Threads like this reinforce my belief that however nice many of these things made as airguns by airsoft manfacturers appear, they are not to be trusted. I just hear too many problems.

I guess the business model is you make them really cheap, sell in bulk, and factor in the warranty claims when they break.

Even the traditional Umarex replicas (5/686, CP88, 99, 225, 1911, 92...) have similar problems of questionable design and Zamak construction, although they are marketed as high-end, German quality, full metal etc products. In their slight defence, at least you or your friendly local gun doctor can get spare parts, unlike a lot of the others. My friendly local gun doctor has had to fix a few of mine.

My first CO2 multi-shot replicas ages ago were a Crosman 357 and a Daisy 693 (S&W 59 9mm pistol copy). They were very cheap, mostly plastic, did not have blowback, did not load or function in a realistic manner, and had moulded fake controls. And had horrid triggers, and really poor (Daisy) or average (Cros) sights. If you held them, you could not mistake them for the real deal. But they did not break.

I'm afraid that if a newbie asked me what to buy in this area, I'd tell him/her to buy (a) a really cheap non-blowback BB thing like the Crosman C11 or Umarex TDP, or (b) a Makarov. Or forget it and buy a "proper" traditional air pistol.