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ICS MX5 Pro A5


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I have recently acquired a brand new ICS MX5 Pro A5. I went for this as a bit of a impulse buy as I was looking for something that could be even more compactable than my G36 and because this gun has all singing/dancing modern technology built in ready to roll out of the box.

 

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I don’t really care about the packaging, but I will as always comment about Folding/Collapsible stock weapons in full size boxes – its just silly, please stop it now… Inside the box is the gat, two Hi-Cap Mags, Manual, cleaning rod and the obligatory free BBs.

 

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First thing that stands out is the awful ugly handguard – fortunately I have a £10 ICS standard handguard from Z1 to replace it. Out of curiosity I tried to see how it was with a VFG attached and none of mine would actually fit on the rails…

 

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Apart from that the build quality is spot on. Its sturdy, doesn’t flex and is snug fitting everywhere. The only mushy feeling part is the safety catch, which seems a cheaper, shinier plastic and doesn’t have the positive ‘click’ you would expect. Apart from that it’s a nice feeling gun, which, when shouldered, gives the impression its going to belch lead and drop targets when you squeeze the trigger.

 

There are two HiCaps in the box. They are typical MP5 types and as such don’t have a glorious reputation when it comes to reliability or feeding. These two were, however, loaded, wound and fired through without an issue – others may find issues with theirs, but only time will tell if we finally have a reliable MP5 HiCap. Personally I’ll be on S-Arms midcaps ASAP…

 

One thing that did surprise me was the amount of wobble with the mags in the weapon – so much so that I could yank out the mag without touching the catch. Now this didn’t affect their feeding, nor did they fall out, but it doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.

 

So onto the internals…

The field strip is pretty much as you would expect, apart from one oddity. When you try and remove the cylinder the tappet plate prevents you from just pulling it straight out. Right here, right now I haven’t worked out how you do it…

 

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Build quality inside is excellent you can easily see it fits together and runs smoothly. The mosfet/chipset sits in its own recess in the trigger mech and has a copper contact instead of wires leading into the front half, so you can completely remove the trigger mech without undoing anything.

 

The TMH pins that hold the trigger mech and handguard on are spring loaded to stop them falling out, but they ended up getting rusty very easily after a whole 5 minutes drizzle on Saturday.

 

So a bit of Field testing…

Fitting the battery was a fiddly job, partly cos the wires were stiff, too short (or possibly too long depending which way round you try to fit the battery) and the fuse got in the way (blade fuse). Also the handguard is a tight fit and takes a bit of grunt to get on.

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I was only able to test on an 8.4v Nimh, as the 9.6v didn’t charge properly and I haven’t got the Lipos I intend to use yet. That said performance was good with it.

 

Adjusting the Rate of fire for the battery is all about test and adjust, with a bit of trial and error. The manual says its already adjusted to 9.6v, but I found it was better for 8.4v. You have to get it set up so its doing a true 3 round burst, otherwise semi auto doesn’t work properly. Too many cycles on burst and semi will try and do multiple shots, too few and semi will only half cycle. Once you tweek it though it runs smoothly. Even with the 8.4v battery the rate of fire was good and trigger response was crisp – yay for mosfets!

 

Hop is adjusted through the ejection port, however it is still a lever type hop, just the lever has been turned around. It has reasonable effect on range and accuracy and if nothing else I’m in no hurry to replace it….

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Chrono results were a very consistent 330fps on the nose with no more than 1 fps variation.

 

Overview

Pros

Build quality

Up to date technology, built in

Performance

3 round burst – if only for rarity value

Just goddamn feels good to hold and shoot

 

Cons

Safety catch

Gay handguard is gay

Magazines – fit isn’t good and may yet have typical MP5 HiCap issues

Rusty pins

Oh and if you’re as lazy sod it does weigh a bit

 

The MX5 is a well built and sturdy piece of kit, with good design and features. It has some niggly bits, which mean it isn’t as 100% perfect as it could be, but the performance and technology is solid. A recommended buy :D

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Standard handguard fits perfectly - will take a pic later

 

As for stripping the gearbox - its unlikely... I never strip down guns that are working perfectly anyway, but one of the reasons I like the split gearbox design is that I dont have to fiddle around with gears in order, to say, change a spring or play with the cylinder. suffice to say it looks good quality and well built, and thats good enough to satisfy the extent of my curiosity...

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Looks like ICS used their existing upper and lower gearbox for their AR series, available years ago. Was thinking incase there is an epic fail on the electronic burst switch, we can still use standard switch for version 2 and maybe swap it to a standard MP5 trigger.

Simply put its a safe buy, wont be a wallhanger when things go wrong.

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Very nice review, thanks! I've waited for what seems like forever for this to be released (bought a HK53 in the meanwhile), seems like a much better and cheaper choice than the Systema PTW MP5..

 

Would appreciate if someone could try how well TM 50 round magazines fits. :)

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However! Good luck fitting anything bigger than a 7.4V mini lipo in there due to the 'realistic' chunky barrel.

 

I begin to see why ICS supply the big fat one out of the box

 

Yeah, I can live with that, I'll have LiPos by then...just checking it's compatible with airsoft furniture.

 

Good stuff!

 

I think that right there might just be the ultimate airsoft MP5! :D

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