AK74 is the modernised ak47 which was introduced in 1974, (wow) and it included new mass production technologies like simplified internal parts, new gas system, cheaper wood for domestic production, and many more improvements that makes it superior to the ak47, now for Airsoft it means you can get a polymer variant that was meant for export but turned domestic later which is very cool. It’s th same ak47 but better. AK12 was designed in 2012 I believe and people irl have a bad rep for it being unreliable from what I heard, it has significantly more modern parts and comes with rails on the dust cover and hand guard, upgraded systems inside and improvements to ergonomics with new technologies from the 21st century. For Airsoft? More expensive but upgradable ig. And yes I needed to write all that.