I think ares use metal gearboxes in the l85 / l85 (sa80) as to the plastic ones in the star models . I've a l85 with broken gearbox and as star don't reply to emails i looked on ares site and found them which are metal .
yeh i took mine of not and put it back into box over a month ago ,it did weight you down and for some reason i thought the mini battery wasnt any good compared with my 3300 battery
so my gun now !