Review Nerf N-Strike Spectre Rev-5

So here is my first go at writing a review.  I have decided to review each of my Nerf guns one at a time starting with the first guns that I have purchased through the Roughcut Elite I picked up yesterday.  I have been collecting Nerf guns for a couple of years now and brought this gun on an impulse buy and have never looked back.  So here it is my first review, please be aware that all stats are taken from my own personal testing.  The DPS (darts per seconds) is averaged from two tests with me firing as quick as the gun allows (in the case of Spectre quick draw style).  The Dart distance is based on firing at a flat angle and is measured indoors so there is no wind factor involved.  I have converted metres to feet for US readers.

The Spectre Rev-5 is a pistol style Nerf Gun with a revolving 5 shot magazine that comes with a shoulder stock, silencer and 5 whistler darts (as pictured above).

Usability 

The Spectre is a well made Nerf Gun (common for Nerf products) it has a top mounted primer and the ability to attach a scope (or other accessory) on the top rail, as well as a stock connection at the rear.  The gun is a single shot blaster fired by pulling back and releasing the primer then pulling the trigger.  The next dart is loaded when the blaster is primed.

The gun is comfortable to hold in your hand and despite a slight front heavy feel it is well balanced.  The Spectre operates well as a pistol and is fairly quick to fire of the single shots although this can become more difficult with an accessory mounted on the rail as this slows down the priming motion.

When the stock is fitted the blaster has a sub-machine gun/assault rifle feel but unfortunately the flimsy stock is quite uncomfortable and lowers the maneuverability of the blaster somewhat.

Fitting the silencer adds only aesthetic appeal and doesn't really change the blaster feel at all.  This gun would be best recommended as a side arm without the stock fitted, those lucky enough to have tactical vest can use the sling point on the Spectre for quick firing.

I have had numerous issues with jams on this blaster mainly when the rotating magazine doesn't line up with the barrel of the blaster, hence sending the dart into the side of the barrel.  Despite being easy to remedy this can become annoying.

Reloading is fairly straight forward as a button releases the revolving barrel allowing for the darts to fitted in.  Of course this isn't ideal in situations where quick reloading is a must so again this blaster is better used as an emergency secondary.

Usability score - 5/10

Styling/Tacticool

As mentioned above this blaster holds a special place in my collection as it is 'Numero Uno' and was brought mainly for the cool looking silencer attachment.  The gun has the usual N-Strike badge on the handle and sports the yellow, orange and greys of the N-Strike line.  With stock attached the blaster retains it's coolness but in my eyes looks too long so I often leave the stock off.

The Spectre allows for many interchangeable accessory options thanks to the tactical rail and stock connection point.  The blaster can be transformed from a pistol to assault rifle to sniper rifle and actually looks great in all the layouts.  I particularly like the sniper rifle loadout, and found that it performed fairly well in this setup. Check some of the pictures.

Spectre Rev-5 with Retaliator Stock, Recon Barrel and EPPS

Spectre Rev -5 with Shot Blast Stock and Sight and Longstrike Barrel

Styling score - 7/10


Performance

The blaster performs fairly well although at times is unpredictable in distance and accuracy.  During testing the blaster often fired dud darts and had a tendency to fire towards the right hand side (I am testing down a long hallway and on a few occasions the dart went straight into the right hand wall).  So here are my results.

Dart Distance (Whistler Darts) w/ Silencer - 3.6m (12feet)

Dart Distance (Whistler Darts) w/o Silencer - 6.8m (23feet)

The distance darts are fired from this blaster was disappointing and reaffirmed its use as a secondary blaster.  On all tests (three full magazine emptied with both layouts) resulted in 4-5 darts barely going over 1m and I counted these in the results as it represents the blasters overall performance.  The silencer dramatically reduces performance and despite its cool look isn't advised for use in Nerf battles.

Darts Fired per Second - 1.2 dps

The rate of fire isn't bad for a single fire blaster but in each test a dart was briefly jammed which skewed results somewhat, it may actually be quicker.

Performance Score - 3/10

Overall 

The Spectre Rev-5 is a cool blaster but its poor performance stats and jamming issues has lowered its overall score.  As mentioned above this blaster started the bug for me and its cool styling helped this alot.  Overall I give this blaster a score of 15/30.