Review: Nerf Spectre rv-5

First post in a while, still on Nerf. Today, it's the Spectre rv-5 to go under review. At first impressions, it looks like a stealthy blaster, which as it turns out is the strong point of this blaster, but i'll get to that. The price is in line with similar blasters from the Nerf range, around $30 Australian gets you the blaster, a short, silencer style barrel, a folding stock and 5 whistler darts.

Spectre rv-5 unboxed

 The "silencer" barrel doesn't actually do anything, however the large inner diameter and short length means that it doesn't slow darts down as much when they travel through, and in turn yields slightly longer ranges which is a plus for me. Other barrels can be put on the front however anything other that the original barrel or the longstrike barrel cause much less than average performance. Having a folding stock on this blaster is a really cool idea I think, and it works by pulling it back, swinging it around and then pushing it back into the locking slot. This really cuts down on the length and makes it very agile. However, i find it to be a little long and uncomfortable, so i may eventually mod it to be shorter.

Stock folded

My personal favourite setup

the blaster itself is very slimline, has a 5 dart rotating barrel and is primed by the cocking slide at the top. Doing so also rotates the barrel, though i found it sometimes rotates slightly too far, and the dart being fired clips the barrel opening and slows it down. Reloading is a bit of a pain, the button on the side lets the rotating barrel swing out and allows darts to be loaded manually. The blaster features a hook at the bottom of the handle and a tactical rail in front of the cocking handle. Having a scope on this rail looks great, but gets in the way of the cocking handle a bit. Performance is average, probably due to the not so great maverick style plunger system inside. Though, the benefit of this is that shots are pretty quiet, making it's image as a stealth blaster just that little bit better.

Stripped down

Modding this blaster is very limited, involves removal of air restrictors, and only gains you about 5 or 10 feet (2.5 metres) so i probably wouldn't bother. it's probably possible to stick a tactical rail to the bottom under the barrels, but this is not a mod that i have attempted yet.

Overall, performance is mediocre, but good looks, innovation, and it's "stealthyness" save this blaster from being a waste. A good buy for something to sneak around with to take out people on thier own in a Nerf war, but I wouldn't expect to hold my own if i didn't have the total element of surprise or were out numbered. 7/10