Droc

IMHO a solid gun and reliable internals are very important.

Sorry greylocks, I wrote all that but I miss the "must own" part

I recommend, as the best starter gun the ICS AK74
ICS AK74M
Full metal
Incredibly solid
large battery
V3 internals
excellent gears, nicest stock gears I have seen
metal bushings
motor fixes right to the mechbox, making it a single section.

guns I own(or owned), but dont really recommend
TMSR16
large battery
RAS
V2 internals
busted body tabs
so much barrel wobble it was scary
multi-section front end(boo)
getting the motor to seat into the mechbox properly has been problems

TM MP5K PDW
V3
heavy for size
large battery needs to be modded in, using a stick battery just sucks ass
way to innaccurate to be of any use.

IMHO, if your looking for the most solid, most reliable, most part avaliable, good performing gun out of the box, lets say, in the $600 range
I have to recommend the ICS AK74m or the TM/CA G36

The fallowing is a collection of oppinions I have on guns

I often get asked what guns I recommend for new people.
In the past it was a matter of whatever one you thought looked the best, but in the end, thats not the case anymore.

Armalites
I never recommend armalites, sorry, but armalites run possibly the worst plastic body. TM especially, busted body tabs and money missing due to barrel wobble. TM M4/SR16 RIS system, with its multisection barrel is yuck. V2 problems and troublesome motor placment.
The only way I see an armalite worth the money is if it comes full metal right out of the box.

TM sigs
hard to find body upgrades
no way in hell to use a large battery
expensive and hard to fing/get mags

TM G3 guns
long
loads of plastic
gets very creeky
again, metal upgrades are not very avaliable

PSG1
looks neat
long
complicated gearbox
underpowered
plastic
parts are hard to come buy
costs alot
not really any advantages over any ofther AEG

TM AK
considerably solid
V3 internals
considerable amount of metal
mega simple design
excellent motor to gearbox setup

P90
small
solid
excellent gearbox
bad hicaps
mags expensive and not as easy to get(fake bullets = no WGC bulk order)
mags dont really fit in vests
needs mods to take a large battery

Famas
cheap price
V1 internals
creeky body(fixable easily)

AUG
relativly solid
V3 internals
rare/expensive mags

Mp5
V2 internals
wide selection of versions

MP5k
cheap
small
lrage battery = mods
V3 internals
worst range and accuracy then any AEG

M14
new
new mechbox
solid
lots of metal
large battery
good range and accuracy
expensive

G36
V3 internals
solid
not to hard to run a lrage battery

G&P armalites
solid
fantastic metal recievers
not half bad internals
I belive it comes with a reinforced mechbox
expensive, but metal body is worth it

ICS
same as above, but I like the G&P reciever better and I have heard ICS M4 internals can be troublesome.

ICS AK
solid
full metal
nicer gears, metal bushings, nice internals.

Note: I dont mean to knock anyones gun, Im just trying to pro/con them on a level field. Any guns can be made excellent.

BTW, I dont own all the guns
I own or have heavily used
TMSR16
TM MP5k
ICS AK74M
TM G36
TM MP5RAS

all my other commends on other guns come from what I have read here and seen on the field.

As an addition, the recent Classic Army guns have been very nice. Quality metal guns for decent prices.