Nerf Junior Wild Lionfury Review

The Nerf Elite Jr. line certainly isn’t meant to be a powerhouse – I’m not sure how to rate it in that regard in terms of range, as you’ll see below. But don’t let a low range score fool you; for the target age range, the Lionfury is a great choice for entering the world of dart blasting. Not to mention I appreciate the return to cool alternative blaster designs – who knew I wanted a spiritual successor to Max Force 2112?

GIMME A ROAR

The Lionfury is a ferocious beast, as my pets can attest to. There are obvious comparisons to be made to the Nerf Dinosquad Armorstrike. It operates in much the same fashion – there’s a pump action priming mechanism, an eight dart cylinder with the rotation mechanism molded into its outer perimeter, and a fun design encasing it all.

There’s also a few critical differences – the stock is still short, but it’s made for little kids (and doesn’t bite into the back of your hand), so that can at least be accepted. The slamfire mechanism actually works! And it’s cheaper, at $20. Sure, it might not shoot as far, but for that price and age range, it’s definitely worth considering!

The blaster comes in easy-to-remove packaging, and includes 16 darts.

Excuse me, we already have a lion in this house...

Performance

The Elite Jr line is set for lower velocities by default – I averaged 50fps in my testing. With the working slamfire, however, it has an incredible rate of fire at four darts per second. And with the oversized trigger and easy prime, little fingers will find it simple to operate.

Why not include some war footage? I used it in a silly round recently.

Internals

Yep, they’re what you’d expect.

Last Thoughts

The Nerf Elite Jr. Lionfury is a fun example of what Nerf should be – goofy, easy to use, and great for any age. That it comes in at a great price is icing on the cake.