The Rapidstrike is the latest release in the N-Strike Elite range and is this year's flagship for that range. It is a fully automatic flywheel blaster, probably targeting the replacement of the Stampede, which was Nerf's massive release a few years ago being the first fully automatic n-strike mag fed blaster. To me, yes it does replace the beloved stampede but it is a different blaster altogether rather than a revamp.
Cool, so what's it got? This is a very well designed and well made blaster. It's the little things that make the Rapidstrike stand out completely. Around the grip area is designed to be functional and easy to use. There is the usual acceleration trigger as with all flywheel blasters these days, and directly forward is an ambidextrous mag release, allowing fast mag changes (which, as you'll find out later, will be used a lot!). At the base of the grip is a sling loop as well. The stock is retractable with a lever release on the rear of the stock. Also featured is an orange-clear jam door to let you quickly see what is going on in the case of jam or misfire. The rapidstrike also comes with a clear 18-dart magazine. The front of the magwell has an angled grip for those that prefer that style of grip over a foregrip. Nerf has also been generous with Tactical rails too, one top handle rail, a top rail on the barrel as well, a rail on the left and right side of the barrel and an underbarrel rail as well. finally, it has a built in sight through the top handle with a front flip up sight and a barrel adapter. Just kidding, there's more. Two more sling loops are available to use on the rear of the top handle, and an integrated sling loop at the front of the barrel. Have I missed anything? Everything functions perfectly on this blaster, it's very solid feeling, and the stock sliding action is smooth. Pulling the trigger is much lighter than a semi automatic flywheel but still retains a certain amount of feel. When it fires, the internal dart pushing mechanism is smooth and never misses a beat. In terms of loadouts on this blaster, I highly recommend large capacity magazines or drums, and also having a method of carrying spare magazines or perhaps using 18 dart mags taped together. If you prefer a foregrip, the Retaliator's foregrip goes nicely for moving around but you can't go past the stampede grip for bunkering down and defending. The only thing that bothers me about the aesthetics of this blaster, is why they chose to paint an orange stripe on it instead of a white one like the rest of the line, and why there is STILL NO TOP RAIL ACCESSORY IN THE ELITE RANGE?!? Seriously, just release the damn elite pinpoint sight to everyone, Nerf.
Performance is where it shows that it is a different kind of blaster to what the Stampede was. While the stampede once modified could steadily chug out darts with decent range and relatively good accuracy, The Rapidstrike is evidently geared more towards maximising dart output in exchange for accuracy, especially after performing some basic voltage mods. It will empty an 18 dart magazine before you can even think about how many mags you have spare, but will not be a blaster to pick people off one dart at a time as it's spread is about as accurate as hip firing a slamfire blaster. However, this means that using short bursts of 3-4 darts is extremely effective for suppressing and area denial. Combine that with it's short length and light weight and it is also fantastic for rushing and attacking. No one in their right mind is going to try to attack a maniac with a Rapidstrike without being able to do so from as far away as possible. It's also very reliable. I have heard some reports of constant jamming, however the only times I encountered a jam was when I was using seriously mangled darts, and even then it would still manage to get them out the barrel most of the time. Other times consisted of a misfire, pulling the magazine out and the culprit dart just falling out, and putting the magazine back in and firing again straight away. Pulling the trigger is satisfying and the first time I emptied the magazine (about 30 seconds after I got it out of the box) I was left with a huge grin and started formulating plan on how to ambush the next person to step foot in my house.
Modifications are where this blaster can get pretty complex. Inside is a huge tangle of wires, circuit boards, switches, resistors and 3 motors. From what I can tell, the dart pusher operates on a form of logic gate to ensure it returns to it's retracted position. It seems the curcuit has an input from the trigger and also a switch under the pusher, which is released when the pusher returns. So for it to fire, the trigger must be depressed, for it to stop firing, the trigger must be released and the pusher must return back to release the pusher switch, in turn cutting the voltage to the pusher motor unless the trigger is still depressed. Furthermore, there is a thermistor on the trigger curcuit, and two resistors for each motor including the pusher motor. Once you've got your head around that, you can rewire the internals and load up the voltage and even go as far as replacing the motors and setting up individual power sources for the pusher and flywheel motors. This should net you something similar to what the mad scientists at Brisbane Nerf Group have come up with:
In all, this is one of the very best Nerf blasters I've owned. It's well designed, functions great, performs really well and is intimidating to come up against. I used my modified Rapidstrike for about 90% of the time at the 4th anniversary BNG war, and only stopped because I had no spare batteries. I absolutely love this thing. I definitely recommend this blaster over the Centurion. Since the orange stripe really comes down to a matter of opinion, I'll give this blaster the highest rating I've given any blaster on this blog, and that is a 10/10. I really can't properly fault this blaster on anything at all.
Well there is one fault I absolutely hate even though I use flywheel blasters as a primary... there is no STEALTH!
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