When the Nerf N-Strike Elite RapidStrike CS-18 Blaster arrived for review, I was enormously keen to get some shooting in. It has an 18 dart cartridge and fires over 3 darts a second. Unfortunately it also takes 4 C cell batteries, which meant I had to go battery shopping instead of shooting people. Other versions with a magazine take 7 AA batteries, which is a lot but you’re more likely to have these sitting around the house than the rather hefty C cells.
After a weekend of playing, the batteries appear to have died, which isn’t very impressive but we did have an awful lot of fun with it as the video suggests and we also played with it a lot. It’s so addictive launching 18 darts in 7 or 8 seconds that you’ll find yourself pulling the trigger until the magazine is entirely empty most of the time. You can squeeze off individual shots if you want to but it’s not as much fun. As you can see from the video, the shot spread is a foot or so each side of centre when the boy fired it. Some of this is down to the front end weight but when I had a go I found hitting a pendant lampshade from the other side of the room a little hit and miss, so accuracy isn’t up there with the best single shot Nerf guns. Still, you’d be hard pushed to miss 18 times on the trot.
Gripes? The 4 C cells sit in the muzzle, which makes it very front heavy and not really suitable for one handed action if you’re 6 and the battery life could be better. It only jammed a couple of times, both of which were straightforward to clear (unlike the Barricade, which can be a pig) and it was easy to operate. Well worth the investment if you’re a Nerf’er in my book.