Nerf Dart Quick 16 - Review

The Quick 16 is a medium sized blaster and was part of the Dart Tag line released in 2011.  It is a single shot clip loading blaster using the reverse plunger propulsion method.  It is capable of firing slam fire and quickly unloads a clip on your target.

Usability

The Dart Tag range of blasters have always fascinated me.  I liked their unique styling and purpose built layout and the idea of having the darts stick to your opponent like paintball opened up many possibilities for intense skirmishes with the honesty factor taken out of the equation.  Many hours were spend watching promo videos and even some of the Dart Tag World Championship Dart Tag World Champs and quite enjoying what I saw.  Unfortunately after importing the Quick 16 some of my excitement was some what extinguished.

The Quick 16 is fairly time consuming to load.  Having the attached clip means each dart needs to be feed one by one into the top.  Now this eliminates any chance of a reload in the field but the game of Dart Tag often doesn't require this.  The loading process is actually quite difficult the darts bend and wrap and sometimes require being forced into place.  The velcro tops add to this somewhat but the overall design of the blaster is probably most likely to blame.

The blaster is fired by pulling the priming handle back then forward and pulling the trigger.  Slam fire is achieved through holding the trigger and repeatedly pumping the priming handle.  In single fire mode the blaster is easy to use and is fairly accurate, but slam fire is prone to jams and is also very difficult to unjam.

The lack of shoulder stock makes the blaster difficult to hold comfortably, it doesn't fit against the shoulder and needs to be held out in front of user, and during the violent action of slam firing makes the blaster quite prone to Nerf style recoil.

Unfortunately the blaster lacks ease of use and isn't overly effective and many game types.

Usability Score - 3/10

Styling/Tacticool

The Quick 16 is a unique blaster and thanks to the banana clip and the priming handle, but a lack accessory mounting due to no tactical rails.  I enjoy blasters that look pseudo military for Milsim type scenarios and the Quick 16 doesn't offer this look in anyway.

Styling/Tacticool - 2/10

Performance

With all the other shortcomings of the blaster I was hopeful for some decent performance stats for the Quick 16 to redeem some respect.  Unfortunately this wasn't the case.  The Quick 16 not only sends down some loopy darts it ranks 23rd out of 30 blasters.

Dart Distance - 9.6m (31 feet) The Quick 16 fired a maximum distance of 11m (36 feet) and a minimum of 6m (20 feet).  This is a disappointing result for a weapon the Nerf claimed could be used for quick long range attacks on the battlefield. 

Darts fired per second (Slam Fire Mode) 2.21dps

The is a good result for the Quick 16 and there is no doubt that in close quarters this blaster can overwhelm a target.  But as mentioned early the likelihood of jams drops a potentially higher dps rate.

Performance Score 5/10

The Quick 16 is perhaps my most disappointing blaster to date.  I had such high hopes for the blaster and many of them have come crashing to the ground.

Overall I give this blaster 10/30.