SlingFire - Initial Impression

My Last Dart showed us the latest addition to the ZombieStrike lineup unveiled by Nerf earlier today: the SlingFire.  According to the description, it's a lever-action, magazine-fed dart blaster.  Nerf claims that the reload time is quicker because of the lever-action prime and that it has a "DIY-style design" which gives "an authentic feel to any NERF zombie attack".  This is the first blaster in the ZombieStrike lineup that has a magazine-fed system.

Alright.  Details over.  Time to pick this thing apart!
I'm actually having trouble where to start with this, as there's a lot of issues I already forsee.  The first, with their description of this lever-based system making for "Quicker Reloads".  A Slam-fire system on a magazine-fed blaster will always warrant the quickest method of priming the blaster between shots.  I can't imagine a lever-action reload having the ability to slam-fire just by the nature of how it works.  Already there's a claim that I find inaccurate, so that raised an eyebrow off the bat.

Moving right along, this "DIY-style design"... not exactly sure what they mean by that.  It's got some tape on the grip and the front of the blaster (just like other ZombieStrike blasters before), but there's nothing that really suggests that this is a "Do it yourself" blaster.  In the Nerf world, wouldn't a DIY design essentially refer to a homemade design?  I'm thinking Pumpsnap when I think of that kind of a "Do it yourself".  I'm thinking of a hopper and stefans for ammo.  I'm thinking of a pipe-dream blaster with a clothespin worked in there.  Not a full-on Tacticool looking shell.  Upon that, my other eyebrow was up.  I'm all out of eyebrows to raise, but there's more.

Perhaps it's the angle, but this blaster doesn't look too big.  With a buttstock and a lever-action prime, we can see this is supposed to be a rifle, but if the size of those two features is too small, this is gonna be a tough blaster for bigger folks to use.  It looks like the main body of the blaster (from the end of the barrel to the trigger) is just over a foot long.  If that's the case, it's gonna have a stubby stock that'll make the user feel cramped.  Other recent blasters have "looked" big in the photos (RapidStrike comes to mind) but have actually turned out to be smaller than folks were expecting.  I expect the SlingFire to follow suit at this rate.  Reports of this blaster being more expensive than folks were expecting could mean that I'm wrong about it's size.  Still, I think (with the exception of the Centurion) the days of the big beefy rifles like the Longshot are behind us.

::UPDATE:: Thanks to the sleuthing of Owen on the Facebook Page for Tactical Tag, we've got a better idea of how big this blaster might be.  By his estimation, it should be about 20 inches long.  A blaster just shy of two feet in length might not be bad.

My last point is more of an aesthetic complaint.  This blaster just looks strange.  Whatever that "DIY-style" is referring to, it's not something I'd put together if I had a choice.  The SlingFire looks unbalanced and goofy with a short front barrel, tall mid-section, and short buttstock.  I suppose it likens itself to the state of Ohio, high in the middle and low on both ends.  This sort of gives it a SledgeFire look to it, but we expect that out of a shotgun... not the misshapen rifle this is trying to be.  It also continues the green trend of ZombieStrike blasters.  We've got the SideStrike, Crossfire Bow, and Ricochet covering the green theme already, so having another green machine is boring compared to the initial ZS launch with the HammerShot and SledgeFire.  

I've been getting known to be the "Complain-a-saurus Rex" of the Nerf community when it comes to new blasters sometimes, but it's never my hope that my assumptions turn out to be right.  Months from now, I could nab myself a SlingFire and love the death out of it.  It could be bigger than I thought, nice and comfortable to use, have great consistent ranges and performance, and dig it's way to my heart.  It'll need quite the shovel to do that, though!