Zy Toys M82 sets x four, review and pics

M82A3 ( Desert paint scheme )

M82A1 ( CQ )

M82A1M ( Special Edition – Suppressor version )

M82A1 ( Black paint scheme )

When I first saw the pre-release pics over at OSW, I didn’t know exactly what to expect. I had never handled any ZY Toys products, so I wasn’t sure how well they would rate on my own personal sixthscale weapons scale. Happily, my first experience has, for the most part, proven to be a good one, which bodes well for future ZY Toys purchases.

For the purpose of being thorough and concise, I feel it is best to discuss each of the above iterations as an individual release – which they are despite the fact that I received all four simultaneously of this review.

Some may argue that ZY Toys has incorrectly identified the M82′s herein, which may or may not be the case. In my own research I found that I very nearly drown in a sea of M82 information, so there are no doubt many points on which one could easily make a mis-identification. Thorough discussions on the sixthscale boards can acutely dissect and differentiate between the myriad M82 variations, and most likely shine some light on the true designation of this or that M82. But I, as a lay person, am going to refer to the the individual M82′s by the designations ZY Toys has stamped on their boxes.

Let’s start with the M82A3 ( Desert ). I am always a little leery of desert paint schemes on sixthscale weapons. There are literally no two alike, which may be accurate to what one would encounter in the real world. However, I like to have the option of adding my own desert paint if I so choose, and in most cases will paint over the existing ( or stock ) desert paint schemes with my own home brewed version.

In the case of the Desert version, I actually ended up doing a black and gray “Urban” paint scheme, as Brian from BOT’s had requested that the CQ version be given a desert paint overhaul ( to be discussed later in this review ). Therefore, having two out of four M82′s in desert camo paint schemes seemed redundant.

I have to give kudos to ZY Toys for their packaging – small consideration in some folks’ minds, but a measure of effort never the less. Zy Toys have packaged their M82′s in boxes made with sturdy, well finished white cardboard ( or heavy card stock ). Open the box, and you see an inner clear plastic tray with cells for each of the M82′s component parts. There is also a clear plastic over tray ( or lid ), that securely covers the display tray, and keeps the individual parts from rattling around or coming loose. There is also an inner leaf of white card stock under the plastic display tray, which while unnecessary for the integrity of the packaging, is still a nice tidy little bit. On packaging alone I would award a perfect five out of five starts for the sets.

Detail wise, the ZY Toys M82′s are on a par with DML. I didn’t do a side by side, but the construction and mold are nearly identical. The M82A3 Desert comes with two pistol grips – one similar to an M4 pistol grip, the other similar to an HK416/417 pistol grip. Bot are easy to swap out, and have clean detailing and a secure fit. We also receive a pair of bipod legs, two 10-round box magazines, what appears to be a 10x power scope, a removable carrying handle, an arrow head stlye flash hider, a butt spike, what appears to be a Newcon Optik day night laser range finder, what appears to be a Kestrel 3000 series wind meter, and five brass .50 caliber rounds. The component pieces all fit together with little or no hassle aside from the scope and buttspike, both of with feature mounting pins that are slightly big for their assigned mounting holes.

The issue with the buttspike peg can be solved by either sanding the peg’s profile to thin it down, or by reaming out the buttspike mounting hole with an appropriately sized drill bit or the tip of an xacto knife. I recommend the drill bit or xacto method, as making the mounting peg thinner will result in making it easier to break when inserting and removing the spike. Just make sure to be careful, and to check your work along the way so as not to over ream the hole.

The issue with the pegs on the scope is not as critical, so a very light reaming of one or two of the RIS mounting holes where you want to mount the scope should do the trick. Or leave it be, and use utmost care when removing the scope from the RIS rail so as not to remove the rail as well. I encountered this problem when removing the scope first time out, and ended up having to glue the RIS rail back atop the M82′s receiver. Not a biggie, but worthy of mention.

Also worthy of mention by way of features, is the fact that you can “load” one of the brass rounds into the top of the box magazine. The round will not fit snugly into the magazine, but you can balance the magazine so as not to tip the round out while you load it into the M82′s magazine well. This way when you pull back the functional spring loaded bolt, you can see the little brass round nestled in the mouth of the magazine. Cool detailing that.

The bipod legs can be locked in either an open or folded position by way of keyhole mounts. Just slot the bipod leg onto the mount through the bipod leg’s circular opening, and then very gently pull down to friction lock it in place by way of the bipod leg’s slotted opening. Sounds confusing and complicated, but it is actually quite easy. To unlock the bipod leg just reverse the process, again being very careful not to overstress the joint.

The front and rear iron sights are also movable by way of small hinge mounts. They do not lock into place, but there is enough friction between the moving parts to hold them in place when posed in the “sights up” open position. All of these little moving parts and details are fragile, but then again, aren’t all highly detailed sixthscale parts?

Next we have the M82A1 ( CQ ). I liked the look of this one straight out of the box, but Brian had requested that it be repainted in a desert paint scheme, so I made the necessary paint changes to accommodate his request. And I have to give Brian credit for having a good plan, as I feel that the desert camo paint scheme is particularly becoming on the CQ.

As an aside, I like to use Krylon’s camo color paints when doing camo repaints on sixthscale weapons. They are easy to use, have a consistent flat or “matte” finish, have fast drying times, and are durable when fully cured. I used the tan color Krylon camo for the repaint on the CQ, and I am happy with the results.

Feature wise, the CQ comes with most of the same extras and accessories as the M82A3 Desert. In fact, all four of ZY Toys M82′s have these same shared extras and features, aside from variations in the scopes, bipod legs, and flash hiders – or suppressor in the case of the M82A1M ( Special Edition ), and the omission of a butt spike in the case of the M82A1 ( Black ).

I was happy that ZY Toys was generous with the extras in all four cases, and I am wondering how soon we will see these sets broken down for loose parts. In that case I will try to pick up an extra range finder and wind meter or two.

The only thing I managed to break on the CQ, was the sling mount. It is a very small part and when it breaks off it is very hard to find. I was outside when it happened, so I spent what seemed like an eternity on my hands and knees sifting through all manner of outdoor detritus trying to find the thing. It happened right near a swarm of piss ants as well, so I was not happy to be schlepping around in the rough with the smell of formic acid in my nostrils. I came up empty, so I broke off the other sling mount as well, and replaced both of the missing mounts with small brass sear pins. A small issue, and not resultant of bad design or faulty construction, – just a case of a minute sixthscale details meeting with fullscale fumbling fingers.

The third version I worked with is the aforementioned M82A1M ( Special Edition ). I also liked this one straight out of the box. The unique scope and meaty suppressor lend a stealthy night ops look to the Special Edition version. This one would look great with an urban camo scheme, so when I pick up a set or two for myself I will try to score an extra to paint up… Maybe even do an HDGL overhaul on one.

The Special Edition version was also the most difficult to photograph as it so long when outfitted with the suppressor. Happily, I didn’t break a single thing on this one. I guess I knew what to watch out for from my prior experiences.

The final version is the M82A1 ( Black ). Again, this guy was trim and fit for duty straight out of the box. I found that this version most closely resembled the M82 that came with both the Scud Hunter Greg and Skull guard figures. Most of this resemblance is due to the configuration of the upper receiver’s raised RIS rail scope mount, as well as the flute shaped flash hider.

This version also features slightly less beefy looking bipod legs, which are again, similar to what we received with DML’s M82′s. And before I forget, this is the only version of the four that doesn’t come with a butt spike. You could add one if you like, but you would need to drill out the appropriate sized receiver hole for the butt spike’s mounting peg.

One thing that I have not mentioned up to this point is the weathering, and overall paint apps on the M82′s… Weathering wise, sixthscale companies seem to have toned down the effect on their weapons. Perhaps they learned that to look good weathering details have to applied in subtle tones, and with an eye for quality above quantity. That may be part of the reason why we seem to have seen less and less weathering on sixthscale weapons over the last two years or so. Time was weapons were practically slathered with silver paint to simulate “wear and tear”. Unfortunately, this effect was sometimes so overdone that the look of the weapon suffered. Early BBI, and later TUS weapons seem to have suffered the worse cases of this over weathered condition.

Zy Toys did what I consider to be a smart thing by going light on the weathering with their M82′s. They used a silver drybrush method to “pop” some of the relief features on the M82′s, and the effect was subtle enough to not detract from the finish. I should also take a second to comment on the overall paint apps on the CQ, SE, and Black versions. In each case, aside from the M82A3 Desert, the overall paint scheme is a medium gunmetal tone. This particular gunmetal is clean and consistent, and looks close to the real deal. Although, the many pics and footage I have viewed of actual full scale M82′s make them look more matte black than gunmetal… But the finish may be too subtle to be discerned in pics and on video.

Never the less, the paint ZY toys used on their M82′s does the trick, and this is important because gunmetal paint can be a pain in the butt to get right. In most cases the stuff you get at the hobby shop never quite looks right – I have had mixed results with Tamyia’s dark gunmetal, but even it has a glittery look that makes it look more like metallic Halloween make up than metallic paint. Save the silver eye shadow and metallic blush for David Bowie Ziggy Stardust dress up day at your office, or racquteball club, and not for your sixthscale weapons.

Alclad is rumored to have the best metallic hobby paints on the market, and from what I have seen in pics, it can produce some uncannily realistic results. But that means using an airbrush to do your repaints, and that can be a major undertaking. So I was happy beyond measure when I saw the finish on ZY Toy’s M82′s… No need to fix the weathering and overall paint unless I want to do a camo paint up? Good and good!

In conclusion, I have to say that ZY Toys M82′s are toots sweet, and are a welcome addition to the sixthscale weapon market. The fit, the finish, the detailing, the functionality, are all on a par with my own personal benchmark – The DML Standard… I have always wished that I had been able to stock up on the DML M82′s, so I look at the release of ZY Toys M82′s as an opportunity to add some backups to my sixthscale arsenal.

The only issues that I can think of are the typical issues of fragility of parts that seem to be an unavoidable result of the minute detail therein. These issues are in no way unique to ZY Toys, or any other sixthscale manufacturer for that matter… And seem instead, to be evenly distributed throughout the product lines of all sixthscale manufacturers.

Look at it this way, when the detailing of a sixthscale weapon includes such things as removable bullets and functional iron sights, you have to have some very small moving parts. And when these parts are fashioned out of light weight plastic, it is almost a foregone conclusion that they will be uber fragile. On the upside, the detailing does not go unnoticed or unappreciated by us ( or we ) the sixthscale fans and consumers.

The cost of these sets is also very reasonable at $17.00 – $20.00 a piece. Not too shabby by today’s standards, especially considering the extras like the range finder, wind meter, and brass rounds. I look forward to seeing what ZY Toys will do next – maybe that Conershot eh? I also look forward to laying hands on ZY Toys M200′s… I therefore tip my hat to ZY Toys for their efforts, and feel it fitting to award an overall score of five out five stars across the board.

What I changed or added is a category in most all of my reviews, and in this case it is also applicable… I did an overall repaint to both the M82A3 ( Desert ), and M82A1 ( CQ ). Both repaints were discussed earlier in this review, so I will not go back over the details, but will instead let the pictures do the talking. I also added weathering details and some small repaints to various parts in each set. Basically, every thing but the brass rounds got hit with the paint brush. Not that the pieces needed any paint fixes, I just tend to like to mess with sixthscale weapons to personalize and hyper detail them. And I hope that all of these efforts can be seen in the following pics.

In the pics marked ” Out of the box” you get a look at the individual weapons as they appear after being built up with no customization whatsoever… In the case of the pics marked “Custom” you can see where I added my own personal touches.