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Thursday, February 23, 2012

Hailfire Rotating Clip Concept

4 Clip Design concept
Based on the information we have, the N-Strike Elite Hailfire has a listed capacity of 48 darts.  There has been some discussion as to whether there are 3 or 4 clips in the bottom of the blaster that supply the darts and I've been leaning towards the 4-clip design hypothesis because of a couple of reasons.  First, while you could have 3 clips supply 48 darts, that would mean they would have 16 darts each.  Nerf already has an 18 straight and drum clip, so a 16 dart clip seems a little silly to me.  Also, the N-Strike Elite Retaliator has an extended clip that looks to house 12 darts.  4 Clips plus 12 darts each would get us 48 darts.

The other half of the evidence that I present in this image (above) is how the position of the clips that we see in the silhouette suggest that are 4 clips and not 3.  The alignment of the clips makes much more sense in a 4 clip "X" pattern than a 3 clip concept.  The front and back clips are in a darker orange with the two side clips in a lighter orange.  Their tracks of motion are outlined in yellow circles and this kind of system could easily fit/work for the Hailfire's design.

I also have a sneaking suspicion that the Hailfire in the video is loaded with 6 round clips, since the design of each of those clips matches that of a normal 6-round clip.  So my analysis reflects the size of 6-round clips installed in the blaster.

7 comments:

  1. Good analysis, the good things chatroll can do. XD

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  2. I agree zook, some think that this blaster may be fly wheel powered but the bottom trigger my move the magwell. this leading me to believe that it will be like the stampede or vulcan.

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  3. I doubt that the button under the trigger is for rotating the magazine assembly, but only because that would be an incredibly silly place to put such a switch. It would get hit by accident all the time. Sure, Nerf could devise a lock system that would prevent that from being a problem, but why go through that extra layer of effort when a simple switch like that could be put almost anywhere? I do think, however, that some sort of automatic mechanism for the magazine assembly is a must for this blaster to stand a decent chance of being worthwhile in the face of its bulk and oddity. Trying to manually rotate that thing in combat while carrying most of the blaster's weight from an off-center, top-mounted handle in far from ideal. A switch for an auto-rotate feature in that top-mounted handle or at the rear of the main grip (similar in position to the Vulcan's on/off) would be a satisfying alternative, though. Good call on the clips, Zook. They look awfully shallow to be of the new, extended variety.

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  4. Im looking at the jam door, if its a flywheel design it would be after the jam door towards the front of the blaster. but if you take a look at the area just above the trigger, it dosent look like it would house big D size batteries, unless, maybe it comes with a rechargeable pack like paintball and airsoft markers, now that would be cool. All in all I just hope it lives up to the 75ft ranges its boasting. I wonder what the rate of fire will be like too.

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  5. Maybe the clip is 12 darts, but it's stuffed up high in the inside of the blaster....just a thought. It could be mostly internal and less external.

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  6. i personally think the pic shows the blaster with 12 dart clips, because if you look where the barrel is, (and normally the top of the clip is same place as the barrel) it seems to high from the clips to fire them if they where 6 dart clips, i also don't think they would advertise it for 48 darts but have the pictures only show the blaster with 24 darts. like the stampede and raider they never were advertised with 6 dart clips but the 35 dart drum and the 18 dart clips.

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  7. So. Just to give a little more light into what I believe is going on. I 100% agree with the layout bazooka has shown. If you also look directly up above the center, between the foremost and rearmost clips, that looks a lot like a sliding jam door. My guess is that the foremost clip is the one that fires out the darts. putting the flywheels pretty close to the end of the barrel. and that the mechanism that pushes the darts into the wheels is located directly between the fore and aft clips, controlled in some way, like the rayven, from the trigger (rayven trigger is quite far away from the pushing mechanism. This way, no clips would be in the way of any darts going through. It's highly possible they could be 12 dart clips shown for a good reason. Look at the size of the barrel opening. A dart has to shoot out of that. No take that space width, and go directly back to where a clip would be. Stack it, and go down and it could give a good idea as to what size clips are loaded.

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