The first thing you notice when you pull it out of the packaging is the box itself. It's very plain, yet very nice. It has "H&K" and "No Compromise" written across the front. There is also a little disclaimer about how Umarex owns the exclusive rights to all H&K related shapes and trademarks.

Upon opening the box, you are greeted with a black foam sheet covering the gun. Once removed, you find the G36 snuggled gently into 2 pieces of cut-to-fit foam, as well as an owner's manual and one hi-cap magazine. Under the hi-cap is a plastic baggy containing the black O-ring that goes around the eye-end of the integrated scope. Why they didn't just put it on the gun before shipping is beyond me. Other than this, there is nothing else in the box; no unjamming rod, no complementary pack of bbs, nothing.

The first mark against the gun came immediately as I pulled it out of the box. The left selector switch fell off. It was just a minor inconvenience, nothing that some Loctite and an Allen wrench couldn't fix, but for a $370.00 gun you would think they would do that ahead of time. Just as a precaution, I used some Loctite on the other selector as well.

After fixing the selector, I took a better looks at the externals. They are some of the best externals I have ever seen on a G36. No shine, no wobbles or shakes, and fully trademarked. I wish they would have actually put engraved trades on the gun rather than just painting it on, but beggars can't be chooser I suppose. The full length G36 comes with all the standard stuff; bi-pod, bayonet lug, side folding collapsible stock with rubber butt pad, ambidextrous selector switch and charging handle, and integrated scope. The great part about the Ares though is that it goes the extra mile and has the dual integrated optic, having both a 3.5x scope and a red-dot sight. For a review of the Ares dual optic, you can read CaineHazen's review of it on Airsoft Ohio.

Some of the most impressive features on the Ares G36 revolve around the bolt. First of all, the gun has blowback. Now, don't let that fool you into thinking it has a lot of recoil, because it doesn't. The blowback really only amounts to the rumble pack in you Xbox control while shooting a gun in a videogame. The blow back is easily disabled by removing a screw in the back of the mechbox and sliding the metal catch out of the back. Another cool feature is that you can lock the bolt back by using the bolt catch, located forward of the trigger in the trigger guard. The picture to the right shows the bolt locked back. (1) is the bolt and (2) is the bolt catch. To release the bolt, you simply pull back on the charging handle and release. Now, the neatest and most functional feature of the bolt system is that the bolt catch works as a spring-tension release, similar to an ICS M4's forward assist. This, to me, is one of the most innovative things Ares has done with their G36 design.

The Ares G36 breakdown is completely different than that of the standard Classic Army or Tokyo Marui G36. There are three body lock pins, the nifty ones with the spring catch on the end to hold them in place. Removing the front pin allows for the removal of the handguard, like a CA or TM, but instead of giving access to three screws that holds the front assembly in, it gives access to the barrel nut. Removing the middle body pin allows the removal of the magwell, like normal. Removing the rear body pin, located behind the selector, and folding the stock allows for you to remove the bolt and carrier assembly, which just slides out of the back. You can now remove the mechbox by just pulling it down and out of the body. Make a note, the bottom of the stock has 4 holes; these are to store the body pins when you remove them, so if you're field stripping the gun you don't lose them. The hop-up is seated in the barrel by a setscrew. If you look at the top of the body where the charging handle was, you can see the screw. Loosening it up lets you slide the hop-up and the inner barrel out of the back of the gun. Now if you want, you can remove the barrel by loosening the barrel nut and sliding it off. You'll notice that the front assembly is two separate pieces; the barrel and the gas piston. It's that way basically for realism purposes.

The mechbox itself is very hefty, with a lot of reinforcement. It looks like a normal V3, with the exception of the raised top that houses the catch for the blowback. While looking at the extrior, you see that the cylinder is not ported at all which is good for along barreled gun, and that it has 8mm, maybe even 9mm bushings. One thing that stuck me and kinda funny; the bevel gear had bearing bushings, while the spur and sector gears had plain bushings. After opening it up, I noticed that entire mechbox was coated pretty liberally with grease. The stuff was everywhere. I'd recommend wiping some of it out. Another difference you will notice is the trigger assembly. Instead of having the shuttle push forward and make the connection, there is actually a trigger switch, similar to those in an M249. The shuttle pushed forward and depresses the switch, and releases when you let go of the trigger, or when the cutoff lever hits it in semi. This switch helps to give it superb trigger response and rate of fire. The rest of the parts are standard V3. The piston is quite beefy, and resembles the Bravo or Classic Army reinforced pistons. The piston head is just a solid piece of plastic with no ports. The gears feel a little light and cheap, and I'll go into that a little more later.

After a visit to the 321Airsoft parts bin and getting my sector gear squared away, I was able to get some chrono readings. I used a XCortech chrono, as it is able to give me the average FPS and RPS on a burst of full auto fire. It gave me around the same reading on all of my bursts, 18 RPS at 382-388 FPS with the above mention LiPo.