Nerf Elite Strongarm

The Strongarm is the evolution of the Maverick from the N-Strike range, featuring the rotating barrel reminiscent of an old six shooter from Westerns and cop movies.  It is a direct plunger single shot blaster.

Usability

Much like its older brother the Strongarm is a solid feeling blaster.  The blaster is primed by pulling back the priming handle backwards and engaging the trigger.  The trigger is responsive and fires with good accuracy.  The biggest change to the Strongarm is its ability to slam fire, this is achieved by holding the trigger and repeatedly pumping the priming handle resulting in a barrage of close range fire and elevating  the blaster from secondary to possible primary weapon (Marunas 2013).  It also features a priming spike which can be hooked into the slide allowing for the possibility of dual weilding the blaster.

Another important change to the usability of the blaster is the changing of the tactical rail from the priming handle to the top of the blaster.  This was always a concern with the Maverick as it cut down usability when a scope was added.

Once fired the cylinder rotates to load the next dart into the chamber, this is a change from the Maverick which rotated as the dart was fired leading to drop in accuracy.  Despite this there is still some issues with the cylinder alignment leading to misfires and a distance drop.

Reloading is straight forward and the cylinder pops right out at the touch of a button revealing the whole cylinder rather than a portion of it.  As with many non-clip blasters a bandolier is paramount to allow for maximum ammo capability.

The grip is comfortable and is well suited to an adult hand and the textured priming slide lends itself well to two handed shooting with your strong hand on the grip and weak hand pumping the slide.

The Strongarm is a simple and effective side arm that retains and builds on the iconic styling of the Maverick.

Usability Score 7/10

Styling

The six shooter styling is a love or hate look, although not a great representation of a military style weapon this blaster looks great.  The colour scheme of the Elite blasters suits it well and the big silver priming slide makes this blaster stand out from others in the range.  The above mentioned shift of the tactical rail makes for greater accessorising although is probabaly best suited to being left stock and using the iron sights for aiming.  The Strongarm is great as a secondary and can be either holstered or clipped to complete a loadout.

Styling score 3/5

Performance Distance


The Strongarm features many changes to the Maverick in Elite style bling, a change to direct plunger from reverse plunger and use of Elite darts was advertised as providing a large change in performance.  Unfortunately in my testing this wasn't the case.  The Strongarm fired an averaged distance 8.5m (28 ft) with a maximum distance of 11m (36ft) and a minimum of 4m (13 ft).  This placed the blaster at 32nd of 38 blasters tested five places below its older brother.

Performance Distance Score 3/10

Performance AccuracyFor its lack of distance the Strongarm makes up for it with good accuracy.  Of the six darts sent down the range the Strongarm hit the target 3 times and the backing board 3 times.  With one shot being very close to centre target.

Performance Accuracy Score 2.5/10

The Strongarm is a solid secondary weapon and has developed alot in usability from its older brother the Maverick.  But its poor performance stats make it hard to recommend as a go to blaster, although it does lend itself well to modification with a little help from OMW.

Overall I score this blaster 15.5/35