I have been keeping my eye on Real Sword products for a while now. They seem to make amazingly realistic AEG's but sometimes the price seemed too steep to try out.

Well Christmas came and I couldn't resist buying myself something airsoft related, and like a sign from /THOU SHALT NOT USE MY NAME IN VAIN/, Airsoftatlanta had a sale on Real Sword AEG's (they still do I think)

So for $299 shipped I couldn't pass it up. So I ordered a Type 56-1 AEG. It is a Chinese version of the AK with underfolding stock.

Airsoftatlanta.com took care of my order flawlessly as usual and had this thing at my door in 2 days ground shipped. OUTSTANDING.

Initial Impressions

Real Sword does a good job boxing up the Aeg. They padded everything up Similar to how Star boxes up their AEGs.


They really padded the stock well which is the main part that could possibly be scratched up in transit.


There was a small Foam pad here, but I replaced it with a small piece of 4oz leather to provide better protection and look more realistic.

Leather clamped and glued.


They even wrapped the magazine in oil/wax paper like a genuine real steel peice. Pretty funny.


I was impressed with the colorful takedown guide. A quick glance will allow you to disassemble this AEG with ease and everything you need to accomplish the task is pretty much included.



The gun is supposed to come with a steel flash suppressor and a 14mm/cc adapter.

But airsoftatlanta only included a plastic blaze orange one! Pretty happy...



Externals

Other than that, the asthetics speak for themselves. The gun is all steel, wood as promised. As rock solid as a real AK this thing is the AK PTW until Systema says otherwise. There is nothing else on the market that compares to this thing. Externally it is in it's own class.(I say this while owning a VFC UN DX and RMW RPK)




The magazine is very heavy guage stamped steel as well. I read some revies of the mag fitting loose, but this wasnt the case with mine. Specs are just spot on there isn't anything to complain about.



As far as mag compatability, My VFC mags fit no problem. I ordered MAG brand ak74 mags along with a set of King Arms Metal ak47 mags. I will let everyone know which worked or not or what mods needs to be done to make them work.
The folding stock is a little wobbly when folded, but then again, so is the real deal type 56 folding stock.


STock Performance

I read all reviews on this gun available before purchase. Here is what I was worried about.

- Stock accuracy
- Stock range
- stock bucking
- stock barrel
- propietary parts
- Velocity drop with hop up on

I also read that the velocity was at 300 fps or so. Living in Japan, this was perfect for me since I can't exceed 328 fps anyways.

This was especially good for me since I hand carried the gun into this country.

Imagine my suprise when I chronoed this thing at 430fps!


I was using SIIS .2g bb's for all chrono tests.

Apparently they upped the spring power to an M120. They added a sticker to their manual to indicate the change but not even Airsoft atlanta knew this yet.


I cranked the hop up to full and retested the chrono and as promised there was a 100 fps drop! (more on this later...)


ROF stock was as expected 13-14 RPS with an Elite 8.4v 1500Mah battery.


Range and accuracy is unknown. I would have to guess that it would be horrible due to the hop bucking which I will get to very soon.

Internals!

Ok my favorite part! Whats inside this beast. Does it measure up to it's unrivaled externals?

Top cover removed reveals very carefully well protected wire. Automotive spade fuse. and a foam padded gearbox to reduce noise and vibration. not a bad touch.



Disassembly is similar to Inokatsu/LCT/RMW
The front barrel assembly is held on by two set screws that fit into a slot on the outer barrel.

So after removing the front handguards(exactly as you would a real AK)
you need to remove the rear sight to access the screws. You can do so with the included tool.


The disassembly was simple as I mentioned and is very well illustrated so I won't go too into it, but there was one tricky thing that I feel the need to mention.

typical allen keys will not fit into the second set screw's cramped area so I chopped down this one to allow room to get to it.


Here is the barrel removed with hop up unit.


The barrel is top quality with a nice smooth inner bore and a nicely cut target crown.


The problem is the Hop up Bucking!!!! It seems as though they glue it or melt it to the barrel as you are required to literally "skin" the thing off.
It is fused to the barrel somehow.

Clearly they did this to save the factory workers a headache of finessing the bucking and barrel into the hop unit.

But the result is bad accuracy and huge fps drops. A $5.99 Systema bucking will solve this in no time though.

I also installed a SYstema barrel, but looking at the stock barrel's quality I can tell that this wasn't needed, but I already bought it so I installed it.

Here is the stock barrel next to the Systema. Notice the blackened end of the barrel where the hop bucking was melted to it.



Here is a shot of the padded gearbox housing.


the gear box is a work of art. 7mm ball bearings, No swirl marks, flash, or gaps between the two halves. It is the best I have seen save KWA.


Here is the gearbox decompression lever. I wouldn't use it with the M120 spring installed. I needed pliers to activate it and I cracked a tooth off of the bevel gear doing so.


Cracked open, first thing I noticed was the Brass sector gear feeding chip and very nice set of gears.
The gold spring is too hot for my current location so it was replaced with a more japan worthy sp90 guarder spring.


The piston head resembles a systema duracon and has ball bearings.



Piston resembles a prometheus hard piston design. Two metal teeth so you can lop another sector gear tooth off without any issues. side reinforced strip of teeth and only $11.99 for replacements. Count me in.


Gears are well made. They measure up to industry standards. The sector gear is missing one tooth more than a normal sector gear. The bevel gear resembles the Type 89 bevel with 10 latch catches.( I had to put a marui one in there since I ruined it though)
each gear is 13.99 to replace. Again, count me in.


Standard non ported cylinder with a decent polish.


Polycarb spring guide with metal base. Not the best, but not the worst.


Standard Cylinder head in polycarb


Nozzle

The nozzle is o-ringed. It is about 1.5mm longer and slightly longer diameter that guarder or prometheus. I reccomend NOT changing it out. It is great quality and works great anyway.


Motor. about on par with an EG1000 or G&P M120

The internals are great save the hop up bucking this gun is ready to skirmish.

Overview

This Gun was everything I expected and more. The externals are best in class. The price was very reasonable. about $30 more than any of the potmetal offerings from G&G, CA, Marui, etc etc. Not that those are bad guns, but for the money they don't even come close to the Realsword.

Since this review I have installed...
- Simple Mosfet
- Sp90 spring
- TPE cylinder head pad
- Deans plug + 16AWG wire
- Systema bucking
- Systema barrel
- G&P leather AK sling

with the gun shooting at 330 fps I can hit a 2 foot tree at 150 feet 9/10 times with ease.

This gun is pheonominal. and worth the few extra bux over other brands without a doubt.

Great review, as always!
That 430 really surprised me -- do you know if this is somewhat common, or was it merely a fluke?
I mean, if there's a fair chance of it being more powerful stock, then this may be a more worthwhile purchase...

It is not a fluke.

Take a look at the picture below the 430 fps chrono picture.

In the Owner manual they pasted a sticker over the 300fps in the spec sheet that reads 120m/s which should be about 393fps. So the gun should chrono at about 400 fps not 300.

They problably did this for US market buyers.

At any rate, the internals are more than up to the task of a 400 fps spring. I had to drop mine to a guarder sp90 simply because I live here in japan.

This post has been edited by GoLgo 13: Jan 12 2009, 07:44 PM

Hey, pretty nice review.
Moved and Approved

Probably the first easy to understand review on this gun I have seen. Good job Golgo.

Do you know if it has any internal compatibility problems?

Yes there is. The piston and tappet plate are shorter than a standard version 3 due to the fact that Real sword made this AEG to the exact dimensions of real steel.

The gears are propietary as well but not really

the sector gear has one tooth less than a normal one so if you used say prometheus, you would need to remove one tooth.

The spur gear is a version 7 m14 gear

the bevel gear is similar to a marui type 89 but I currently have a standard marui one in mine.

quick accuracy vid at 160 ft againtst 2 ft dia tree.

It sux but it is all I could do right now...

Alright thanks, and great review.

Thanks for the video. Good ROF, if you ask me.

Hey man nice review! I'm actually quite interested in this gun now.. because wow.. $299 shipped can't be beat.

However I'm a little worried because the internals are not too standard. If I bought a Guarder M14 gearset.. would it work with this gun? Also you say that the piston and tappet plate are shorter.. if I bought a regular piston/tappet plate would it work?

You can buy replacement parts at airsoftatlanta. The guarder gears may not work. SOme gears will work but you need to short stroke the sector gear one tooth. and the spur gear is ver 7. The realsword gears are great anyways and they are only $13.99 a piece from AA.

Piston and tappet MUST be real sowrd ones but piston is only $11.99 and tappet $9.99. I bought extras when I bought the gun just in case.

great review, nice job.

Nice review, as always. Let us know how this thing holds up over time. I saw this video on YouTube of a guy who has the Type 56 (full stock) and it seems he ran into feeding issues, but it could be his own ignorance.

I wonder how their Type 97 series are compared to the Type 56 series.

Will do. I have about 6000 rnds through so far with no issues.

Hm. I absolutely love this gun, but here are my problems.

1. The annoying stock wobble (yeah I know the real one does too...)
2. Loud when fired, is yours?
3. Questionable accuracy.
4. One of the "replicated pins" (for the receiver) is loose.

Oh, and awesome review! Once you said it came with a 400 fps spring, I wa like "WTF? Let me check mine!" Sure enough, I looked in my manual, and there were the stickers. Awesome! But also, not awesome... I wasted money on a Systema spring... :(

This post has been edited by Beta08: Jan 18 2009, 05:04 PM

Glad you liked the review. You can problably JB weld the pin. I added a TPE pad to the cylinder head which quiets the gun down quite a bit. The accuracy on mine is awesome but I have a systema bucking and barrel.


*Update*

Mag compatability.
I think the reason that there seems to be some mag incompatability is this piece here on the trigger guard. It is a spacer that is pinned in place. It seems to be thicker on other AEGs than on the real sword(left)


The King arms metal AEG mags and the MAG brand AK74 mags came They do not fit.



BUT they can be made to fit. Just file down this piece a little....


Comparison of a stock King arms and a modded one.


This post has been edited by GoLgo 13: Jan 19 2009, 02:26 AM

So once the mod is performed, the KA mags feed fine?

Thanks!

GoLgo 13... again, great review. Your review inspired me to purchase one myself. I have a question for you though; what flashhider do you have on yours since you said Airsoftatlanta did not include neither flashhider or muzzel adapter?

Mine feeds flawlessly. Any magazine that fits, or doesnt fit. Even if I just hold the mag in place. it feeds.

It seems that the later model type 56 have M120 springs and sector gear feeding chips that the first gen didn't have.



They included a Blaze orange plastic flashhider. I painted it black.

P.S. I just wanted to thank any of you guys that gave this review a vote over at airsoftretreat (ASR).

That voting system wasn't very thought out, but again I appreciate it.
I could have done better on this, but this was a review for the players and collectors, not for some contest.

This post has been edited by GoLgo 13: Jan 22 2009, 08:41 AM

Great review...

If anyone else wants to help him out vote for his review on Airsoft Retreat forums, under the voting folder....

Every single other person is having their friends make new accounts and vote for his review

His name over on ASR is meancivicsi.. so if anyone feels like the right person should win.. then vote for him.

The Type 97B is real nice. I like all the Real Sword Products. I just wish that they'd make a Bushmaster ACR replica now.

I am loving my 56-1 more and more every day. I took it for a skirmish last night and it performed well. I dod have two problems, but they were minor.

1. Accuracy wasn't superb; I will most likely get a new hop up rubber and barrel. The range, on the other hand, is superb.

2. I rubber-banded my Fenix TK11 flashlight to the handguard for the night game and some of the finish came off. I need a barrel mount or something... none of that rail crap on my AK!

Amazing review, excellent photos, I think I'm sold on the gun thanks to you.

Do you think it would be possible for you to make a short video of how much wobble your stock has? I would be much obliged.

I would gladly do that but I won't be near anything airsoft for another 5 months minumum.

Hm... Maybe I can make a video and you can comment? That would be awesome.

Wow, Nice ROF.
Did you mention what battery came with it? I think that it's gearbox could survive at least a 9.6v, a 10.8v would be phenomenal though.

As an AK/Eastern bloc enthusiast, I like how you did your review. Do I spot an AK cleaning kit / oiler? I suppose it came with the gun, if it did, man that's awesome. Another little thing that makes it all the more like a real AK.

I was wondering? Could we get a receiver comparison? I've heard of the RS Type 56 being of real AK dimensions. Also a nice comparison of the RS gearbox and a standard gearbox?

I am new on this forum. If this post seems out of place, my apologies in advance.

Read this review a few days ago and really want to get one of these type 56-1s. Can anyone here be kind enough to point me to an online store where I can buy one with the similar price? The only place I found that carries this baby asked for $450 plus shipping. That sounds crazy.

Thanks in advance!

That price is crazy. I got mine for $300 shipped to my house from Airsoft Atlanta, but they are out.

When the author of this review bought the gun from AA, it was on sale. after a few weeks Airsoft Atlanta caught up with the competition and started to sell them at 429.99

Bit of a necrobump, but Evike has it on sale for approximately $380 shipped.

This post has been edited by Murph9935: Jul 20 2009, 11:44 PM

I know the fps changed for airsoftatlanta's stock, but what about evikes? Is it 300 fps like they say, or is it 430 and they havent tested it?

With the RS you can't get closer to real. The gun is built with every real part that was able to be used on the airsoft version. Real sword is a division of Norico, the factory that produces the chinese AK's... :) They are built in the same factory.

What mags did you use? you said VFC but I looked at some picture online and they look like other ak mags. I have tried CYMA and JG mag and both don't work... do you know any mods that can be done?

Any help would be nice

I just wanted to reply that I just got a full stock real sword type 56 and it came with the stock magazine and 2 echo 1 steel midcaps which work fine with the gun. Also, I was able to fit a 9.6 intellect nunchuck battery (16 rounds per second). My gun chronos consistently around 437 without hop up, and with hopup atound 405.

This post has been edited by cwingwvwc: Sep 5 2009, 10:50 PM

Hehe nice job sneaking that in there....


Anyway, awesome gun and very nice review.