Photo spam requests!

So I have been receiving a couple of requests for photos of a particular blaster with different accessories, and rather than just post a single photo, I'd like to get some requests from everyone. So if you have a particular blaster that you want to see in a certain setup, request it here, and if I have everything, I'll take some shots and post them in a separate post next week. Think creative and don't hesitate for multiple requests!

Mega Review: Centurion and Magnus

If you've followed the Nerf Mega line since it's birth a few months ago you'll have found some pretty mxed reviews of both the Centurion and Magnus blasters. Frankly, I found it hard to find an honest review out there, as all I could find was reviews where the reviewer had quite obviously been given a care package from hasbro to sweeten them up, or reviews that were the exact opposite because they were overshadowed by the reviewer's emotion. So, I had to drop the cash on both the Centurion and the Magnus.

First out was the Centurion, apparently the successor to the ever popular Nerf Longshot. It's an absolutely massive blaster. It definitely fits the image of a powerful anti-material rifle, and it feels really empowering to hold. Features on the blaster are pretty minimal though, it has a couple of sling loops and a top tactical rail towards the back half of the blaster, a rail under the barrel which supports the foldable bipod that comes with the blaster. I guess there isn't much more you'd want with this blaster anyway, a funtional scope wouldn't go astray though. Unfortunately, the barrel isn't removable unless you mod it first by removing the locks.  It also comes with a 6-dart angled bottom magazine, which cannot yet be bought seperately.

So what's the main difference between this successor and the Longshot? The ammo. The Centurion fires a huge whistler dart, 20x92mm to be exact, much larger than the standard 12.5x72.5 elite dart. The massive dart carries a lot of energy compared to elite darts but doesn't sting like an elite due to the larger surface area on impact. The wall thickness of the foam is not much thicker than an elite dart's however, which does lead to faster deterioration, not very handy when these darts are hard to come by, and only come in packs of 10. Many people shun this type of new ammo, but personally I think some nerfers can be a stubborn bunch who are hard to convince. Mega darts are a type of specialized ammo for a specialized class of player.

Right, so how does it perform? Out of the box it isn't bad, it does out range other blasters by a small amount, but in't what you expect. There is a satisfying 2-stage KA-CHUNK firing sound and notable recoil. The reason for this, the internals. When you first open up this blaster, you think "oh god, what the hell is this?". The priming mechanism is very different from anything else. Pulling back the bolt handle operates a gear system which pushes the bolt forward, loading the dart and preloading the spring, as the plunger is already locked up. pushing the bolt handle forward unlocks all the safety mechanisms, making the blaster ready to fire. Pulling the trigger releases the plunger, which upon finishing it's travel unlocks the bolt from the closed position by pushing the latch up, and then the whole assembly slides back thanks to a return spring, and the plunger is locked up on the trigger again. The system is a pretty cool way of making the blaster feel like it has recoil and gives it a really cool firing sound, but unfortunately the plunger setup is a reverse plunger configuration. this means tons of dead space, limited plunger volume and poor efficiency overall. This is where most people's gripes are, and although I do see their side, I do like to remind people that a few years ago a large portion of Nerf's line-up were reverse plungered and didn't fire more than 30 feet out of the box, and the whole bolt return mechanism wouldn't work with a direct plunger, so I think we have to cut the designers a little slack, 70 to 80 feet isn't that bad. And of course, if you want extreme ranges, you're better of replacing the internals, regardless of the blaster, and the Centurion offers A LOT of room for a full internals replacement, probably enough to house a cleverly laid out air blaster system.

Ok, onto the Magnus. This pistol is pretty huge too, and just like the Centurion, it feels empowering to hold. It's definitely the Desert Eagle of the Nerf world. Again, it is minimalistic. It features an underbarrel tactical rail, and iron sights on top. In a nice touch of innovation it features something almost no dart pistol has: an internal magazine. Yep, pull the top slide back, load up 3 darts and you can rock and roll. This keeps the overall look very clean, and functional too.

Again, it fires the new Mega darts. And with huge punch for a multi-shot pistol, too. 85 feet out of the box is a range claim that stands up, and combined with the extra kinetic energy of the Mega darts, it feels like a hand held cannon when firing it. Accuracy out of the Magnus is also decent, and the ability to fire two more follow up shots seals the deal for me as a favourite pistol. Better yet? unlike it's much larger counterpart, it's a direct plunger system, and modding for more power is as simple as adding a nitefinder spring in combination with the stock spring.

Since performing this mod on my Magnus, I have not yet put it aside. It's a fun blaster that is satisfying to fire, and performs quite well. For under $20 AU it's well worth adding to the collection, especially if you're looking for a unique pistol. As for the Centurion, I wouldn't recommend picking on up at the going rate of $70+ right now, unless you're willing to drop some decent money, time and effort to replace the internals. It is definitely a great candidate for this treatment, the vast amount of space inside the shell and striking looks outside allow for a keen modder's imagination to really get cranking. I have my plans, but time isn't really on my side just now.

I don't know why it's so red in this photo, blogger does this to me sometimes.

Final note: This is what I deal with taking photos at night. A brush tail possum decided to see what was going on. These guys aren't quite as friendly as ring tail possums, so I had to pack up and head inside before it got cranky with my flash.

Don't try to feed brush tail possums apples. Trust me.

Massive year of Nerf ahead?

2013 was a good year for Nerf. Foam sports continued to grow, more and more people got involved in local clubs and Nerf war events and Nerf released a ton of cool new gear including the epic Rapidstrike CS-18 and the Elite Mega line. Albeit, the Centurion sucks, but from what I'm told the Magnus is pretty good. So 2014 should be one of those quieter years, right? NOPE. It's only January, and rumor mills and talks of prototypes are already going mental.

First off, here's the biggest thing so far, which has filled up my news feed: The Demolisher.

Look at that thing. It's a beast. It's a semi auto assault rifle style blaster with a freakin' GRENADE LAUNCHER. Good job, about time. The stock holds another grenade and is removable, there's a barrel adapter, a tactical rail on each side, the top, and under the barrel. Wait, what? That means the 'nade launcher is removable too? Yep. You certainly can shove that grenade launcher on your heavily modded and over-volted 750rpm rapidstrike, just so that you can now be even more unstoppable. The Demolisher looks really awesome without the grenade launcher too.

It even looks mean without being able to shoot grenades.

This is apparently the first new blaster of the new Elite range, which features 100ft ranges and "smart" internals with magazines that use a "smart" spring system. I have now idea what all this "smart" means, but it seems to have something to do with reliability of feeding darts and obviously more range. For the flywheel fans, there is also a new flywheel system to reach these ranges and improve on the high rate of jams and misfires too.

But that's not all, according to My Last Dart, there will also be 3 new laser sights to match this new revamped Elite range, and 1 more each for zombiestrike, vortex and dart-tag (what?). I'd say these will be sold seperately, along with banana mag packs similar to the Retaliator double 18 mag pack doing the rounds here in Big W at the moment. So, there we have it, The whole Elite line being reworked, "smart" internals and magazines, laser sights, grenade launchers, longer ranges and banana mags? looks like a pretty hge year for fans of Nerf coming up!

Setups: Elite Alpha Trooper

It's been a while since I've posted, and even longer since I did a "setups" post. If you missed the first two, they were the Gear up Recon and the Elite Rampage. So let's dive in to setting up the remake of one of Nerf's most popular blasters, shall we?

Right, first up, the Alpha Trooper is pretty minimalistic in it's stock form, so obviously you can't load the hell out of this thing. There's other blasters for that. The Elite Alpha Trooper's strength is it's slamfire capability and it's compact size. You want to only add to the blaster in areas that will aid you and nothing else, otherwise you'll end up losing the compact size advantages. So bandoliers are out, as you'll want to be on the move all the time anyway. To combat the dart consumption of slamfire and lack or mags available to you, I suggest some "tactical tape". A pair of 12rd mags taped together gives you 24 dart capacity and easy reloading, as well as the option to pick up darts as you go and put them in the bottom mag. This means you don't need a tactical vest or bandolier and this frees you up to move quicker.

Accuracy is also another sore point of Slamfire blasters, so to help remedy this try a sturdy stock, like lightning storm's stock, and a single attachment point sight like a red dot sight, or if you've scoured the earth to almost no end to obtain, an elite pinpoint sight (Thank you Dninja!). Zoom sights are bit pointless on a blaster where you'll be doing most of your engaging at less than 60 feet, so really, any non-zoom sight that can utilise just the single rail will help you lock on to your target in combination with a decent stock.

Internally, go for reliability and ease of prime. An OMW 5kg spring will be just fine in this blaster with locks removed. you could probably go crazy and do a brass breech, but I'm not sure how effective this would be Vs. the gain.

With this setup, you can easily go for capture points in games of capture the flag or similar, since you'll be able to move quicker than anyone else without anything weighing you down, and you have the option of laying out a fair amount of darts in short slamfire bursts, but prolonged situations are probably something to avoid when possible

Firing video: Remedy Metal Longshot

A few of my friends keep asking me to show them a video of my Remedy Metal Longshot, featured in this post so they can see the power of this thing. Well, recently I picked up a handy little mountable camera, so I decided to go ahead and make a firing demo video. I don't do videos often but I might have anothr in the works soon, depending on the free time I have available. Anyway, enjoy!

Nerf "Elite" Reflex review

One of the old mini N-strike blasters that carried over into the new elite colour scheme is the Nerf Reflex,and these have recently popped up here in target stores in Australia, so I thought I'd pick one up and give it a shot.

At $8, this unit sits at the same price point as the Nerf Triad. They essentially fill similar roles, but the Triad and Reflex have a few different features from each other. First off, the Reflex is kind of like a really small and simple recon pistol. It features a top tactical rail and slide cocking mechanism, striking blue, white and orange colour scheme and sling loop on the handle. Unfortunately, the handle is very small. I couldn't find a way to hold this blaster comfortably. It's also only a single shot blaster with no extra dart storage, but is packaged with 3 elite darts. It does look rad in elite colours, and it's size is perfect to carry around in your pocket. But then again, a Triad or Jolt also fits in your pocket...

Designed for people with 2 fingers and a thumb.

Performance of this blaster was something that really disappointed me. There has been no change to the internals when carried over to the elite range from the original N-strike line. So it still barely fires a dart more than 25 feet, and is unreliable. I found I had to squash the dart in to the barrel a little to make sure it fired properly The reason for this is that the reverse plunger system inside is actually tiny. At first it looks like a sizable reverse plunger system, then you look at where the catch is and figure out that if that's the length of the draw, then the actual plunger tube is only half of what you see. The back half is only to guide the spring and to function as a priming indicator out the back of the blaster. Needless to say, modifying this unit is a waste of time. For the sake of trialing the theory, I removed the air restrictor and improved the seal on mine. I didn't get any extra range, but I was able to fire any Nerf dart.

See that plunger tube? only half of that is actually plunger tube.

Overall, the elite Reflex is still a Reflex, just with new colours. Since the Reflex's first release, a number of other small blasters have hit the scene which really out do this Blaster in every way, like the Firestrike of Triad. I would avoid this blaster unless you're like me and are collecting the entire blue elite range.

Spudfiles gets a facelift!

Long running potato cannon forum Spudfiles has recieved a major overhaul and now includes a Nerf showcase, and discussion section. I was lucky enough to kick off the Nerf showcase with the Remedy Metal Longshot #2.

Spudfiles was my first port of call while I was learning to build potato cannons and is probably the richest source of information on available for that type of thing. The community there is supportive of progress and a few individuals are constantly pushing the envelope for what can be done to shoot various projectiles using air or combustion power (or in the case of mad scientists, both). Safety is also strong message pushed by spudfiles community which is really great, senior forum members often steer less clued-up users in the right direction so that everyone can enjoy spudding without any worries.

If you're in to potato cannons, air guns, or Nerf basters, do check out the newly refreshed Spudfiles and join the community. I have been a part of the forum since before I even touched a Nerf gun, and I think it will be interesting seeing the hardcore spudders' input in to the Nerf sections, perhaps we will see some direction of progression that no one has ever tried before?

Edit: Posting this at 2am? Yes, that is correct. I finished work an hour ago. This is one of the reasons why I don't post regularly.

Nerf Rapidstrike review

Nerf's releases lately have been pretty average in my opinion, incredibly poor reviews of the Nerf Centurion and lackluster Zombiestrike range have put me off buying the Rapidstrike for some time for fear of disappointment, but I picked up one from Target for $69 (full price). Luckily with that price, I was still far from disappointed with this blaster.

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.

Remedy Metal Longshot #2

In the last post I did say that this post would be about ignition systems for combustion powered potato cannons, but, I had to scrap that after killing my ignition system. Sometimes the modder in me takes it too far, and things backfire. Making a 12v multi-spark taser out of a 1.5v bbq ignitor was awesome... until it burned out... Oh well, lesson learned. So instead this post will cover my most recent Nerf Longshot build.

Previously, I had been working with a longshot that I'd owned for 3 or 4 years and it has it's fair share of posts here, here and here, but I recently aquired a mint Longshot, never opened up, completely stock. A rarity. I tossed back and forth whether I should just leave it alone as a collector item, but what's the fun in having a cake and only looking at it? It became the frame for a my new Longshot.

Here it is. The paintwork was inspired by a few of Brian Johnson's creations over at Johnson arms, and was my first attempt at masking. Let me tell you, there is a hell of a lot more work that goes in to a 2-tone masking paint job than you think. Ever wondered why a decent paint commissioner charges a lot of money? to do it well takes a ton of time, patience and money. I wouldn't call this a spectacular paint job on mine, but it'll be fine considering it will be used in wars and knocked around anyway.

Internally, there's the full Remedy Metal Power Train kit, and I kept the priming indicator also. The stock and some areas under the trigger bar is reinforced, and the trigger is reinforced with a bicycle spoke on each side of the pusher rod. In future I may upgrade the trigger to an Xplorer version. The spring load consists of a stock longshot spring, 6kg recon spring and 11.5kg cut and closed K26 spring, totalling 20kg all up.

Externally, there's Slydev V.2 Iron Sights and Xplorer shotgun style priming handle, allowing a good combo of rapid fire and accuracy. I prefer 12 dart mags in this as it is a good balance between capacity and free space around the blaster.

The power I get out of this is insane, I still haven't range tested but it's a safe 50m+ with an angle, or 25m+ flat with very little drop. Accuracy beyond the 25m mark starts to get a little bit hazy, but this may be the result of an inner barrel that is too short or darts that are not heavy enough.

Future mods might include a switch to a picatinny rail on top and a pair on the side of the barrel so that I can mount a scope and a laser module, increasing the ease of aiming. I don't think I will increase the spring load any further as it will start to seriously reduce the rate of priming the blaster. Enjoy, comment, leave some ideas!

Nerf Elite Triad and Jolt review

Battle of the mini side arms: Elite edition? Today I've got the elite Jolt and Triad for review, both have very similar styling and operation, and both pack a punch in a tiny package. What do I think of them? Well I'll start with the Triad.

When I first saw pictures of the Triad, I thought it looked like some kind of franken-jolt. In person, it's larger than I had anticipated, and not nearly as ugly as I first thought. The ergonomics are a bit off though, it is definitely not the most comfortable blaster I've held. There are many edges that jut out  in to your hand, the main one being the base of the plunger tube where the screw port is. I feel like this could have been avoided if that area was smoothed out some more.

The function of this blaster definitely makes up for the poor ergonomics however. The Triad features 3 barrels, which cleverly utilise the air restrictor system to fire one dart at a time, and block off air flow to barrels that don't have a dart loaded. This means you can stick a dart in any barrel and it will fire with full power first time no matter what. So, unlike other barrel loaded blasters, you do not have to load another dart for each shot or twist a turret or barrel selector, you just cock the blaster via the rod at the base of the handle, pull the trigger and repeat for the next 2 shots. Drilling out the air restrictors would make it a pocket shotgun, making all 3 darts fire at once with reduced power.

Ranges aren't bad, considering this is a grey trigger model, it still makes 50-60 feet with elite darts, but the accuracy seems to be a little lacking when compared to the Jolt or Firestrike for some reason. Still, the Triad makes a great side arm based on range and refire rate. if it were coming up against any other barrel loaded blaster, it would stand a good chance.

On to the Elite Jolt. I'm not really sure you could actually call it an elite Jolt, to be honest. compared to the original Jolt there has only been cosmetic changes, most notably the colours, and a barrel tip. The elite jolt I have hits the exact same ranges as the original and functions no differently. I would have liked to see a dart holder or something, but I guess that defeats the purpose of being the most minimalistic blaster in the range.

But, the colours are really nice and there has been no price change. True to the Nerf Elite styling, the blaster is mainly blue, with a white stripe and grey and orange accents. What I found strange was that the Nerf logo on one side of mine was painted black, but not on the other side.

To answer something I always wondered, yes, the Triad's plunger tube is indeed bigger. This means that turning it in to a single barrel blaster would make it a kind of "super jolt", although I'm not sure anyone has attempted this yet.

Although Nerf does not make any accessories for either of these blasters, Slydev does. These include dart holders and rail connectors. Holsters for these are also available from various third parties from what I'm told, I'll update when I find these.

Review: Nerf Elite Alpha Trooper

Arguably one of the most popular N-Strike series blaster to date has been the Alpha Trooper CS-18, anyone with a decent collection will tell you they have one or several of them kicking around. It hit shelves with a brand new 18 dart drum mag, touted slam-fire with shotgun style pump action grip and great looks. I was a little disappointed when Nerf released the Elite line without a variant of the Alpha Trooper in the line-up, but fast forward a few months and rumors began to surface of an Elite Alpha Trooper CS-12. Crisis averted!

The Alpha Trooper CS-12 is the Elite variant of the N-Strike Alpha Trooper, complete with Elite style blue and white colouration. Not much has changed on this blaster really, the only differences externally being the colour and the inclusion of a 12 dart straight mag instead of an 18 dart drum. The quality of the build is, as per usual from Nerf, a great standard. I am a little disappointed that nothing changed on the shell design though, a more comfortable priming grip or iron sights or even some rails would really compliment this blaster. I'd even go so far as to say Nerf could have added a unique stock and sold this blaster at a higher price, and they'd sell even more. But, I guess the original Alpha Trooper was really a minimalistic Raider, which caught the appeal of those who didn't like the size or fancy bits of the Raider.

Even though the Elite Alpha Trooper only features a top rail and a stock adapter as the platform for customisation, it does still look pretty good with some parts on. I like using the Stockade stock, and a Max Force Shadow Hawk scope looks cool when trimmed to fit. HINT HINT NERF SOME ELITE TOP RAIL ACCESSORIES ON YOUR BLASTERS WOULD BE GREAT. Is that too subtle?

Performance? well, this is an Australian grey trigger version, so performance is pretty pathetic, but fear not, since the rest of the world gets a decent spring in theirs, I decided to swap in a US Rampage spring to negate the detuning. Performance with a US spring is more impressive, 75 feet with an angle is on par with the rest of the Elites blasters. The slamfire is smooth and fast, but burns through darts quickly so the 12 dart mag does not last long. Internally, this blaster uses the same format as the Retaliator, except with slam-fire parts in the mix. I wouldn't mind seeing a brass breeched Elite Alpha Trooper in action, since the barrel seems to be a good length to deliver some great power. But even without complex mods, some decent power can be achieved with a few of mods like spring swap, AR removal and plunger head dead space filling.

Overall, it' great to see the original Alpha Trooper get the Elite treatment and gain the same performance increases as the Rampage and Retaliator, but I still think some add on parts out of the box would be a nice and welcome addition to an already decent blaster. But don't let that stop you from picking up this great unit. I picked mine up for a mere $14.50AU, which is ridiculously good value.  -Rolley

Review: Nerf Strongarm and Firestrike

Side arms aren't normally my thing, other than for designated pistol rounds at wars, or for shooting random stuff around my house when boredom kicks in, But I still collect them nonetheless. This week I have a Nerf Strongarm and Firestrike, both falling under the N-Strike Elite banner. These are both locally bought grey trigger versions.

Let's start with the Strongarm. Looking at the Strongarm, you can instantly see that it draws it's inspiration straight from the Maverick. I never really liked the Maverick that much, it's small and weak reverse plunger firing mechanism, design flaws and lack of modability made me move on to other blasters pretty quickly. But the Strongarm is very different and addresses the gripes some people had with the Maverick.

Aesthetically, It looks like a refined Maverick, of course. The top rail has been moved from the priming slide to above the turret, where adding accessories won't impede on priming the blaster. The small barrel opening has been widened, and the right side has a cut away in front of the turret so that jams can be cleared more easily. The turret now pops most of the way out and can be spun easily while it's popped out, and can be rotated manually one by one when loaded in the blaster, this is something that used to require a mod known as the "roulette" mod on the Maverick. The sling loop on the slide has been made bigger and the hand grip now features one as well, along with a small extension for people with bigger hands.

Performance is where this blaster shines as a six-shooter. even though it's a grey trigger version, ranges are still hitting 50+ feet with what feels like a very light spring load. Like the rest of the Elite line, Nerf have opted  for a small direct plunger system, giving it much more potential than similar sized reverse plungers. The air seal against the back of the turret is good, with a foam pad pressing against the turret as it fires. What really has been a fantastic improvement over the Maverick is the inclusion of a slamfire feature, allowing you to fire off all 6 darts in very quick succession. Elite ranges, mod potential and slamfire capability would allow the Strongarm to be used as a decent back up in tough situations, particularly if you really just need to buy yourself a few more seconds to reload your main blaster. That's the whole role of a sidearm, right?

Orange Mod Works already have a pre-order for a performance upgrade kit to suit the Strongarm, which also provides 20% discount for their future "external mod kit" (I have no idea what this would entail). So at under $15AUD, This blaster is a great addition to any nerfer who liked the Maverick or likes a manually primed sidearm, but I would not discourage anyone else from buying one either.

Right, now the Firestrike. This too obviously takes it's cues from an older N-Strike model, the Nitefinder. It always had a tough task bettering the already well rounded Nitefinder. On the outside, the layout has changed and overall the Firestrike has become a more compact unit. The light and dart holders from the Nitfinder are features that have been retained in the Firestrike but have been condensed and more form a part of the blaster rather than looking like add ons. The activation for the light is now a standalone mini trigger below the main trigger and can be operated independantly from the firing mechanism totally. The hand grip has been shortened and is less wide due to the move to AAA batteries powering the light. Priming and loading are still manual actions much like the Nitefinder. It is a very good looking little pistol that could be holstered easily, but it is a bit small for my hand size.

What is disappointing about this blaster, however, is the performance. I know this is a grey trigger version, but I still expected similar power to the grey trigger Strongarm. This is not what I got. The spring load is very light, and ranges I'm getting out of this are even inferior to the Nitefinder. I would say that I only got 30 feet maximum from the stock blaster, not something I would put under the "elite" banner. Upon opening up the blaster, I found out why. Comparing it to the Nitefinder, the draw is shorter, the plunger tube is slightly smaller, the barrel has an air release hole, the plunger head has a fair amount of dead space and the spring is pretty weak. Of course, there is an air restrictor as well. It's obvious that all these things will add up to reduced performance but I do feel the move to a shorter and smaller diameter plunger tube is something that will not allow this blaster to exceed it's previous counterpart in performance.

Overall, the Firestrike is a fantastic looking blaster, but at the same price as a Nitefinder, I would only recommend the Firestrike over the Nitefinder if there was a requirement for something that can be holstered, or if you can't find a Nitefinder. It's disappointing that a once sought after blaster has an elite counterpart that is 2 steps foreward on the outside and 1 step backwards internally. Anyway, that wraps up this review, hope you enjoyed.

Remedy Metal Power Train kit: First impressions

The Nerf Longshot, for almost 8 years now has been the ultimate blaster for modders wanting huge power from a CS blaster, due to it's large plunger tube and fairly rugged "battle rifle" good looks. It's popularity among modders is pretty hard to miss, there's literally hundreds of different mods, from integration mods, to power mods, lighting, steampunk and paintworks are hard to miss, and in recent times, as modders start to push the boundaries of power, reinforcements have been popular. Everything from epoxy putty reinforcing, steel plates on the boltsled, and brass breech systems, to plunger tubes made from metal and spring plate supports. All these things have allowed higher and higher spring loads (16+kg seemed to be the norm for a while) but eventually, something usually broke or at the very least there was a huge amount of uncertainty about whether your Longshot would last another war. I myself have broken 2 boltsleds, 2 bolts, 2 back plates, and a plunger over a few years.

Let me show you, what I think, is the ultimate in power and reliability for a spring powered Longshot:

Forgot to take a photo of the kit before it's assembled - pic from Remedy Metal

This is the Remedy Metal Power Train full mod kit for the Nerf Longshot. It's a full stainless steel replacement kit which does away with the standard plunger, catch, plunger tube, back plate, bolt, bolt sled and breech system from the Longshot and replaces it with all stainless steel and delrin goodies.

Full kit installed

The plunger is all stainless, with a bigger o-ring and the screw holding it together has been moved from the plunger head to inside the catch tail, taking a weak point away from the impact area. The back plate and catch have also been redesigned and made from stainless steel, with a delrin support for the catch and an upgraded catch spring. There is also a k-26 main spring upgrade included with the kit. the plunger tube is also stainless steel and includes a vacuum hole in the design to stop it trying to suck darts in to the bolt. The bolt is also precision cut stainless steel and is a 2-part assembly with the front end sealing head (opposite plunger, as I've also heard it called) attached with a snap ring on either side (tool included for that!). The bolt is supported by a full stainless steel bolt sled and feeds in to a delrin coupler as the sealed breech, which also does away with the need for a dart tooth. At the end of the coupler is the precision cut stainless steel barrel which nests inside the existing plastic barrel, allowing it to be painted. The whole kit installed looks very nice and probably leads many people to remove their jam door to show it off.

Reinforced trigger

So it looks stunning, but how does it perform? Well, since I don't have a spare Longshot to build up, I used my old longshot that I wrote about a while ago as the test bed. I started off with just the k-26 spring as my load, but quickly realised that the stock trigger wouldn't handle pushing the catch under such load. I decided to reinforce the trigger with a pair of 14g bicycle spokes cut down to fit the groove in each side of the trigger, and filling the gap directly below the trigger tail with hot glue to support it. The first shot I fired from the assembled blaster impressed me, a lot! modified darts were already puncturing cardboard.

The spring load I'm using - 20kg. Green felt used for padding.

But I couldn't stop there, right? I had no hesitations about upping the ante with the spring load. The blaster now feels so solid and reliable, and really, there's nothing that can break in this kit with a mere k-26. So I loaded in 2 more springs, a 6kg Recon spring which fits nicely over the top of the k-26, and coils in the opposite direction, and then the original longshot spring over that, which coils back the same way as the k-26, so there was no worries about springs getting tangled when primed. All up this is about 20kg. funnily enough, I had answered a question on the Oznerf forum a week ago about 20kg in a longshot, warning that it'd be a pretty tough prime. Well, it is a pretty stiff prime and does slow down rate of fire, even with the Xplorer priming grip. But, to no surprise, the Remedy Metal kit takes it with ease. Firing this blaster is incredible. I do not have any other blaster in my load out that comes close to half the power of this thing, and thinking back to brass breeched Longshots I've seen, it'll probably out range those too.

So the verdict? Well, this isn't a final verdict. This is my first impressions after a week of messing around with it in my longshot. There's still battle testing and range testing to come. But for now, this kit is a stunning piece of Nerfing genius. It is worth every penny I paid for it and then some. The attention to detail, overall quality, reliability and power produced is nothing short of mind blowing. I have no doubt that this is a fantastic step in the right direction for aftermarket foam dart blaster parts. Look out for future posts on this kit, I hope to do a full build video using the Remedy Metal kit, if I can source an in-box Longshot from somewhere.

If you are interested in this kit, visit the Remedy Metal facebook page for updates, or http://www.remedymetal.com/ to order a the full kit or other parts.

Nerf Rapidstrike - with internals!

So everyone is raving about the Nerf Rapidstrike photos that have been leaked on baidu.com:

Well, here I was cruising Reddit, when I stumbled upon these posted up by "Rapidstrike", with a link back to Baidu once again:

Interesting, right? Until now, I hadn't covered the rapidstrike, since every other blog and their dog was all over it anyway, but no one has posted these yet, so I thought I'd get the word out. So we can confirm loads of things with this: full auto dart pusher, lots of wires and safety mechanisms... And lots of Wires. also, wires. seriously, there's literally 7 or 8 separate wires just behind the trigger...

Anyway, enjoy, speculate, plan mods, whatever tickles your fancy!

Orange Mod Works working on sealed breaches?

I saw a few pictures pop up in my facebook news feed last night by Orange Mod Works which seem to not-so-subtly hint that they are working on a sealed breach system for the Nerf Retaliator. I'm not sure what to make of this, as there is no pre-order up on their website yet, but they are calling it "the second stage", obviously referring to the stage 2 "solid" kit for the Nerf Retaliator.

From what the picture shows, it's a kit with revamped internals, adding on from kit #1. Bolt sled, metal trigger, bolt, plunger and receiver are all included by the looks, but it also features a barrel extension that is supposed to allow the dart to accelerate more as it leaves the barrel, using the full potential of the direct plunger volume of the Retaliator.

If this kit is indeed going in to production soon, I'll be pretty happy. I like my Retaliator, but at the moment it has no extra power over my rampage, so it's kind of an inferior candidate for the same role. giving it some extra power would bring it in to it's own field, it certainly couldn't out range a longshot, but it could out range a rampage with the two Orange Mod Works kits, and it's more compact than a Longshot. This kit and the stage 1 kit would make the Retaliator one hell of a pistol or short rifle.

Good work Orange Mod Works, I do hope this makes production soon!

Setups: Elite Rampage

Alright, second installment of setups is covering what I usually work with when I'm using my Rampage for speed foam warfare type Nerf wars. This setup is geared towards being able to collect ammo on the fly, high capacity and fast, accurate, rushing.

Starting at the front, there is no shield or other attachment on the side rail I have mounted. There is little point of a shield unless you want to bunker down and defend, where you can hide your body behind cover and have your face protected by the shield, but that's not for this type of strategy. This means the front end is easy to point and keeps a nice field of vision. On the top rail is a Slydev high drop iron sight kit. This serves the purpose of lining up longer range shots quickly if you need to, but retains the open field of vision that you would lose with a scope.

Moving back, and it's all about capacity. A 25 round drum gives a decent capacity to work with the slamfire capability of the Rampage, allowing you to move up and storm opposing player's positions. The clear back lets you see a rough idea of how much ammo you have without taking your eyes away from the action also. But, nothing is unlimited, so the use of the bandolier with a couple of spare 6-mags lets you quickly swap in some ammo when you need to reload the drum, and that's where the stock comes in.

The Stockade stock is light and sturdy, assists in aiming with the iron sights, and best of all has storage for 10 darts. I use this to grab and store darts quickly while behind cover before I move up again. and when the drum runs out and you swap to the 6-mags, you can pull darts from the stock and the bandolier and almost fill the 25 dart drum straight up.

Finally, the internals have been tweaked with AR removal, all moving parts greased and a slightly stronger spring, which pushes the maximum range to about 85 feet. I have had thoughts of doing a brass breech, however, I'm not sure how much gain there would be. So that wraps it up, this my personal setup for a Rampage that allows for high capacity slamfire rushing!

Toy fair time! -The Toy Spy's Nerf showroom preview

New York Toy Fair is my favourite time of year, where I sit back and check out all the new releases and quietly wet myself a little with excitement. This year looks to be a pretty sweet year with more Vortex releases, more N-Strike releases and a whole new line for girls called "Rebelle". The video below is from The Toy Spy, which takes a quick look at the Nerf showroom this year, as well as shows some firing tests. unfortunately the Nerf Rebelle gear is not in this video, but some really awesome blasters like the Blazin' Bow is shown. Enjoy!

Setups: Gear Up Recon

Before I get back in to the action here on this blog, I'll need to do an announcement. The reason why I've been away from this blog lately is a very special reason; on the 7th of November 2012, my long time partner and I became first time parents to a beautiful baby girl. I know that most of my readership probably aren't parents, but those who are will definitely understand that Nerfing becomes a back seat project when you become a parent, but you do learn to balance all aspects of your life eventually. Perhaps one day we'll share the same interests (my dad and I are both motor racing fans and well in to bicycles) but for now, her priorities are firmly set on eating, sleeping and burping (tough life much?).

But don't fear! For I am still here. Today I bring a setup to the floor, my personal Gear Up Recon. Over time, this has seen a few different changes but with Slydev 3D products starting to gather steam, the options are ever expanding and it's now possible to have enough accessories on a Recon to sink a ship.

For this set up I have here, I've used a Slydev triple Nerf rail adapter on the lower rail of the Longstrike barrel to be able to mount both a light and a foregrip, as well as anything else I want on the other side (Jolt connector perhaps?). Top side I've got a Slydev phone mount on the slide rail. This piece can be bought with an Iphone 4 case already glued on, or bought separately to glue your own phone case on. You can then record footage from your phone as a gun mounted camera, or if you're really keen, use it for communication between team mates (send a photo of the opponent's base back to your team?). Moving back, You'll notice the duct tape mag pouch, an adaptation of HDingo's YouTube tutorial. Top all that off with an N-Strike bandolier and a 12 dart elite mag in the blaster, and that is how you load the Nerf Recon like a pack-horse. hope you enjoy! -Rolley

Speed Foam Warfare: 23/9/12

If you know me personally, you'll know that I'm always struggling to get to or organise private wars, let alone  make it to a public war held on a set date. However, I did manage to finally make it to my first public foam warfare event held on the 23rd of last month.

This war was organised through Brisbane Nerf Group and was a speed foam warfare event, so high powered air blasters were not allowed. For $15, you got the use of aftermarket darts (informer snap cap darts) and a raffle ticket for a prize to be drawn during the day. To be honest, I had no idea what to expect, nor what to bring, so I just threw in a Rampage and Retaliator in to my bag, along with a bandolier strap and a hell of a lot of clips. As it turned out, that was a pretty good choice but I still had a lot to learn.

The event field was set up in parklands at Spring Hill, near Brisbane. When I arrived I helped set up under the direction of Thahn and Clem, who were well prepared. The field came together as an array of markers and flags for objectives and spawn points, cardboard boxes as semi destructible cover and tarps strung between trees. Every effort was made to provide an even field for both teams and to create interesting flanking pathways and places to hold down in. All this allowed for a bunch of awesome game types and some pretty intense shoot outs.

The back half of the field

When I got in to the action, I quickly found out that you don't want to be rocking up with a stock blaster. these guys were serious, with blasters that well out-ranged my elite gear and with aftermarket darts, were also incredibly accurate. That said, the limitations on air blasters did allow for anyone with an under powered blaster to still be competitive, it just took a little more careful planning and tactics. The games moved very fast and I did find myself using the Rampage to rush hard, but quite often my attempts were thwarted early on by being sniped by someone well out of my range, and when that happens to be from someone's heavily modded Longshot or Triple Shot, you certainly know about it! So, this is when I learned to play smarter. If I didn't have range, I would have to rely on flanking and the element of surprise. So I resorted to sprinting to cover as soon as the game started, wait for a gap, then move up to cover closer to my target, and hold it down. The slamfire goodness of the Rampage made it difficult for anyone to get past me and allowed me to get a few tags on people who would normally have nailed me with their sniper cannons from way off.

That damn maniac with that Retaliator pistol! Oh, wait, that's me.

This didn't work for every game mode, however, and I couldn't use a Rampage in pistol rounds, which were good fun as well. That's where the Retaliator made it's mark. A clip fed pistol in a pistol round is almost as great as a volt modded stampede in an ordinary round. The high refire rate is handy when you're facing 3v1.

The whole day was well run, and the use of referees helped keep everything fair. Getting an opportunity to meet the Brisbane nerfing community was awesome, and taught me things I didn't even know about yet. It's safe to say that the community is very friendly and welcoming, which gives me a great deal of faith in this young and developing sport of foam warfare. Anyone interested in future events around Brisbane should join Brisbane Nerf Group and start getting involved with the community and keep an eye out for upcoming events. Get into it!