The box was your standard cardboard with the usual styrofoam padding. It held nicely the AIM M4, 9.6V battery (rifle normally comes with an 8.4v, evike however seems to send you a 9.6v instead), Hi-Cap Mag, Cleaning Rod, and the usual customary bag of BB's. It also came with a conversion wire set. The construction is very well done, zero creaks were heard out of box, but a few months afterward, some in the fore grip and a few moans from the stock came about. When you crack the gun open, the holes on the back are susceptible to breaking, especially if you are not careful reassembling the gun. There isn't much metal on this gun, but it's still durable.

The battery compartment on the AIM is in the front hand guard. There is a specific spot for the battery, but I find that loading it in the side works the best and is the easiest to do. I loaded up the Hi-Cap and after a few winds, I set up to pop a shot off downrange. Selector switch was nice and tight, but as with most guns, this diminishes with time. The trigger pull was stiff, but not too much so, it felt good. Immediately the motor turned the spring with ease and shot a shot off. The turn wasn't even recognized, maybe an 8th of a second pull and it was off. The ROF was very impressive. We chrono'd the AIM at 320 Stock. Range Test and Accuracy Basically, good luck NOT arcing to hit a 100 ft. target. The barrel is nothing special (we suspect around a 6.12mm, not even the normal 6.08) we're attempting to glean actual inner size with our caliper but so far, no luck. The BB's will hit inside a 2 foot grouping at around 100 ft. This isn't that impressive, I know.

The Hop-up sucks. In fact, don't even pretend like it has one, it doesn't. The included hop-up sleeve needs replacing IMMEDIATELY. I suggest ordering one w/ the gun itself because it will just depress you. The Barrel isn't fantastic, either. I'm estimating almost a millimeter more of diameter than the BB itself, hence the terrible grouping. The Gearbox is are something I do like. This gearbox in particular is GORGEOUS for a stock. All parts are solid, and metal save the electronics components (duh) and plastic bushings, but they hold tight. The Piston is ABS but it's got a few metal teeth where it counts, so I'd rate this piece (the gearbox) up to around an M120 spring (not tested so experiment at your own risk). The Gears have individual wells inside the box which is nice. Also, important point to know; even though the stock motor that the AIM ships with is supposed to be a clone of the TM EG1000 motor, it WILL NOT pull an M120 spring.

The rifle is the usual standard AR-15 type of disassembly. Pop out the receiver pin and there you go, it cracks open. Now in order to get the Gearbox out, There's a little trick to it, after the removal of all external pins and the motor from the handle as well as the 2 screws that hold the handle to the gun itself, and the BB well there's one last thing to do. There's a cylindrical pin on your retracting stock, retract the stock all the way and pull hard on the cylindrical pin (pic below), slide the stock the rest of the way off. Use a hex set to remove the end metal plate and then use a phillips head to unscrew the long bolt inside the stock tube you just opened and BAM the Gearbox will come out. The long metal bolt bolts directly into the gearbox, inside the ABS spring guide.

Pull down hard on this pin to release the rear part of the stock.

The AIM M4 Broke down. Click Image to Enlarge. Image from ArniesAirsoft.co.uk

I'm a techie, so I upgraded this rifle the first chance I got. I chopped about an inch of an M120 off and stuck that in there, I got a standard M4-size Tightbore barrel, changed out the hop-up sleeve and bucking. These were all done easily. The Barrel comes right out if you crack the gun open, there's nothing to hold it in except friction and the gearbox, so as soon as you crack it, you can just pull and the barrel and part of the hop-up assembly should come right out. There will be a
barrel exchanging tutorial coming soon, I'm sure so refer to that for any questions. It's fairly upgradable in my opinion. Anything you wish to put in the gearbox should hold, provided you accompany it with any necessary supplemental parts (as I said the included motor won't turn
an M120 so get an ICS 3000 or equivalent). The rail for iron sights is a standard and the iron sights themselves come with a single hold in the middle of the handle so it's standard as well. The birdcage (flash suppressor) comes off to allow, what I can only assume, to fit a mock silencer.

Magazines. We were only able to test the AIM M4 with Star Midcaps (link to evike page) and MAG brand Midcaps (link to evike page). The Star brand mags required a mod to feed correctly. The problem stemmed from the mag not being held high enough in the magwell to feed. If you pressed the Star Mag up into the receiver and held it there it would be fine (but who wants to do that?). MAG brand mags worked without a hitch.

Pros:
Good velocity, very reliable and high ROF as well as pretty durable construction.

Cons:
Barrel Sucks, Hop-Up Sucks, and not much metal.

Conclusion:
This AEG is a fantastic gun. It's great for beginners and intermediate players and can be modded to tap into the advanced playing crowd. I was disappointed in the hop-up most of all, but that's a 5 dollar fix. I just wish there was a little more metal. It is cheap and a great buy for the money, I highly recommend this rifle.

After everything I've done to it, this is a gun that will play well against a CA or TM crowd, even outperform as TM stock is 280fps. It is an impressive beast. I use it every engagement I venture into. Stock, this is a CQB weapon due to lack of hop-up. With an improved hop-up, this gun will put up a fight and not go down easy. Won't go down at all in the right hands. I have put a SRC 6.04 tightbore into it and my range and accuracy increased to about 3 foot grouping at 175 feet, a .75 foot grouping at 100 feet and any closer and you'll hit what you're aiming for. My gun is currently running at 370 with .2g bb's after my chopped M120 spring mod.