I've been into "real" Airsoft since 1992 when a free moment during a trip to England brought me into an Airsoft shop, in good old Nottingham, of all places. There I picked up a kit for a Sig P220 by an unknown company (please see its review). My eyes were opened to all the possibilities in Airsoft, which at that time were mainly 1) spring-powered, and 2) gas-powered. There was an electric FA-MAS on the market at that time, but I personally don't like it much, and everybody in the shop dismissed the electric Airsoft as a passing fad, and that gas was here to stay. Well, friends, I am here today to tell you they were wrong.
The Falcon Toy Company (FTC) MP5SD3 is a good example of why gas guns aren't the main choice of most Airsoft gunners these days. I was so nonplussed by this product that I didn't bother testing it thoroughly. It was so inconvenient to use that it sat in a gun rack most of the time simply attracting curious looks, rather than being used out in a field somewhere to put down the OpFor. And then I sold it so I could buy a real Airsoft gun. Luckily I found a collector who is interested in such things...
Appearance
The appearance wasn't too bad. The finish of the plastic was well done, and the handguard over the suppressor unit was made from nice corrugated rubber stock, much like the real thing. However, the trigger looked ridiculous. It was just wrong. It was about as wide as the thickness of a dime and just a little bigger from front to back. The entire weapon was about 10% smaller than it should have been, making it truly feel like a toy. The trigger guard was so flimsy that I broke it off several times during casual handling. Super glue never fixed that problem. The sights stuck up way too high for my liking. It may have been a little easier to get a sight picture, but it wasn't realistic, and it looked goofy. The worst part of all is that it required an external gas cannister to be attached via a long, cheap black vinyl hose. Not very tactical at all.
Function
Well, the magazine was easy enough to load since there were no springs. You basically just poured BBs right into it. It used air from the external tank to force the BBs up into the chamber. The gun worked fine on semi-auto, but when the selector switch was set to "F" for full auto, it fired one, maybe two BBs if you were lucky and then leaked gas as long as you held the trigger down. Basically it was an inefficient semi-auto mode. The one nice functional aspect was the collapsible stock, which seemed sturdier than even the modern Tokyo Marui's...
Accuracy
I did not document the accuracy, but as I recall it was simply average. About the same as an average Tokyo Marui spring-powered handgun, which isn't saying a lot for a long gun. The FTC MP5SD3 had no hop up, and the sights weren't adjustable as I recall.
Overall Impressions
I originally paid around $300 for this... thing, and I was lucky enough to find a collector who was willing to give darn near that when I went to sell it. If you find one of these, unless you're a collector, don't pay over $100 for it if it's in working condition. If you spend any more, you might as well get a modern gas blowback pistol (any number of KSCs come to mind), and it'll be more reliable, more accurate, more realistic, and more tactically useful.