I came home from work on Friday, surprised to find a package of goodies from Nerf! Naturally, I had to take some of the blasters to a war ASAP for testing. Over the next few posts, I’ll try to work through many of the upcoming blasters, with thoughts on their strengths and flaws. Noting, of course, which ones were sent to me. Disclaimers are a good thing when it comes to reviews, after all.

Today’s blaster of note is the Twinshock, the latest in the Mega Series. And it’s great!

Calling Shotgun

The Twinshock is simple in principle. It operates like a Rough Cut, but with five Mega darts on each side. AND IT’S HUGE. OBSCENELY HUGE. We’re talking 28 inches in length. It’s relatively light, however, and easy to operate.

The Twinshock claims ranges of up to 85′, which it does with relative ease. Chronograph testing has Megas averaging roughly 67fps across all barrels, with the top barrels naturally getting the best ranges. Even with the bottom barrels, firing at an angle, I don’t think I had a shot go below 70′, even with the notoriously erratic flight of Mega streamlines.

Inside the Beast

After removing plenty of screws, we find that the Twinshock has a surprisingly empty shell. A large gear is used to pull back the twin plungers, which doubles the priming pull distance to compensate for the strength of two springs. There are two catches, with a dual-stage trigger, which allows the darts to be fired independently. Notably, it’s a lot easier to fire single shots with this blaster than it is with the Rough Cut. In addition, the entire operation (from priming to firing) is smooth as silk.

It should be noted that the Twinshock is also capable of slamfire. The long orange piece between the trigger and catch holds two white spacers. During the operation of the priming handle, it moves the spacers out of the way. This prevents the catch from being released until the priming handle is back in the forward position. It’s not a new mechanism, by any means – the CS-35 Raider had a similar assembly within its shell.

If you do disassemble the blaster, keep track of the round plastic spacers/roller bearings on the handle and inner priming sled. Those are important for everything moving smoothly. In addition, note that the entire plunger and barrel assembly is solvent welded together.

The plunger tube is roughly 30mm ID, with 80mm of plunger draw.

Testing on the Field

Final Thoughts

At $40 MSRP, the Twinshock isn’t too shabby. It’s only a bit more than the Rotofury cost at release, and can fire darts twice as fast. Given how erratic Megas can fly, firing two at a time actually gives you a decent chance to hit what you’re aiming at! 🙂

While I don’t plan on modding this blaster anytime soon, the ample plunger volume and large shell would seem to lend it to various integrations and Elite dart conversions.

I used this blaster for many more rounds than expected last war, and it was very effective at both close ranges and distance. If you have Buzz Bee XL darts, distance shots become even more accurate. This is the Mega blaster you should pick up when you get the chance.