Nerf MEGA Thunderbow Review (8/10)

Protect your knees.

Ah, nothing beats getting a product ahead of official release. It makes you feel so... rebellious. This monstrosity right here is Nerf's first MEGA Bow, the Thunderbow. It's a Nerf bow that actually works kind of like the real deal only it's not and pretty obvious it's not when you got 5 rounds of rapid fire death attached to the front of the the thing like someone finally decided having one shot was just pathetic. Lets dive into this blaster and see what the MEGA line has to offer again.

Size compared to the Blazin' Bow, it's bloody massive.

When this thing showed up at my front door I was staggered by the size of the box. Upon taking this thing out of the package, it was absolutely huge. No really, it's seriously the largest non rifle style blaster I've held. It has a large and very comfortable grip although the blaster is a bit topheavy. The draw is smooth and fairly easy to pull back but it will hurt your fingers after a while of using it.

Closeup of the Smart AR system.

Much like the Roughcut 2x4 or the Crossfire Bow, this uses a Smart AR system which seems to be pretty common among blasters of this type. The blaster fires around the 85 foot mark flat which I can't totally be correct on since I had no measuring equipment when I took it outside. You can fire the bow in rapid succession rather quickly but it takes a major toll on it's accuracy. I did work around this as seen in the video. Now for some internals...

More gears than a steampunk fan would want.

Holy shit. Holy holy HOLY shit. Those gears! I knew this blaster was going to have gears but not quite in the style I fathomed here. I mean there's enough gears and spring loaded bits in this thing to build Hugo Cabret's bloody automation with! Sigh... an interesting to note is that this isn't just plain old pull release, it's catch operated, so when the you release the string and the bow arms hit the end of their draw, a trigger mechanism is activated, how dandy.

A close up with the frame removed. Feel intimidated yet?

Ok this was as far as I got before I sealed the blaster up again and relayed back to my brain what I just looked at. As far as I can tell it's a rack and pinion system plus it's direct plunger, a pretty beefy one at that. I'll let the modders have their fun because as far as I'm concerned I wont be doing anything to mine.

So in conclusion, do I like the Thunderbow? Yes, I actually quite like it. It's that crazy outlandish design this thing has that we haven't seen from Nerf since the vintage years. I won't lie, this blaster definitely has serious power but it has a little trouble controlling it. The means of operating it are fine but it affect's the accuracy and plus, it's nowhere near as efficient as a trigger. Overall I give the Thunderbow a 8 out of 10 because it's a powerful gun with potential and it's quite unique, it just has a couple quirks that affect it, I'd get one if you're into it.

The Verdict

Class- Multi Shot Heavy Bow

Range- Excellent, estimate around 85 feet. May be more or less because of accuracy.

Size- HUGE, like a little below 3 feet tall and a bit topheavy.

Reliability- If by some miracle you manage to break the bow arms or the string is all I can say.

Ammo- 5 2013 Mega Darts

Modding- Not really tapped into yet but seems to have some potential.
Value- At $40, its a little steep for a powerful but a little impractical blaster.

Is It Better Than?

Blazin' Bow- Yes, this isn't even fair comparing a high powered monster of bow to this little wimp. The Thunderbow destroys the B'B in capacity and range effortlessly.

Big Bad Bow- Depends, stock this thing performs similarly to the B'B  and thus the Thunderbow beats it. Modded however the BBB is quite the contender, not to mention it has a trigger. Let's just see what a modded Thunderbow can do shall we?

Agent Bow- Yes, well what can I say here. It's ammo type is vastly, VASTLY out of the ordinary and it only fire's one shot at a time versus 5 in rapid succession. I don't think the end result of this one versus the Thunderbow will be very pretty.