The Dart Zone Pro mk4 is trickling into reviewers’ hands and while the blaster does everything they’re advertising, the early consensus seems to be that this is a weak offering for the price. The pump draw is very long and uncomfortable in shorter arms. The stock goes backwards on compatibility. Spring changes are harder than the Nexus Pro’s buffer tube cap twist off. The “Supercharge Muzzle extension” works but adds a lot of length and does not work with the included SCAR barrel, so your options are limited to more power or more accuracy, instead of just letting users pop the SCAR onto the end of the muzzle add-on.
All this for $180 which puts it in the same price range of the Worker Harrier, a blaster with all-metal internals, better compatibility with popular Airsoft and Nerf accessories, and an injection-molded Nylon body which is a lot more durable.
Really, the mk4 is more equal to the GameFace Trion, an $80 blaster that, again out of the box, offers more compatibility (normal buffer tube, and handle and stock can be replaced with Airsoft standards) in a smaller, but similar ABS shell.
It turns out that the Xuru X-Shot Skins Pro Series Longshot is fully compatible with Nerf and Talon magazines, allaying a lot of fears that Xuru would do something stupid and go with a weird proprietary solution. According to some folks in Europe that have gotten their hands on the blaster, the internals are solid and the blaster fires at a respectable 140-160fps (depending on the dart used) and comes with an injection-molded SCAR barrel attachment to increase accuracy! Looks like Xuru came to play!
The Zuru X-Shot Pro Longshot is turning out to be quite the blaster. It’s starting to show up in Target stores, so folks are getting their hands on it. $30 USD for a bullpup rifle that shoots long and short darts like a Nexus Pro but for half the current retail price. The only drawback is that it is the typical Zuru X-Shot plastic quality so it’s definitely more creaky and flexes more than Nerf or Dart Zone stuff and the donut-shaped plunger tube needed for the bullpup configuration will make internal modding a lot harder than the normal simple open tube plungers in most blasters. Still, $30 is hard to beat.
It’s the XYL KM9 Unicorn blaster. XYL mostly makes gel ball and airsoft guns, but they decided to dip into the foam blaster arena recently. When you buy the Unicorn stock in the US, you get a light spring and short barrel (top image) that shoots around 130 to 140 fps. (In Asia, the plunger air tube comes with a slot cut in it to cut the performance down.) I added a longer barrel for more velocity as well as a heavier spring to take it to 180 to 190 fps. I added a cheap airsoft red sight attachment too.
I eventually had to give up this rabbithole / hill to die on @Telefrog. I had (gave away during Covid, actually) wayyy too many of those blasters already, unfortunately. But the community and various kickstarters/companies have come up with some really awesome custom foam blasters lately, it kinda reminds me of the later days of the mechanical keyboard explosion. First, rare, now… can barely browse the internet without seeing 15 different brand new keebs on offer.
The oneupmanship in the community is wild. It’s not even a big deal to find 200fps blasters thanks to the ubiquity of 3D printers. Of course, those boutique blasters are still very expensive and prone to all the flaws 3D printing still has.
The big news today is that after months of rumor and speculation, Nerf is officially dipping into the pro scene. They’re making a 150fps version of their venerable Stryfe flywheel platform as well as using half-length darts for the first time.
At around $120 USD, this is not for people just getting into the hobby and is clearly aimed at the enthusiast market.
Currently, in the big manufacturer space, the Dart Zone Omnia also fires half-length darts at 150fps and offers select fire switching from full auto, 3-dart burst, and semi for $90.
I suspect the Nerf Pro Stryfe X will sell bonkers. There’s a lot of love for the Styfe shell in the hobby.
Nerf officially entering the hobby/pro space is big enough news for The Verge to report it.
The funniest bit of this?
Nerf SVP Adam Kleinman - "Kleinman also insists that nothing the community or rival brands are doing has spurred Hasbro even a little bit. “We’ve been talking about half-lengths for quite some time,” he says. “It was 100 percent a decision based on where we’re going, not based on anything else that’s happening outside of Hasbro.”
Hah, that is hilarious. A “pro” Stryfe is a great idea though. Is it also still friendly toward further after market modifications? That was a huge part of the appeal of the original, but the last I was paying attention Nerf was making more and more of their blasters less mod-friendly.
Sorta. From what I’ve seen others post, the barrel doesn’t have the N-Strike lug and the top and bottom rails aren’t N-Strike standard or picatinny, so all those external cosmetic mod kits won’t fit without some work. The internals seem solid though, but there’s room for people to do their own wheel cages and motor upgrades.
This was a couple years ago probably but I remember there were signs of a shift toward more things being glued. I.e. you can’t take a gun apart to change out springs, barrels, gasket, motors, etc. because you had to actually break things apart that used to be held together with screws or tabs you could reconnect.
Yup. That was/is the Elite 2.0 line. The blue-shell stuff. Hasbro cut costs on the line to compete with the cheaper stuff on shelves, so they used glue and clips to hold the blasters together and they used a lot of plastic bends instead of metal springs on triggers and other small parts. Basically anywhere they could cut metal they replaced with plastic, keeping only the primary spring and even those were really cheap weaker versions from the original blasters. For example, the one in the top middle is the Elite 2.0 version of the flywheel Stryfe. The vanilla Stryfe out of the box isn’t some kind of performance powerhouse, but the Elite 2.0 Phoenix is a lot weaker and the battery compartment lid is held in place with a plastic bend instead of a screw. The hobby community’s reception of these blasters was not good, but Hasbro was just trying to appeal to kids and parents that didn’t know any better.
Apparently, Hasbro got the message (or sales were really bad) though. More recent Elite 2.0 offerings have gone back to screws and metal springs for triggers. The Nerf Double Punch is basically two Styfe blasters side-by-side working off one trigger pull. The hobby guys love this thing.
The foam blaster production arms race continues! Worker, the company that makes the Harrier and the Nightingale, just announced the Seagull. It’s a CQB version of the Harrier.
Comes with a removeable injection molded plastic tip that features rifling to add accuracy to darts (This is a pretty standard separate add-on that people do in the hobby to their “pro” level blasters. You can see the one I added to my Unicorn in the pictures earlier in this thread.)
Comes with a removeable injection molded plastic tip that features rifling to add accuracy to darts
Also comes with a different removeable tip with metal rollers that imparts even more spin for accuracy at higher fps ranges (this is also a thing in the “pro” hobby, but usually a pretty pricey add-on and available as 3D printed parts or full metal.)
Eye protection goggles added to the box
Both blasters are keeping their standard $25 and $50 MSRP respectively and they should be on store shelves in the Spring.
