It's that time of year again, time to look back at everything Nerf in 2013.
And what a year is has been, with more blaster releases this year than any other year I've documented.

Also Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays and Happy New Year from all of us at Outback Nerf.

N-Strike Elite
The Elite line got a whole lot bigger this year, with 13 releases/re-releases this year.
Additionally, the Aus Elite line got a range revision, with range claims of 20m instead of 15m on newer boxes. The blasters themselves are unchangedso don't feel obliged to get another Elite blaster just because it says 20m instead of 15m.

First up are the 5 main additions to the Elite line in early 2013.






The Firestrike (top left) is the Elite line's equivalent to the Nitefinder, featuring a targeting light and two underbarrel dart holders, and is a pull back single shot. Though the plunger is smaller than a Nitefinder's, and spring replacements are comparably harder, the Firestrike's superior shell design and equally low price made it popular among many looking for a simple single shot. Unlike the Nitefinder though, the Firestrike has faced fierce competition from the Triad EX-3 (below).

The Roughcut 2x4 (top right) was first revealed by an article describing the success of Nerf's modern blaster lines, being initially known as the "Ruff Cut". As a two-shot shotgun, it was seen by many as the successor to the Barrel Break, with slam fire pump action and 8 barrels allowing for four bursts of two darts thanks to its "intelligent" AR system, hence the designation 2x4, and its place in the "Multishot Madness" series. This AR system allows it to fire from the highest barrels that are loaded, ensuring a double shot provided there is a dart on either side. The flow of air in the AR system results in firing top to bottom when the Roughcut is emptied. Though not the most practical of blasters, many liked it simply because it was fun and had an extreme cool factor about it. Fast forward a little bit and a Nerfer known as "Solscud" integrated the Roughcut under the Retaliator barrel extension of a Stryfe, creating the first publicly documented Roughcut Masterkey, which quickly became an incredibly popular mod. The combination of the fun factor and coolness and the practicality of the Masterkey made the Roughcut a popular blaster, though its impracticality as a standalone blaster for many Nerf wars limits its Nerf war usage.

The Stryfe (middle left) was first revealed by the same article which mentioned the Roughcut, being known originally as the "Strife". The box art of the Firefly Tech 18 dart clip revealed the basic design of the Stryfe, with many criticising Nerf's use of flywheels made evident by the bulges in front of the magwell. Upon release however, the Stryfe became popular among many Nerfers because of its great performance and design, and lower price compared to the Rayven. Though let down by the inclusion of a pathetic 6 dart clip, the Stryfe truly shines when owned by someone who already has a moderate clip system blaster collection, thanks to its tacticool-ity provided by its stock attachment point, barrel extension accepting muzzle, two tactical rails and a clip accepting magwell. The Stryfe's fantastic ergonomics combined with its great performance and fantastic tacticool-ity made it a favourite of many Nerfers, including myself.

The Strongarm (middle right) was first revealed on eBay, in which a pre-release Strongarm was sold for over a thousand USD. Fast forward to its retail release, and it became popular among those looking for a revolver sidearm. Like the Maverick, it has a pop-out 6 dart cylinder and is slide primed, but various small and major improvements, such as the drastically increased range and the addition of slam-fire, showed that the Strongarm well and truly replaced and completely outclassed the Maverick. Sporting a similar price to the Maverick, the Strongarm has become the backup revolver of choice for many who used to use Mavericks and Spectres.

Finally, the Triad EX-3 (bottom right) is an major upgrade to the old N-Strike Jolt EX-1. Though initial videos seemed to show that the Triad was simply a beefed up Jolt with two dart holders, retail release and further usage showed that the Triad was in fact a true three shot blaster, rather than a single shot with two dart holders. Utilising a similar "intelligent" AR system as the Roughcut, the Triad can fire darts from any barrel, firing counter-clockwise from the user's perspective if fully loaded. Sporting the same improved ranges of the Elite line, the Triad became extremely popular both as a sidearm and as just a fun blaster, as it is extremely cheap yet performs at the same standards of its bigger Elite brothers.


Next up are three N-Strike blasters recoloured and slightly altered to match the paintscheme of Elite blasters as well as including Elite darts, though their performance is largely unchanged.



First up is the "Elite" Jolt EX-1 (top left), differing with N-Strike Jolts only in the spring ("Elite" Jolt springs are more powerful), the plunger head and the muzzle attachment.

Next up is the "Elite" Barrel Break IX-2 (top right), differing with the N-Strike Barrel Break in that the "Elite" one does not have the 8 dart tactical rail attachment, which was criticised by many. The "Elite" Barrel Break is exclusive to Toys R Us, like its N-Strike brother.

Lastly is the "Elite" Reflex IX-1 (bottom right), differing only in shell design with the N-Strike Reflex.




After the disappointment of Psuedo-Elite re-releases, Nerf provided three proper Elite re-releases of previous popular blasters.


The N-Strike Alpha Trooper CS-18 was an incredibly popular and highly praised blaster, being so good that I bought four of them. Thus the revealing of the Elite Alpha Trooper CS-12 (top left) made many people happy. The EAT has redone internals, with the same direct plunger system as the Retaliator and Rampage, as well as a 12 dart clip replacing the original 18 dart drum. The change of the drum into a smaller clip was met with mixed reactions, some criticising the loss of capacity, while others liking the smaller, sleeker clip. The internals replacement has been met with largely universal praise, as it has far superior power to the original Alpha Trooper, while still having the same low price. Like its older brother, the EAT is a Target exclusive in both the US and Australia.

The Elite Spectre REV-5 (top right) was revealed in an official Nerf tournament in Singapore, with Singapore getting the first release. It is a direct successor to the N-Strike Spectre, sporting the same attachments in the Elite paintscheme, as well as a similar shell slightly altered for new Elite internals. Unlike the EAT however, the Spectre's performance was not greatly improved over the N-Strike Spectre, as many have commented on various reliability issues, with jamming, misfiring and misrotating occuring more frequently than normal for a Nerf blaster, and far more frequently than with the N-Strike Spectre. The Elite Spectre is exclusive to Walmart in the US, and Toys R Us in Australia as we have no Walmart.

Lastly the Elite Rayven CS-18 (bottom right). This surprised many as the N-Strike Rayven had been released not long ago in the previous year. It supposedly has the same Elite motors as other Elite flywheelers, otherwise being basically identical to the N-Strike Rayven. Unlike other remakes of old blasters, the Elite Rayven has had a price hike compared to the N-Strike Rayven, at least in the US. Unfortunately for us Aussies, Hasbro Australia has no plans to release the Elite Rayven in Australia.


Finally, we have the two late year releases.


















The Elite Rapidstrike CS-18 (left) is by far the more important of the two releases, being the first full-auto Elite blaster. It uses flywheels like most other recent electronic blasters, and as a result the voltage of the batteries determines both the range and the rate of fire of the blaster. As a full auto clip system blaster, the Rapidstrike appears to be the N-Strike Stampede's successor, and what a successor it is. With an exclusive clear 18 dart clip, the Rapidstrike has already become a favourite of many Nerfers, through its combination of great performance compared to the Stampede's mundane performance, drastically improved ergonomics taking only 4 C batteries, and far cooler design. Sadly it does not match the Stampede's incredible value as the Rapidstrike only comes with itself and an 18 dart clip, unlike the Stampede's 60 dart total clip capacity and extra attachments. For various reasons, for many people it has replaced the Stryfe as the best clip system flywheeler, as well as replacing the Stampede.

Lastly we have the Elite Rayven Stinger (right), differing from the Elite Rayven CS-18 in paintscheme, darts (Stinger has 25 yellow and black Elite darts compared to the CS-18's 18 blue and orange Elite darts) and a 12 clip instead of an 18 Light Up clip. Besides these, it is largely the same as the Elite Rayven and has thus been largely ignored.


Besides blasters, two major Elite accessories have been released.












First up is the Elite Ammo Box (left). Like its N-Strike predecessors, the Elite Ammo Box contains 100 Elite darts and a pretty boring design and style, with the same clasp mechanism. Unlike the N-Strike Ammo Boxes, the Elite Ammo Box also contains two 6 dart Elite clips, which is nice if you are lacking such clips. If you're seeking extra ammo, the Elite Ammo Box is the most efficient retail option for getting extra ammo in Australia.

Secondly is the Nerf Mission App Tactical Rail Mount (right). It's a tactical rail attachment that holds an apple device provided it is of a certain size - iPhone 5s and non-Apple devices won't fit, although the gen 4 devices will fit well. It is pretty expensive for something that can easily be made yourself, though it is quite sturdy and secure.


Mega
In 2013, Nerf revealed their furthest firing blaster line, the Mega line. As a subline of the Elite line, they share similar shell designs and motifs, however the Mega line distinguishes itself with its red paintjob, new and huge Mega darts (not to be confused with the old vintage Mega darts), as well as performance. While Elite blasters are advertised with 75ft range, the Mega Centurion, the first Mega blaster, is advertised for 100ft range. Aus Mega is advertised for a mere 20m.
The Centurion not only advertises the greatest range of all Nerf blasters, but is also the longest of all Nerf blasters at just over 1 metre long. Size is not everything though (as Master Yoda will tell you), as the Centurion's retail release resulted in the biggest negative response to a modern blaster since the Deploy. Though 100ft ranges were advertised, the Centurion would rarely get anywhere near that even with fully-fledged 100ft US versions. Accuracy was also horrendous, as was the quality of the incredibly thin and flimsy Mega darts. Even worse, many Nerfers, more than any other blaster, have reported serious reliability issues, with jams being frequent, the breech getting damaged through even light use, and the Centurion itself not working after some play time for the extremely unlucky. Additionally, the Centurion is a modder's nightmare, with understanding its incredibly complex internals being a challenge, let alone modding it successfully and reassembling it. As a result, the Centurion has largely been shunned, even by "casual" Nerfers, and is to be used purely as a prop unless an internal overhaul is completed.


Vortex
In 2013 Vortex received only two new additions, although both are quite unique and take good advantage of  the unique features of Vortex discs.










First up the Diatron (left), which is the earlier release of the two. It is Vortex's entry into the "Multishot Madness" series. It uses the same internal mag as the Vigilon, except twice as large to compensate for its double shot feature. It's slower firing than the Roughcut, due to its use of a non-slam-fire lever rather than the Roughcut's slam fire pump. Unlike some of the other 2013 releases, the Diatron was seen as gimmicky and impractical, and thus did not receive the same level of popularity as the Roughcut, or any of the other 2013 releases.

Second we have the Revonix 360, released in late 2013 along with the Rapidstrike and Centurion. It seems to be based on the Pyragon, as they share many features. The Revonix's major features are its ability to be reloaded on the fly, as well as its pump action slam fire and its large 30 disc internal drum containing 5 mini-mags of 6 discs each. Unlike the Diatron which didn't get a whole lot of press or love, the Revonix is liked by some Nerfers who dislike the Pyragon for various reasons. As a result of having to rotate discs before loading and firing them however has made the Pyragon extremely loud during priming. Though it doesn't have the same fast reloading of most clip and mag blasters, the load on the fly feature, among others, makes the Revonix a favourite for some people.


Rebelle
The Rebelle line is one of the two entirely new Nerf lines released in 2013. Aimed at girls, the Rebelle line has a white and black/grey paintscheme with pink/orange/purple highlights, with noticeably smoother and sleeker shells than on regular Elite blasters. The shell designs could almost be called 'organic' compared to the sharp Elite shells. The brightly coloured darts designed for the line are essentially Elite darts in different colours with fancy printing. Unlike other special edition darts, there are multiple varieties of Rebelle collectible darts, though there is no apparent difference in performance or construct. Rebelle blasters still advertise Elite ranges of 75ft/20m, making sure that people who get Rebelle blasters can still compete with Elite blasters.






























First up is the Power Pair (top left), which is a two-pack of "Rebelle" Jolts which have two dart holders above behind the barrel, and contains the plunger system in the handle. Unlike the other Rebelle blasters, it has no range claims on the box, which for us Aussies means we can have the fully fledged US version. It is currently the most powerful 'detuned Elite' blaster in Australia. As it is largely a reshelled Jolt, it is largely ignored other than the fact that is isn't detuned for Australia. There are a number of repainted PP blasterswith various feminine alliterating names, but are not worth particular mention as they're basically the same blaster in different colours.

Next we have the Pink Crush (top right), which is essentially a reshelled Firestrike minus the light and the dart holders, which are now on a gimmicky detachable bow arm. The ranges are actually better than a Firestrike and is easier to mod, due to the absence of the air-release hole. It is quite popular among male Nerfers, and is said by some that it is better than the Firestrike. Important to note however is that the handle is even smaller than that of the Firestrike, which was already small compared to the Nitefinder.

The Sweet Revenge (middle right) is a five shot revolver with a holster specially designed for the blaster along with free Rebelle vision gear. It is essentially the 'sister' of the ZombieStrike HammerShot (see below) but has a sleeker shell and includes more accessories, at a higher retail price than the HS, but here in Australia can be bought for the same price. Its cool design and great functionality have made its brother the Hammershot very popular among many Nerfers, with the Sweet Revenge being neglected only because in the US it is more expensive than the Hammershot. The Sweet Revenge is a great blaster though and that is shown by the popularity of its brother Hammershot.

The Guardian Crossbow (upper middle left) is a pump action revolver which uses effectively the same internals as the Strongarm, except in a much larger and fancier shell with largely useless bow arms. It has the same features as the Strongarm like slam fire so has been largely ignored by war oriented Nerfers as the Strongarm is practically superior.

Next we have the flagship blaster of the Rebelle line, the Heartbreaker Bow (lower middle left). It is a plunger-based blaster using a combination of a strange draw string and a small plunger to fire darts. Rather than having a trigger like the Big Bad Bow, the Heartbreaker uses a more traditional and realistic pull-and-release system, although this contributes greatly to the blaster's terrible and inconsistent performance. Due to the difficulty and impracticality of the blaster, Nerf warrers have largerly ignored the blaster, however it is easy to find girls enjoying the Heartbreaker bow on the internet. The Heartbreaker includes a 5 dart tac rail attachment, which with the discontinuing of the Barrel Break's dart holder makes it the only retail ammo holding tac rail attachment currently available.

Finally we have the Powerbelle (bottom left) which is basically a repainted Dart Tag Speed Swarm. Because the Speed Swarm was unremarkable by Nerf war practicality standards, and also because of the relative obscurity availability wise, the Powerbelle has received practically no press.


Besides blasters the Rebelle line has a couple of accessories released as well.











First up is the Rebelle Mission App Tactical Rail Mount (top left), which is just a Rebelle version of the Elite Mission App Tactical Rail Mount, a tactical rail attachment for holding an Apple device.

Next is the Dart Diva kit (top right), which is an accessory belt with a small ammo pouch, with 10 Rebelle darts. The belt itself is mostly the same as the Vortex Ammo Belt released earlier, as is the ammo pouch.

Lastly is the Rebelle Vision Gear (bottom left), which is just a Rebelle version of Dart Tag's protective eyewear.



ZombieStrike
The Zombiestrike line started in 2013 with two entirely new blaster designs, which are both currently Target exclusives in the US and Australia. The 2014 additions are set to be for general retail release though, rather than Target exclusives.
Unlike the clean, sharp Elites and the smooth, organic Rebelles, the Zombie Strike blasters appear to be 'unrefined' in a way, and improvised, as shown by the faux tape around the grips and the Hammershot's faux wood handle.











First up we have the Hammershot (left). This five-shot revolver differentiates itself using the one-handable priming hammer instead the more traditional slide, allowing for one-handed usage and dual wielding, as well as being plain cool. Despite its high retail price, the Hammershot is already an extremely popular blaster and has become a favourite of many a Nerfer. Additionally, the Hammershot advertises Elite ranges (75ft/20m) meaning it keeps up with other Elite revolvers.

Next we have the Sledgefire (right), a 3-dart shell-fed shotgun that has a similar break open design to the Barrel Break. Unlike the Hammershot, the Sledgefire doesn't advertise Elite ranges as it puts its power into firing 3 darts an average range, rather than a single dart. The stock holds three shells snugly, allowing for faster reloading. Though the Sledgefire hasn't gotten anywhere near as much press as the Hammershot due to its greater price and lingering hatred towards shells from Buzz Bee blasters, its key shotgun ability has given it some fans and the stock power of the Sledgefire gives great potential to modding.

There are a number of accessories with the Zombie Strike line as well, but as a number are in no way Nerf blaster related and another large number don't have an official release date (and thus could be officially 2014 releases) I won't cover them in this post.



Sonic Ice
The main three original Elite blasters, the Retaliator, Rampage and Hailfire, received recolours in the form of the very pretty trans-blue colourscheme.
The Blazin' Bow is a pull-and-release blaster, like the original Bow 'n' Arrow (someone please correct my spelling of that), and is seemingly a tribute to the latter. Unlike most other blasters nowadays, the Blazin' Bow is part of the N-Strike line, advertising a measly 40ft range. Also unlike many modern blasters, the bow's drawstrings actually assist in firing, although the blaster itself still uses a plunger and spring to fire. It uses large, long arrows like the most recent bow, the Big Bad Bow, however has a much more organic design. Partly because it is pull-and-release, partly because it does't fit into the most recent Nerf lines, partly due to its use of the rare arrow ammo type, and partly due to its lacking range, the Blazin' Bow has been largely forgotten by many Nerfers.


Looking forward to 2014, we've got the Mega Magnus (which is incredibly exciting), a variety of ZombieStrike full retail releases (which aren't exciting to me) and an Elite 'reboot', supposedly of an orange colourscheme like the orange Stryfe we've been seeing. The Psuedo-Whiteout Roughcut is also part of this reboot I believe. Also in 2014 we have some pretty awesome new Lego Star Wars sets, so I probably won't be doing as many reviews next year, unless something amazing comes out.

I'll just finish this post with a pic of my only Nerf related Xmas present...

This will be a review of the Rebelle Sweet Revenge (Kit), formerly known as the Wildshot. Along with its brother the Hammershot, the Sweet Revenge (SR) is a hammer action revolver that was highly anticipated since its unveiling. So just how good is this new revolver?

NOTE: Since the Sweet Revenge and Hammershot are effectively the same blaster, this review can apply in most respects to the Hammershot as well.
The Sweet Revenge comes in a semi-open box with a large portion of the blaster exposed, but everything else is concealed within the box.
A really bad shot of the side of the box, with a picture of a Rebelle girl with all sorts of Rebelle stuff. Also the Rebelle paragraph full of stuff I didn't bother reading.
Back of the box, pretty standard stuff.


The box all opened, pretty standard for an open box.
Comes with a manual, but really you don't need one for the Sweet Revenge.
All of the stuff that comes with the Sweet Revenge - the blaster, its 5 teal non-deco Rebelle darts with J. code, the blaster's holster and a set of Rebelle Vision Gear. Looking at this, it makes sense why the Sweet Revenge costs more than the Hammershot, and why it costs so much more than a standard revolver like the Strongarm.
The Rebelle Vision Gear included is pretty much just a white and pink version of the DT Vision Gear that came with the Furyfire. It's sturdy and (supposedly) blocks out UV-A and B, but for the most part will be too small and uncomfortable for people older than about 14 years.
The Rebelle designs on the side of the Vision Gear. Nothing particularly new or special about it.

Here's the Sweet Revenge in all its curved glory. The orange part helps to ensure a good turret-plunger seal, alongside a moving plunger tube and a thin piece of foam. There is a little turret play though, meaning that some shots can have a bad seal and thus a bad shot. It doesn't happen frequently but it does happen enough to be a problem worth writing about.
The back of the blaster. Here you can see the few ribs in the back of the handle, which really don't contribute to the feel of the blaster. You can see how short the vertical pull of the hammer is, as well as how little the SR bulges out with the turret in comparison to a say a Maverick.
A view from above behind, whre you can see the full extent of the SR's hammer draw as well as the SR's smooth pink tac rail. Also from up here you can see how smoothly and slowly the SR bulges for the turret, which is in stark contrast to for example the Maverick's or Strongarm's spherical protrusion. The small piece at the front of the blaster makes up a tiny iron sight.
Here's the front of the blaster. Pretty ordinary stuff for modern revolvers, but you can't see the single  AR on the plunger tube and the empty dart pegs in the turret. You can see how the orange turret support keeps the turret against the plunger securely and tightly for a good seal.
The turret rotates on prime, clockwise from the perspective of the user. The one dart loaded here is rotated upon prime into the top barrel space, which is then fired.
Close up of the handle section and trigger. Note the unusual curved sticking out trigger guard.
Here is the trigger depressed. This demonstrates how the trigger pivots on an axle, rather than the usual push in triggers that you find on most other blasters. You don't have to pull the trigger this far for the blaster to fire. The trigger is in fact the catch, so to release the plunger to fire the blaster, you only have to pull the trigger about 5mm, rather than the full trigger pull, allowing for an easy and quick shot.

Here is the hammer in rest and primed positions. As you can clearly see, the draw on the Sweet Revenge is far shorter than that of any other blaster with a manual prime.
Here you can see how it is possible for an ordinary sized hand to just reach the hammer. I'm pretty ordinary by size for a teenager, so a good proportion of people should be able to use the SR one handed. Naturally for such a short draw, the prime strength is much greater than most other blasters, thus if your fingers are weak, you'll have trouble priming the SR. Of course, younger and smaller persons may have trouble one hand priming the blaster as the hammer is quite far from the handle, only barely close enough to one-handed by an ordinary hand.
Here you can see the Rebelle motif and the one sling point of the SR. I personally dislike how the circular sling point juts of out of the bottom of the otherwise smooth handle.
Here you can see that despite the handle's initial curvature, the blaster is actually held rather normally, like a regular pistol grip. I personally find the handle extremely comfortable to hold, as it is shaped and curved excellently for a human hand. Although I do have to shift my hand from this position to one hand prime the SR, holding and firing the blaster in this position is extremely comfortable.
This is the holster included with the Sweet Revenge. As you can see it is purely grey with a Rebelle motif in pink. It's very minimalist and simple, and doesn't even wrap around the entire blaster. It has been specifically shaped for the SR though, hence its odd shape. The holster is asymmetrical, designed for right handers who are of course the majority of the population. For left handers this means that you can't holster the SR with its included holster, which is unfortunate for those who are left handed and use the SR.
View from above. The screws hold the belt clip onto the holster, with the belt clip being a separate piece, but the main part of the holster is entirely one piece of plastic. The tapering in of the holster holds the SR tightly. The three slots at the top hold three darts, with the barely visible nubs at the bottom end of the slots keeping the darts in place.
Here you can see the clearance of the belt clip after being worn. It's enough to fit on all sorts of pants/skirts/belts, and when pressed against your body holds on surprisingly securely.
The holster holds 3 darts very securely. They're on the "front" section of the holster if you wear it under your right hand, which makes the darts quite easy to access. As the darts are gripped at the bottom of the dart holders, I recommend putting them in head down, which also makes it easier to reload.

Here is the Sweet Revenge slotted into its holster. It's very much secure and fits comfortably. The design of the holster means that if right handed you can one-hand the blaster even in the holster. This gives you three extra shots at the cost of not being able to use the tac rail.

Here's a video of me attempting to dislodge the holster from my pants. I look ridiculous but I don't care.



And here's the SR upside down in its holster, for left handers. As you can see it isn't anywhere near as secure or deep as for right handers, although the SR does fit to a certain distance. I don't recommend it at all though.
Here is the Sweet Revenge compared to some older revolvers. It's significantly less bulky than the Maverick though pretty much the same length and height. Obviously the SR is thinner than the Mav which has 1 more shot. It's also more sleek than te slightly boxy Spectre as well as shorter because of the short plunger draw. Compared to the most similar Snapfire though, the Sweet Revenge is longer. The Snapfire is significantly wider of course because it has 3 more shots. If you have a holster that fits the Maverick or Spectre well, it'll probably fit the Sweet Revenge (and probably Hammershot) reasonably well.


Here is the Rebelle Vision Gear compared to the old Dart Tag Vision Gear. As you can see they're basically identical, with minor aesthetic differences.

The Sweet Revenge is hammer primed, readied by simply pulling the hammer from rest position down to the bottom of its slot. After this, pulling the trigger fires the loaded dart, and the hammer returns to rest position. Because the turret rotates on prime, the SR's simple prime method allows for a psuedo-slam-fire technique called 'fan-fire'. 'Fan-fire' utilises the user's palm to prime rapidly and release the hammer at the end of the prime, thus causing the blaster to fire instantly, and allowing for rapid fire. Fan-firing is the fastest that the Sweet Revenge can be emptied, as it bypasses the trigger stage of conventional firing, as with slam-fire. Unfortunately, fan-fire is far more uncomfortable than slam-fire is on just about every blaster that has it, making it far less of an awesome feature for the Sweet Revenge as slam-fire is for say the Alpha Trooper.

Now for performance.
Ranges are 13-14m, with a few stray low and high shots. Consistency is a little lacking, which is partly due to the Rebelle darts and partly due to the open cylinder design. Decent considering that the SR works with just one hand, but a little low for the Elite line.
Accuracy is rather lacking, with darts often swerving quite far from a straight path. At maximum range, deviation is up to 1.5m left or right on a bad shot, which is quite large considering the accuracy of a lot of other Elite blasters.
There are the occasional dud shots that fly only a few metres and swerve really badly, but not particularly often. It's enough to be worth writing about, but it's not consistent or frequent.
Maximum ROF is determined by your ability to 'fan-fire' the Sweet Revenge. I really don't recommend it as the stock hammer digs painfully into the side of your palm and makes fan-firing incredibly painful. Using regular priming techniques, a ROF of around 2dps is possible as well as stable if you use both hands.
Here's a video of SR rapid firing.

After just 5 fan-fire shots, the side of my palm was quite sore for several minutes.

In summary, the Sweet Revenge is a great blaster. Though it isn't the best revolver statistically, its hammer action sets it apart from the rest, making it worth owning along side other revolvers like the Strongarm. Though its performance is not the best we've seen from Nerf blasters, it does beat its one-handed competitor, the Snapfire 8, but more on that in a future post. It is available for 24AUD at BigW only, which may seem a little expensive considering Strongarms can be bought for around 12AUD at Kmart. However, the Hammershot is also available in Australia, for 24AUD at Target, and no that is not a typo. The Sweet Revenge is available for the same price as the Hammershot meaning that unless you have a particular preference for whatever reason, there is no reason to get the Hammershot instead of the Sweet Revenge. 24AUD may be a ltitle steep for a revolver, but with the Sweet Revenge it's much better value due to the inclusion of the holster and Vision Gear.
Besides all of the above mentioned, the Sweet Revenge is noteworthy simply because it is ridiculously fun to use. Though all Nerf blasters are meant to be fun, the Sweet Revenge as a hammer action revolver is one of the most fun blasters I've ever used, and definitely should be considered if you're looking for a fun blaster to use.
I highly recommend picking up a Sweet Revenge kit, or at least a Hammershot (assuming they perform the same) if you live in a place where Hammershots are cheaper.

Pros: Hammer action is unique (Hammershot isn't really a different blaster, just the same blaster with a different shell), unique holster fits SR well and holds three darts, free Rebelle Vision Gear, handle is incredibly comfortable, SR is fun to use - more so than other blasters
Cons: Capacity inferior to most other revolvers e.g. Strongarm and Snapfire, prime can be hard with small hands or a stronger spring, fan-fire is terrible, inaccurate compared to other revolvers

Power: 6/7
Accuracy: 3/5
Value for Money: 5/5
Usability: 4.5/5
Rate of Fire: 3/5
Capacity: 1.5/5
Overall: 4.06/6

Personal Rating: 6/6 - though it is by no means a perfect blaster, it's just so much fun to use. That alone makes the SR worth the purchase.

I present to you a review of one of Nerf's few shotguns, the Elite Roughcut 2x4, in its Psuedo-Whiteout (henceforth called "White") paintjob no less!


The Roughcut is one of the two blasters in the "Multishot Madness" mini-series by Nerf, whose key unique feature is of course the ability to fire multiple projectiles with one shot. The Roughcut is the Elite line's contribution to the mini series, with the Vortex Diatron being Vortex's contribution. Besides the Diatron and Roughcut though, no other blaster is officially part of the Multishot Madness series, despite other blasters such as the Sledgefire being able to fire multiple darts.
 Out of the box, just the Roughcut and its 8 A. coded Elites. Note that a regular blue Elite Roughcut has a sealed box, while the White Roughcut has an open box, which seems to be a new marketing strategy for Nerf.

Just a good look at the sides of the White Roughcut. The awesome paintjob and the cool design of the Roughcut makes for one awesome looking blaster. I personally feel that the 2x4 barrel battery makes the Roughcut a little wide and far too tall, but I guess there's no other easy way to do the 2x4 multishot thing.
Here from the back of the Roughcut, you can see how the front iron sight lines up with the tac rail and the back iron sight. Also note the ribbing on the handle. It does nothing besides add texture.
From the top, you can see the width of the Roughcut by comparison with the tac rail.
Underneath, a couple of points noting include the width of the pump grip, which is rather narrow considering it's barely wider than the handle. Also note the length of the priming slot. Like other slam fire blasters, the Roughcut has a half-prime lock which prevents the pump grip from going past half way unless fully primed.
From in front, an empty battery of the eight barrels.
Loaded with its eight Elite darts.
Unlike other blasters I've used, the pump grip of the Roughcut is a little short and uncomfortable for my hands. It is quite angular and sharp, and this is not helped in any way by it being short and narrow.
From the other side, you can clearly see that my hand is significantly larger than the pump grip.


These pics show the length of the full prime. It's about the same length as the EAT, Rampage, Retaliator, etc.
The priming indicator in the side of the shell. There's one on each side, one for each plunger. There are two plungers, and each fires its side of the battery. The orange you see in the priming indicator is part of the plunger rod.
This is unprimed, with no plunger rod in sight.

And the other side, primed and unprimed.
Lining up the iron sights.

The handle of the Roughcut is possibly the most flat/rifle grip like that I have ever held. It's more flat than even the Longstrike's grip, which is already very flat by Nerf blaster handle standards. It's reasonably comfortable, especially when firing from the hip, but holding it up to aim down sights requires a shift in grip to maintain comfort.
Size comparison of the Retaliator vs the Roughcut. The Roughcut's not a huge amount shorter, thanks to the extra length from the Retaliator's butt. The Retaliator is taller by virtue of its pistol grip. The Roughcut is far wider naturally, due to its dual plunger tubes.
A sticker that was on my Roughcut. It's not a sticker I've found on other Nerf blasters, so the Roughcut must have particular trouble with darts stored in it.

The Roughcut is primed conventionally, by pulling the pump grip back all the way and then pushing it forward all the way. Like all other blasters there are various locks to prevent you from doing all sorts of things that a child may accidentally do. So pull back, push forward, fire. Just like so many other Nerf blasters,
What makes the Roughcut unique then? It's multishot ability. The Roughcut has two plunger tubes, which gives it the ability to fire two darts at once. Additionally, thanks to the design of the plunger catch, a partial trigger pull will fire the left side plunger, and a full trigger pull will fire the right side plunger. Thus a full trigger pull gives the illusion of multishot ability. The Roughcut uses a "smart AR" system like the Triad, which allows it to "know" which barrels are loaded and which are not. With a full load, the Roughcut fires both top loaded darts each prime and fire. So the first fire would shoot the top two darts, the second fire shoots the upper middle two darts, the third firing the lower middle two darts, and the fourth firing the bottom two darts.
When the Roughcut isn't fully loaded though, some unusual stuff happens.
Take this example of a not-fully-loaded Roughcut. The first half trigger pull would fire the top dart on the right in the second highest barrel (left side from shooter's POV), with a full pull firing the top left dart in the top barrel. The second half pull would fire the second dart on the right in the fourth barrel, with a full pull firing the second dart on the left, in the second barrel. In this way, the Roughcut's smart AR ensures that so long as there is a dart loaded on both sides of the battery, each half trigger pull will fire a dart and a full trigger pull will fire two darts.

The staged trigger pull also helps to conserve ammo, as it allows you to effectively fire off darts one by one with a little practice and trigger discipline. Doing so turns the Roughcut effectively into an eight shot blaster.

The Roughcut also has slam-fire. This allows you to hold down the trigger and repeatedly prime the blaster to rapid fire off a stream of darts. It's an awesome feature on any blaster that gets it, but on a blaster with double fire ability, it's downright deadly. I'm very pleased that Nerf decided to give the Roughcut slam-fire, even though it didn't need it to have a good dart output.

And now of course, performance.
Range wise the Roughcut is not quite on par with other Elite blasters, reaching an average of around 11m roughly flat. The range is actually rather hard to measure, as the Roughcut is extremely inconsistent.
Accuracy is severely lacking. Darts swerve everywhere after around 6m of travel, making it almost impossible to get a solid hit that isn't due to luck at 8m+. The double shot feature compensates for this slightly, but one good shot is far better than two or even three horrid shots.
As for the rate of fire, oh man. Though the pump grip is uncomfortable, the simple fact that the Roughcut has slam-fire means that it has potential for a good rate of fire. Couple that with double dart firing ability, and you have a blaster that is inferior in ROF to a select few blasters, namely the Magstrike AS-10 and Powerclip DX-1000, and possibly the Rapid Fire AS-20 and Wildfire. Though I never got around to measuring its dart output, I estimate at least 10dps if you really put effort into it.

Do note that improving the range through spring upgrades is difficult, as the Roughcut uses a gearbox system whose gears are very prone to stripping if the springs you use are too powerful. This means that the Roughcut is more limited in range than any of its other Elite brethren.

So how can the Roughcut be summed up? The best way I can describe it is that the Roughcut is an awesome looking blaster great for spewing out darts quickly (though it runs dry just as quickly) and looking awesome, but good luck trying to get any hits with it at a reasonable range. It's regular retail is around 40AUD, with its cheapest being 20AUD on sale at Kmart. The White Roughcut is a Target exclusive, with standard price of 40AUD, although I got mine for 32AUD on sale. For 20-30AUD, I do recommend the Roughcut if you're looking for something fun, if you want to make a Masterkey, or if you want a blaster that can spew out a bunch of darts quickly. 40AUD is a bit much considering what else you can buy for that amount of money, such as an Elite Alpha or Retaliator. I wouldn't recommend the Roughcut as your primary war blaster unless you're using it in close quarters, as the multi-shot and horrid accuracy will waste your ammo incredibly quickly.

It's a fun blaster, but don't expect to dominate the Nerf battlefield with it.

Pros: Double shot ability, slam-fire gives ridiculous dart output, looks and feels awesome
Cons: Ammo wastage due to double shot and horrid accuracy, range is slightly lacking, pump is uncomfortable especially for slam-firing

Power: 4.5/7
Accuracy: 2/5
Value for Money: 4/5
Usability: 3.5/5
Rate of Fire: 5/5
Capacity: 3/5

Overall: 4.14/6

Personal Rating: 4/6 - Though it is quite impractical as a war blaster, there is still the fun and coolness of being a pump action shotgun. The mediocre range and horrid accuracy brings this rating down though.

Crispy over at SOFT has provided us with a range comparison of the orange and grey triggered Magni. See for yourself the results:

I made this very quickly and easily, using the Longstrike's sight base and a laser I took from another toy gun. Add some hot glue, and you have a quick and very easy tac rail laser attachment.
Obviously being attached to Nerf blasters, the laser has no use except in extremely low light close quarters where the laser dot can actually be seen and used.
This particular laser unit has a simple on/off switch rather than a push button.
On a few different blasters. It certainly looks cool, but it only has use when you can clearly see the laser dot, and that only really occurs in very low light (such as night time) and in close quarters (where darts have not yet dropped significantly).

It's been a while since my last video (or post for that matter) so I thought I'd make a video looking at my modded Big Bad Bow (BBB).

It seems Mattel wants to get back in on the blaster action. After the legendary Mattel Ultimator with supposed 120ft ranges, they're finally coming back in 2014 with the BOOMco. line of blasters. They're trying to compete with the Elite line, with claimed 70ft ranges.

Props to Buffdaddy Nerf for compiling all of the information so far into a single post.

Boom Co. does have a website at http://www.boom-co.com/comingsoon but there's not much besides a video.

This is the "Clipfire", a small single shot pistol with a claimed range of 60ft. Seems pretty standard.
  
These are "Farshot" blasters, with the double pack being called "Dual Defenders". These seem to be ordinary slide action single shots, with dart storage in the handles supposedly.

Now this is one I'm excited for, the "Rapid Madness". A twenty dart clip and a pump? Looks to be the new Magstrike, and judging by the video on the website, it is the new Magstrike. Probably the most expensive of the lot, but for me definitely the most exciting.

The last of the non-watermarked images, the "Twisted Spinner". Due to lack of a trigger, it seems to be perma slamfire, and judging by the video the turret spins around a lot before reaching the next dart. Cool, but impractical.

A better picture of the clip and darts. These darts look longer and thinner than Nerf dart, so probably no compatability there, which is a shame. The tips have been designed to stick to the provided targets, and nothing else. Also note the ribbing just beneath the head of the darts. The clip looks pretty similar in design to the Magstrike mag.

Also to note, the grey handguard looking shell pieces actually flip up to form shields which the darts are meant to stick to.

The following images are watermarked, and probably weren't for public distribution, but they managed to sneak out anyway.


This is the "Whipblast" and seems to prime by rotating around the handguard. Sounds like fun, but it's probably not that practical, seeing as it looks like a single shot.
This one is called the "Smart Shot", and looks like a pull-and-release blaster.
This is the "Stealth Ambush", and looks like a fusion of the clips of the Rapid Madness with the priming and firing of the Twisted Spinner.
The two pack of the Clipfire with some extra bits, including two awesome safety glasses, some extra targets, and two sticky ball grenade type things.

I emailed Mattel regarding whether or not the BOOMco. blasters would come to Australia, and this was the response:
So look out for the BOOMco. blasters later this year. I asked if they had any estimated retail prices, but as in the email, they have no details on that at the moment.

It's that time of year again.
Stuff I got:

• Elite Stockade (mainly for the stock)
• Some Elite darts
• A new wallet
• Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright (3DS game)
• Lego Star Wars Kashyyyk Troopers (75035)
• Lego Star Wars Droid Gunship (75042)
• MONEYYYYYYY

Not much Nerf stuff this time round. My mum thinks I have too many blasters so I haven't been getting much new stuff recently.

Scenario Description: Loadouts that we use.
Keys to Victory: N/A
Unnecessary Burdens: N/A

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Clip System 1b (General use mid range)

Primary: Elite Alpha Trooper CS-12 (Stockade stock, EPPS, SSPS on side, 12 dart clip, AR removed, OMW 5kg spring)
Secondary: Rebelle Sweet Revenge
Gear: N-Strike Tactical Vest, Sweet Revenge holster
Ammo: 12 dart clips, whatever suitable darts (stefans or Elite darts) 
Purpose: To provide well rounded, tacticool and generally awesome clip system-ness.
Strengths: Range (primary), ROF, reloading is fast, secondary is good and reliable, jamming is rare, looks amazingly tacticool and awesome, secondary can be used one-handed
Weaknesses: Accuracy (unless use of stefans), primary is useless while reloading
Description: A slight alteration of the usual Elite Alpha loadout, this one loses the extra power of the BT spring for a much easier to use OMW spring, greatly improving the ergonomics of the EAT. Additionally, the Stockade stock is the most comfortable good looking stock around. The Triad has been replaced with my new favourite sidearm, the Sweet Revenge.

Clip System 1c (Close range)

Primary: Elite Alpha Trooper CS-12 (EPPS, 18 dart drum, AR removed)
Secondary: Elite Jolt EX-1
Gear: None
Ammo: Extra 12 dart clip, Elite darts
Purpose: To provide a lightweight and effective loadout for close quarters
Strengths: ROF, reloading is fast, jamming is rare, very light
Weaknesses: Accuracy, range is a little lacking for longer ranged engagements
Description: This loadout sacrifices the power of an upgrade spring for much improved safety in close quarters and super easy priming. This particular EAT loadout also allows for fantastic mobility due to being very lightweight and minimal. The 18 dart drum provides good capacity without being too large, while the 12 dart clip is easy to store in a large pocket. The Jolt is an effective pocket pistol sidearm and also fits easily in any pocket. I'm looking at getting a US spec stock spring to slightly upgrade the EAT for CQC, since the Aus spec is terrible.

Clip System 2b (General use)

Primary: Elite Stryfe (Stockade stock, EPPS, Retal barrel with Roughcut Masterkey, 18 dart clips, 2 IMR 14500s, rewired)
Secondary: None or Rebelle Sweet Revenge
Gear: N-Strike Tactical Vest, Sweet Revenge holster (optional)
Ammo: 18 dart clips, Elite darts
Purpose: To provide tacticool flywheel goodness with a multi-shot underslung backup
Strengths: Range (primary), ROF, reloading is super fast, practically no chance of jams, Roughcut allows instant-fire shots if the Stryfe is not revved up, Roughcut fires multiple darts to increase chances of hits
Weaknesses: Accuracy (less so than before), primary must be revved up for max range, rapid fire reduces range temporarily, range lost over time due to draining of batteries, Roughcut wastes a lot of darts
Description: This loadout is my version of the ever popular Stryfe-Roughcut Masterkey. My particular Roughcut fires two darts from each side of the barrels, rather than the usual one. This makes it much easier to drench an opponent in foam, but also much easier to waste all of my ammo. The Stryfe itself is unchanged, it is just more accurate than before thanks to the barrel, and nowhere near as light or small as before. The Stockade stock has 10 dart storage, perfect for the Roughcut. The Sweet Revenge is an optional sidearm, as the underslung Roughcut already acts as a sidearm/backup blaster.

Multishot 1 (CQC)

Primary: Elite Roughcut 2x4 (hot glue spring spacer)
Secondary: Rebelle Sweet Revenge
Gear: Dart holding pouch, Sweet Revenge holster
Ammo: Elite darts
Purpose: To provide an effective multishot spread for close quarters combat
Strengths: Multishot and spread (primary), secondary is one-handable
Weaknesses: Accuracy, Roughcut wastes a lot of darts due to multishot, low capacity
Description: The Roughcut is one of the few plunger blasters that consistently and effectively fires multiple darts in a single trigger pull. I've enhanced it by doubling its dart output, at the cost of some power and much more dart wastage. This enhanced multishot ability makes the Roughcut deadly in close combat, especially when the rules we use are one-shot-kills. The Sweet Revenge is meant to be used when the Roughcut's spread is not needed or it is out of ammo. Considering the Roughcut fires four of its eight darts per full trigger pull, it's very easy to empty. The staged trigger of the Roughcut does help conserve ammo, but firing a quarter of its load per half trigger pull still results in an empty Roughcut very quickly.

Multishot 2 (CQC)

Primary: Zombie Strike Sledgefire
Secondary: Rebelle Sweet Revenge
Gear: Dart holding pouch, Sweet Revenge holster, Sledgefire shell pouch if necessary (use camo ammo pouch)
Ammo: Elite darts, extra Sledgefire shells if possible
Purpose: To provide maximum fun and coolness.
Strengths: Multishot and spread (primary), secondary is one-handable
Weaknesses: Accuracy, Sledgefire cannot single shot, slow reloading (primary), low capacity, low-ish range (primary)
Description: In close quarters casual Nerfing, the Sledgefire is one of the most fun blasters you can use. Nothing beats the sheer awesome of the solid thump of the Sledgefire's plunger and seeing three darts fly out, followed by breaking the barrel and loading in a shell. The performance of the Sledgefire isn't great, but seriously, for a casual close quarters game the sheer awesome of the Sledgefire overrides all practical flaws.
Not to mention that the spread is deadly at close range, even if it is just 3 darts.
The Sweet Revenge is superior for potshots, rapid fire, accuracy, and basically anything that isn't spread or sheer awesome.


Nerffan:

Vortex 1b (General Use)
Primary: Vortex Pyragon (40 disc drum, no stock)
Secondary: Elite Triad/Jolt/None
Gear: None
Ammo: Vortex Discs
Purpose: To provide an accurate primary that is easily spammable for rushing/defending.
Strengths: Accuracy, high capacity, spammable
Weaknesses: Discs curve, low velocity, general Vortex weaknesses.
Description: The Pyragon, as stated by many, is easily one of the best Vortex blasters released so far, even though it was released two years ago. I've slightly modified my original loadout, losing the Vortex Ammo Belt Kit  as it added unnecessary ammo and gear for a short outdoor/ long indoor war. I tend to like to conserve my ammo, so I can outlast my opponenets, and the slam-fire function allows me to overwhelm many opponents, such as 4/10 of the other team in an indoor TDM game.

Revolver 1 (General Use)
Primary: Sweet Revenge
Secondary: Elite Triad
Gear: Sweet Revenge Holster, Dart Pouch
Ammo: Elite darts
Purpose: To provide a very lightweight loadout for a casual outdoor war, with a dual-wielding factor.
Strengths: Dual-wieldable, potshots, Lightweight
Weaknesses: Accuracy(Primary), low capacity( secondary and primary),
Description: Unlike many Nerfers, I've chosen to use the Sweet Revenge, which is generally shunned as a primary as it has low stats suitable for a primary. In my living environment, I have almost no opportunity to attend a proper large-scale war so I tend to use smaller blasters. I intend to upgrade the Triad's spring as to provide some more power and accuracy to back-up the somewhat medicroe performance of the Sweet Revenge. However, the primary and secondary can be wielded at the same time, thanks to them being extremely lightweight and suitable for one-handed use.

Riot Shield 1 (Indoor CQC)
Primary: Cardboard riot shield
Secondary: Rebelle Sweet Revenge (To be purchased)
Gear: Dart holding pouch, Rebelle Sweet Revenge Holster
Ammo: Elite darts
Purpose: To provide a movable protection with an one-handed reliable dart-firing sidearm
Strengths: Dart compatibility, secondary is one handed
Weaknesses: Is vulnerable to rushing, attacking from behind
Description: In wars where cardboard riot shields are allowed, the ultimate loadout would be wielding a riot shield. In the past, riot-shield wielders would have had difficulty with a suitable sidearm. With the introduction of one-handed blasters like the Rebelle Sweet Revenge, the low-weight point of both the shield and the Sweet Revenge make it a deadly combo, especially indoors, where there is less room to attack a shield-wielders from behind. I specifically chose the Sweet Revenge as it includes a holster, which is useful for storing the blaster when not in use.

Single shot 1b (Indoor CQC)
Primary: DT Sharp Shot
Secondary: Rebelle Sweet Revenge (To be purchased)
Gear: Sweet Revenge Holster, Dart pouch
Ammo: Elite darts & Whistler Darts
Purpose: To provide an accurate and high powered primary that is easily backed up by a light, one-handed secondary.
Strengths: Accuracy, range, low weight point
Weaknesses: Vulnerability when reloading, secondary doesn't have the best performance
Description:  This is another version of my 'sniper' loadout. The Praxis is now replaced by the Sweet Revenge, as it's easily stored in its holster and can be wielded on-handed, meaning you can reload, pick up darts with your other hand etc. The Vortex Ammo Belt is also replaced by a dart pouch, as to resolve ammo compatibility issues and to lose unnecessary weight.

This post is a somewhat overdue one, but hopefully will entertain you guys long enough to get my Stockade review done. It's a comparison of Nerf's two one-handable revolvers, the Snapfire and the Sweet Revenge/Hammershot.

For the most part the Sweet Revenge will also serve as a good indicator of the Zombie Strike Hammershot for this comparison.

Aesthetics: The Snapfire uses Dart Tag's yellow and black paintjob, with an unusual rounded design. The Snapfire in particular has minimal aesthetic design outside of the necessary, and almost no paint. Additionally, the Snapfire bulges out for the turret, yet is quite slim at the back. The Sweet Revenge on the other hand is quite heavily styled, prominently featuring Rebelle style decals all over, and is much better proportioned. I personally prefer the Sweet Revenge's decals, proportioning and general design, but as usual for aesthetics no marks are awarded.
Accessories: The Snapfire includes itself and 8 Dart Tag Whistler darts. It's Speed/Power modes are a feature, but not enough to count as an accessory in this category. The Sweet Revenge (Kit) comes with itself, 5 teal (no decal) Rebelle darts, a holster and Rebelle Vision Gear.
It's pretty obvious that the Sweet Revenge wins this round.
Range/Power: The Snapfire gets 8-10m on its Speed mode, on par with older N-Strike blasters. On power mode it gets 11-13m, which is on par with the best N-Strike blasters. It still pales in comparison to Elites. The Sweet Revenge on the other hand gets 13-14m fairly consistently.
Clearly the Sweet Revenge wins this round.
Accuracy: Both the Snapfire and Sweet Revenge suffer from being open-turret revolvers (which are typically less accurate than closed-turret revolvers like the Maverick), and both use ammo types which are not superbly accurate. The Snapfire being a springer semi auto however is much harder to get stable shots off due to the force required to prime it. Though single hand priming the Sweet Revenge does take some practice, just firing the Sweet Revenge does not require the destabilising force required to prime and fire the Snapfire.
For this reason the Sweet Revenge wins the accuracy round.
Usability: The Snapfire's firing cycle is rather unusual. The majority of the trigger pull primes the blaster, with an early portion also rotating the turret. The very end of the trigger pull releases the plunger, firing the blaster. This full cycle can get very strenuous on your trigger finger, especially on Power mode. In particular, younger persons will have a lot of trouble due to the amount of strength required in the trigger finger to fire. It also doesn't help to have small hands, as they prevent you from getting the desired leverage on the trigger, and can make you struggle quite a bit to get just one shot off. Even worse, the trigger is rather sharp and has a very long pull distance, making firing the Snapfire very painful and un-enjoyable. Not pulling the trigger all the way will result in misfires or bad rotations, potentially leaving you on a blank barrel or giving you a terrible dud shot.
On the other hand, one-hand priming the Sweet Revenge requires either large hands/long fingers, or shifting your regular grip to get your thumb onto the hammer. Though it's not that comfortable to do one handed, it's a lot more comfortable and far easier to do than the Snapfire.
Because of how much easier it is to one hand, and the greatly reduced chance of misrotations/misfires, the Sweet Revenge wins this round.
Rate of Fire: The Snapfire can get 2-3 darts out per second, though it gets very taxing on your trigger finger. The Sweet Revenge gets about 1 dart per second, but two-handed it can get around 2 darts per second.
Because of the pain that arises from firing the Snapfire at 3dps, this round is a draw.
Capacity: The Snapfire holds 8 darts, while the Sweet Revenge holds 5.
Clearly the Snapfire wins this round.
Value for Money: When the Snapfire was available in stores, it cost 19AUD at Target. The Sweet Revenge is currently available for 24AUD at BigW (do note BigW likes having lower than RRP prices, while Target typically stays at RRP). The Snapfire's main advantages are capacity and not having a separate priming action, while the Sweet Revenge has more stuff, better performance and a much easier one-hand prime. Though performance and comfort are major points, the huge capacity difference is also quite important. As I am unable to commit a point to one of the blasters without doubting myself, I must declare this round a draw. The Snapfire's greater capacity and lower price balance out the Sweet Revenge's stuff and superior performance for me.

At the end of this comparison, the Snapfire has won 1 round, the Sweet Revenge 4, with 2 draws. Thus I declare the Sweet Revenge to be the superior blaster. Had this been a comparison with the Hammershot, the Snapfire would have won the accessories and value for money rounds, as the Hammershot costs 24AUD at Target (the cheapest around), yet does not have the accessories of the Sweet Revenge. This would have created a 3-3 tie, with 1 tie round. For that comparison, the Snapfire would be a superior choice if you had to survive on your own due to its greater capacity, while the Hammershot would be better for general use due to its superior comfort and performance.

Behold, my first review in ages! This review will be of one of the first Elites to be released, and like a lot of the early Elites, it is a remake of an N-Strike blaster.
The Stockade is a remake of the N-Strike Barricade. Unlike some of the other Elite remakes, the Stockade includes its own unique accessory that the Barricade didn't have, a stock. Besides that stock though, the Stockade is the same as the other Elite remakes, with a near identical shell and new internals.
Due to their similarities, consider reading my review of the Barricade.
 Here's everything you get out of the box, besides the instructions and other useless rubbish. You get the Stockade, the stock, and 10 Elite darts. The Barricade had only itself and 10 Whistlers.

Darts were J. coded for those of you who care.

Everything assembled, with 5 darts in the Stockade turret and five in the dart holders of the stock. 
The colour scheme makes the Stockade look much better than the Barricade despite them having the same shell.

Let's look at the base Stockade blaster first.

As clearly evident, the Stockade appears to just be a blue painted Barricade. It's chunky and bulky while also being very short.
Like the Barricade, the Stockade is characterised by its unusually large muzzle and flywheel section,

it's bulging 10 dart turret,
and a short jam door not found on any other revolvers.

The Stockade is very clearly an Elite blaster though, as evidenced by the Elite logos,

the white and grey/silver detailing,

and of course the ever disappointing grey trigger.

The Stockade isn't a very tacticool blaster, having only one tactical rail,

and a stock attachment point. Just like the Barricade.
The Stockade also has a single sling point at the bottom of its handle.


Here's the Stockade in hand. Like the Barricade, it sports a rather large handle which I myself find a little uncomfortable. It probably suits those of you who are larger teens/adults, but for child hands they're probably not great.

The Stockade takes 3 AAs inside the orange plate with the Elite logo on it. Unlike the usual 4 batteries now found on the Stryfe, Hailfire, Rayven and Rapidstrike.
The Stockade is a flywheeler like the Barricade, but unlike modern flywheelers uses the more traditional (and more annoying) thumb switch to turn the flywheels on and off. The thumb switch also blocks trigger movement when in the 'off' position.
This lets you leave the Stockade on without having to hold a button, but is much less user friendly than the acceleration trigger, as the thumb switch is much harder to turn on and off.

The Stockade is a semi auto blaster, firing one dart every time you pull the trigger fully. The 'fully' part is very important, as the dart will only catch the flywheels at the very end of the trigger pull.
The first half of the trigger pull rotates the turret, while the second half is devoted to pushing the dart into the flywheels.
There is a trigger lock in the trigger, which prevents the trigger from moving forward if the trigger has been half pulled but not fully pulled. This usually results in jams at the most inopportune times.

The jam door area has a small hole that shows a small green patch on the jam door when the jam door is closed.

Furthermore, when the jam door is open (which you would logically do when you feel a jam), you cannot unlock the trigger from this position, as the trigger does not move past the lock point when the jam door is open. The trigger does lock though.

This trigger lock is incredibly annoying, usually jamming up when nothing is wrong. This and the aforementioned thumb switch cause the Stockade to lose a lot of usability marks.

The Stockade's semi auto nature results in single hand firing being very unstable. The length of the trigger pull in particularly is one of the longest of any Nerf blaster, being shorter than only the Snapfire. This results in one-handing, particularly by kids, being very difficult to get much accuracy from. By two-handing the Stockade, you do get much needed stability which lets you get off much more accurate and stable shots, as well as an easier trigger pull as your main hand does not have to support the blaster and fire it all on its own.

Rather annoyingly, the Stockade doesn't have any particularly good place for your second hand to hold on to. The shell underneath the turret is not quite large enough to get a good grip on, while the bottom of the flywheel case is a little uncomfortable and also has a small risk of the Elites dragging on the back of your hand, potentially causing jams.

The Stockade's 10 dart barrel gives you a superior capacity to just about every other revolver, and its semi auto gives you the ability to empty the Stockade faster than a lot of other revolvers.

Finally, here's the Stockade compared to the base Stryfe and Retaliator.


Now let's look at the Stockade's stock, by far the most interesting part of the Stockade, and probably the main reason people buy the Stockade.

The Stockade stock is the first detachable stock to have dart holders. It's also only the second Elite detachable stock to be released, the first being the Retaliator's stock.


The butt section of the stock appears hollow, but is rather solid. The actual butt is rather small, being significantly thinner than the butt support, which results in the butt feeling like it cuts into your shoulder if you press on it too hard. I usually don't press this hard, but for those of you who do, this may not be the stock for you.
Unlike the Retaliator stock which is stocky and bulky, the Stockade stock is actually fairly thin, except for the cheek rest, the butt and of course the attachment point. Despite this, it is extremely sturdy, at least on an EAT/Stryfe/Retaliator.
Here's a closer look at the inside of the dart holders. As some of you may have noticed, they greatly resemble the dart holders found on the old N-Strike Firefly REV-8. Thanks to the small ridges on the inside, the dart holders hold Elites quite snugly. Note that darts are much easier to insert from below than above due to the cheek rest, which also pretty much prevents you from removing darts upwards.
The Stockade stock does have a bar seemingly designed for slings, however inserting darts into the dart holders will prevent you from using a sling, and using a sling will prevent you from using some of the dart holders. Additionally, a sling attached to the bottom bar will jiggle about a lot, making a lot of noise.

Here's the Stockade stock compared to the other two blue stocks, the Raider stock (top) and Retaliator stock (bottom). The Raider stock is fully extended and is slightly longer, however feels very slightly weaker, purely due to it being extendable/retractable. The Retaliator stock is significantly shorter, and is bulkier and slightly lower than the Stockade stock. Of these three stocks I far prefer the Stockade stock because of its stability and extra function of holding darts.

Here's the Stockade stock compared to the Super Soaker Lightning Storm stock. The latter is possibly the sturdiest stock ever made by Nerf, being even more solid than the Stockade stock. However, it is slightly longer (which I find a little uncomfortable), and the butt is much flatter, making it easier to slip off your shoulder. The Stockade stock 'grips' onto your should much better, making it my preferred stock.

Like the Retaliator's stock, the Stockade stock does not attach to the Pyragon, Praxis or Lumitron. This is a little disappointing, but since the dart holders are redundant on said blasters, isn't that much of a negative.

Here's the Stockade stock on the Stryfe and Retaliator. It works fantastically on both of them.



Since I don't use the Stockade for wars, I can't really comment on how well the Stockade stock combines with it, but having used an EAT and Stryfe with the Stockade stock, it works really well. The dart holders allow you to hold an extra bunch of darts for when you have no time to pick them up off the ground. I suspect the Stockade will probably work pretty well with its stock given its open turret allowing for fast reloads.

So how does the Stockade perform? Being a grey trigger Elite, it's not that much better than a Barricade, but it still does ok-ish.
Ranges with used rechargeable AAs is around 10-11m. Rapid fire drops ranges depending on just how fast you fire, with 8m or less ranges possible. Brand new non-rechargeable AAs will probably get 12-14m depending on quality.
Accuracy is surprisingly decent with the Stockade given it is a flywheeler. Spread at maximum range has a radius of only 0.5m, and most of the shots landed at the same distance. Of course there will be a few duds and stray shots, but the majority of shots flew relatively straight.
Rate of fire is pretty good, however the Stockade still has the annoying half-trigger-pull lock which has a tendency to lock up if you start rapid-firing and don't pull the trigger hard all the way.

The Stockade retails for around 27-30AUD, typically available from BigW and Kmart. Elsewhere is significantly more expensive. So is the Stockade worth your cash? Honestly, probably not. Besides the awesome stock, the Stockade is largely outclassed by other Elites. Its place as a one-handable revolver has been taken by the Hammershot/Sweet Revenge and to some extent the Snapfire. It has pretty much no advantage over the other Elite flywheelers, the Stryfe, Elite Rayven, and Rapidstrike, except capacity when using 6 clips (which almost no-one uses anyway). The sole reasons for getting a Stockade are for collection/completion and for the stock.

If you can find one for cheap, consider getting it for the stock, but unless you really love the Barricade/Stockade design, I don't recommend actively hunting one down for war use.


Pros: The stock is solid, holds darts, is a good length for me, and is just all round awesome.
Cons: The blaster is the total opposite, lacking notable range, accuracy and rate of fire (due to the trigger lock), and generally just being outclassed by clip fed flywheelers.

Power: 4.5/7
Accuracy: 4.5/5
Value for Money: 3.5/5
Usability: 2.5/5
Rate of Fire: 4/5
Capacity: 5/5

Overall: 4.54/6

Personal Rating: 3.5/6 - while the blaster itself is inferior to a lot of other Elites, the stock is fantastic, being a decent length, sturdy and capable of holding ammo. It's my favourite stock among all of Nerf's stocks.

If you were wondering why I didn't put comparison pictures up, it's simply because I no longer have any stock Barricades to compare with. Sorry about that.

Today's comparison will be of one of the first Elite blasters released, and one of the later N-Strike blasters.






Aesthetics: While the two blasters share the same base shell, the Barricade is primarily just yellow with few highlights, while the Stockade makes the point of having white and silver highlights on its primarily blue shell. I feel that the Stockade looks superior, but of course no points here.
Accessories: The Barricade comes with itself and 10 Whistlers.
The Stockade comes with itself, 10 Elite darts and a unique stock.
Stockade wins of course.
Range/Power: The Barricade got around 9m using Whistlers, and was rather consistent if you let the motors recover between shots. Already a little low by N-Strike standards, the Barricade is very outclassed compared to Elites.
The (grey trigger) Stockade on the other hand, gets around 10-11m on used rechargeable AAs. 12-14m ranges are possible if you use new out of box, good quality non-rechargeables.
Stockade wins again, though not by that much.
Accuracy: The Barricade uses Whistlers, which are reasonably accurate. Though the Barricade does lose a bit of accuracy from being flywheel, on the whole it's not bad especially compared to a lot of clip system blasters.
The Stockade on the other hand uses Elite darts. Though its low power isn't enough to send Elites spiraling out of control, they do still swerve about a little.
Both blasters 'recoil' a little when you pull the trigger, simply because of how far you have to pull to fire.
By Elite standards the Stockade is pretty good, but it still doesn't have the same consistency you get from using Whistlers, and for that reason the Barricade wins this round.
Usability: In this section I'm going to ignore the extra benefits of the Stockade's stock, since it would otherwise immediately give the Stockade the win. Both blasters share the same flaws, with the half-trigger-pull lock and the jam door trigger lock, as well as the thumb switch on/off rather than the much more comfortable push button found on most other flywheelers. So this round comes down to how the motors compare. The Stockade has different motors to the Barricade, which is the only reason Elite ranges are possible with 3AAs. The one main usability difference that I noticed was the noise. The Barricade, despite taking only 3AAs is somewhat noisy, with the whirring being immediately noticeable and annoying. The Stockade is significantly quieter. Though it still has the distinctive flywheel whine, it is much less noticeable and thus much less annoying than the Barricade, and for that reason the Stockade wins this round.
Rate of Fire: Both the Barricade and Stockade have the same trigger mechanism, thus have equal ROFs and thus this round is a draw.
Capacity: Both blasters have the same 10 dart turret, but the Stockade's stock holds 10 extra darts. For that reason the Stockade wins this round.
Value for Money: The Barricade was available for 30-35AUD back when it was still around. It was initially available in Target, but slowly spread to other stores as the year wore on. The Stockade is currently available for 27AUD or more, from a variety of retailers. As the Stockade has basically a free stock compared to the Barricade, and is available for as much or even less, it wins this round.

Overall the N-Strike Barricade has won 1 round, the Stockade 5, with 1 draw. Thus I declare the Elite Stockade the winner of this comparison. Had I instead compared the Barricade's value pack (includes a yellow Raider stock), both the Accessories and Value for Money rounds would be draws rather than Stockade purely due to the inclusion of the stock. The Stockade would still have won, but it would have been a closer 3:1 rather than the 5:1 thrashing it currently is.

So some time ago I posted that my ranges were not true flat. But behold!
Future ranges will all be "true flat". I may go and revise past ranges, provided those blasters are still stock.

Just as an example of true flat vs perceived flat ranges, here are some numbers.
(blaster, true flat, perceived flat)
EAT, ~20m, ~25m
W/O Longstrike, 12-13m, 15m
Retal 1, 15-20m, ~20-25m
Retal 2, 18-20m, ~25-30m
Stryfe, 16-17m, ~20m
Sweet Revenge, 17m, 17m

Note that of all the blasters tested, the only one that was actually held flat before the level was the Sweet Revenge, the only blaster that was held like a pistol.
Thanks to trig, I've also determined that for clip system blasters with the Stockade stock, I naturally hold the blaster 9.65 degrees above the horizontal.

Conclusion? I'm a scumbag for giving non-flat ranges, yet asserting that they were flat. Sorry about that. Future ranges will be true flat as they will be measured using the above device. Of the past ranges I've given, the ones for pistol type blasters are probably more accurate than the ones I've given for larger blasters, since I seem to hold pistol blasters more level than larger blasters.

Thanks to Basic Nerf for the post, a new ZS blaster!
Normally I don't post new blaster posts, but I thought this one deserved it.
Source link: http://www.smythstoys.com/nerf-251sc/nerf-zombie-strike-longshot-136151itm.aspx?qwSessionID=7e3d20de-e870-44a7-b4ce-93374c0aaa6e

Yep, it seems the Longshot is not gone just yet!
Comes with Longshot in turquoise, orange LS Scope, and a 12 dart clip with 12 ZS darts. And that of course means no stupid useless Longshot Front Gun!
Note the lack of detailing on the stock, the slightly different ZS logo, the sticker that probably says "Exclusive to Target" or therabouts and the lack of bipod.

Also note the lack of a range claim. Hopefully this means that Nerf is sticking with regular Longshot internals, rather than replacing it with some other, smaller plunger system.

Us modders will probably be happy since it means an easy source of stock Longshots (for those of us who don't have access to Nerf stocking charity shops). For collecters, it's probably a different story since "ugh, another Longshot in a new colour I have to get".
Considering the number of people just getting into Nerf though, this is a great way to help newbie modders since it was (and still is) one of the best blasters for a variety of mods of varying complexity.

Naturally there have been questions on its legitimacy. Major arguments include the following:

• The bipod holes look unusual
• The bolt handle in the cartoon picture is not a regular Longshot bolt, instead the left bolt is just cut off
• The total lack of the bipod
• Lack of the "Longshot" raised portion on the front barrel section

So is this real? Well it was posted by a reputable site, however the fact that Nerf is pulling the Longshot of all blasters out is a little suspicious.
The description provided by said sites though seems pretty legit. It sounds just like other blaster descriptions, just neglecting to mention any range claims.

My thoughts?

Lack of detailing on the stock is a minor complaint, I liked the old stocks which had different grey accents.
Lack of bipod isn't a concern for me, it just makes it easier to attach shotgun grips =D
That orange scope I feel doesn't match the Longshot very well, but at least it'll work with the orange Elites.
The orange striping on the front is kind of cool, but I personally don't like the turquoise much myself. The red/blue or even yellow Longshots look better I feel than this one. But hey, it's a Longshot.
The inclusion of a 12 dart clip over the LSFG was a good decision. Pretty much noone uses the LSFG since it's so incredibly terrible, and I absolutely love the 12 dart clip. It works really well with the Longshot too.
I kind of feel like the ZSLS was rushed a little. The lack of detailing on the rear half of the blaster is a bit disappointing and a little suspicious, since all the other LSs had painted stocks. I feel like the stock is really boring without paint.

I personally would get one if it does come out, but just one because I'm not a fan of the colour.

Today I went off to BigW to take advantage of a 10% off coupon. The two things I had any interest in there were the Sweet Revenge Kit and the Mega Magnus.
The SR naturally gives me the ability to dual wield , since I already have one, and is also ideal for the Nerf group at Uni, since revolvers are great for newbies.
On the other hand, the Magnus was cheaper, and also new to me as I haven't gotten any Mega blasters yet (no way am I getting a Failturion). It also packs more powaaaa and better modability thanks to its huge direct plunger. Not to mention the awesomeness of firing huge darts.

So the winner of this contest? Well...


IT'S TIME TO D-D-D-D-D-D-DUAL...wield.
=D

The Rebelle Sweet Revenge comes with its own cheap plastic holster. Unfortunately for lefties and dual wielders, the holster only supports right handed holstering. Though left handers are a minority of the population, being right side only compatible means that you have to go out and buy a left handed holster just to dual wield Sweet Revenges. So I set out to fix that.

Behold, the terribly cheap, messy, ugly and terrible mod to make your Sweet Revenge holster left handed.



Tools:

• Saw or rotary tool (rotary tool preferred)
• File/rasp/other sanding devices (for cleaning up)
• Hot glue gun (if using hot glue)
• Scissors (for cutting e-tape)

Consumables:

• Sweet Revenge holster (duh)
• Cardboard or other slightly flexible material
• Long, stiff, thin objects such as nails (at least 4)
• Hot glue (other adhesives can be used but hot glue is cheap, easy to use, space filling and slightly flexible, making it pretty good for this application)
• E-tape (other tapes can be used)

 As you can see here, the Sweet Revenge holsters very well for right handed use...

 ...but not so for left handed use.

So let's begin.

 First, make two cuts in the holster like so...

 ...to separate the holster into three pieces. The left holds the turret holding arm, the middle holds the main body, and the right holds the tac rail.

 Rearrange the parts and dry fit them on top of the Sweet Revenge. It should like something like the one on the left. The right holster is the stock holster.


 E-tape the dry fitted pieces together so you can glue stuff on.

Cut out a piece of cardboard of roughly this size. It doesn't have to be any particular size or shape, it just has to reach both sides of the holster.

Hot glue it down onto all three pieces. Use excessive amounts of hot glue to secure it well.

Fill in those gaps with hot glue for extra strength.

Hot glue and a piece of cardboard won't be enough to hold the holster together, so get those four nails and hot glue them down. Use two of them to secure the left piece, and two to secure the right.

Go ahead and reinforce with other adhesives and more hot glue if you wish.

Now the main structure of the holster is done, but the other side has these four sharpish prongs. Lets get rid of them and use them to reinforce the holster.

Like so. Now the holster is no longer a threat to your health, and has slightly more strength than before.

Here you can better see the placement of the prongs.

And we're done! Use your file/rasp/sanding thing to clean up the holster, particularly on the inside to ensure smooth holstering/unholstering of the Sweet Revenge.


Here's the left handed holster on the left versus the stock holster on the right. It's clearly far messier and uglier than stock, but at least it has roughly the right dimensions.


 And here they are on my dual Sweet Revenges.

Congratulations! Now you can use your Sweet Revenge left handed.

Do I recommend this mod? Not really.
If you lack the money to go out and buy a proper left handed holster, or if the Sweet Revenge is the only sidearm you'll ever use, then sure this holster mod would save you some money. But if you're the sort of person who likes experimenting with different sidearm blasters, then your money is definitely better spent on getting a proper made holster.

EDIT:
New pic showing how much the cardboard has to be bent. Any other sheet you plan on using must be flexible enough to bend this much.

 So this is apparently a new thing for Rebelle.





Yep, an armband type thing that holds a few darts and the decoder for the Secrets and Spies subline.
Found for 8AUD at BigW.

EDIT: Whoops, accidentally published before it was complete. *facepalm*
I'll leave it up then, multiple updates to come.

The Magnus doesn't have a lot of expectation to live up to, but it does have a subline it needs to redeem. After the terrible failure that was the Failturion and its shred happy Mega darts, people were either expecting a total flop from the Magnus, or something so incredible it redeems the whole line. So does the Magnus redeem the Mega line?
First up, Magnus in the box. Pretty ordinary open box.


(more pictures, functionality and aesthetics stuff to come)

Compared to other Elite pistol blasters, the Magnus is really quite bulky. Though the Magnus isn't significantly long or high compared to say the Sweet Revenge/Hammershot or Maverick, the body of the Magnus is significantly wider (ignoring turret bulge), and its slide even wider still. The Magnus also has a huge underbarrel rectangular construction that adds significant bulk. All these large features add up to give the Magnus a handcannon feel when you hold it. This is bolstered by the Magnus' use of Nerf's new Elite Mega Darts.


Mega darts are a new ammo type created specifically for the Mega subline, so as to provide increased safety compared to Elites. They are significantly larger than Elites, so much so that an Elite will fit tightly within a Mega dart. The increased dart head surface area allows a higher velocity before the force becomes 'dangerous' (which is how safety of toy firearms is measured).

These new Mega darts are unrelated to the original vintage Mega darts, and the two are not interchangeable.
One main extra feature of these Mega darts is the fact that they are designed to whistle, much like the older Sonic Micros/Whistlers. In a similar fashion to the aforementioned darts, the Mega darts have two rectangular holes cut into the tip (on opposite sides).

Like Sonic Micros/Whistlers, the whistling of Mega darts is not totally consistent, and often requires a couple metres of flight before the whistling begins. At very close ranges (<3m) the whistling does not seem to occur at all for any of my darts. Beyond that range however whistling does often occur. About half of the time the whistle is loud and prominent. A further quarter whistles quietly as if dampened or muffled. The rest of the shots don't whistle at all.

Like Elites, the head of the Mega dart is not larger than the foam of the dart, so as to allow clip compatability.

One of the main issues with Megas is its construction. For Elites and all its cousins the foam thickness is about two thirds of that of the hole through the centre of the foam rod. This results in a sort of stiff dart that will hold its shape when lightly squished.

For Mega darts though, the hole through the foam is a similar diametre to that of an entire Elite dart, while the foam is only as thick as Elite foam. This results in a much more squishy dart. Though it hasn't caused me much trouble yet, this fragility is supposedly one of the reasons that the Failturion chomps through darts and jams so easily.

It is possible to insert an Elite into a Mega dart to make it more solid, however people have reported that you lose range from doing this.

The Mega dart was one of the main points of criticism for many. For the past few years, Nerf has been pushing the universality of the Elite dart, and phasing out all the various N-Strike darts. Coming out with an entirely new ammo type which isn't compatible with any past blasters means that if you want to use Mega blasters in Nerf wars, you'll have to stock up an additional cache of Mega darts, alongside the Elite darts you've stockpiled in the past two years.
I can understand the safety aspect of having larger darts for safety with more power, and I also acknowledge that firing larger than usual ammo is fun (rockets are an absolute blast to use [no pun intended]), but this key feature immediately reduces the viability of Mega blasters in Nerf wars.


Operating the Magnus is different to other blasters. Unlike the inbuilt clip blasters of the DT line (Speedload 6, Quick 16) where you could load in darts whenever you wanted, to load darts into the Magnus you have to pull the slide back.

This opens up the inbuilt clip in the gap where the slide's gap normally is.

Loading in darts isn't normal fare either.  The slot for loading darts is marginally too short to be able to easily push the dart straight down.

Instead, you have to push the head of the dart in first...

...followed by the rear of the dart. You could push the rear in first and then the head, but I find this to be much harder than the method I described, because the rear of the dart is much harder to push in. The dart's head makes the front of the dart more rigid than the rear.

Once one dart is in, repeat for the rest, and close the slide. The opening and closing of the slide is the priming action of the blaster.
One strange issue I found was that before much use the right dart retention plate was stuck in its open position like so.

This resulted in the darts moving ever so slightly to the right. While this didn't seem to make much of a difference when closing the slide, it annoyed my OCD and seemed to clip the side of the dart. I haven't had any significant dart damage done yet though, which is good.

Firing the Magnus feels very different to regular Elite darts. While most Elite springers fire with a muffled pop courtesy of their fairly weak springs and good air restrictors, the Magnus fires with quite a thunk. Though it is still muffled, the thunk is much louder and more violent than other Elite springers. It's nowhere near recoil inducing, but you can certainly feel the power of the Magnus, even in the grey trigger version.
The feeling of power is one of the features that makes the Magnus a fun blaster, and really adds to the handcannon feel.

So now most importantly, does the Magnus live up to its Mega series claims?

Ranges are fairly impressive. Though it is quite inconsistent, most shots land between 13m and 16m flat, which for a downtuned grey trigger blaster is pretty good. That and the fact the Magnus is firing Mega darts gives it full power points. Can it get the claimed 22m range? At steep angles yes, probably.
As for accuracy though, oh boy. At 9m, I got maybe 2/3ds of the shots through the door. That is, a full door that easily fits even a large human. A door that most clip system blasters can get at least 2/3ds of their Streamlines through. At full range, accuracy is non-existent. I honestly don't know if the accuracy could be much worse.
Rate of fire is not outright bad, but certainly not very good. I can get a shot of maybe every 0.75 seconds safely. Besides the slide prime length being quite long, there's also a fair amount of resistance, much more than say a Retaliator slide. Additionally priming too fast gives a weird feeling of potentially jamming the Magnus, as well as damaging the Mega darts inside.

So all things considered, should you get the Magnus?
If you're a die hard practicality fan, probably not. While it does have pretty good range (and is very easily moddable to greater ranges), the lack of accuracy makes its range pretty much worthless. Especially when you consider the Magnus uses Elite Mega darts, which are not the same as the vintage Mega darts, and are not a dart size seen anywhere else making dart pickup much harder, as well as the low capacity and comparitively large and bulky shell, the Magnus is really just a pain to lug around. You're much better off with a Hammershot/Sweet Revenge/Strongarm/etc for sidearms.
Do note however that a number of games do have special rules for large ammo types, such as one-shot-kill where 'regular' ammo (usually Elite sized darts, Stefans and Vortex discs) are multi-shot-kill, or large ammo destroys shields where shields are impervious to said regular ammo. In these cases, the Magnus would certainly be a much more war-worthy blaster. You'll have to weigh up your options yourselves though, as those are usualy very specific to case-by-case.
if you're just looking for a fun blaster though, the Magnus is definitely an option. Though it lacks the accuracy that makes a good target practice blaster, like the Sledgefire it is just fun to use. There's something about firing a large ammo type that is just fun, and the Magnus provides that at a lower cost that a lot of other large ammo blasters.

Does the Magnus redeem the Mega line from the awful Failturion? In a way, yes.
The Magnus is one of those blasters that is just plain fun to use, and that is partly due to the novelty of its large ammo. And unlike the Failturion, it isn't jam happy or dart chewing. In this sense then, the Magnus does show that Mega blasters aren't total rubbish, and shows that Mega blasters can be fun.
However, at the same time, the Mega line is still not necessarily a viable series to use for Nerf wars. Unless rules are implemented to give extra power to Mega darts, the Mega blasters are outclassed by most Elite era blasters. Sure the extra bit of range is nice, but they have worse accuracy, and have a lower capacity and worse rate of fire compared to similar sized Elite era blasters. Not to mention the scarcity of Mega darts, in a time where the Elite dart is the norm.

The Magnus is available for 18AUD at BigW, 20AUD at Kmart, and 25AUD at Target. For the 18AUD I paid for it, the Magnus was a decent deal. Sure it's not quite deal of the century (like the Alpha Trooper was in 2010), but it's definitely not the worst value out there. I personally really enjoy using it simply because of the novelty of large ammo and the thunk of the plunger, which you don't get from stock Elite blasters.

Pros: Range is pretty good, can reload on the go, inbuilt clip doesn't protrude at all, looks sick and feels empowering
Cons: Low capacity, terrible accuracy, rate of fire isn't great, hugely bulky, ammo type different to the norm introduces all sorts of problems

Power: 7/7
Accuracy: 1.5/5
Value for Money: 3.5/5
Usability: 3.5/5
Rate of Fire: 2.5/5
Capacity: 1.5/5

Overall: 3.5/6 - probably one of the lowest scores I've given a blaster

Personal Rating:  5/6 - sure it's not statistically a very good blaster, but there's just something about firing larger than normal darts that makes the Magnus fun. Kind of like the impractical but still awesome Sledgefire.

This one's purely for tacticool, since it's been pretty well established that Nerf faux barrel are typically more detrimental to performance than helpful.
This shortened barrel is pretty easy to make. Just cut a regular Retaliator barrel down the middle, just in front of the screw ports. Then add useless tacticool things to make it look cooler. In my case I added barrel's iron sight and the muzzle from an Alpha Trooper.
One importantfeature I kept was the bottom tactical rail. Because of the blocks that usually keep a grip forward, these blocks now serve to keep attachments from falling off, since the usual tactical rail lock has had to be removed.
More pics after the break.

Here's the shortened barrel against some other barrel extensions.
You can see that the shortened barrel is just a little bit shorter than the Spectre barrel. The Spectre barrel causes less range loss though because its faux barrel is wider. The shortened barrel is of course about half the length of a regular Retaliator barrel. Compared to a Longstrike or Longshot barrel, it's about a third of the length.

Here's the barrel on an N-Strike Rayven. It works pretty well as a grip since the Rayven isn't really designed for two-handing. Add some attachments and you get a really cool looking carbine-y thingy.
I'll be getting an Elite Rayven in a few weeks, so it'll look even more awesome.

Here's the barrel on a Retaliator. It doesn't work that well without a stock, but with a stock it looks again like a cool carbine-y thing.

And finally on a Stryfe. Again it looks pretty cool and carbine-y, and again for me it doesn't seem to work well without a stock.


Here's some shots of the front, as requested.
Naturally being a barrel extension with a faux barrel, you'll lose a little muzzle velocity and thus range by using this attachment. But personally, I'd definitely use it on a Rayven or Retaliator for comfort for my off hand, since without attachments neither of them is great for two-handing.