Marauder “Modular” M4 Rifle

May 9, 2012 | By More


While it would be incredibly boring, it would make sense for GI Joe figure to all come with essentially the same weapons. Don’t get me wrong, I love all the variation we get. I don’t want that to change.

To fill a squad type need, I ordered a couple of the Modular style M4 Rifles from Marauder. This pretty basic military weapon and can be configured in a number of different ways.

To meet that configuration adaptability, Marauder has made a basic weapon with pin holes and accessories to fit those holes. Much like the real world, there’s a pretty wide variety of things you can mount on the guns.

For this round of ordering I started with a Deluxe M4 which comes with a fair number of addons. In addition, I ordered standard M4 and some accessories.

The standard weapon is pretty nice. First up, it’s got a removable clip. While the listing says it comes with one, I actually got two with mine. Where I’ve thought of the Viet Nam era M16 as pretty much a GI Joe workhorse for a weapon, this is a great modern equivalent.

The attention to detail is great. Does it look exactly like a specific weapon? Probably, but if wouldn’t have to. There are so many different stocks and rail mounts for these guns, the variation is endless.

So what does the Deluxe version come with? Glad you asked. First up, for the front, it comes with a under mount grenade launcher, silencer and a single handle.  A grenade launcher like this has seen use in a number of films and is no surprise. Detailed down to the trigger and trigger guard, the launcher pegs into the bottom of the gun with 2 pegs. A good piece.

The silencer is what you would expect. Solidly plugs on to the front of the barrel. No surprises, but a welcome addition.

The single handle I had a tiny issue with. It only pegs with one peg. While it looks great on the gun, trying to get a figure to hold the handle in a pose is a bit tricky. The easiest way I found was to put the handle in their hand then peg it to the weapon. This is a small issue, especially if you consider that most people that would buy these items are collectors that are going to use them for a display and not hardcore play.

There are some additional optics with the deluxe version, as well. There are tactical and night scopes.  Again, the detailing is great. I will tell you they use a single post to peg in, which makes different that Low Light’s scope. I actually like the idea of the tactical style a bit more. A night scope is a heavy special purpose item, but that’s the great thing about having these accessories, you can change this gun however you want.

The final piece included with the deluxe gun is a double drum magazine. If it looks like your Joe team is going to be in for a long defensive fight this would be a great item to pair them up with.

In addition to those items, I order a few single accessories as well. The first was a different tactical scope. This is more like those “holographic” sights that seem to be fairly popular. It’s a familiar look to add for a tactical type gun.

If you add this sight with the drum magazine and grenade launcher, you essentially have Will’s Zombie Gun from the season finale of “Sons of Guns”.

The second item was a laser front grip. The nice thing about this piece is that it both provides a front handle on the gun and the laser sight, but it also has two pegs. This helps it peg in quite a bit better. (No, it does not actually project a laser.) I might add a small red dot to the end for a bit of detail, but I have no complaints.

The last modular piece I picked up was an undermount shotgun. I had see a picture of something similar recently and was thinking this would actually be a nice anti-zombie piece to have. Again the trigger and guard are detailed. The magazine on this piece is not removable.

Overall:

I’m pretty pleased with these guns. The modular accessories would be a great way to have the figures in a display some what match, but still have specialized weapons. The quality of detail is all good.

I would say for the price, go with the deluxe version. You’ll be surprised when you find your self trying different combinations of accessories with different figures.

Maruader’s Modular Weapons Page

Engineernerd Score: 97/100

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  1. Errex says:

    Now, that is a very impressive accessory design. Great review!

  2. Engineernerd says:

    Thanks!

  3. Tom says:

    Love the modular stuff, kind of reminds me of the Wespons Tech sets Hasbro put out for the 1/6 scale Joes late 90s