Nerf Rebel Ops Doom Cannon Review

Author’s note: I got a Doom Cannon as part of a package of free review goodies from Hasbro. Thanks, guys!

When the Rebel Ops line was announced, the blaster with the most hype was (for obvious reasons) the Doom Cannon. Nerf was not only releasing a giant shotgun with multiple, rotating shells, it was also doing so for only $45.

Now the blaster is here, and it’s living up to the hype. It’s fun to use, ridiculously easy to unload all of your darts, and Nerf has even elected to release official files for 3d printing your own Super Shells! It’s a reminder that not everything in the blaster space needs massive performance. Sometimes, it just needs to be big and fun!

IT’S THE SIZE OF MY DOG!

That’s not a joke; the Doom Cannon is around 34″ long when fully assembled. That’s absurdly large for a blaster, so much so that the stock is made so that you can mount the blaster over your shoulder. Go big or go home!

The Doom Cannon comes with five “Super Shells”, along with 60 darts to fill them all. The shells are carried on the blaster, within recessed pockets along the spine. Small tabs hold them in place for the most part; sudden jarring can dislodge them, but for the most part the design gets the right balance of holding the shells in place versus kids being able to remove them.

Reloading the Doom Cannon is easy. A large orange hook on top of the “barrel” area unlocks a spring-loaded breech. Take your empty shell out, slide your next shell into the pocket/over the metal pin, then push the front closed.

The stock is absurdly large, but there’s a modern NStrike attachment point (with notches at the top and bottom), so you can mount your preferred stock in regular or upside down configurations.

There aren’t any rails here…but in this case, you don’t really need them.

Performance

The stock blaster fires three darts at a time, averaging 53fps in my testing. That seems a bit low, but you have to remember that you’re firing three darts at the same time. It’s not the widest spread, but Elite darts still cover an appreciable area compared to more accurate dart types. So in this case, they’re perfect!

Also, in case you missed the news…THERE’S SLAMFIRE! You can quickly move the priming grip back and forth while holding down the trigger to unload your super shells. Two shots per second is reasonable to expect; that sounds low, but you’re firing three darts at a time. So that’s…six darts per second? Yeah, that math checks out.

Internals, Mods, and 3D Printed Parts!

The Doom Cannon is decently complex inside; It’s similar to the Rival Artemis and Hades in that it uses a gear rack to trade priming strength for distance, making the blaster more user-friendly. The plunger tube is actually quite large (around 1.5″ ID), but for engineering reasons is only partly utilized. That decision has no bearing on the regular consumer, just us hobbyists who like seeing how much power we can extract from everything!

To that end, I’ve already designed a dead-space filler that fills in a lot of that empty area; it doesn’t do much by itself, but should help with performance if other things (spring upgrades, etc.) are done as well.

Furthermore, Nerf themselves took a big step in releasing Super Shell files for 3D printing (link at the top). That being said, the file is clearly a mashup of the two CAD files used for the shell’s two injection-molded parts. They do print, but they take extra time to make since they recreate all the internal structures, from screw posts to various voids. The terms of the license also prohibit remixing the files.

As such, I’ve done the measuring and cranked out some basic Super Shells in Tinkercad! The shells lack dart posts, allowing the use of both long and short darts. Additionally, one version purposefully keeps the safety valves open, allowing the user to shotgun six 36mm short darts! The original shells look cooler, with the ribs and all, but the basic version prints far faster. I’ll have to experiment with other ammo types – my Doom Cannon is still stock, so it doesn’t quite yet have the power to reliably fire multiple Rival rounds, for instance. More experimentation is required.

Final Opinion

As far as flagship blasters go, the Nerf Rebel Ops Doom Cannon is a home run. It’s relatively inexpensive at $45, it’s huge, and it’s a ton of fun to use. Kids and adults will enjoy playing with it, and adults with more interest in tinkering can scratch that itch, too! Go ahead and pick one up.