Nerf News, Reviews, Related Blaster Products
Testing the Dart Zone LegendFire blaster – ranges and reloading
Quick Stats:
MSRP: $14.99
Range: 80′
Available: Now (I just saw these at Target)
Includes:
2 x swappable ammo cartridges
1 x LegendFire
18 x darts
More to come on what I think about this blaster after I get some game time in with it in Wisconsin this weekend. See you then!
Bookmark this page! I’ve got a couple of those “High Quality” videos posted, and will update this as I continue to make more.
Nerf Tek Strike Writeup is HERE:
And look, a genuine demo video, showing how the hit registering works. I was pretty amazed, to be honest. Yes, it’s different, yes, you have to aim for the shield, but nothing is written in stone and to be able to track hits? Heck yes I’ll try this out.
My time with the Nerf Zombie Strike Slingfire. You might even have an idea of the range/accuracy, as I used a GoPro for part of this video.
Now, if only they had 2 of them.
I’ll continue to embed videos here, so make sure to come back to this page!
io9 broke the news initially months ago, and now the samples are in! Well, they’ve been in, as Basic Nerf has been doing his thing and after tooling around with these for a bit, I’ve got something to say.
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| F2A jersey not included 😛 |
Firing video:
Stats:
Nerf Zombie Strike Sledgefire
Approx. $27.99, available August 1, 2013
Target Exclusive
Includes:
9 darts (bright green, but like an Elite streamline)
3 shells (3 darts per shell)
1 ZombieStrike SledgeFire blaster
The Rundown:
When I first heard about it, I was intrigued. It looked like a grenade launcher, but it fires a spread of darts like a shotgun effect. I was also skeptical. Shells. The bane of my existence since the double shot.
I never liked the idea of shells. They were necessary to fire the blaster (unless you retooled it), if you ran out of them you were in trouble, and it doubled the reload time (dart->shell, shell->blaster) for maybe 30′ of power. Not worth the trouble, and good only if you liked the aesthetics, wanted to be a cowboy, or had a yen for shotguns without the shotgun spread.
BUT THIS BRINGS ME TO THE SLEDGEFIRE.
To fire it, you pull the hammer down to move the barrel and “break” the blaster in half. You load the cartridge into the back of the barrel, and click it shut. Pulling down the barrel is what primes the mech. Pulling the trigger fires. Lather, rinse, repeat for 2 more shells, then it is time to reload.
As a blaster, this is fun. I loved the Nerf Barrel Break, and the whole motion of breaking the barrel here and loading the shells is very much a device to enhance the roleplay aspect of being a zombie hunter. From the click of the barrel to feeding and locking the cartridge, it is a very satisfying experience to use it. It also nice the shells don’t totally eject, that you have to pull them out to set them back in the stock to reload.
Range-wise, I got maybe a little over 50′ angled. The video shows 30-40′ flat. To be fair, the Triple Shot got 1 dart to shoot decently, and the other 2 fell way short. Interesting bit, (confirmed with AFON via chat). That the Sledgefire gets all 3 to fly relatively close to each other is a vast improvement. Of note, in the description, it says –
“Zombie hunters fend off large hordes with ease using the ZOMBIE STRIKE SLEDGEFIRE
blaster. A new triple dart shell-system allows for simultaneous multi-shot blasting and quick
dart reloads on the run while extra storage space for darts keeps zombie invasions at bay. With
the SLEDGEFIRE blaster it won’t matter if the approaching undead are the fast kind or the
slow kind – they’ve met their match. Blaster comes with three NERF SHELLS and nine NERF
ZOMBIE STRIKE darts. Available exclusively at Target.”
but does not mention Elite-style ranges, as the Crossfire Crossbow description does. So, don’t expect to get huge ranges with this, but enjoy the up close touch of a 3 dart blast 🙂
My fave part about this blaster is the spread is reminiscent (to me) of the old Blastfire, Hornet, and Lightnin’ Blitz blasters, but this one has a speedloader, which is very handy.
But, if I had to gripe, it’s that it seems to only shoot Elite-type streamlines. As the video shows, original streamlines and dart tag darts would get stuck in the barrel or not launch at all. Depending on your field of players and the variety of ammo, this could be a big deal to you about having to make sure all your streamlines are Elite styled.
Overall, is it worth the $30? I’d say cautionary. It would make for a good sidearm (although a bit long to holster, maybe a sling) but the shells, limited amount of them, and reloading doesn’t work well for a fast-moving, trigger happy play style. If you find yourself in the thick of a horde rush or firefight, you might be better served with a turreted blaster or the something mag fed. If the cartridges were/are going to be sold separately, I think I would change my tune. But having only 3 cartridges available right now is a big hindrance.
HOWEVER, the bright colors (I like the color scheme, it looks crazy), the comfortable stock, tactile feedback from loading the blaster, and having a slightly larger spread of darts per shot can mean millimeters between a miss and a tag. For me, on the aesthetics alone, it is worth the purchase, and hitting the 40′ mark at a 3 dart spread is great for a last ditch shot. It just might save you a respawn. Just for the gimmickry of it though, this is totally a lot of fun and worth a go.
EDIT: (forgot to mention these earlier)
Stencils! Zombie-themed stencils were included with the blaster to decorate appropriate targets:)
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| Nerf Zombie Strike Stencils! |
P.S. – It’s been a crazy week, but don’t worry I’ll update this review with pics of attachments/stocks ASAP.
Mega Bloks were awesome enough to send along a couple of samples from Toy Fair – Trigger Happy’s Blaster and Ignitor’s Flame Sword.
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| Trigger Happy’s Dart Blaster |
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| Ignitor’s Flame Sword (size comparison to a Nerf Marauder) |
What wonderful intellectual property are these devices for destruction from? The Skylanders Giants game, where a player uses a figure on a platform to connect to the video gaming device of their choice and play that character IN THE GAME.
Now, my past experience with licensed blasters is not very positive. At all. The Jango Fett blasters I have weren’t anything special, nor were the clone trooper dart blasters I picked up. On top of that, this is Mega Bloks’s first foray into making roleplay toys, so I was a little curious how these would stack up against past experience.
Thankfully, the stats spoke for themselves:
STATS:
Price: Approx. $14.99 depending on the store
Range: Anywhere from 30′-40′ (with darts NOT the ones included. The darts it comes with decreased the range to about just under 30′)
Ammo: Foam darts with a hard plastic, thin tip
Ammo Capacity: 6 darts before reloading
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| Darts that come with the blaster |
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| Versus Nerf Elite Streamlines and current Dart Tag darts |
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| Shot of the chamber |
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| Air restrictors inside (and no, the cylinder does not pop out to reload.) |
Annnnd the video:
So how did I like it? Sure, it was similar to Nerf Maverick but in a case like this it’s the aesthetics that are important because of the licensing. Folks who love the game (or have kids who love the game) are going to like this, as well as anyone (like me) who likes a gold-colored blaster (I played A LOT of Goldeneye on the N64). The cylinder not popping out was a surprise, but the side divots are nice touch to get around that. As you can see in the video, the divots don’t line up with the chambers on the cylinder. It would be nice if the holes had lined up WITH The divots, instead of trying to load the darts in on an angle, but the blaster would look a little odd and a little less symmetrical. I get that. The lack of a trigger guard bothers the showman in me as I can’t spin the blaster on a finger. But, that’s a nitpick.
Unfortunately, the included darts don’t do the blaster any justice. They drop the range and the heads are unforgiving if they did hit their target. Granted, a toy like this isn’t INTENDED to be shot at others, but things happen and I would have liked to see suction cups or something softer at the heads of the darts, if anything so the blaster would hit the ranges it does with regular Nerf ammo.
And the ranges are THE most surprising thing about this blaster. Once I loaded proper darts it got comparable range and performance to any Maverick I had (Strongarm doesn’t count, it’s internals are ahead of the Maverick curve but I had to include it for argument’s sake.) I was pleasantly surprised to say the least!
After being burned so much with licensed blasters in the past, I would take this into any stock blaster game as a good sidearm confidently. Per the usual rules around here, I won’t be modding this so I won’t write about possibilities.
Ultimately, I think it works as a sidearm if you’re into stock blaster games and the golden aesthetics remind me of sneaking around in my video game days. It’s not exactly the Golden Gun, but it’s closest I’ve gotten 🙂 Skylanders fans might get a kick out of the blaster as well, as the license is HUGE and the game is really popular. Trigger Happy looks like a fun character to play as well (judging from the videos, maybe an actual Skylanders player can sound off on him) so if you’re hurting for a unique looking sidearm or want to live the adventure with Spyro and friends, pick this up.
These are only the beginning too, at Toy Fair there was plenty more on the way, as shown below:
’til next time, chummers! Got a question? Post below.
I’ll get the full review up soon enough, but in the meantime, here’s a quick video on how the Nerf Vortex Diatron fires, and even a troubleshooting tip. Enjoy!
Foam From Above 