Star UMP

The GOOD

Feels almost perfect in the hands. Has a nice solid feel and has a great weight and balance. The rails are fastened securely metal to metal–no worries of plastic stripping out. The magazine feeds excellent (so far) and fits very tightly into the mag well. The hopup adjustment is firm, doesn’t slip and the hopup overall seems to work good–gives the bb a nice flight path. My favorite part of the gun is the way it breaks down. Just like the real UMP, taking out 1 pin (STAR uses a hex screw) you can drop out the entire lower receiver with the top of the gearbox exposed. Undo 3 more screw and one pin and the gearbox slides easily up and out of the receiver. The gearbox is a Ver. III and made of good quality metal material. Besides the nozzle, which is specific to this gun, all the internals are already available on the market. The barrel/hopup assembly also breaks down nicely. 1 pin and the entire unit will slide out from the front of the gun in one piece.

The BAD

On some parts of the fun STAR used a terrible cheap plastic. The front sling hook is one such spot. I would dare use a sling for fear of this piece breaking off. Another is the non-functioning cocking lever. It will surely break off after a few rough skirmishes. The selector lever does not funtion up to par on semi-auto mode. Going from safe to semi got me no results. I had to go all the way down to full auto and then click back to semi to get it to function. Though full auto has no problems and safe mode keeps the trigger sturdily in place–no easy snapping the trigger off. And, unlike the G&G UMG, STAR does not include the side rails with the AEG. I’m guessing these will surface on the market a bit later with a hefty price tag.

The UGLY

The mold lines! Ugh! There is no possible way this gun would pass as a real gun upon close inspection! The fake bullets in the magazine! They don’t look real, they look terrible!

All that being said… I like the gun! I was terribly disappointed when I first looked at it after arrival but then after shooting it and playing around with it began to grow on me and it’s still growing on me. I can’t say anything good or bad about the stock–extended it has a half mm of play and folded it stays in place. It seems to shoot much harder than the extimated 270 fps given on the site and has pretty good distance for such a compact and stock AEG. The battery housing, although being able to fit a 1700 mAh, which is great, is so tight that it will take some great effort to get the battery in place. Don’t plan on taking it out, just charge it while in the gun. The gun sports full H&K trades and just looks badass! Perhaps that’s what I like most! This gun just looks flat out intimidating! I just don’t know where I’ll put the extra magazines once I get them because of their ungodly length.

The Follow Up

So, it’s been a month and I’ve just about got this beast performing at the level I consider acceptable. In fact I’m quite happy with the performance of this gun, but it hasn’t come easy. Here is a list of upgrades I first did:

• Guarder cylinder set for AK47
• Guarder G36c air seal nozzle
• Guarder SP M120 spring
• Guarder spring guide w/ball bearings
• Guarder Ver. III tappet plate
• Systema torque gears
• KM TN tight barrel (originally from my Spetz, cut it to sit flush with the end of the UMP barrel)
• “Ampoint” red dot scope
• Sanyo 8.4v 1700 mAh stick battery
• 3 spare 110 rd. magazines
• Blackhawk triple magazine drop leg pouch (mag length problem solved)

The gearbox is an exact copy of a Tokyo Marui Version III. So you’ll have not problems fitting your parts in. In fact, Star used the same set up as Tokyo Marui used for their G36c (same air seal nozzle, selector switch mechanics, and hopup).

So far I think my biggest gripe with this gun is the battery compartment. It’s tight! TIGHT! And not in a good way. I literally pounded in the battery and in the process busted out the non-functional cocking handle, pushing a piece of the gun out the front end. All the advertising of the gun fitting such a large battery are completely false, at least if you want the gun to look as it does with out removing the cocking handle. To help with the tightness I bored out the compartment with heavy grit sand paper for hours! I maybe increased the diameter by a millimeter (which says a lot for the plastic used—it’s tough) and still the batteries are difficult to get in and out. I settled with a GP 8.4v 1100 mAh from my AK74 to test out my upgrades.

I was pleased with the upgrades with the first few shots. The gearbox felt very tight, with no slop. But the fps just didn’t cut it! I lack a chronograph, but the Guarder M120 and the gun’s short barrel had me nowhere near 400 fps. And my shots were wild! The hopup is just not stable enough to keep the BBs synched. The rubber Star used in the hopup is terrible! Too soft! In fact, it ripped in two places pulling the unit apart. And the barrel retaining clip just doesn’t fit as well as it should. There is some play in the barrel—you can rotate it left or right. Adjusting the hopup will cause shots to drift right or left because of the poor retaining clip.

So, here’s what I did next:

• Guarder SP M130 spring
• Systema hopup packing
• Systema super torque up motor
• 2 GP 9.6v 1100 mAh batteries

With the M130 spring installed the fps is more pleasing. I don’t think I pushed the gun over 400 fps but damn close. The Systema hopup packing did wonders for the accuracy! Systema provides a slightly wider brass ring with the packing and that keeps the loose retaining clip much tighter—the barrel no longer rotates after adjusting the hopup. The 9.6v GP batteries, along with the super torque motor and torque gears, push the M130 spring easy enough. The rate of fire is nothing spectacular at all, but that’s fine because it actually keeps to the realism of a .45 cal. machine gun.

Now that I was completely satisfied with the guns performance I took it out for its first day of gaming. There’s something incredible about playing with such a beast! I had my best game ever! With good cover fire I knocked through two buildings, cleaning up the entire opposing team. And even though it’s a CQB gun it’s got range! But my excitement was only 3 games long. My first battery died (I knew I shouldn’t have played with it the night before). Again the battery compartment bit me in the ace. Between the cold air and the hot battery there was no getting the battery out without proper tools, so my second battery was useless to me. So—sniffle, sniffle—I had to pack the gun away and play with my AK. It’s a tough life!