I've heard from decent to needs work. Not as bad a early WE pistols, but still there's a chance he could get a lemon. Admittedly, I've no experience with thier Thompson, but I'd see if he could get either a King Arms or a Tokyo Marui Thompson. I've used/had both and never had an issue with either (other than a pinion gear failure on the TM, but then that was a used one...)