When you want the person in front of you to vanish.
If you guys don't yet know already, I SWEAR by air blasters and why Nerf hasn't revisited the concept for nearly the past decade is beyond me because, they're excellent. So what did I do in the midst of Nerf cranking out flywheel after flywheel and plunger after plunger? I bought a timeless classic, the Blastfire DX-500, Nerf's most famous semi auto system.
Size compared to an Electric Eel.
The Blastfire is arguably Nerf's most successful semi auto blaster ever built. It was designed to spiritually succeed the Mad Hornet and the Lightnin' Blitz and took both blaster's best features, semi auto and shotgun, and beautifully molded them together. The Blastfire was succeeded by the awful Hornet AS-6 in 2004, which is funny, considering both blasters operated EXACTLY the same and the Hornet had severe reliability issues as opposed to the older Blastfire.
Slide pulled back.
I picked up Blastfire along with a bunch of vintage Suction Darts and it was a lot smaller than expected, which isn't bad since the Hornet was rather unwieldy. The handle is quite comfortable and the blaster's size is perfect for dual wielding. Like I mentioned earlier, the Blaster operates exactly the same as the Hornet minus severe unreliability. You pull back the slide in the back to "prime" the blaster and then you pump it. My Hornet takes an awful lot of pumps to fill it but the Blastfire takes very few due to a well designed pump which greatly cuts down reloading times.
Internals are similar to the Hornet but much simpler.
You are now left with two options, fire your five darts off individually by pulling the trigger until you run dry or slam the blast button on top and unleash a nearly undodgeable maelstrom of darts whilst sacrificing all your ammo. The Blastfire hits roughly 40 to 50 feet which is decent for a stock blaster by today's standards but keep in mind that this is a close quarters weapon and it's designed to be more or less of a secondary.
Sorry Nerf, you did it right before.
As for the internals, they are quite similar to the Hornet. You have several backpressure tanks linked to this insane valve system no primitive screwhead will ever comprehend. Like the Hornet, this valve stem is primed by pulling the slide linked to it. You see that orange piece linked to that torsion spring? The Hornet has a piece similar to it but the torsion spring constantly the slips out of place, causing the semi auto to fail. The Blastfire however, gets it right which is funny knowing that the Hornet, a blaster deemed to be it's successor nearly sucked in every mechanical aspect that the Blastfire didn't.
So I absolutely love the Blastfire, it is a so much better blaster than the Hornet and it's a very effective close quarters blaster even by today's standards. I give the Blastfire DX-500 a 5 because it packs great firepower and range into a very manageable package. This thing stood the test of time and I recommend you get one.
The Verdict
Class- Air Powered Shotgun
Range- Good, 40 to 50 feet.
Size- About the size of a Recon with no attachments.
Reliability- No major issues, usual backpressure dart ejection on first pump.
Ammo- 5 Suction Darts
Modding- Rebarreling is all you can really do.
Is It Better Than?
Hornet- Yes, you have to be on crack to think the Hornet is better than anything for that matter. While it's actually a pretty good blaster provided it works properly, most of the time it sucks. Get a Blastfire and save yourself some head scratching.
Mad Hornet- Yes, the Mad Hornet was Nerf's first semi automatic system so sure, it's not perfect. The Mad Hornet is weak compared to the Blastfire but it's fun blaster nevertheless.
Lightnin' Blitz- Yes, this shotgun pistol is rather good and fairly compact but it only fires in shotgun so all your ammo is lost in one trigger pull. The Blastfire has the option to fire in either semi or shotgun so it's a no brainer really.
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