Matrix Full Metal MG42 Airsoft AEG Machine Gun w/ Steel Folding Bipod

"Overall, this is a very nice replica of the MG42. It would've been great if it was all metal with real wood grips, but then again, that would make it a lot more expensive. I repainted it with WWII gun metal paint from IMA.com to make it more authentic looking. For the price, it's a great value. Some cons.... It's very heavy and loading BB's can be a real chore. The charging handle seems like an afterthought and comes off easily. Also, I wish the bolt can be opened to add a replica ammo belt.

"Just loaded it up everything works and has no problems I put an 11.6 volt lipo in it and it ran like crazy it is truly a very accurate representation of an mg42I have had no problems yet I'm going to take it to the field later the only problem I have with it is the battery compartment which is quite small and only allows for lipos in order to be effective but besides that it is still a very effective gun

"This gun is very good out of the box. Internal parts are solid and the solid metal frame adds weight and durability. The mag can carry 2000+ bbs and mine chronos at 360 with .25g bbs. The only problem I have had is the mag winding trigger built into the trigger broke almost immediately. After the first few 15 min games the winder would not function unless the trigger was pulled extremely hard. I did have a CQC flashlight button thing laying around so I wired it to the mag and taped it to the back of the grip and it works like a dream.

Pros
- Strong Metal Body
- Large mag Capacity
- Solid ROF
- Excellent stock FPS

Cons
-Heavy (A pro if your looking for that)
- unreliable mag winding trigger (From my experience, It could just be a lemon)

Other notes -
The outer barrel is not -14mm threaded (Im not sure what size it is but If your looking to put a mock suppressor on it you may need an adapter (I've seen a few photos of actual MG42's with suppressor/silencers and they look pretty cool)

"My experience with the agm MG42 was not bad however the only thing I can complain about is the bipod and the drum internals.
Drum: after about 2 months the drum stopped working but evike does sell spares and so far I have no problem with the new one I bought 8 months ago in fact it is still running strong
Bipod: it's just cheap metal end of story
The mg42: this gun will make your enemies stare especially when I wear my Wehrmacht m40 uniform this is the best MG I have bought but look at your options like the ZB-30 (MG30T for us axis airsofters) as the zb30 is super accurate. The mg42 has solid internals and decent accuracy please keep in mind that it is a machine gun not a sniper rifle. I believe every ww2 airsoft event should have this Maschinen Gewehr 42 to counter that BAR.
Thank you for your time and I apologize if there is any grammar or spelling mistakes.

"For $340 its a must buy LMG if the hopup is dialed in you easily get 200ft+ run a 9.6v nunchuck for around 1000rpm without really stressing out the drum, ive put easily 30k through mine and its still chronoing around 360-375, the bipod did snap though , the barrel change bolt came off, the charging handle doesnt like to stay on, I paid $460 a while back for mine and it was totally worth it.
Doesn't hog battery life but I have had a drum fail on me so far so good on the replacement. probably could really use a tightbore. Overall 4.5/5 hasn't mechanically failed me in a while, but at first it kept chopping bbs and jamming itself. On last thing though bungie deans wire the drum to the gun or it will get ripped out, the wires and connectors are cheap and very flimsy.

"Overall, this is a decent gun. It does the job of an LMG well. It's very inaccurate, spread is all over the place, and holds enough BB's to last you awhile, try not to run out though because reloading is a pain. The bipod was a huge amount of trouble to get on but it does at some point decide to "slide" in. The rate of fire was pretty good but the FPS is lacking in my opinion. Here's some pros and cons.

Pros:
metal
real wood
bad spread (could be a con but if your trying to suppress it's good)
has a bipod
flip-up iron sights
looks to be full size
it's an MG-42

Cons:
Mag is a pain to reload
bipod is a huge pain to get on
metal is some what cheapish
heavy if you plan to move around a lot, of course
no sling mount
battery in my case ran out pretty fast
feeding problems multiple times (but all you really have to do is hold down the trigger and wait for it to start firing again)

Again, it's a decent gun. I find it to be a little steep in price for what it is even what it's on sale for $340, but still pretty worth it if you are into German World War II guns or WWII in general. When you get this gun, it certainly comes with bragging rights and scares people because I mean, it's a ******* MG-42... enough said.

"I'm a huge World War Two nutt and this gun is possibly the coolest thing ever. So far in games it keeps everyones heads down.

Pros
-great rate of fire
-huge drum mag capacity
-great range
-very realistic
-scares the crap out of people, even just looking at it

Cons
-heavy
-drum mag is a little difficult to change
-muzzle is funnel-like and allows dirt to enter barrel easily
-hard to find replacement parts

Overall a great gun of LMG and suppressing fire. I just wish they made spare parts for it. I also suggest to buy butterfly batteries to fit in the stock.

"A lot of the reviews on here seem to be pretty vague, so I'll try to put more into it.

Weapon: MG-42
Class: Support gun
Role: Suppressing fire, Area Denial, Intimidation

The Matrix MG-42 is exactly as you would expect it to be. It is heavy, it is awesome, and it can lay down some serious fire when it works correctly (which is often when you get used to it.) This weapon is heavy and meant for locking down an area, so don't buy it expecting to be Rambo, or expecting to be able to clear rooms with it as you will only "die" tired.

My biggest complaint about this MG so far is the initial build. My gun's rear sight came locked in a flip down position due to poor tolerance, and I have to take the sight apart every time I want to flip it up, so I leave it in a "Flip up" position. The Bipod was cross threaded when it came in the box, naturally the first time I tried to use it the threads broke, and now I'm down a bipod. As other people have stated, the charging handle doesn't stay in, since it's only aesthetic I just leave mine out. Unlike other users I didn't have a problem with "Wobbly stock," but even if I did it wouldn't matter since the stock is meant to hold your battery anyway.

The gun is hard to use at first, a lot of people are complaining about locked up gear box, and feeding issues, but I can tell you it's most likely user error. I had those issues myself, and it only took me a couple matches to get it perfect.

The way the gun works is the Box Mag is connected to the gun so that it can time the rounds with the firing of the gun, however it only activates with a full trigger pull (You can pull the trigger halfway to activate the gun but not the box mag). Now if you just hold down the trigger too long the mag will feed too many rounds and cause a weapon jam, this means you have to play with the trigger to make sure you both have rounds, and that they don't over feed. It sounds complicated, but believe me it's easy to get used to.

The weapon is full auto only, and cannot be used to clear rooms. Sure the gun comes stock with 350 fps, but since you can't clear rooms anyway, and I wouldn't recommend constantly moving around with it, I would recommend increasing it to 400 fps (when the game allows) since you shouldn't be getting close with it anyway. There is currently no sling, and no sling mounts but the condor 3-point sling can be adapted for it.

Ultimately, the MG-42 is a great and cheap alternative to the other MG-42's out there, but since I haven't tried the other support gun's out there, I can't say how it compares.

Conclusion:

If you buy the gun, make sure to take a close look at all of the parts. Use it a little bit, and make sure everything was built correctly. Once you get past that, it really is an amazing gun.

Pro:
Great Support weapon (when you get used to it)
Amazing replica
High Ammo count
Cheap (in comparison)

Con
mediocre craftsmanship
Heavy/bulky (it's a stationary gun, what did you expect?)
No sling mounts

"So far this gun hasn't disappointed save for the bipod. The screw that allows it to rotate broke while I was using the bipod as a foregrip. This happened 3 weeks after I assembled it from the box. I understand if it wasn't intended to handle that much weight bearing down on it for a prolonged period of time, but at the same time, I believe it should be to withstand it indefinitely. Goes without saying that for a weapon such as this, a bipod makes it infinitely more effective at range. It also makes stowing this weapon safer and keeps stress off the magazine while in a resting position. Please take this back to the drawing board, Evike, and fix this issue for good. Make that screw indestructible, its the weak link.

"When I picked up this beast out of the box when it arrived, it was amazing. The feel of it was just right. shouldering it made me feel liek a beast, the smiel that arose on my face was one that i have never had. This gun outweighs any other support gun On the market, Possible excluding the PKM.. so theres some heft to it/ If your used to M4's. AK's. and G36's then this MG will be a struggle to play 4+ hours with. however if your used to lugging the M249, M240, Stoner, M60, ECT around this wil be a bit heavier. My thoughts on this gun passed my expectations.. When i recieved the gun there was two problems, the plate that held the bolt in was broken and was falling off, and the Hope up was missing a screw and did not function. So i didn't get the full experience of it during my first battle. (EVIKE has since repaired it and is sending it back) The guns range even though the hopup didnt function was still reaching good ranges of playing. easily 100 feet. The ROF with a 7.4 Lipo was okay-ish I perferd a 9.6 nunchuck, 11.1 LIPO would be desired. The magazine's build quality is phenomenal. I accedetly dropped it off a two story building, and it was chucked back up to me to function liek a beast. It easily fed up to 20RPS with an 11.1. My only cons about it is that you have to really pull the trigger in order to engage the Auto wind, and the connector to the gun and the mag seems flimsy. The real Steal quick barrel change is nto included with this liek it is in the M249, witch i prefer as it wont get F***** every time i remove the barrel to fiddle with that cool function. So its a good thing.. The Hopup is bolted to the guns frame so it wont budge! The quality of the internals seem to be solid as I put over 7k rounds through ti in a day with a high rps 0f 15-17 without it skipping a beat or misfiring. The safety on the gun is located in a position where if you hold the grip tightly it will disengage the safety. Now when i was on the battle field playgirl i encounter a few problems.
The problems insisted of not seeing anyone, they were to scared to pop there heads up or show themselves ( true story! They hated me... I kept the entire left side of my map hiding in fear!!!) They later approached me after the game telling me they now hate me. and that they wont play against me anymore.. Witch put a smile on my entire teams face. The other problem was that I had to relod once, and it took my five minutes of watching my teammates getting killed due to me not putting the Hostiles heads down.
While i was off the field Everyone wanted to hold it, and shoot it.. The "such wow... Much awesome" factor was high. I HIGHLY suggest you buy this...
PROS
Awesome
"such wow" Factor
ROF
FPS
Mag's durability and capacity(witch is more than what evike says... Like 500-1000 more)
The Fear Factor is real... I put actual Soldiers heads down.
Durability
The Mags stability when locked into the gun is phenomenal.
The gun is just Sexy.

Cons
When arrived was broken.
The Mags autowind connector to gun
The Auto wind need the trigger to be pulled all the way back
The amount of times I go to buy BB's goes up 100%
Cant see anyone due to them being scared of the gun and keeping thier head down!

"Not perfect by any means but fun and upgradable.

I get that most people will buy this cheaper one instead of spending 3-4 times as much on the G&G. I have owned both at the same time and quickly sold my AGM/S&T/Matrix.
This, like the A&K M60s, fill a niche, which is good. It's not necessary for someone to spend $1800 on an LCT to have fun with an M60, just like an MG42 doesn't need to be $2k. There are limitations on what you get with $400-$600 of MG42 though (TaiwanGun has it for cheaper).

The internals aren't good, the body has a lot of "metal" that doesn't often hold up well, and the mag is okay at best. Of course, you can get this and you spend some money on upgrades and get something that performs well. However, I would advise all to take care of the externals. You cannot easily upgrade those. The track that hold the charging handle will bend with use, The bracket with the bipod will wear, connections around the body with start to get loose, paint will chip off, and the softer metal around the body can bend or get scratched. It is a LOT of gun, so judging the price-to-quality is a bit hard. If you get it and are cognisant of its limitations, I think it's very easy to enjoy the gun.

That being said, it would be nice to see them put in some more reinforcements on parts of the barrel shroud and around the charging handle. If the weak pot metal has limitations, don't just let everyone deal with them, try to incorporate those limitations into design. Or more parts be made out of steel and screwed/riveted onto the pot metal. It's a fun gun and has potential, but some of the external issues seem like they could be worked around. Don't treat it like a big, steel MG and you should be fine.

Cool factor and compatibility with parts make this 5 stars.
Quality of internals is 2 stars.
Quality of externals is maybe 3 stars.

"Being one of the cheapest MG42 AEG's out there, this has some great value to it. Having that said, it is what you'd expect out of made-in-China AEG. The metal overall feels a bit weak. Parts like iron sights and drum hangers can be bent easily. The black paint is a bit too shiny for my liking (not sure if this is authentic) and it scratches easily. The bi-pod, thankfully, feels very solid. The wood stock is very solid. Some parts on the gun, like receiver cover, bi-pod, charging handle, and barrel access door, are loose. Some can be fixed, others not so easily done.

The gearbox seems pretty good. The QD spring doesn't want to come out. It seems a bit off spec. A little bit of sanding fixes this. The inner barrel / hop up unit seems a bit miss-aligned, too. The drum is synchronized to the trigger. Out of the box, it's able to achieve 15 rps with a 7.4V lipo, limited only by the feeding of the drum.

I have a more detailed review on Airsoft Canada, you can look for it there for a detailed inside look.

All-in-all, I would still buy this again because of the price and I didn't mind doing a little work on it. If you're a perfectionist, stay away from it.

"This replica requires an extensive amount of extra work for it to be even be usable. Out of the box, it totally gives off the impression that it will perform well and it does!...for a solid 5 minutes before the piston teeth shear.
As a tech, the two-piece upper and lower gearbox held together with some loose locking surfaces, some spring tension from the tappet plate and an undersized pin held in place by extremely flimsy c-clips is a travesty. The lower gear housing is also the pistol grip which means in actual combat, every load put that half puts strain on the interphase between the sector gear and piston teeth. It is also extremely difficult to correct AOE. It is vital you replace the stock piston with one with hardened steel teeth and invest in some good gear grease. Same with the main gears, hardened steel, keep them greased and shim them and they will perform better. You're also going to want to replace the locking pin with one that fits tighter, drill holes through either side and replace the c-clips with cotter pins if possible. The motor height is not adjustable unless you attempt to wedge metal pieces underneath or over top of it, which there may or may not be enough movement to do so. The pins that hold the trigger springs are not fixed and like to fall out when putting everything back together and the wiring seems like an afterthought. They did not engineer enough space for the connectors to comfortably plug into the motor terminals any more than one time and with complicated bends in the connector. Any attempt to upgrade the wiring will require that the pistol grip covers be dremeled out around the connectors. You're are also going to want a mosfet, as once you can get it to a point where you can fire it continuously without shredding the gearbox, the electrical system starts to fail. It is in no way, lipo ready out of the box (I managed to melt the Tamiya connector on mine.)
I recommend the GATE Nanohard which fits well inside the battery compartment. The hopup doesn't do much unless you change out the bucking. Otherwise the internals are simple, albeit proprietary. There is no selector mechanism other than a safety. The best thing I have to say about the gearbox, is that is a quick change spring assembly.
For how expensive the magazine is, it is underwhelming. The mini gearbox for the feeding mechanism binds up and taking it apart will reveal tiny plastic gears that don't align well and have a gear width of play. I managed to shim them and the feeding has worked much better, but often times a bb will still jam the scoop in which a firm knock will be needed to free it. The wiring that connects the magazine to the trigger is pathetic should be replaced with a different connector with hard solder wire connections. Also, if not inserted straight enough, the spot welds that hold the locking hook plate on can break.
The bipod is actually more of a hindrance than an asset as it eventually becomes too loose and unstable to support the gun and generally just gets in the way.
The external screws will all need Loctite applied to the threads. They will fall out over time.
All the bad things aside, once you get it usable, it is an impressive and terrifying beast on the field. People love to see it in action and if you like carrying around a bunch of weight, you will love this. Just be careful with it as rhe metal can bend quite easily.

Pros -
Decent fps and rof
Quick change spring assembly
Good weight
Looks cool

Cons-
Requires a ton of modification to be usable
Poor gearbox construction and design and cheap internals
Little to no motor adjustment
AoE problems
Poor magazine and feeder
Poor wiring design
Weak battery connections
Not lipo ready
Proprietary components
Small battery space
Tripod is loose at all times
Charging handle immediately falls off and requires extensive modification to properly attach.
Durability issues (loose pins, loose screws, thin metal loose, rattling components.)

In all, this is maybe a $250 gun wrapped in a nearly $700 package. Unless you're willing to spend an extra $200 and a lot of time in upgrades with constant repairs both internally and externally, you're not getting something than can effectively be used in the type of conditions you'd actually want to use this in. Because of that it is almost worth trying to source the GnG version of the MG42.

"TLDR:
The S&T or Matrix MG42 is a deceptively delicate replica that is prone to warping or failing with even small user errors that can come with playing, even conservatively, on the airsoft field. If the MG-42 is one of your dream weapons, skip this one, save your pennies, and wait for more GMG42s. They're three times as expensive, but far better than what you get here. Only purchase if you know your way around the tech side of things and are prepared to make several upgrades to make this viable long-term.

Full Review:

The S&T MG42 (Marketed here as the matrix) was my first big purchase for airsoft that wasn't a basic rifle or gear piece. I bought this back in August 2023 and it only lasted around three months, or five-weekend skirmish sessions, before catastrophic failure. My opinion of this replica is mostly negative, but I'll list some positives first.

-The sheer presence of this replica makes it almost worthwhile. You'll get heads to turn whenever you show up with this.
-320FPS with .25 BBs makes it suitable for indoor games despite its size.
-The all-black paint scheme on the aluminum is easy to fix cosmetically if you get one too many scratches.
-The battery space is sufficient for all of my non-lipo batteries despite the size of the compartment itself.

My brief journey with this piece can be summarized in the following headaches:

-The drum and gearbox's external cable uses a flimsy connector. On my first outing with the S&T MG42, I bumped into a wall at just the right angle for the drum to fall off. Snapped the wires and had to wait to get them resoldered. As far as I remember the drum doesn't have a solid locking mechanism and can pop up unless you're being really careful.

-While the aluminum build is neat and feels sturdy in the hand, the quality of the metal is poor and will lead to several problems as you use the replica. Primarily, over time the replica will begin to physically warp. This is most notable on the right side of the barrel shroud, which is the open section where you'd remove the barrel on the real thing or the GMG42. Using the bipod, or leaving the replica on the bipod for display, will exasperate this feature. Look at any video or image of someone playing with this and you'll see the barrel should pressing in on itself. This also means that it'll knock your front sight out of alignment over time. When I sold the S&T off after it failed, the tech who bought it had to cut incisions in the body due to the warping.

- At least in my case, the gearbox failed notably quickly. I estimate I put around 6000-8000 rounds total through this replica before the piston sheered itself off, and as I said above I decided to sell it off as it was becoming more of a headache than it was worth.

Other small nitpicks:
-The Anti-Air sight doesn't fit reproduction AA sights. You'd need to buy a specially designed one.
-Replica overall is missing a couple of small details. An easy way to identify an S&T 42 is the lack of a small circular hole on the left side of the barrel shroud.
-The rattle of the gearbox will loosen several screws as you use this replica. I recommend getting in the habit of checking the screws around the receiver after a game day.
-Hopup is... kinda bad. Minimal difference on mine and it tends to reset itself as you shoot.

In conclusion, if you're a very careful player I suspect this could last longer. The mostly positive reviews convinced me to take a chance, and in my case the experience was pretty abysmal. Don't buy this if you can help it.

I ended up saving money and bought a GMG 42 in April, and it's still going strong to this day while being used about twice as much as my S&T. Don't regret it at all.

"I was so excited to get this gun for my birthday last year, when it came in the mail there were a bunch of problems with the gun, the stock was wobbly and a pain to try and tighten, the top of the gun that opens was also wobbly, and the cosmetic barrel release didn't even come on the gun! other than those few problems the gun worked OK, but it does not have the most solid range, When going out into the field, the wires that connect the magazine to the gun ripped off and I had to strip the wires, and I ended up replacing them with mini Tamiya cables instead, and just a few months ago, the first game of the day I go to point the gun and the whole flippin' pistol grip came out of the gun, and the tappet plate snapped, after 3 or 5 times of usage, the metal charging handle is also floppy on the gun and frequently fell off the gun. This was extremely unacceptable, for a 600 dollar gun to last that short amount of time is just mind boggling. This model was probably just a defective one but who cleared it? Its literally missing a whole chunk of metal it was supposed to come with.