shipment in the next few months, so rejoice! Also, if you want the performance of the CYMA but don't want the MP-5 style, they're coming out with a cool new folding stock AK-47S, which you can already purchase on EBay, but will be coming to Evike.com within the next few weeks labeled as the "Matrix AK-47 v3". Jungletoy may also be receiving the new CYMA AK-47S.


PART 1: Appearance/Feel


The day it arrived, I happily ripped open the packaging and was met with the odd smell of new plastic. That smell remains to this day.

That’s some box, the cardboard sure catches the eye.

The gun came with the basics:
-Cheap green sling
-175 round hi-cap (Ies, it hold exactly 175 rounds, I counted one day when I had nothing better to do.)
-1100 mAh Ni-MH black battery
-Wall charger (250 mAh output, charging = 4 hrs, 24 minutes)
-A little pack of cheap BBs,
-Little allen wrench used to adjust the motor and other things
-A muzzle cover to go on the end of the gun

Inside the box. Typical Styrofoam packaging.

The gun itself weighs ~3lbs, all of that from the internals (no weights, as expected). It feels great, no body flex at all. CYMA used great plastic on this gun, very thick, worlds ahead of my old DE G36C. External metal parts include:


-Front sights & flashider (underneath the orange j-type flashider)
-Cocking handle
-Trigger
-Mag release mechanism
-Sling mounts
-Selector switch
-Motor plate (underneath handgrip)
-Take-down pins
-Stock

The front part of the gun. The metal is of fairly good quality.

Note all the metal on the rear part of the gun.

The gun feels great to hold, the stock is pretty sturdy (tons better than, say, the UHC MP-5SD3) with very little wobble and locks into 3 different positions. These positions are: All the way in, all the way out, and then a position about 2 inches from being fully extended. Despite this, the stock itself is one of the main problems with the gun. The mechanism that locks the stock into all of its positions is plastic and wears away very quickly against the metal stock. I put a screw in there so it works again.

Here’s a pic of what I did to make the stock work again.

The buttpad is rubber and feels very good against your body.

The rear sight is excellent, it locks very firmly into 4 different positions for each different hole size. I prefer to use the largest one. The front sight has some wobble at first, but adding one layer of electric tape over the front of the cocking tube fixes the problem completely.

What you should do to fix it.

The flashider is very weird, it locks into a mechanism and can be taken off easily. There’s a little locking thing on it, it doesn’t really serve any purpose, and I don’t know what it’s for.

Here’s a pic of the flashider.

The only trademarks on the gun are “Kal 9mm x 19” and “Made in China, CM.027”.

Now, there’s the issue of getting the battery into the foregrip, one of the most hated things about the UTG MP5. Fear not, for this is not an issue with the CYMA MP-5J! The battery fits into the foregrip easily, and everything just fits in without any hassle. Hurray!

Here’s where the battery goes, no extra wire like the UTG. Also, the foregrip is just slightly wider than the UTGs.

The only complaints I have about the externals are the ugly hop-up adjustor, which for some reason, the people at CYMA decided to leave clear-white plastic. I haven’t gotten around to painting it, so for now it’ll have to be how it is.


PART 2: Performance


I was amazed at the performance of this gun. My gun easily shot ~300 fps stock. Accuracy wasn’t the best though. this can be blamed on the crappy aluminum barrel the gun comes with, this is the only major flaw in the gun. the barrel has a diameter of 6.08mm and is incredibly light. I later installed an SRC brass barrel, I will explain how to do this later. The accuracy of this gun will not be as great as other MP5’s with the same barrel as the barrel is only 210mm long (a normal MP5 barrel is 230mm long). This is because the barrel is much different than other AEG barrels and fits into a plastic hop-up unit. It’s hard to explain, there’ll be pics later.

The crappy stock aluminum barrel.

My SRC brass barrel (measured diameter of 6.04mm)

The power of this gun amazed me. It clearly shoots harder than a UTG shotgun. My old UTG pierced one side of a can and slightly dented the other side. This gun almost pierces both sides.

This is what it does to a coke can (well, a Sprite can, but it’s manufactured by coke so the cans are the same). Pretty impressive huh? This puts the gun anywhere from 290 fps to 340 fps according to this:


http://www.airsoftretreat.com/reviews/showproduct.php?product=71


Of course, it doesn’t shoot 340 fps or else it would be piercing both sides. I estimate my gun to be shooting at 300 fps to 310 fps with the SRC barrel installed. These tests were done with KSC .2g BBs.


Went to a chrono down in Denver today.


OFFICIAL CHRONO STATS: 310 fps


Wonderful! Just as i predicted! Too bad actually, since the limit at the CQB arena down there was 300 fps...every time I fired, the little siren saying that my gun was over the limit went off. Oh well, i used it anyway, and it pwned. Grin


For range, with the stock barrel the maximum effective range was probably 110 feet. With the SRC barrel, I can now engage targets from over 120 feet.


As for accuracy, well, it’s pretty good. Stock, the accuracy wasn’t anything to brag about. I would estimate that the groupings at 80 feet were around 7 inches on semi-auto and over 1 foot on full auto. Just like an lpeg, the accuracy went all to hell on full auto. These results were based on a tree in my backyard with a diameter of almost exactly 6 inches (tiny tree Smiley). On semi auto, I could hit this tree every time. On full auto, only about ½ of the BBs hit the tree.

As you can see, accuracy is very good with the SRC barrel installed. This is the result of 5 shots. One missed by about ½ an inch to the right.


Semi-Auto: 5 inch groupings
Full-Auto: ~10 inch groupings


I did not bother doing tests on full auto. The results were too sporadic. The target I was shooting at is 5” by 7”, and half the shots were missing the target. I’m guessing ~10 inch groupings on full auto with the SRC barrel. Pretty damn good for a $90 MP5!


These tests were done with KSC .2g BBs. I suggest Inertia .25s for this gun, it increases accuracy by a good margin.


This gun performs extremely well in CQB and could probably hold its own in woodland combat too.


Rate of Fire is not as good as the UTG. The gun uses a high-torque motor, one better than that of the UTG because it has to pull a larger spring. My friend’s UTG gets a rate of fire of about 12 per second. My CYMA gets from 9 to 10 per second. Not exceptional, but acceptable.


Test: I loaded 14 BBs into a STAR magazine (the last 4 BBs will not fire). On full auto, immediately when I started firing my little brother started a stopwatch, and when it started dry firing he stopped. I fired off 10 BBs in 1.4 seconds. My little brother admitted to not pressing stop immediately when I told him to, so accounting for human error I’m going to say 1.1 seconds. That’s 9 BBs per second, on a battery about 2/3 charged. Decent.


Overall performance of this gun kicks the living crap out of any lpeg. The only lpeg that comes even close to touching this gun is, you guessed it, the BE XM8 or perhaps the new BOYI M4. I would consider this the best out of all of the MP5 clones out there right now. Assuming the UTG comes in second, not only does this gun have a nicer body and better magazine, but also better performance.


Speaking of the magazine, the one that the gun comes with is excellent. It’s the dual MP5K style magazines clamped together. It holds 175 BBs, and winds very well. With a fully wound spring I can get off about half the magazine before having to re-wind. The body of the magazine is about the same as the UTG, with the exception of the cool bullets on top that look much better than the
UTGs and actually come off and look like real bullets, with the exception of a small screw hole in the bottom.

Here’s the mag you’ve come to hate on the UTG, but will love on the CYMA

Got to love those fake bullets!

PART 3: Internals


This gun comes apart just like a Marui. I had quite a time trying to figure out how to get into the gun, so here are some instructions:


-First take out the pin in the stock mechanism that fits over the back of the gun
-Pull the stock out, make sure not to break the spring steel thing that makes the flapper work
-Remove the little screw on the bottom of the selector switch and take out the selector switch (left and right side)
-Take out the pin that holds in the mag release button
-Take out the two screws on the bottom of the handgrip
-Remove the wire attachments to the motor by just slipping the little nubs off
-Take out the motor
-Remove the two screws up inside the handgrip


At this point, the handgrip should just slide off and you will be able to see the gearbox. Now for the front:


-Take the pin out of the foregrip, slide it off, and take out the battery.
-Remove the screw attached to the sling mount in the front and slide it out
-Remove the whole front sight assembly
-There are now 4 screws to remove: One on the upper right of the gun (the rear), one near the mag release, and two right next to each other near the hop-up adjustment unit
-Remove the little rubber ring from the hop-up adjustment knob and slide it out
-Slide out the cocking-handle unit from the body of the gun just slightly
-Take off the rear sight


Now the whole body of the gun should split open and you can access all of the internals.


The internals of the gun are very nice. The gearbox looks great, better than the UTG one. People who say that this gearbox is just a UTG one with a larger spring are wrong, they are very different, as I have compared them side by side. Here are some pics, you can judge them for yourself:

I don’t know what to compare these internals to other than the UTG MP5, which they are better than. I’ll let you decide how good they are, as I am not a good person to judge how good they are compared to say, a TM (which I’m sure are better).


PART 4: Upgradeability


The only upgrade I have performed so far with this gun is the barrel mod. To do this, you will need something that will cut through a brass barrel cleanly and easily (I used a table saw, though a tubing/pipe cutter would work best.) and a tool to make a ring around the barrel. Make sure you cut the barrel slowly, Newbkiller tried to cut one with a table saw too quickly and it got flung against a wall and ruined the barrel. Oh, and thanks to
Newbkiller as well to supplying me with this SRC barrel for free!


Anyway, use the old barrel as a guide, so you know where to make the cuts on the SRC barrel. Cut off the very end (the part with the opening for the hop-up) just enough so that the little notches on the side of the SRC barrel are even with the circular cut-out of the stock MP5 barrel. If you want to keep the barrel long, you're going to have to make a silencer or something to hide the end of the barrel. If not, then just cut down the SRC barrel until it's the same size as the stock one.


You will also need to connect both of the little notches on the SRC barrel, making a full ring around it like those on the stock barrel. I did this with a table saw as well. First, put the saw in a position so that it will create a cut about 1/3 as deep as you would need. Then firmly hold the barrel, and turn on the table saw. Once the cut is complete, turn the barrel slightly, and do it again. This should create a good shallow ring around the barrel. Then raise the saw a bit more, and continue the cut until it's as deep as the original barrel's. You can also do this with a Dremel, which may be easier.

Pic of the SRC barrel, just to give you an idea.

This gun for sure cannot take the same level of upgrades as a true AEG. If you can buy a new hop-up unit, I would say go for it, since the stock one is weird and you have to custom cut barrels to make them fit. It’s decent, just not too good.


For gearbox upgrades, I would say only upgrade the gun to the level that you would upgrade a UTG MP5. The maximum spring this gun could take would probably be an m120, and that would be stretching it. Everything else in the gearbox could be replaced. I would replace the piston and air nozzle, since I have heard that these leak, and upgrading these parts increases fps by a considerable amount. If you’re planning on putting anything more than an m100 in this gun, I would suggest buying a new motor since I’m not sure the stock one could pull that big of a spring.


If you’re planning on upgrading this gun I would suggest you buy a new battery too, if you can afford it. The battery it comes with is decent, but could certainly be better.


As you can tell, I’m definitely not a big upgrade guy. I have not opened up the gearbox of this gun yet, and am not planning to until something inside stops working correctly. The only upgrade I have done so far is installing an SRC barrel. The maximum I’ve seen this gun upgraded to on the net is 380 fps.


I would also suggest buying some STAR mags or a TM or ICS hi-cap. Let’s face it: the dual mp-5k mag design doesn’t look too good, and with standard length mags the gun looks great.


If you want to add a longer internal barrel, the front of the gun has multiple threads that you could add a silencer to.

Thread protector on.

Thread protector off, a silencer can now be installed.

PART 5: Final Thoughts


If I could buy this gun again, the answer would be: HELL YA! This gun rocks, plain and simple. Better than the UTG, and for less money. Heck, it's better than any other MP5 clone out there right now. If you’re debating getting this or a UTG, I would suggest getting the CYMA. It will cost you $90, maybe a bit more if you buy it from a retail store, or are charged sales tax.


REVIEW:


Appearance: 7/10, Looks good but not stunning
Feel: 9/10, Very solid, sturdy feel, very fun to hold
Power: 10/10, Amazing power for $90
Accuracy: 6/10, Decent in stock configuration, suggest SRC barrel upgrade
Upgradeability: 7/10, Can’t take as much as say a Marui but still can be upgraded quite a bit
Value: 10/10, For $90, his gun can’t be beat
Overall: 9.5/10, By far the best MP5 clone out there


Pros:
-Amazing performance for $90
-Full metal gearbox
-Great feel
-Battery is good
-Good sights
-Good hi-cap
-Fairly good upgrade potential


Cons:
-Retractable stock mechanism wears out quickly
-Stock barrel is garbage
-Slight front sight wobble
-Takes a while to get apart
-Weird hop-up unit, requiring barrel modification if you want to put in a different barrel
-Weird clear-white hop-up adjustor, looks bad


More pics:

Hope you enjoyed the review! I’m out.


-Captain_Kev

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