Sunday, March 17, 2013

Breakdown: RapidStrike

Everyone's got their take on the news of this CS-18 RapidStrike... so after I had some time to sit back, read others thoughts on it, and let the hype surrounding it settle a little, I figured it was my turn.
From a quick breakdown of it's physical features, we can see the Trigger, Motor Trigger, Clip Release, Barrel Extension Adapter, 4 Tactical Rails (likely a 5th on the opposite side), Jam Door, and a Telescoping Stock.  I'm not even going to begin to try to figure out the clear clip with the blue foam, black tipped darts, but I'm hoping it's not some kind of specialized ammo.  Aesthetically, you can say it "looks like this" or "looks like that" all you want.  There are some clear features on this blaster that resemble other Nerf Blasters, which is quite common with Nerf anyways.  I would say there's a high amount of Stryfe, Stampede, and even some Longshot in this blaster's design.  One thing that stuck out to me was how gigantic the 18 Round clear clip looked, which is a sign of how much smaller this blaster really is than it could appear to some.  It has all of the aesthetic features of a big bulky blaster, but if you put the magazine and trigger grip into perspective, this is still smaller than a Stampede, maybe even smaller than a Longshot or Longstrike.



All the arguments about "it's a fake" or comments about it's "Elite" colors being wrong are pretty much tin foil at this point.  There's not a lot of strength to them considering how little we know about this, but they're shiny enough to get everyone's attention.  All I can say is that whenever this blaster comes out, I may have a new flywheel-driven favorite, given it's solid rifle-design look.

As for the name, some folks have thrown the idea up of this being a "Full Auto Flywheel Blaster".  If that's true, I think it's odd to include a motor trigger on this blaster.  It could work together, but having a full-auto version with a toggle for power seems a bit clunky to me at first.  However, if you think of "Full Auto" and "Nerf", the Nitron from the Vortex line comes to mind.  It also had a motor trigger with a complicated and intricate full auto system in there.  The name "RapidStrike" certainly gives the idea of a rapid-fire capable blaster, so it doesn't seem too far fetched.  Oddly enough, Nerf already has something dubbed "Rapid Strike" as a mission kit with a Retaliator and some 18 Dart Quick Reload clips.

I would guess that, given all the info I've looked at and the examination of the ONE photo that we have, that this will be a Flywheel driven blaster, Full Auto or not.  With the secondary trigger along with the design of the rifle just ahead of the Jam Door, kind of underneath the rear portion of that side-mounted Tactical Rail, you can see that there's even space above and below where the barrel would line up on this.  It's likely room for it's flywheel system.

The blaster does bring up a few development questions about Nerf, though.  There are all sorts of Tactical Rail positions on this thing, almost as many as the Stampede... and yet the N-Strike Elite lineup still lacks a decent array of accessories for these rails.  Additionally, Nerf has been focusing a LOT more on flywheels since the Barricade came out a year or two ago, but fans shouldn't forget that there's still a lot of Direct Plunger blasters Nerf has recently come out with.  Unlike many fans that see this blaster as a move away from plunger system blasters, I think it's just new ground Nerf hasn't covered before.  The Strongarm, Firestrike, and RoughCut are all new blasters still using the tried-and-true Direct Plunger system and they're great blasters in their own right.  Even still, blasters like the Barricade, Rayven, and Stryfe are doing quite well as flywheel blasters, so it only seems right that there's a large rifle-style blaster with flywheels now.

My advice?  Keep calm and Nerf on.  With the Centurion and the RapidStrike lying in wait, you can be sure that this summer we'll have some cool new blasters yet again.

14 comments:

  1. The darts are standard Elites, the clear clip just makes them appear black tip.

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    1. If the clip is clear, how does it make bright orange appear black while the blue foam is unaffected?

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    2. Looks to me like it's a result of either the plastic or the camera/program used causing blurring at the tip; the tips have VERY little area so they don't appear orange, while the blue foam has enough area that it doesn't get darkened. Zoomed in, you can pretty easily see the orange.

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    3. It seems the light source is what is distorting the fade of colors. While it may not be an actual picture, there is a reflective 'shine' on the blaster. It seems to be coming from the top left of the blaster.
      Cool break down. Cool tin foil analogy.

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    4. It's not clear, it's light blue. That also explains the slightly lighter bodies on the darts. (If you want some proof look at the bottom of the clip, it's bluish even though it's on a white background.)

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    5. These new coloured darts with silver tips are the ones that come with the Iron man Iron Flyer (Jolts), Specifically the War Machine one.

      http://www.hasbro.com/common/productimages/en_US/d0257ac350569047f5b40c375bfc58ce/D03CE8F050569047F5D7A58B82DD2568.jpg

      IRL, the dart colour looks exactly like the one as seen in the rapidstrike.

      It's a standard elite dart, new colours.

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  2. The gray/black tips might be caused by the clip having a slight blue tint instead of being completely clear similar to the clear side on the elite clips.

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  3. Will Hasbro ever run out of gay names?

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    1. Well, Hasbro names for blasters always tend to be a combination of the following words: Fire, Long, Rapid, Shot, Fury, Strike, etc. On the other hand, at least they're more creative than Air Zone with their Quickfire names.

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    2. Introducing: The AirZone "FastHeat"

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  4. Something I'd to bring up here that was being discussed on UT is the possibility of three-round-burst (though I still reckon it's full auto). I would imagine that it could possibly line up three darts into the barrel which all fire in quick succession when the trigger is pulled, or that the dart-pusher is motorised and just pushes three time from each trigger pull.

    As for the attachments, MLD often implies that he can't talk about attachments because of his NDA, which leads me to believe that there is something fancy in the works.

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  5. What I'd like to see is Hasbro making out ALL of the accessories that fit onto tactical rails available for the general public. Including the pinpoint sight that was only available in Singapore. Oh, and a rail-mounted clip holder.

    Komodo

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  6. If this IS another flywheel gun I will be extreemly disappointed. The flywheel guns are so inferior to the direct plunger guns, range, noise, mod-ability, accuracy. Odds are I will keep using my modded stampede...

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  7. its fully auto... read the manual at UT

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