NERF review: Speedswarm

The first dart gun review of the summer and the first dart gun review in a while: the NERF Speedswarm!

Retail price (USD): ≈$19.99
It can be found at all major retailers.

The Speedwarm is essentially a miniaturized Swarmfire in handgun form. It has fully- and semi-automatic modes and features two sling/bandolier/dogtag attachment points. It requires six "AA" batteries to work (We've found that Duracell batteries are the most reliable). The Speedswarm is also a great dart blaster to dual-wield.

Range: 25 to 30 feet (7.6 to 10.7 metres), when held flat, up to 45 feet (13.7 metres). Average. (7/10)
Accuracy: Astounding. Accuracy is far above average. (10/10)
Reliability: No jamming, however, there is a small "warmup" period before darts can be fired, which lasts about half a second. (9.5/10)
Rate: Approximately two darts per second. The warmup period makes it a bit lackluster compared to rates of other semi-autos or autos such as the Stampede ECS, but for its size, it's decent. (8/10)
Capacity: 10 "Tagger" micro-whistler darts. (9/10)

Final score: B 

The Speedswarm is especially lightweight and a good addition to any NERFer's arsenal. However, its rate of fire is underwhelming, especially for something called the "Speedswarm." It is incredibly accurate and has a great range, especially when reliable batteries are used.

More reviews coming this week!

New grading system for reviews!

Effective this summer, Dart Gun Havoc will be implementing a new grading system for our NERF and Buzz Bee reviews.

We will be using the SABCDN system, explained below...

Exciting times on the NERF and Buzz Bee fronts!

Hello, Dart Gun Havoc readers! I apologize for the lack of activity, but I wanted to update the blog with many new developments from Nerf and Buzz Bee, which are listed below:

1. Dart Gun Havoc has confirmed the release of blue-triggered variants of the Swarmfire and Sharp Shot.

2. As of February 22, 2013, the Snapfire 8 has been seen in the States.

Snapfire 8

3. The first N-Strike (not N-Strike Elite) development in a while: the N-Strike Blazin' Bow.

N-Strike Blazin' Bow

4. Vortex's latest release: the Revonix 360.

VORTEX Revonix 360

5. N-Strike Elite developments

• Rapidstrike CS-18
• MEGA Centurion

Rapidstrike CS-18

Mega Centurion

6. NERF recently announced its ReBelle line, which is targeted towards a tween-girl demographic, considering the collectible darts and the pink, black, and white color schemes. Although we at Dart Gun Havoc are slightly horrified by this, we do appreciate NERF tailoring to everybody, since no one should be left out of the fun, right? 

Crossbow

Heartbreaker Bow

Pink Crush

Wildshot

7. Buzz Bee posted an image on its website of the Tek 5.

Tek 5

We also have a few more reviews coming, like:

• Triad EX-3
• Retaliator
• Strongarm
• Firestrike
• Stryfe
• Pyragon

All of this coming soon!

BATTLE OF THE DART GUNS 2012: Nerf vs. Buzz Bee

In the world of dart guns, there are many rivalries, among them being the tight one between Hasbro's NERF line and Buzz Bee Toys' Air Warriors. NERF's got some experience down on their knees- heck, they've been creating dart guns since 1989! But Buzz Bee is a relative newcomer, but they're slowly climbing the dart gun success ladder.

Let the match commence!

RULES:
In this match, there are 3 rounds; 2 normal rounds and a lightning round. Each team receives or loses points; +1 for pros and -1 for cons.

BEGIN!!!

Round 1: The Cluster Crew- Guns that fire in clusters or groups.

Representing Team NERF: Barrel Break IX-2
Representing Team Buzz Bee: RADS 12
Representing Team Air Zone: Triple Shot

Barrel Break's pros:

• Has two firing modes: one barrel at a time or both barrels at once
• Comes with 10 extra darts that you can put on a rack
• Quite accurate
• Very fast and powerful

Barrel Break's cons:

• Jams sometimes
• Loading system is not that easy at times

TOTAL: 2 points

RADS 12's pros:

• Cool and unique barrel rotation system
• Good range when fired properly
• Lightweight
• Fast

RADS 12's cons:

• No options like the Barrel Break
• Hard to cock back 

TOTAL: 2 points

TIE!

Round 2: Big Bad Blasters- The biggest and baddest of them all!

Representing Team NERF: Vulcan EBF-25
Representing Team Buzz Bee: Maniac

Vulcan's pros:

• Totally BA
• What's not to love about belt-feds?
• Shot rate is very good for its time
• 25 darts- decent capacity

Vulcan's cons:

• Unwieldy
• Jams occasionally
• Modders beware- it can get dangerous.

TOTAL: 1 point

Maniac's pros:

• Decently BA
• Decent color scheme
• GLOW MISSILES!!!
• 20 dart capacity- plus 1 glow missile :)

Maniac's cons:

• Takes about 20-35 pumps to get the glow missile ready.

TOTAL: 3 points.

NERF's not doing so well...


LIGHTNING ROUND: Old Dogs and Pop Guns- The nostalgic and popular blasters return for battle!

Representing Team NERF: Maverick REV-6
Representing Team Buzz Bee: Rogue

Maverick's pros:

• Fires easily and quickly

• Tremendous accuracy

• Compatible with most NERF darts- except Streamline

• Easy to cock

Maverick's cons:

• Jams sometimes, but not that often.

TOTAL: 3

Rogue's pros:

• Fires easily

• Seldom jams

• Good range

• Good accuracy

• Looks like a ray gun. :)

Rogue's cons:

• Not visually appealing (clashing color scheme/drab)

• Barrel has to be hand-revolved and hinders the fast nature of a pistol.

• Cocking mechanism isn't easy to use, and hinders the shooting process greatly.

TOTAL: 2

And the results are in!

NERF: 2+1+3=6
Buzz Bee= 2+3+2=7

BUZZ BEE HAS WON!!!

It's quite the close one, but the gold medal has to go to BUZZ BEE, winning by only 1 point! Even though old NERF lost this year's battle, we at Dart Tag Havoc are still faithful to NERF, and you should be too. Buzz Bee, Air Zone, and Lanard are great ventures as well!

Well, that concludes the battle, and congratulations to Buzz Bee! Stay tuned for more reviews!

New Buzz Bee blasters revealed!

In addition to the new Nerf revelations, a slew of Buzz Bee blasters has hit the Interwebs recently.

The first is the Jaguar, a 6-dart shooter which is VERY similar to the Magstrike in the sense that it shoots with auto-advancing barrels.
MSRP for the Jaguar is $4.99, the same price as the Rogue, which has been reviewed on this blog.

Next up is the Cougar, a larger version of the Jaguar that fires 10 shots.  This is an automatic indexing blaster with a clip system.
MSRP for the Cougar is $9.99.

Third up is the Orion, an old-style rifle with an attachable silencer and scope. Why is there a picture of the Hawk in the inset?
MSRP for the Orion is $17.99.

Next is the Overlord, an automatic version of the Belt Blaster and essentially a Buzz Bee variant of the Vulcan EBF-25.
MSRP for the Overlord is $19.99.

Finally, the Ultimate series of blasters has not yet met its demise. There is now an Ultimate system version of the Clip Shot 10, now under the moniker of Ultimate Clip Blast. Totally digging the inverted banana clip.

I'm really happy that Buzz Bee has come up with other ideas besides flywheel-powered blasters. I also like that they have attempted new color schemes (in the case of the Orion and the Overlord). Can't wait for these to hit stores!

New Nerf guns revealed!

This may be old news, but there is a new N-Strike series called "N-Strike Elite." The new blasters are, from top to bottom, the Hailfire, the Rampage, the Retaliator, and the Stockade. You may notice that the majority of these blasters are "upgraded" versions of previous releases, except for the Hailfire. For example, the Stockade is an upgraded Barricade RV-10 that features a new stock. The Rampage is a new version of the Raider CS-35 with an all-new 25-dart drum.  The Retaliator looks like a futuristic Recon CS-6 to me, and the Hailfire is virtually a clip system Vulcan EBF-25 with four revolving 12-dart clips. Also note that the darts are new.

There will also be a new Vortex blaster called the Pyragon, which features a 40-disc drum, the highest capacity of any Vortex blaster. MSRP for this blaster is $39.99.

All of these will be released on August 1st, so expect reviews in a few weeks.

Air Zone review: Triple Shot

I've decided to stray from my usual Nerf and Buzz Bee reviews to review a blaster from another company: Air Zone.  Air Zone is a ToysRUs exclusive line of blasters, most of which are reproductions of blasters by Buzz Bee and Lanard, but occasionally they come out with their own blasters, such as the Punisher, seen below,

and the Power Strike 48.

A demo video of the Punisher can be seen at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GO7eYOuTvy0&feature=player_embedded

Now, anyhoo, I'll be reviewing the Air Zone reproduction of Lanard's Triple Shot.
MSRP: $19.99

The blaster holds 12 Air Zone Slugs (that's what their darts are called). The stock/dart holder was a very nice touch, and I was impressed with that. With blasters of this rank in dart gun society, I am normally not impressed with coloration, but Air Zone has managed to impress me.

The cocking mechanism is the dark grey piece on the ventral side of the blaster. Although some may tend to differ, the mechanism was very easy to use in my opinion.

The revolving barrel reminds me of the HyperFire from NERF Dart Tag.

Although I am normally biased towards Nerf and Buzz Bee, if you want to take this venture, I suggest trying it.

Range: Decent, 20-35 feet. (6/10)
Accuracy: If you are an experienced Nerfer, you'll have no problem getting an accurate shot. (7/10)
Reliability: Good quality, but not the highest quality. (9/10)
Rate: Again, if you're an experienced Nerfer, you can shoot pretty quickly. (9/10)
Capacity: 12 darts max. (10/10)
General: Very appealing. I actually like this blaster compared to other guns of this type. (10/10)

OVERALL GRADE: B+


In conclusion, this sums up to be a good blaster. If there's a ToysRUs near you, I'd suggest besides looking for Nerf or Buzz Bee, to also look for this blaster!

I also want to bring up some exciting news about this blog.
In the near future, I will be doing something special to my reviews. In addition to my written reviews, I will be adding a supplemental demo video of the blaster that I'm reviewing.

~XTN