OPFOR OPOR8R

IN THIS ISSUE WE’VE HEADLINED WITH A WHOLE SELECTION OF NEW “BLUFOR” READY AIRSOFT PLATFORMS SO IN THE SPIRIT OF LOOKING AFTER OUR “OPFOR” FRATERNITY BILL THOUGHT IT ONLY FITTING THAT HE SHOULD RETURN TO ONE OF HIS MANY 6MM-LOVES, IN THE SHAPE OF A GBBR THAT HE’S BEEN TESTING FOR A WHILE NOW, BUT HELD OFF COMMENTING ON UNTIL HE WAS 100% HAPPY WITH HIS TESTING… SAY HELLO TO HIS LATEST “LITTLE FRIEND”, THE AKX GBBR FROM TOKYO MARUI!

Testing new airsoft platforms is a joy and a privilege; testing and proper evaluation should never be rushed, and I genuinely enjoy getting to take all of the platforms I get to see up to the “woods range” for some proper beasting time and again!

However, as you will know I like to take time to be thorough in what I do, so this review has been sitting for a little while as I wanted to ensure I’d got properly under the skin of the Tokyo Marui AKX and all its little nuances before commenting. And those that know me well will understand that without doubt I have an unyielding passion for many things in our big old airsoft world, but there are some that resonate experience with the TM AKM GBBR that we’d had in to evaluate at the back end of 2021 (see Issue 130 in BACK ISSUES for this) and the AKX appeared to be another AK, albeit modern and with most of the “tacticool” bells and whistles already in place, based on TM’s already-trusted gas tech.

Outstanding On The Outside

Externally the AKX is a peach, taking the AKM base and dropping it down into SBR territory; overall, with a reduced 220mm outer barrel, the AKX is 750mm (550mm stock folded) stock-deployed against the fixed-length 890mm of the classic AKM.

but when it comes to “Sims” of any kind, and most certainly when it comes to training environments, it’s a gasser that I return to time and again.

I’ve spoken many times too about my favourite OpFor gas platforms, and to date those have been my open-bolt “AKM” (converted from a WE AK “PMC” with a lovely wood kit) and my SVD, and although both have had some little tweaks and been garnished with much love and attention they’re bot “classic” models. I have tried messing around with different gas AK platforms to create something more “modern”, but for some reason these builds have always come up a bit short, and swiftly my devout attention returns to those “classics”.

However, early last year, a new gas platform from market-leviathan Tokyo Marui (TM) appeared on the market, and after getting my hands on one I thought to myself “now this looks like a thoroughly modern AK that I could live with…”. I’d had a pretty good a quick-mag- change lever under the trigger guard!), that’s about all she wrote! Pretty much all the external parts are 100% different and totally updated to bring the AKX fully into the “OPR8R realm”.

Working from the sharp-end back there’s a more modern three-chamber muzzle brake that appears to have originated in TM’s own fevered imagination, but that follows the trends set by companies like J-MAC, SLR Rifleworks, and CRH Customs; this is on the usual 14mm thread so that you can add suppressors and tracers to your heart’s content.

Immediately above this is a lowered front-sight block married up as usual to the gas tube, but you can’t really see the gas tube as it’s covered in “tacticool goodness”; the lower handguard area features the M-LOK system that offers a multitude of slots at three and six o’clock, along with offsets on both sides so that you can really play around with accessory positioning to suit how you want to run your AK, and a little box included contains three sections of rail along with a front sight adjustment tool and magazine loading tube. Clamping solidly to the lower system is an upper seven-slot picatinny. The entire dust cover is railed almost right to the rear, and there’s a clever little inset flip-up rear sight right at the back.

One thing that I do approve of greatly is a new method of locking down the dust cover; this is often unstable and the downfall of many tactical AKs, one of the reasons I’ve never been happy with my own builds where I’ve replaced the standard dust cover with an aftermarket railed version! TM have been clever here, with a new way of locking down the cover, and you’ll actually need to undo the obvious not at the rear to get under the hood… result, the dust cover is 100% locked-down, stable and opticsready without having to resort to any side-mount, a feature which I’m pleased TM have done away with on this model.

Folding stocks on AK variant are nothing new, but again the way that TM have achieved that on the AKX shows that they do actually take note of trends within the player community, so as with many AEGs and GBBRs these days you a picatinny adapter for mounting any of the aftermarket versions now available out there; I don’t know why you’d want to though as the polymer stock provided is excellent, operating with a FAL-like “lift and swing to the left” action. The stock housing also incorporates a QD-stud sling point which marries up nicely with that inset to the M-LOK system for a two-pointer, although equally it would allow you to run a single-point easily. A new ergonomic pistol grip rounds out the feature set, and this I like a lot too as the grip-angle is spot-on for me.

Internally Impeccable

Internally all is good too; there’s nothing groundbreaking that is ultimately different to the existing very much tried and tested and not found in any way wanting ZET system as found on the AKM and the MWS so you can expect performance and efficiency.

When you come to stripping and maintaining the AKX it’s simple and just like the real deal! All that you need to do is undo that big nut at the rear and slide

LOWER HANDGUARD AREA FEATURES THE M-LOK SYSTEM THAT OFFERS A MULTITUDE OF SLOTS AT THREE AND SIX O’CLOCK, ALONG WITH OFFSETS ON BOTH SIDES SO THAT YOU CAN REALLY PLAY AROUND WITH ACCESSORY POSITIONING TO SUIT HOW YOU WANT TO RUN YOUR AK” off the dust cover back and off; this gives you access to the recoil spring assembly and the bolt assembly, so you just push the recoil assembly forward and off the lower receiver (it’s a captive spring and very similar to the real thing) and then all you have to do is pull the bolt to the rear and out that’s it… boom, done. The bolt itself is beautifully crafted, metal again with the gas piston being a separate piece fixed in place and made from high-grade alloy; overall as you’d expect the whole thing is very well made and houses the unit that is the heart of that TM gas blowback system. The lower receiver houses the trigger, hammer, safety, and fire control components as well as the hop unit which is neatly housed in the left hand side, a small wheel adjuster type that can be easily reached and adjusted with the mag out.

On the right hand side, the opposite side to the hop adjustment wheel, you’ll find a useful little catch that allows you to “dry fire” the AKX without BBs loaded in the magazine; you simply use one of your fingers in the right hand side front of the magazine well and pull the catch back and down, and that’s it, you can then fire it as much as you like without the gun stopping because you’ve run out of BBs. You can simply deactivate this feature by pulling the catch back and pushing it back up; this is a bit (make that very!) fiddly but it actually works very well.

Downrange

The AKX in operation is a dream, functioning entirely like a real AK model; the only part of readying the replica for firing is that you need to charge the magazine with gas and BBs rather than real rounds. For testing I used simple Green Gas which functioned superbly in warm weather, but to get the best from the AKX in the winter you’d probably want to vary your gas to take lower temperatures into account; as it cools down I’ll try this myself and report back at a later date.

Once the 35 BB magazine was ready, the chronograph registered a very consistent 0.83 Joule/300fps using .20g BBs, with only one “flier” going out at 0.89 Joule/311fps. Once everything was set up BBs were happily sailing out to the end of the 30 metre “woods range” with a good, flat trajectory. Upping the BB weight to .30g and adjusting the hop the AKX was still banging away at 30m on the irons, and again once settled the BB trajectory was nice and flat to that range with the heavier weight ammo.

On semi-auto with the selector set at the lowest point of travel accuracy was spot on, with an empty plastic BB bottle being easy to hit at mid-range, and the 300mm x 300mm steels at extreme range. Switching to the mid-selector-point the AKX kicked BBs out at a good rate with the additional pleasure of having the bolt slam back and forward with each shot. The rate of fire is slower than that of an AR with a really addictive “Kalash Clack” and I can see that in a firefight this would give additional realism and put a big old grin on your chops!

Overall my time spent with the AKX from Tokyo Marui was thoroughly enjoyable. If your style of play is more “Sim” than “Spray and Pray” then this fabulously put together replica should be high on your list of primaries to consider, especially if you favour a modern OpFor or “contractor” loadout. As with all gas rifles the cost of additional magazines is going to put up the overall price of things, but in my opinion that extra spend would be well worth it, especially if you make your purchases over time as I do…

Finally… a thoroughly modern gas AK that I believe I can live with for the foreseeable future, and with the host of aftermarket parts out there already from the likes of Angry Gun, Dragon Workshop, Bow Master, and Samoon to name but a few there’s obviously an “upgrade rabbithole” to go down when something does eventually go awry. For now though the TM AKX is beautifully put together and a joy to run, and I can see it serving well as is for a considerable time!

Sincere thanks as always go to the guys at www. iwholesales.biz for supplying the Tokyo Marui AKX… they know I like a gasser, and they know I love an AK, and it seems like they’re more than happy to feed my habit, bless them! AA