[Azathoth]

ICS is a solid brand, the early canada edition guns were awful, now that Canada gets the same guns as everywhere else it's much better. Proprietary hopup for some models and external is annoying. As a Gun tech I can bash the split gearbox with tappet plate as being really silly but for a newbie to maintain the gun it's a big step in the correct direction.

M4 budget, buy used from a reputable person on classifieds, you can save 50% plus on the entire gaming package, gun, mags, batteries, rig etc

EDIT:
Agree with Frank, G&P is the rice tuner AEG, arguable it's the Honda Civic of the airsoft world, built to the original TM spec, compatible with basically every aftermarket part internal/external. It's easy to re-thread receivers etc.

VFC depending on the model and series anywhere from slightly worse to slightly better than G&P external, internally better out of the box.