Nerf Topbreaker/Cobaltfury/Jadestrike Review

Like any other brand, Nerf tends to take designs that work and milk them to death. In past years, we saw endless Jolt reskins (via the collectible Microshots line, among other things), for example. For the N Series, the Ward has that current role – as WalcomS7 noted in a video a little while ago, there have been a lot of blasters based on that specific mechanism.

The Nerf Topbreaker (as well as this year’s additional variants) continue that trend. The same basic mechanism is there, with a pullback priming handle and a two-shot smart AR. The major additions are the break-open barrel and (in the case of the Cobaltfury and Jadestrike) new color schemes. Is that enough for the additional price? Probably not. But as always, the power of the impulse buy can be a strong one.

Availability Clarification!

I should mention: a funny thing happened. The Topbreaker is supposedly available at Kroger (and associated grocery chains that they own), but it’s largely a matter of finding wherever they’re hiding, as distribution is spotty at best. Earlier this month, the Cobaltfury was spotted being sold on someone’s Poshmark. I’m assuming, given the unavailability of the blaster, that it was an early sample sent for home testers and the like for review. Seeing as no one had bought it yet, and I couldn’t find a Topbreaker locally…the choice was obvious!

For now, I’m assuming a $10 price point, since that’s the MSRP for the Topbreaker. The two variants come with both more darts and new paint…but I’ll be disappointed if they’re sold for more.

Even More Plastic!

Compared to the Ward, the Topbreaker has a lot more plastic. There’s an entire orange barrel, with two tactical rails and four dart storage holes, that must be tilted down in order to load the blaster.

Flipping the front down, front loading the twin barrels, and flipping it back up obviously takes a few seconds, so if you need to reload quickly, this isn’t the blaster for you. Still, there’s a fun factor to any blaster that operates like this.

The stock is less impressive, seeing as the blaster is so small that it’s basically useless. Looks cool, though.

Performance and Internals

The Topbreaker averages in the low to mid 80’s in fps with both barrels. I’ll list 85fps for the first barrel, but the drop in fps on the second barrel is fairly minimal, only occasionally dipping down into the high 70s in my blaster.

The inside looks exactly like you’d expect. It’s a Ward!

Last Thoughts

The Topbreaker, despite the extra plastic, is a simple blaster. Whether the extra play value of flipping open the front is worth the extra $5 is up to you…but I’d go with the Ward or Purestrike if you just want two shots of N1 darts.