[swatt13]

well, i, along with a few other members started out with the a-l85a1 (academy), i put famas internals, spring, motor, m16 hop up in it. As it was it was just as good as any tm aeg (seeing as it was tm inside) the body was ok, no worse than my famas (all plastic).
i also mounted an m16 outer barrel in place of the plastic one, i was in the process of upgrading the body, (i was going to put star body around it but i guess you need to wait for star to have excess bodies in stock) so that was on hold.
The gun is just as good as any plastic aeg, except for the spring (220fps), if you get one, dont worry about anything other than throwing in a new spring and maybe a hop up. other than that, the only reason many people dont like it, is because lots of people dont want to face that TM isnt the god of airsoft anymore.
Oh the scope. Take it off, get a vsr10 rail, mount an rds and thats fine enough. That will cost you about $550 to do w/ a new gun.

A new S-L85A2 (star).... theres no comparison. 9lbs, full steel, 400 fps out of the box, you get a pelican hard case for FREE. You can get a 4x rds SUSAT which comes with its own pelican hard case for FREE as well! All this for $900 to your door from Grim Fango.
buut its your choice. start low, work your way up buy an a-l85, sell it after a while, then get th s-l85. but if youve got the money get the s-l85.