Inspired by Bob The Angry Potato's thread I thought I'd throw this up.
I just got my CYMA AKS74U (properly the AKS74UN because it has the side rail) and I'm pretty happy with it. It's my second AKS74UN, the first being my Unicorn that came in last week. I thought some comparison pictures would be neat.
The CYMA AKS74UN is on top, the Unicorn is on the bottom.
Right side full view, no mags:
Left side full view, no mags:
Undersides. Note that the CYMA gun makes extensive use of Phillips head screws which don't torque down as tightly as the heavy Allen head screws on the Unicorn.
Receiver detail, left side. The CYMA is tighter on tolerances than the Unicorn in most areas. This can either be viewed as a positive for the CYMA as being better built, or positive for the Unicorn as being more true-to-life as a sloppy AK.
Front end view. The flash suppressor on the CYMA is cocked at an angle while the Unicorn's cuts are perfectly horizontal. The Unicorn's flash suppressor's edges are also sharp as a razor, I might add.
Mags in:
Personally I like 7.62x39mm better as a caliber. In this configuration the gun is known as the AKMSU and is in current production in Bulgaria.
In the looks and materials department, the Unicorn wins out simply because it's steel whereas the CYMA is mostly pot metal. The blued steel is a far more attractive and realistic appearance and doesn't have a plethora of ugly screws around it. A significant advantage of the steel receiver is that it's thinner, giving you a LOT more room to rewire the gearbox with quality wiring.
The CYMA wins in build/solidity. The Unicorn's primary criticism is its poor tolerances, citing the wobbly flash suppressor (easily fixed with a few turns of teflon tape) and folding stock (not fixable as far as I can tell). The bolt on the Unicorn is sub par and gets bumped out of place, but it does look nice. The CYMA is a lot tighter all around. You also get a battery, BBs, manual, and cleaning rod with the CYMA; it also comes with a charger but in some strange Euro plug configuration and 220VAC, so it's essentially useless in North America. An interesting side note - I had a hard time finding Engrish in the manual. It's fairly well written.
Overall I'm very happy with both guns!
A couple of action pics from last Sunday:
