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.

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.

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.

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.

Iron sights and more by SlyDev

Not too long ago I reviewed a 3D printed part from SlyDev that allowed you to attach your Nerf Jolt to any Nerf tactical rail, and I thought it was pretty good, so when Joey announced that the iron sights that he'd been working on for a while were now available in the SlyDev store, I went straight on over and ordered a set. Joey also threw in some other parts to review with my order, so I'll cover those in this post as well.

In the package, I received a full iron sight kit, which includes one back piece and three front pieces for different ranges, a glue on 4cm Nerf style rail, a glue on double dart holder, a glue on an 8cm picatinny rail and a second back piece for my iron sights (I liked the idea of a black rear sight and orange front sight). All of these parts of of great quality, especially for the low price you can get them for on the store, but I'll start with the glue on rails.

Both rails can be attached to any flat surface (or rounded, if you've got some skill in glueing things) and have fantastic tolerances. The 4cm Nerf rail is ideal for tight places and holds attachments very well. I stuck mine on to the side of my rampage at an angle that the supersoaker shield would sit nicely. I tried shaking the blaster as hard as I could and neither the shield nor tactical light would fall off, so I'd say that it actually holds on to attachments better than a lot of Nerf rails. The 4cm Nerf is available for $3 +$2 shipping and an 8cm version is available for $6 +$2 postage. I haven't mounted the picatinny rail to anything yet but I did mount my red dot sight to it and it fits on there perfectly. In the past, I've played around with designing BMX parts and I know that getting tolerances right requires lots of careful measurements, and seeing this rail fit picatinny parts so well impresses me. Perhaps it might look good on my Xplorer grip Longshot... These sell for $5 +$2 postage, or a 4cm version is $3 +$2postage.

Wish the Rampage had a shield? Problem solved.

Next, the double dart holder. I think this would go right at home on any manually loaded pistol type blaster or perhaps a double barrel shotgun blaster. As with the rails, the quality is great and darts hold firmly without being crushed. This can be glued to any flt surface, just like the rails and is available for $2 +$2 postage.

Top: Rear sights.
Bottom: Front sights.

Finally, one of the sweetest aftermarket attachments available is the iron sights. Available separately or as a set, there are 3 front pieces and one back piece to chose from currently. Each of the pieces attach to a Nerf rail via a side screw. The front pieces are all a different height, no drop for high powered air blasters, medium drop for modified blasters, and high drop for stock and lightly modded blasters. The different drops mean that you automatically angle your blaster up to compensate for the fall of the dart as it travels, but you can also mount the pieces closer together to get more angle or further apart to get less, depending on what you prefer. Mine found their home on my Rampage and they look pretty mean. Individual iron sight pieces are $3 +$1 postage, or $10 for the set with $2 postage.

I can't lie, I love these sights!

These little parts are starting to shape up as some of the most innovative small parts that the scene has been needing for some time, and at prices that won't destroy your wallet too. Good news is, SlyDev now ships to the U.S for a flat rate of $13 too, so our northern buddies can get a hold of these as well. I'll bet that a few HvZ players will snap up iron sight sets and at $10 + postage, I can't see why not. For more info or to purchase any of these products and others, head to the SlyDev Store. Thanks again to Joey and SlyDev for sending my these parts for review!

Review: Nerf Jolt

It's been quite a while since I've done a review so I thought I might take another crack at it, this time with the Nerf Jolt. This thing is packs a pretty decent punch in a tiny package and by far outclasses Nerf's previous mini blaster, the Secret Strike.

Check out that stylish font...

In the package which you can pick up for a tiny AU$4, you get the bright orange blaster and two whistler darts. It is a simplistic design resembling something like the repair tool from Battlefield: Bad Company 2 or the noisy cricket Will Smith brandished in the movie Men In Black. Thankfully, Nerf seems to have ditched the tacky yellow colour scheme and gone with a flashy orange, grey and black colours for the Jolt. The quality of the build is also fantastic, especially when these are retailing for pocket change. Unfortunately, but not unlike other mini blasters, it features no attachment rails, not dart storage and no loops for straps or hooks. So far, it's a very nice looking mini blaster, that is built really well, but very minimilistic.

 Interestingly, this is not a mini air blaster, but rather a direct plunger springer. The plunger is actually inside the handle with a pull down priming rod at the base. The trigger and trigger catch are the same piece and act on the plunger directly to hold it in the primed position and the outlet of the plunger system feeds directly to the air restrictor and barrel with very little dead space. Powering the system is a relatively strong spring, so I was expecting some decent ranges from this blaster which is so tiny. It's only a little larger than the Secret Strike, but still fits in my hands pretty well.

How does it perform? Extremely well! Ranges of 40+ feet were an unexpected surprise, and it has a nice little kick to it as well. Even though it has only a small direct plunger, it's still much more efficient than any reverse plunger system due to the minimizing of dead space and aligning the barrel and air restrictor so close to the plunger outlet. I must say, however, the great accuracy of this blaster is a little bit of a waste. Being such a small blaster, it is difficult to aim and that opens up a window for human error, even though the blaster itself is wonderfully on the mark. I can't help but feel that a rear sight would solve this problem to some extent. 

Modding potential for performance is limited, but also a bit redundant anyway. It is possible to remove the air restrictor, and a spring replacement would be a quick and easy way to get a slight improvement on power, but I would only expect a range increase of about 10 feet anyway. Cosmetically, this holds a little more potential. it could easily be integrated in to another blaster, or be used as a platform for great sci-fi or steampunk mods.

In summary, this is a fantastic little blaster, and while not everyone needs a mini blaster, I would recommend the Jolt over the Secret Strike any day. It outclasses any other mini blaster I have seen in performance, ease of use AND looks, despite it being one of the most simple and minimalistic blasters available. Couple that with a tiny price and you get a mini blaster worth a 9.5 out of 10 from this humble blogger.

Max Force Maximizer 60 review

The Max Force line of paper pellet blasters has seemingly stopped dead in it's tracks, even a decent launch the line never really sold all that well. It's a shame really, I love the Shadow Hawk 100 I was sent. However, many of these blasters are now discounted, if you can find them. So now is the time to pick one up if you were a bit unsure in the beginning. I picked up this Maximizer 60 for a mere $9.50, down from $20 just because the scope was missing.

Out of the box, you get the blaster, an 8 shot clip, 102 paper pellets with a container, safety glasses and usually a scope (mine was missing, hence the bargain). The build quality feels fantastic. There's no loose, extremely flexible or creaking parts. The overall look of the blaster is different but very nice. It's a bullpup pull and release style pistol with a side port clip feed, with the spring powered piston located under the barrel. It features a rail on top to accept the scope, but nothing else. There is also a loop at the top side of the barrel tip to accept a strap clip but it is very small.

Strap hook, scope rail and loading port

Loading is much the same as the Shadow Hawk, put the pellets in the clip, soak in water and insert the clip in to the port. The clip automatically advances when the rear priming handle is pulled back, and fires out the pellet when you let the handle go. Simple!

Performance is as it states on the box, max range of 60 feet and great accuracy. I was easily able to get consistently accurate shots without a scope at all at a range of 40 or 50 feet flat. fast follow up shots may not be on par with a slam-fire, semi auto or full auto Nerf blaster but with definitely blow away a mildly modified Nitefinder in re-fire rate, and will out-last a Maverick due to the extra 2 shots per clip and quick reloading if you have a second clip. As a side arm or pistol style blaster, the Maximizer 60 is a seriously great blaster.

So what mods could I recommend? Normally, this is one I'd say to leave alone but the decreasing availability of Max Force blasters and ammo leads me to believe that a conversion to Nerf dart ammo with an intergrated RSCB clip would be beneficial and probably yield some great ranges. Overall, this is a great blaster that's going for a decent price at the moment, so pick one up if you were undecided on the Max Force line beforehand, even if it is to turn it in to a dart blaster. 8/10.

Nerf Strikefire review

Throw back a while to the days of the old Dart Tag line by Nerf, and you may remember a Dart Tag set named the "Strikefire" set. It included vests, glasses, and a pair of Nerf Strikefire blasters, one orange, one green. Though a surprising number of people have never heard of the Strikefire, I assure you that this blaster that came with the set, if you can find one, is one of the more useful Nerf pistols available. But let's talk about the blaster itself first.

The Nerf Strikefire is a top-slide cocking pistol type blaster, loaded manually. It can take any kind of dart but was intended for the velcro tipped Dart Tag darts. It's claimed range is 30 feet, but I was surprised to find that it'll do a little better than that, even in stock form. It's also quite accurate, Dart Tag darts fly very straight and would easily tag a player from 30 feet away. Streamlines still get the same range, but as always with stock streamlines they are far less accurate. I haven't modified this unit yet but I expect that I can get some great ranges with it.

Cosmetically, it's also a winner. It has quite nice styling, I especially like the curved trigger guard. The trigger is a cool double groove shape and under the barrel is storage for 5 darts, which is actually very convenient for quick reloads. What I really love about this blaster though, is the ability to attach it to any tactical rail on N-Strike blasters. That's right, you can use this blaster as an under barrel for your main blaster! I have seen one used on a recon before, and that's exactly what I've done with  my "Gear Up" Recon and Strikefire. The clip on the top has a much stronger grip than that of other attachment clips, to the point where you can prime the blaster without it sliding off the rail, just don't do it too fast. There is a trade-off though, in order for this blaster to be used as an under barrel attachment, it obviously had to be made quite small, so big hands will definitely not find this to be a comfortable pistol.

Modification wise, I have not yet opened up the blaster, but being a reverse plunger blaster I would say that modifications would grant an extra 10 or 20 feet, which I'd be pretty happy with. I will do a mod guide for the Strikefire if I decide to go ahead with modding it.

Finalizing, this is a cool little blaster. It will probably become a vintage item in a few years, so pick one up when you see one. It's size and lack of store availability as a single blaster are probably the only things that can let it down as a stock blaster. The ability to store 5 extra darts, attach it to Nerf tactical rails and good out of the box performance would make it a wise choice. 8/10.

Nerf "gear up" Recon review

The brightly coloured "Gear Up" series of Nerf N-Strike blasters are *Finally* hitting Australian stores, so the other day I went and picked up a Recon and a Maverick, which were the only two available locally that I've heard of so far. I've been meaning to get this review done for a few days, but the main camera lens I use to take decent quality photos for this blog was stolen on friday afternoon, and I can't replace it for some time. In the meantime, I've cleaned up an old Pentax lens and used an adapter ring to fit it to my camera body, so I apologize if the quality isn't up to standard, but it's all I've got.

The first thing I can say about this gear up Recon, is that it is orange. And by orange, I mean the kind of orange that's so bright it'll burn the retinas of your enemies. I have seen photos of these before and just thought they were over-saturated, but no, it's REALLY orange. But, I think it looks pretty good. These photos just don't do it justice.

Of course, the Nerf Recon has been around since the very early times of the N-strike series and has stayed available the whole time, which it's worthy of. It's the blaster that can be customized in so many different combinations it's hard to decide what you want it to look like! Thanks to having both a barrel adapter AND a stock adapter, you can put and Nerf barrel or stock on, so it can be a sniper rifle, a sub machine gun, an assault rifle, even a pistol. And on top of all that, there's 2 rails on the barrel, one on the cocking slide to attach scopes, lights, sights and foregrips, even a Nerf strikefire blaster under the barrel, AND an extra clip can be stored in the stock. That's a serious amount of stuff you can do with it straight out of the box! Unfortunately, not much will suit the bright orange colours, so if you don't like painting then you're probably better off with a standard Recon. If you do, most Nerf gear has some orange or black on it already, so it's just a case of painting everything else black (longstrike barrels work well).

Alright, so what about performance? Well, out of the box you can expect 30 foot ranges, nothing spectacular, and until recently modding was mostly cosmetic as there isn't much you could do with a reverse plunger style mechanism inside. But, Orange Mod Works has come to the rescue and started developing mod kits to get great performance out of the Recon, once again giving it more appeal. Cosmetic mods are also something that this blaster is a great platform for, I've seen the Recon turned in to an M4A1, a pulse rifle, small pistol and integrated in to other blasters, so you might say the word "versatile" is an understatement.

Honestly, I love the Nerf Recon. It's clip fed, can be anything you want it to be, can now be modded easily with a simple drop in mod kit by Orang Mod Works, and usually pops up at the price of $23AU quite often. There is so little I can fault about the Nerf Recon, about the only thing that stops it from being a perfect 10, is the fact that it's a little awkward cocking this blaster, but that can be solved with a mod to add a bolt handle. So, this blaster gets a 9.5/10 flying potatoes.

Review: Nerf Vortex Proton

Continuing on with the Vortex theme I've got going on lately, is a review of the smallest of the new Nerf Vortex line, the Proton. I picked this one up at Kmart for $13, and it includes 3 discs along with the blaster itself. At first sight, I found it was a little smaller than I expected, but still quite wide. Unfortunately I can't really see this as being a blaster you could keep in a holster because of it's width, but the Proton features a loop at the base of the handle were you could add a strap and still use it as a sidearm. Also on the negative side, there is no storage for extra discs, but utilising the disc storage trick of TripleBification's, you can keep a disc in the chamber as you run, and all you need to do is pull the sled back, hit the load switch and you're ready to rock and roll. 

The final feature I need to mention is the inclusion of a tactical rail on top to add sights and lights. it is set quite forward which gives it an interesting look with the Nerf Longshot scope, and I have a feeling that this combination would be popular with those who like to steampunk their Nerf. Overall, it's not the prettiest blaster Nerf have ever created but the combination of colours and interesting design go well together, and the base design is also a great platform for repaints if you're looking to turn it in to a sci-fi or steampunk style blaster.

Performance is similar to that of the Vortex Praxis, with ranges of around 50+ feet and great accuracy, it is quite a good blaster for $13, and makes it a tough opponent against it's N-Strike counterpart, the Nitefinder. Managing to line up an extremely accurate shot is a little difficult, though, due to it being a pistol, so don't be surprised if someone using a rifle style blaster hits you first at mid range. Modding for power is as easy as a spring relocation and will leave you with quite a powerful disc shooter. There is also a very useful mod out there by LordDraconial that creates a gravity feed clip that can be added and removed from the tactical rail (you should subscribe to his youtube channel if you haven't already, Drac is a wizard of Nerf modding).

Again, if you are looking for a sidearm then you might prefer a smaller blaster with ammo storage, like the Nerf Nitefinder, but nonetheless the Vortex Praxis is hard to pass up for out of the box range and accuracy, so it scores an 8/10

Review: Nerf Vortex Praxis

After moving in to my new place, I was finally able to get some free time to pick up the new Vortex Praxis by Nerf, and have some fun with it. This blaster has been well known about for quite some time now, and hit store shelves some time before the "official launch date", along with the other Vortex blasters. Nerf seemingly "leaked" info on the whole line prior to the release date in order to create a little hype, but the reception of disc blasters wasn't ALL good, many traditional Nerfers swore by darts in the lead up to these hitting stores, and even I was skeptical when I bought this blaster.

However, after unboxing, I laid eyes on a rather good looking blaster. The grip is comfortable, and the blaster features a tactical rail on top for scopes, sights and lights, and the pump action works great. Also, the stock is less flexible than the comparable N-Strike Recon stock, and fits adult sized shoulders perfectly. The blaster is wider than most N-Strike blasters but doesn't really feel bulky, likewise the tubular magazine isn't huge either. In fact, I'd say that the mags may fit some paintball vests, meaning until Nerf produces Vortex tactical vests, Vortex users could possibly use those.

Performance is the aspect of this blaster that blew my skepticism right out of the water. The range and accuracy of the Praxis straight out of the box is nothing short of incredible. Though the discs do curve slightly at long range even without wind, they still perform way better than streamline darts (which sometimes travel in... "abstract" directions). I would say that claims of 60+ feet are not over-estimating.

Though the Praxis accepts N-Strike accessories, It doesn't look quite right with them...

Attachments are a little limited on the Praxis, for a blaster that is probably aimed to be the Vortex counterpart of the N-Strike Recon. Having an attachment rail on the side wouldn't be a bad thing for this blaster, allowing you to have a light AND a sight. It would go really well with the scope from the Vortex Nitron, but I don't own one just yet to provide an example. Modding is something that hasn't really been touched with the Vortex blasters much, but the Praxis is still spring powered so there is obviously a way to increase the power, but if you were to heavily modify this blaster, it might get a bit... dangerous.

Summing up, the Vortex Praxis is a fantastic blaster, but could have benefited from having slamfire function and some more room for attachments. The great ranges and pinpoint accuracy make it a definite must have, and grants this blaster 9 out of 10 baked potatoes.