I finally decided to do a review on the Cybergun Thompson, as I see only a few reviews, and of those reviews, they are not that in depth inside the gun and actually how to disassemble it. Considering that this gun is a potential newbie gun, seeing as it can be bought at big5, this could be useful. Also, most of the reviews I see are merely describing the gun looks and abilities, but this gun, being a non typical gun, needs opinions about it, and comments that will helpfully help you decide whether this gun is right for you. It is split into two posts as one post can't contain all the awesome pictures (which I feel are all helpful in the understanding of the gun and its innards)

Real Steel History from world guns (abbreviated)
The first Thompson experimental submachine gun appeared in 1919, and first production model appeared in 1921; it was manufactured under contract by Colt Firearms Manufacturing Co, as well as later M1928 models. Production of M1928A1 and M1 submachine guns was carried out by Auto-Ordnance and Savage, and some licensed copies were manufactured by B.S.A. in Great Britain. This design was influenced from the experience of WWI where a "trench broom" was needed so that a man could jump into a trench, and take down the enemy with a powerful enough cartridge in fully automatic fire, but with a gun lighter than a machine gun
The first Thompson gun to see some military use was Model 1928, used by US navy during its expedition in Nicaragua. The so-called "Navy" model 1928 was distinguished by a horizontal forearm that replaced the front grip, and by added sling swivels. With the start of World war 2, US Army procured a large number of Model 1928 submachine guns in "Navy" configuration, marked as US Model 1928A1. These weapons were rather expensive to make, and in 1942 Army adopted a simplified version of M1928A1, known as M1, later simplified to the m1a1. Thompson submachine guns served in US Army well into the Vietnam era, although in limited numbers. American police used Thompson guns until 1970s or 1980s, and few still could be found in some police armories in USA and several other countries of the world.
Thompson submachine guns were widely exported commercially prior to and after WW2; Many guns were supplied to Britain and USSR through Lend-lease program during WW2. It must be noted that Soviet troops generally not liked Tommy guns, not because of excessive weight and lack of bullet penetration, compared to 7,62mm submachine guns such as PPSh-41 or PPS-43, but becuase their propaganda painted the Thompson as an inferior gun, due to tensions between the USSR and USA.

All Thompson submachine guns fired from open bolt. The cocking handle was located on the top of receiver on Models of 1921 and 1928, ad on the right side of the receiver on models M1 and M1A1. Separate manual safety and fire mode selector levers were located on the left side of receiver, above the trigger. Barrel was usually partially finned, and on model 1928, fitted with so-called Cutts compensator (not present on M1 and M1A1). Feed was from double-row box magazines containing 20 or 30 rounds, or drum magazines holding 50 or 100 rounds. Box magazines were inserted into the magazine slot from below; drum magazines were inserted into the same slot from the side. Drum magazines were not available for M1 and M1A1 submachine guns.
Furniture included pistol grip, detachable wooden shoulder stock and either a detachable forward grip or a horizontal forearm. Sights on pre-war models included front blade and protected rear, which combined a fixed open-notch blade and raising diopter, which was adjustable for both windage and range (up to an optimistic 500 yards). Wartime models (M1928A1, M1 and M1A1) used a simple fixed aperture (diopter) rear sight (airsoft ones are finger adjustable), with or without protecting side "ears".
One thing there is not correct, find it if you want.



Ordering

You can find it most places online, as either the Cybergun one (Stateside) or Cyma (overseas). Generally, the price works out to be the same for the Cybergun or the Cyma, with the cyma being a little cheaper, but you run the risk of losing it during shipping from overseas, and surprisingly, if you wait for the sales, Big 5 is pretty competitive (and if you sign up for their mailing list and get 10% it is one of the best prices). A list of in-store vs. online

In Store
Can inspect the gun (ask the person before you buy it)
you can return it if needed
you can get a good price for the sale
you have to pay tax (bad)
you have to actually talk to someone, and they will try to sell you other lower quality things
Online
you can buy other things for a decent price
Good price year round
Harder to return it (bad)
I mention returning it, becuase since it is a clone (and not a brand spanking new one) the lemon rate is probably a decent percentage

Opening the box

Taking it home, I was greeted with a pretty picture on the front (Cybergun really decorates their boxes well) and I was excited to unwrap it. Although I never bothered to take pictures when taking it out of the box, the gun is basically nestled in a styrofoam box with a cardboard cover, and plastic wrap around that to keep it in. Personally, I find this one of the best looking airsoft guns out there, guaranteed to be at least the second best m1a1 AEG out there (see if you get the joke here), with only a few blemishes noted, it has the classic lines, that can't be adulterated with red dots and lasers. I was mildly surprised at the weight, as it weights a hefty 8 or so pounds fully loaded (my scale is not particularly precise), but it is well balanced.

Everything in the box includes:
The m1a1 Thompson
47 round Stick mag (although I can only get 40 or so rounds in it)
Really Cheap sling
Speedloader
Instructions which I read (they weren't too helpful)


First Impressions

I liked the metal content, as the whole upper receiver is metal, although I was disappointed to find the lower receiver is plastic. It has a nice paintjob on it as well. Overall, this gun balances and points well, and I can understand why many gi's loved it.

A pretty picture of the overall gun:


From back to front externals

Stock
Plastic wood, but has a decent color to it. Holding it, the seams can be seen, but from a foot or two, you wont notice them. It has a nice black metal buttplate that rotates to reveal the battery compartment. It is pretty shiny, but not more shiny than brand new varnished wood. Also, it has a weird foam thing in the stock which prevents the installation of a larger battery. I screwed a drywall screw into it, then used pliers to pull it out without destroying it (it may have a purpose some day). Now I can have up to 3 mini batteries in my stock at once, or I could store bb's, tools, etc in there, but having a spare battery ready to be connected in the field is a plus for me.


Large hole, a bit hard to see into, but is cavernous. The only reason I wouldn't get a real wood kit would be I would miss this storage.

Pistol grip
holds the motor. Decent quality, although a casting dimple is visible on the bottom of it


Lower receiver
Plastic, disappointing, but not too bad. The trigger is metal, and so are the selector switches and magazine release. I don''t like the fact that the mag groove is plastic though, as I don't want it to break (it holds the mags in). The nice part though is that this gun is solidly built and as such, no small pieces stick out to be broken. Seems are somewhat visible on the bottom of the trigger guard


Selector Switches
Yes, switches. they are metal and you have one switch for safe and fire, one for semi and full. Although many don't like this, I found that I don't mind, as I can leave it on full or semi, and just be worried about taking it off safe, not hitting it into the right place. They aren't easily thumb switchable unless you have long thumbs though, and are attached to the gun with small set screws. Thankfully, the ridge where the upper and lower receiver mate protect them, as if they didn't, the could be one of the first things to be broken. Sadly, the click will slowly disappear, as the nub that clicks seems to wear away quite fast.

Mag well
ummm, what magwell? Well this is a make or break part of the Thompson, it has rails that you have to line up on the receiver and the magazine. It provides a really secure fit, but takes a lot of practice to switch mags quickly. As noted, the guides are plastic, but thick enough that they shouldn't break any time soon. The release is also odd. Instead of your typical mp5 or g36 push down release or m4 push in release, the Thompson release is located on the left side, and is pushed up while you pull the mag down and out. This is almost impossible to do while shooting lefty, so lefties beware.


Upper Receiver
Fully metal, and has trademarks. Realistic other than saying Caliber. 6mm and Made in China. Disappointing. I may paint over the made in china, and 6mm, and make it .45 ACP. It appears the metal is strong enough, although I am not going to do any destructive tests. Also, the paint is wear resistant, as I have fielded it twice, for a total of about 6 hours and nary a scratch (and I didn't exactly baby it nor did I try to scratch it). The bolt slides back and forth, and is really only a piece of sheetmetal. I have found that through futzing with it, I can jam it down in the back position (real steel is open bolt) and with the first shot it will fly forward. The hop up remains uncovered the whole time, and sits in the ejection port. It is nicely blended in, but some respected members of this forum consider that "poopy"



Note the cheesy Made in China and 6mm

Horizontal Foregrip
one of my least favorite things, it had a seam, and I immediately ditched it (and summarily lost it in my room in my other house) in favor of a vertical foregrip

Barrel
Quality barrel, no complaints, CYMA seems to have fixed the TM problem of cracking front barrels as they have thickened the reinforcement of the attachment. Heavy duty metal, same as the upper receiver, and attaches to the upper by 2 Phillips screws on the underside of it, and 1 set screw on the top. Also something I liked is that the end of the barrel is widened to .45 caliber width, and has "rifling" giving it a realistic look.

Orange Tip
easily removable, merely slide a knife between the two halves of the cap, and it is off. And if needed, you can put it back on for safety.
I should have a picture here, but my dad took the camera before I could get to it

Sights
Front blade and Rear peep sight with a v-notch on top of it. I use the v-notch for Kentucky elevation, and with it I can lob shots out to 200+ feet decently accurately (I can hit in about a a 5x5 foot rectangle at about 225 feet most of the time when wind is minimal) The rear sight is adjusted for windage and elevation with fingers and clicking it, so I can get kind of pissy when people mess with them, as I then have to reset it, instead of merely rotating knobs back to zero.


Sling
long story short, unless you plan on rarely slinging it, and not putting any stress on it at alll get a new one
Sling swivels: seem to be decent enough, but don't plan on using them like in Die Hard (puts an mp5 across a entrance and then uses the sling to help him climb down an shaft in case you wondered)

This post has been edited by CMP: Nov 17 2008, 06:56 PM

Internals

Taking it apart
First unscrew the back of two screws on the stock and press the button my knife is pointing to, to allow you to slide the upper receiver off. You have to slide it quickly and with authority, or the button will drop down into the screw hole, and you have to use the screw to press the button to allow it to slide forward


The screw is in its approximate location

To remove the hop up, remove the screws holding it into the upper receiver, and it slides out:


To remove the gearbox, first remove the pistol grip by unscrewing the screw and taking it off, then removing the selector switches, by unscrewing their set screws (1mm size for me). Looks like this:

Then unscrew the screws on top of the white things, and the screws holding the motor on, undo the contacts, pull the motor down and away and then pull the gearbox gently out.
It will look like so:

Note the position of the plastic selector arm, and the two little rotating plastic things. They may fall out, be careful, they are key to selecting your firing mode.

Unscrew all the screws and slide off the top locking bar. Stick a screwdriver in the back of the gearbox (predrilled hole, very nice) like this, and put pressure on the cylinder. This way you wont have anything fly out (hopefully)


Open it up, should look like this but with more crappy grease:

Note that the bushings don't always stay in the gearbox, just remember to take them off and set them aside. Also, you will want to let the spring fully decompress but be careful doing this, it likes to jump (otherwise it will eventually pop out, losing parts at the speed of light and spend hours trying to find them like I did).


Nice nylon bushings. You wont need to worry if you don't upgrade this, they work very well.



Decent piston, I have put a good 5000+ rounds through it, mixing semi and full auto, and no visible wear.
The o-ring is horrid, but just get a #14 from home depot and it will work much better


there have been reports of these tappet plates breaking. Mine seems fine, and I wont worry too much about it.

Putting it back together, just do this in reverse. One thing, don't overtighten the screws on the tops of the little inner selector switches. It compresses the white plastic, causing it to bow out, making the selector switches impossible to go on. If they don't go on, don't jam them (then you wont be able to remove them next time) loosen the screw a bit.

A little summary
Barrel: standard brass barrel, decent quality, but not amazing, smooth internally and gives me no real problems, was kind of dirty when I received it, so be sure to clean it.
Hop up: good hop up, responsive, the only problem I have is I have yet to be able to remove the barrel from the hop up without fear of damaging it.
Wiring: decent, tamiya small plugs, pretty good wiring, although there are some pinch points around the gearbox you have to be careful of when installing it.
Gearbox: potmetal shell, but pretty strong, gears are full steel, but the shim and grease job is horrid when stock. Reshim and regrease, and you are good to go.
Piston: is decent quality, interesting set up of only 4 ports. Cylinder is not amazingly smooth, but works, and is non-ported. O-ring is horrid, and should be replaced
Motor: most people find it very very slow, I find it alright. It is a little slow, but fast enough to not give an opponent time to stick their head up while slow enough not to burn through ammo. The tabs are easy to break off though.

Performance:

Long range, I can hit the front of a dump truck about 90% of the time from 175 feet (3x7) when prone and using a clip on bipod. In real world measurements, prone I got about 7 inch diameter groupings, with 0-2 fliers out of 20 shots at 50 feet when the wind is down. With a stiff breeze, using Kentucky windage, I could get torso shots 80-90% of the time, firing in bursts of 2-3. From 100 feet, minimal wind, 80-90% torso hits from prone. Minimal-medium wind 150 feet, I could get at least 1 torso hit out of 2-3 rd bursts 90% of the time (good since it ain't a DMR) measured this way as doing individual shots was not resulting in a pattern. The hardest part when just starting out is learning to compensate for wind.

Standing, all my hit rates went down about 10-20%

Magazines
The supplied magazine is simply two plastic halves screwed together. Not that realistic, and not that good looking, but it gets the job done. And the sad news is, you most likely will need a high cap, unless you have lots of time and a CNC machine (me), or lots of money. This is becuase mids cost about 30 dollars each. The mid that comes with the gun feeds very well and I have no complaints. I custom made my other mags after my high cap went MIA, but not everyone can do this, so you will probably have to buy a high cap.

BB's: I ran all my tests with G&G bio .20g bb's, and I have run both airsplat bios and TSD black's through it without jamming. With these, I coke can chrono'ed it to about 350-385 FPS about. This range is becuase it always penetrates the two sides, but penetrates the bottom only 3 out of 5 times, but always at least sticks the bb into the bottom of the can. Obviously you could use heavier bb's (it has the power) but I am limited to buying the most cost effective bio bb out there.

Skirmishing it

The gun points well, and has nice accuracy. It is quick, and I find that I can compete against people with fancy accessories with just my irons. The nice part is the protecting ears allow for a super quick basic point of aim, and it can be quickly zeroed farther with the peep sight. Also, it is short enough maneuver, but not too short that it feels like a toy (what an mp5 feels like to me). Also, with the dual grips, the gun points incredibly well and its shorter length doesn't get caught as much. One problem I found with the 30 rd mag though is that when hitting the deck, I am afraid that I will snap the mag, since it protrudes so much. However, it sets up a nice monopod to help with steadying aiming. Also, I can change mags as quick as anyone else, but all my friends who tried failed miserably. This is becuase I have been practicing for about 10 minutes every night. Few other guns require that much work. Most you can just slap the mag near the maghole, and it will be guided in, the hardest part may be rocking some mags into the gun (AK style). These m1a1 magazines require aligning grooves, which can be difficult.

I replaced the foregrip, and I figured out another reason I hated the horizontal one. The main reason was I wanted uniqueness, but I decided I would switch back for a game, so I could sling it up easier using a 2 point. However, when wet the plastic provides almost no gripping ability. While on the stock it doesn't matter (it just presses into your shoulder, and it is a metal plate, not the plastic) and you can hold the pistol grip, with the horizontal grip, my hand kept sliding back to the mag, becuase I couldn't grip the slippery wet plastic. So the wood grip was replaced, and I was happy. Note, this isn't a problem if you are able to grip the magazine as a second hand hold becuase that provides a vertical grip, but personally, it is uncomfortable for me to have my hands gripping so close together, and as such, I had to go with the foregrip.
Upgrading potential

The internals are a v6 gearbox, but it seems to be an amalgam of various version parts. The only really distinct part I can see is the oblong bushing. Rotating it apparently allows you to use either v3 or v2 gears. I know you can use v3 gears, as I dropped in my AK (cm.028s) gears to test it. Also, the motor is a short type motor, and is simple to remove from the gearbox, and from the shell. Another great thing is that there is a little room in the upper receiver, so you could probably slip in a mosfet set up. Also, there are blow back mods, but I see no point, as it simulates closed bolt fire, which isn't realistic. The barrel is p90 length I believe, but I haven't figured how to remove it (even after fully disassembling the unit) without possibly damaging something (bucking, or more importantly, the unit itself). Unfortunately, the wiring is a little tight, so I don't think you could wire in a lower gauge, but you could probably wire in a lower resistance wire. Externally, you can buy an m1928 kit which is very rare, and may not be perfectly accurate, as the m1928 had different style selector swtiches, as well as a horizontal cut for drums, instead of the vertical groove for mags. Or you can buy a real wood kit from places such as PointAct, and I am looking at how hard it will be to custom make one, as I don't want to pay $70 for wood when I have 19 acres of it.

Hop Up disassembly: I figured out how to get the barrel and hop up out of the unit. You grasp the plastic in front of the rotating drum, and pull it off, you don't have to remove any screws. Also, you will want to remove the screw on the side of the hop up unit, to remove the cover and the metal pin that holds the arm down. Then you can slide the barrel and hop up out. A word of warning, do this carefully, and a drop or two of silicone might be extremely helpful, as it is tight, and you might rip the bucking (I put a small non-critical tear in it).
Electrical The furnished battery is crappy at best. It lasts a surprisingly long time for mah, but the rate of fire on it is interminable. I dropped in a medium quality hi-torque motor, and and the rof only went up to 7-8 rpm, or so. Dropping in an intellect 9.6, the ROF went to 10-15 rpm. It was a very noticeable decrease, from where you could pull the trigger all the way back and release it quickly before the motor made one revolution, to a very snappy trigger response. Also, I rewired it to Deans, but this caused some problems. I tried to merely cut the connectors and wire Deans in there, but I believe I am going to have to completely, or nearly completely rewire it because the wires provided are barely long enough as is. Also, the hole in the rear of the gun is too small for a deans to fit through, so I had to cut the hole wider (still covered by the stock, just enlarged), and threading deans through the stock is horrible at best, but possible.

Overall

A great new addition to the realm of WWII weaponry, and a accurate rendition at that, however, you run into the problem of it requiring tender love and care, and commitment. This isn't like a cheap ***** m4 that you can just pick up and use, if you want to use this gun to its fullest potential you must commit to it. This means practicing sighting with it, accurately judging windage without little knobs, changing magazines without staring, moving the selector switches without making a huge deal of it, and overall getting to know it.

Sorry for the large pictures, but I can't seem to resize them in photobucket (it said it would, but it didn't)

This post has been edited by CMP: Nov 18 2008, 07:28 PM

Nice review!

Thanks, although I noticed too late to edit, I spelled Review, Revew in the title... which was pretty dumb.

Very very nice review!!

There is only 1 little thing that needs to be fixed: Paragraph your review, dividing each section, and making a title with a bigger font for each section. That would be it. Do that and this 100% surely gets approved.

thanks, is there any way for me to edit my original 2 posts? Because I can't edit them at the moment, but I can just quote, fix and put it there again, but that seriously seems like a waste of space. I am probably going to do that after I finish my midterm tomorrow, and then just have a mod cut and paste over the originals, but I figure I should post this and maybe save you guys some copy paste work.

No problem. Ill do everything for you right away.

EDIT: Just edited everything for you. Tell me what you think. As for now, Ill approve it and move it.

This post has been edited by CMP: Nov 17 2008, 07:01 PM

very nice review
I have the same one and ive been wanting to write a review but im too lazy and mine had a compression issue and it only shoots about 310 fps whic is not too good compared to the other gun's at my field but it makes up for it by accuracy you only have to use semi sometimes just becuase its so acurate.