Peacemaker

Anybody seen those new Super Soaker (brand?) water guns in the stores with the built in shields? I've seen a couple different styles at stores like Toys-R-Us. Basically, they're big water guns that have large flat shields built onto them. The shields (roughly 1' X 1.5-2' in size), when at rest, are folded back against the side of the gun, but when you pull a lever or push a button of some sort, they fold out to protect you from incoming water from other people's water guns, so that you can blast your buddies without getting water sprayed in your face at that same time. I know some people have rules in their Nerf wars that allow players to use guns like the Manta as shields to deflect incoming darts, and it would seem that guns like this would be fun to use under such rules. However, the wierd thing about these guns is the firing operation. From the box diagrams and the design features of the guns, it appears that instead of the usual Super Soaker operational mechanics (i.e. use a pump to build air pressue in a tank, then pull a trigger to release the water via the stored air pressure), these guns use a rotating crank that you have to constantly turn to blast out the water (kinda like the cranks on old-fashioned Gatlin guns). This would definitely be a cool feature for a Nerf gun to have (imagine it, an old fashioned manual Nerf Gatlin to shower your victims with foamish death), but I don't have a good feeling as to if these guns could be effectively modified to fire Nerf dart instead of water.

Anybody else seen these guns? If so, any thoughts?

I just visited my local Toys-R-Us earlier today, and I noticed some new guns on the shelves that I’d not seen before.

First off, just a note… TRU seems to be restocking AT3Ks. I haven’t seen them on store shelves for quite a while, but my TRU now has about a dozen of them in stock. A good thing.

Now on to the new guns. Toy Quest has a new line of guns under the Air xXL line. I saw 3 of them on the shelf. The first was a fist blaster (or something like that). Just 3 short barrels that sit on the top of the fist and a rubber bladder that you grip in your palm. You simply squeeze the bladder to create the airflow that fires the darts. They didn’t look to me to have any potential at all.

Secondly there were the Air xXL Electronic Skeet Shoot sets. Like the Tech Target, the set includes a gun, a target system, and a handful of foam darts. The target system here throws large foam disks (skeets) across the room and you’re supposed to shoot them while in flight with the gun. The gun itself looks kind of interesting. It is a decent looking “rifle” sized gun with a removable stock. It has a 4 barreled revolving chamber at the tip and a cocking pump on the underside (like a pump shotgun). The barrels automatically revolve when you cock the gun with the pump. The gun also comes with a mount on the top that holds 4 extra darts (the set comes with 8 darts total). The darts are basic Nerf-type by design (hollow foam cylinders with rubber suction-cup tips), but are at least twice as big as a standard micro dart. It’s hard to tell from the box, but it looks like this is a spring gun of some sort, and not an air gun, so I’m not confident that the gun has that much potential (considering that the box advertises that the gun fires darts “up to 25 feet”, it doesn’t instill me with much confidence).

The more interesting gun was the Air xXL Bazooka Missile Launcher (not to be confused with the Blast Bazookas… different line). This gun is HUGE. By far the biggest, bulkiest gun that I’ve seen in a long time. It’s at least 3 feet long and rather fat. It has 2 handles with partially rubberized grips (a rear handle with a trigger and a forward handle for the front hand to grip) as well as a rubberized section at the rear of the gun to act as a shoulder stock. It is designed to fire these really big foam missiles (approximately 3 times the size of the stock missiles that come with the Max Shot.) Like the Max Shot the missiles slide over the forward barrel. Unlike the Max Shot, the forward barrel is about 2 inches in diameter. Basically, the gun works like this… on the top of the gun is a grip lever that you pump forward and back to prime the gun (about 14 pumps for a full charge) then you pull the trigger to fire the missile. Unlike the Skeet Shoot (which is in a closed box), the Bazooka comes in an open-faced box, so you can get a decent, hands on feel for the gun without taking it out of the packaging. The up side… the box advertises that the gun can fire its stock missiles (which are friggin’ huge… at least as big as a dozen or so micro darts put together) over 60 feet, so if one can successfully and effectively mod the barrel to taper down from 2 inches to a ½ inch, you can imagine how far this sucker could feasibly fire a single micro dart or a micro Stefan, which means it could be a damn good loser. The down sides (other than its large, bulky size)… when you work the cocking pump, the gun gives off a very audible series of clicking noises, like a built in sound effect system. It’s rather annoying to listen to and would surely spoil any stealth tactics that a losing nerfer might be trying to use. In addition, it’s got a helluva kick. I pumped up the gun in the box and pulled the trigger, and the damn thing nearly jumped off the shelf. Interestingly enough, though you have to pump the gun up to (assumingly) build air pressure like an air gun, when the gun is fired there is a very recognizable sound of a large spring being sprung. Is it an air gun? Is it a spring gun? Is it an amalgamation of the 2? Who knows. But that mule-worthy kick will probably screw with your accuracy and cause you to shoot high.

These guns are definitely not cheap. The Skeet Shoot is priced at $39.99 (I suspect you’re primarily paying for the target/skeet thrower), and the Bazooka Missile Launcher goes for $29.99.

So, anybody else seen these guns yet? Anybody bought them? Anybody tried to mod them? Does anybody know if they’re worth the outlay of cash?

Pardon the question, but I'm at my wit's end and I have to ask.

I bought a Tek Six not long ago and have been pondering on how to improve its distance. I love the ROF that it provides, as the top-side cocking mechanism is very comfortable and allows me to rattle off all 6 shots in less than 5 seconds. Problem is, as I'm sure others who have purchased this gun can testify to, its distance is poor. A very short range sidearm.

I've clipped off the air-flow restrictors on the ends of the stems that the darts slide over, and that improved its range a little (about +/-25 ft total distance; 15 foot effective range). But after I opened it up I found myself at a loss as to what I could do with the guts of the gun to make it shoot farther. The internals (particularly the plunger and tube) are identical to those of the old SM 350s, which were notoriously weak guns. I know that multi-barreled sidearms are never known for their great range, and I'm sure that I could probably get a better range if I modded it into a single barrel gun. But then I would lose the 6-chambered, multi-shot functionality of the weapon (which is the selling point for me... I mean, if I wanted a good single shot sidearm, I'd hunt down a LnL or just stick with my Nite Finders).

Does anyone have any ideas of how I could mod the Tek Six for better range without sacrificing the ROF. If I can't improve the range, I guess I'll just remodel it's appearance to look more like an Old West six-shooter (it won't help it's performance, but it ought to look cooler).

Any help will be most appreciated.

Thanks.