Still a fun, high performing blaster, despite some minor quality issues.
A couple months ago, we gave a fairly gushing review of the Buzz Bee Air Warriors Extreme Air Max 6, a moderately-sized air-powered blaster that was really fun to use. It was a welcome change-of-pace from the spring and flywheel-based models we typically test, and pumping the blaster provided a very tactile, engaging experience that is absent in the competition’s models.
Unfortunately, in our attempts to reach the distance claims advertised by Buzz Bee, we ended up breaking the pump handle in our sample, which negatively impacted our review. The folks at Buzz Bee advised that their customer service team has never had any reports of this issue, and they were kind enough to send us another sample of the Air Warriors Extreme Air Max 6 for our own use, even though the review had already been posted. We thought it appropriate, therefore, to update our readers on our experience with this second example.
After having used this new sample for several weeks now, we’re pleased to report that nothing on this new unit has broken or failed to function properly. So, based on Buzz Bee’s own internal reporting as well as our experience with this second production unit, we feel reasonably confident in saying that the broken pump issue with our first unit was an anomaly that is not likely to be experienced by the majority of consumers.
“…we hit a nearly identical 57 foot maximum range—within a foot of the original review sample! And, just as before, the shots were super accurate, had little to no fish-tailing and hit harder than typical Nerf Elite-type darts.”
Getting back to the Air Max 6 itself, we’ll re-affirm that this is a very nicely performing blaster that is fun to use, functions nearly as well as advertised, and is a good value for the money. However, there is still one, niggling issue… although nothing has broken on this new sample to-date, we did notice the black plastic insert in the handle of the blaster felt less than solid. While priming the Air Max 6, our testers felt a slightly movement in the back part of the handle opposite the trigger that again caused us to lose confidence in the overall build quality. Now, we want to reiterate that nothing actually broke, and we’re admittedly being somewhat nit-picky and perhaps even hyper-sensitive here, given our previous experience. Nonetheless, it’s just not the type of thing we normally feel in similar, competing products, so it would be our preference that it not exist here, either.