The box was quite well furnished with a hard plastic mold lined with a suede coat.  It came with one 1000 round bottle of ICS .20g BBs, two 450 rd. metal high caps, a three point tactical sling, cleaning rod, one 1700mah NiCd by Sanyo, PEQ2 battery box, spring loaded bipod/vertical foregrip, front sight adjuster and the M4 itself.  The entire package was quite impressive.  Everything but the grip is metal.  The first time you pick the AEG up it feels heavy at around 8lbs unloaded.  The engraving on the side of the magwell contains the ICS logo, Anniversary 2006, and it’s own serial number.  Two personally intriguing things are the folding stock and the metal floating RIS handgaurd.  The entire weapon feels sturdy enough to hold it by the barrel itself(although not recommended).  This entire package cost me $389.00 at Evike.com at the time.

Cleaned the Barrel first thing and pulled out just a little manufacturers dust, mostly red from the inside packaging.

This AEG shoots fast… Very fast.  Both in velocity and rate of fire.  Though it was advertised at shooting 380 at the time, we chronoed in at a whopping 420 fps (.20g).  The aluminum piston packs a loud smack every round and even gives somewhat of a kick.

At the range, this particular AEG is quite the performer.  With the hop up and velocity, It can easily reach out and touch a 125 foot target multiple times without a problem.  125 feet doesn’t sound like much but go measure out the distance and you’ll drop your jaw.

The gearbox is absolutely astounding.  It is a two piece design that is currently only used by ICS and Systema.  The gears and motor reside in the lower gear box while the spring, piston, nozzle, cylinder and spring guide reside in the upper gearbox.  I bet your wondering, can you just pull out the upper gear box and switch it.  The answer is yes.  I can’t really describe how easy it is.  The barrel is of decent quality and the hop up works superbly after it is dialed in.

This rifle disassembles in a fairly standard AR-15 manner.  Remove the receiver pin and voila pull out anything you want.  As for the outside accessories, they each have their own set of screws that are fairly easy to find.

There is a barrage of parts available as this AEG is so compatible.  ICS makes all their own replacement parts that are not particularly expensive.  Unfortunately with the two piece gearbox you’ll have to buy and ICS upper and lower gearbox.  Probably something you won’t have to do, however, keep it in mind.  Finally, you won’t need to upgrade much considering the AEG already comes with a loadout of upgrade parts:

Metal spring guide
ICS turbo 3000 motor
Bore up cylinder
Bore up aluminum piston head
Bore up piston
M120 high velocity spring
M120 torque up steel gears
Reinforced, thick wall gearbox (upper and lower)
Steel bushings
16-gauge low resistance wiring

Pros:
High velocity, Accurate, Steel reinforced internals, Strong motor, metal parts, forward assist, free float R.I.S., long lasting battery, folding stock, fully compatible with stock MAG brand M4 Magazines, great bang for the buck.

Cons:
Weight, gearbox shell is not Marui compatible, have to use the battery box, NiCd battery needs special charger, lots of tiny screws and you might consider buying special tools to take off the R.I.S.,  Expensive replacement parts, Might be considered a weapon that is too fast to play with at your local airsoft club (most have a FPS limit to play).

Conclusion:
This AEG is a great performer if you want an AEG that was designed to hit hard.  The metal parts are all sturdy without much instability in the gun.  The internals are great for maintenance when needed.  I love the magazine compatibility.  Overall I can get passed the weight issue and expensive replacement parts for such a strong performer.  Just understand that buying this AEG is an investment, so if you like to get new guns all the time, this one will probably kill that trend for you.

Links: ICS Anniversary M4 2006 on Evike.com

UPDATE: The 2006 version of this rifle has now been discontinued. You may want to check out the 2007 version which comes with even more stuff!

The gun has been great.  I bought it six months ago, and it gets used every weekend in skirmish.  Since my purchase, I have broken the stock off in an aggressive dive (fixed), broken one of the high caps (I hate high caps), and pulled one of the wires out of it’s plug (soldered back).   I have added a Prometheus 6.03 363mm tight bore barrel which has enhanced my velocity to 425fps and my accuracy to 150 feet.