Tokyo Marui Thompson

Hi Ethan,
Normally TM make the best, they are high quality, but if what your getting has had a hard life you'll have to be prepared to work on it. Depends on condition. The barrel breakages are normally people falling over on them, it does seem that TM are more prone to this, King Arms and Cyma seem to be tougher, but seeing as TM were the first to bring out the Thompson, maybe they were most common. Any of them can break if you fall on them or whack on doorways, fences and the like.
Can you do the repair work yourself? Paying someone else can work out expensive, the Thompson is not to difficult to strip and repair.
Andy

Hi Andy,
Thanks for your help, so the TM Thompsons don't just break in your hands? It's only if you do something violent with it? Which will probably happen with most guns.
I'm no expert on airsoft repairs but if it's reasonably simple to do then I'd give it a go.

Have they got reasonable range/accuracy it's just the fps seems quite low at 270. Would replacing the hop up rubber be enough to improve that to compete with other guns in battle? Or is it even necessary to replace/upgrade anything?

Thanks again
Ethan

If you buy yourself a TM I suspect the last thing you'll want to do is start upgraring it, they're witchcraft. Higher FPS does not confer better accuracy or even range. My G3 is a TM and despite being sub-300FPS the BBs float through the air in a straight line for miles. The biggest issue with TM is the largerly plastic bodywork (Necessary to conform with Japanese law I believe). I suspect that's why the barrels are more fragile. I'd look at putting a few steel pins in place to remedy this.

Hi,

How do you achieve the kind of range/accuracy you're talking about? Would replacing the hop unit be a good idea? As I said, I'm not an expert on airsoft engineering.
I've seen on here someone selling Thompson barrel break kits but there hasn't been much activity on that thread for a while.

Thanks very much

Unless you really throw/smash the gun against something or on the floor is the barrel likely to break?

Or is it just something that will happen indefinitely over time and theres nothing you can do about it?

The breakage of the barrel is a very real issue , if you use the gun regularly it will break , mine lasted 2 years , the repair kits I believe he just makes them to order and they are easy enough to fit .
The range and accuracy are good despite the lower fps and for Ww2 airsoft use it will be fine as we tend to try to avoid standing just out of range of the enemy , that's very walk on day behaviour and we try to encourage a more role play attitude . You could do a mild spring upgrade but anything more and it gets more expensive , TM use plastic bushings that need replacing if upgrading heavily as would the piston need replacing etc etc .

I have several TM guns and for sure many of the parts are not indestructible in a skirmish.Much like most airsoft products.
Where the TM quality comes in is they designed and made it first and everything seems to fit and work together that little bit precisely than the reverse engineered clones that can be plagued by wild inaccuracy,terrible feeding,sudden fps loss.
You can easily buy a lemon,a guy last weekend spent £500 on an agm mg42 even though he was told it was no advantage
In a skirmish.To top this it has many faults,i saw the club armorer give him the box and say it was worth trying to fix..
Couple of guns i have have bought were crap out of the box,although a change of hop rubber seemed to actualy
make them shoot.
Also 280 fps is not the end of the world,an extra 50 fps is only worth another 5m if that if the hop is adjusted well.
TM hop rubbers are fine and last a long time,sometimes the feed lip can tear on some other brands after 10k shots.
If you upgrade a TM gearbox to 330-350 fps you will need a new spring and metal bearing bushes for the gears,if the
Standard bushes are nylon.

Thanks for the tips and info. I wasn't intending on upgrading it, I just wanted to know if it was a good idea to or if it was necessary.

I totally agree with you on that there's a lot more closer, more tactical action than in walk on games, as I found out last weekend. (Which is a good thing)

Thanks for the tips and info. I wasn't intending on upgrading it, I just wanted to know if it was a good idea to or if it was necessary.

I totally agree with you on that there's a lot more closer, more tactical action than in walk on games, as I found out last weekend. (Which is a good thing)

Then other than the barrel issue that's fixable then I'd highly recommend getting it , if it's left stock internally they go on and on and on with virtually no maintenance at all.

Sounds great! What would you say is the best way of fixing the barrel issue?
Thanks

I have had 2 TM Thompson and 1 king arms Thompson all had broken barrels. My only advice for you is not to change any component as TM guns work well enough anyway. Also do not use a sling as this puts more stress on the barrel.

Stu

Sounds great! What would you say is the best way of fixing the barrel issue?
Thanks

Wait for it to break and use the fix kits sold here , it's a bracket under the barrel that snaps , you could add a brace to it to stop it breaking I guess .

A good bit of advice, especially for TM guns, if it works, leave it alone, don't fix it until it breaks.

Thanks everyone for the tips,

I know this is going a bit off topic from the Thompson but I'm swaying towards possibly getting an M1 Garand instead. In particular the G&G variant.
If you don't mind me asking, what are your views on the G&G Garand? I know the magazine is a bit of an issue, but it doesn't really bother me.

Thanks very much,
Ethan

my personal choice be the ICS before the G&G, but others may say different.
Andy

my personal choice be the ICS before the G&G, but others may say different.
Andy

Apparently G&G Garands are much better externally?

you could be right Ethan, I'm going on my dislike for G&G m4 gearboxes, fixed quite a few, ......don't like 'em! That's not to say the Garand is bad, as I've not pulled one of those apart, ...yet.
Andy

A tad bit OT but I just felt like I need to give my two cents on the G&G Garand;

I own one, it's a gorgeous rifle and it is, by far, one of the best shooters I've ever owned. The ICS is also a very good shooter but the external differences turned me away from that one; stock is way too fat, gas assembly is not flush with the barrel
so mounting a bayonet (hey, why not?) is impossible without modification, sling swivels are crazy over-sized etc .
The G&G Garand is based on their M14 and the gearbox in that gun is well known for being one of the best gb's out of the box. The only negative I'd give the gun is that the mags can be a bit fiddly to insert in a rush, but with enough
practise even this gets pretty smooth. Other than that I'd say, with its beautiful externals and the silly long range the solid hopup provides, it's a dang near perfect rifle OOTB!

A tad bit OT but I just felt like I need to give my two cents on the G&G Garand;

I own one, it's a gorgeous rifle and it is, by far, one of the best shooters I've ever owned. The ICS is also a very good shooter but the external differences turned me away from that one; stock is way too fat, gas assembly is not flush with the barrel
so mounting a bayonet (hey, why not?) is impossible without modification, sling swivels are crazy over-sized etc .
The G&G Garand is based on their M14 and the gearbox in that gun is well known for being one of the best gb's out of the box. The only negative I'd give the gun is that the mags can be a bit fiddly to insert in a rush, but with enough
practise even this gets pretty smooth. Other than that I'd say, with its beautiful externals and the silly long range the solid hopup provides, it's a dang near perfect rifle OOTB!

Thanks for your thoughts on the G&G

I've read a few reviews on them and they echo exactly what you've said, I'm most likely going to get one now.