Nerf Mega Twinshock Review
June 4, 2017I 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.
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Marshmallow Extreme Blaster Review
May 25, 2017Among the many things on display at Toy Fair this past February was the newest version of one of Marshmallow Fun Company’s flagship products. The Extreme Blaster reduces the amount of plastic used in manufacturing and simplifies the blasting process, putting the projectile directly in front of the air tank. While it’s been available online for months now, at varying prices, only recently did I see it in a store. Now that the impulse buy has occurred, let’s do a review!
First Read: Targeting the New Blasters – SO MANY DPCI NUMBERS!
May 23, 2017After spending an afternoon hoping to track down Buzz Bee’s The Walking Dead Rick’s Revolver (which as it turns out uses the SAME UPC as Carl’s Revolver in its ToysRus entry), I decided to research some more things. Target has a DPCI number system it uses for its products. Using sites like Brickseek (originally meant for finding Lego sets), you can look up product info and availability online.
While some item prices are no longer listed, the item descriptions are. Some are known upcoming blasters. Others will make you look twice and wonder what the heck is going on. MAY THE SPECULATION BEGIN!
Nerf Game Report 6/5/17: Melbourne HvZ
May 11, 2017We had some solid games today at MHvZ. The on-off rain did dirsupt play a little, however we managed to miss the majority of it. In this Nerf Game Report I’ll be describing the blasters that saw use, the game modes we played and how the rounds played out.
Zecong Toys Zeus Clone Review
May 1, 2017Chinese toy companies are known to produce their own versions of popular toy blasters, if not outright copies. One such company is Zecong Toys. Known mostly for the “Blaze Storm” series of blasters, they tend to put their own spin on products. In this case, they’ve copied the Rival Zeus. But does it stand up to the original?
In the interest of full disclosure, I was one of a few people to import large quantities of these blasters from China, and will have them on sale again at some point when I’m not so busy. I’ll do my best to give an impartial opinion, though!
Review: Star Wars Jyn Erso Deluxe Blaster
April 28, 2017As part of the merchandise lines for Rogue One, Hasbro produced and released multiple new Star Wars blasters. The blaster in question, the Jyn Erso blaster, is the largest and most expensive of the ones slated for general release, and was the only one of the three that presented anything of interest to me. It took a 50% discount for me to even consider buying one, but even at that price, is it worth the money?
