Max Force Terrornator 85 Review (7/10)

Graduate from foam? Um...

Well I never did think I'd end up buying one of these but they are becoming quite scarce due to the fact Jakks Pacific's Max Force line was sadly a flop, and promptly discontinued last year. Luckily I managed to snag this beast on eBay for $30 bucks brand new, and I'm quite impressed... all the way up until I had to clean up the trail of carnage this thing leaves behind.

Size compared to a Longshot, it's awfully massive.

The Terrornator 85 was the flagship of the Max Force line, in case you didn't know it was one of those water based blaster lines like Xploderz that tried making themselves relevant in 2011, and that didn't quite work; you'll see why. Out of the box there is a bit of assembly needed to get this monster of a blaster together and it's really massive. Size shouldn't be a factor though because the Terrornator is very comfortable and it's intimidation factor is bar none. 

A rather massive slit in the plunger tube. Sad thing is, it's needed to function properly.

However despite it's really good looks and feel. upon picking the thing up, you will instantly notice how less usable this blaster is compared to a conventional dart weapon. First of all it's push pull; while the dual stroke action is very smooth and outputs a good amount of power, it makes the blaster much less accurate. I took note of a large slit in the plunger tube, as I felt a blast of air on my hand whenever I fired it. The bad thing is, it's needed to link the handle to the dual stroke plunger, and I do wonder what the performance would be like without it.

A homage to the high school classroom.

The ammo is another thing I had to gripe about. It comes in the form of these solid paper pellets that you load into the 30 round belt and submerge the belt in water for around 10 seconds. Almost right away you can see why I find these "Splat" pellets inferior to darts. They're not reusable. As you can see above it's just a pure massacre of spitballs. Once they leave the blaster, they just shower anything in their path with little bits of wet paper, until they make their mark on the target. I picked up about 60 of these things in the night I used the blaster, and I found some more the next morning solidified into some sort of paper concrete to the walls of my house. I've never seen a dart do that. Sure, you can argue they get better ranges than darts but like airsoft BBs, you can't really use them twice, and even BBs make less of a mess than these things.

Yeah I know, so far everything but the aesthetics on this thing sounds like a complete flop, but how does it shoot? Savagely, like no joke. This thing hits well around its range claims of 85 feet with great velocity and accuracy(Provided you know how to shoot a push pull precisely). Paired with the rate of fire it churns out, it's a very usable blaster despite it's faults. If 30 rounds seems too little, the belt is also expandable to any size you want so it saves some of the pain of reloading.

I really do like the Terrornator 85, it's an all around solid blaster. However, the fact that it lacks a trigger and that the ammo type is messy and non reusable will turn off quite a large amount of people. Max Force's slogan is "Graduate from foam", yet I fail to see how this ammo type is in any way better than darts overall. If the blasters had triggers and used more conventional ammo, than maybe the line would have stood a better chance against Nerf. But the mistakes have been made and the line has since been discontinued as of 2014. As for the Terrornator, it deserves a 7 out of 10 because it's a good, fun blaster but it's not without it quirks. Check one out if you're looking for something different but be aware that Jakks won't be making ammo for it anymore.

The Verdict

Class- Belt Fed Machine Gun

Range- Excellent, accurate box claims of around 85 feet.

Size- Comparable to a Longshot minus the front gun but longer.

Reliability- Ammo is quirky and might jam or fail to fire.

Ammo- 30 "Splat" Pellets

Modding- Little potential. Getting it to fire darts would involve trashing the belt fed system.
Value- At $50, it's a good performer but the ammo and push pull firing makes it hard to recommend.

Is It Better Than?

XGround Pounder 2500- Yes, while the basic concept for both blasters is the same, the XGP2500 holds more ammo and is slightly more powerful than the Terrornator. However it feels cheaply built and the design is terrible to use.

Rampage- No, the while the Rampage isn't as powerful and holds slightly less ammo, it has a benefit of having a trigger and using a reusable ammo type: darts. Both of which the Terrornator lacks and is in dire need of.