My arrival at Toys R Us today was initially disappointing as there was seemingly nothing new on the shelves. I was moments from heading out until I noticed a package full of yellow objects hanging off one of the endcaps and instantly turned back to dig a little deeper. Hidden behind a Rotofury I finally came across the first actual Rival blasters I've seen in person. This is the Apollo, the smaller one of the two and as for a completely new direction for Nerf, I am highly impressed.
Size compared to a Vigilon.
Just to give you a bit of background on Rival, this is Nerf's new lineup targeted at a much older demographic than N-Strike. The blasters are marketed as being able to fire at 100 FPS and are so far all magazine fed using this new ball ammo called High Impact Rounds, or I guess we can say HIRs for short. This line seems to be both a successor to both Dart Tag and Vortex as they both have seemed to vanish from the market recently and Rival reuses similar concepts from both lines. The Apollo is the pistol between the two current blasters, if you can even call it a pistol. This thing is damn huge and it's form factor is really bizarre. The grip is way up in the front and the top of the blaster is well over a foot. On paper it looks like an absolute ergonomic clusterfuck but it's actually fairly comfortable. The extended rear don't get in the way too much and can kind of serve as a stock. The grip might be too large for some people, and I'm not kidding, it's probably the biggest grip of any blaster on the market right now but it's nicely shaped and absolutely necessary for the pistol to feed through the grip. The top prime handle is a little strange, it gets the job done but it doesn't feel as good a traditional pullback or slide prime but again I feel it's necessary due to how beefy the spring is. It's very well built, but younger users are going to have a bad time with this blaster.
High Impact Rounds are like miniature foam golf balls.
This is the first pistol Nerf has made to actually be magazine fed from the grip and it's thanks to the new ammo type, the High Impact Round. These suckers are around the size of a paintball, made out of similar foam to Nerf's Turbo Football and have little dimples on them to aid with aerodynamics, something their older and larger ancestor, the Ballistic Ball failed at in virtually every aspect. They load very easily into the 7 round magazine(The 12 rounder works in the Apollo with no issues)and you can literally pick them off the ground using the mag which is helpful in speeding up reloading. The rounds do ricochet a lot off hard surfaces and I spent a fair amount of time hunting them down under couches but they are bright enough to be seen easily. I have heard many gripes about the blaster jamming and being difficult to unjam without a long object due to the lack of a jam door but later Apollo releases are going to have a jam release button in the back which should help greatly. Also, there is a safety switch on the side of the blaster, a first for a non electric blaster. I don't exactly understand why though unless the Apollo has some untapped lethality I don't know of yet. Won't be using it for home defense any time soon.
Internals, complete with gears and a beefy plunger.
Now the performance is supposedly what Rival is all about and I was expecting very good things from this blaster considering the hype surrounding this lineup. To put it simply, the Apollo lives up to it's expectations. This thing launches rounds out at around the 60- 70 foot mark with great accuracy, and it lives up to it 100 FPS claim too although the velocity does decrease a bit over longer distances. I don't know exactly how well this new ammo will hold up under more windy conditions but so far it kicks ass in indoor and low winded outdoor warfare, especially with the ammo capacity mag fed capability. Under the shell you find that the blaster is gear operated but it is using a pretty hefty spring so these gears may be better made. I'm just playing it safe and throwing spring upgrades out the window, it's not the easiest prime in the world as is. Converting it to darts is a possibility but you end up abandoning the mag fed capability and besides, these HI Rounds seem to perform just fine. I would imagine more people will find out some crazy things to do to the Apollo but for now, it's relatively untapped and I don't see much that can be done.
The Apollo is a blaster with attitude, and while it's initial first looks might be a little outlandish compared to traditional dart blasters it's actually a quite comfortable and immensely powerful choice for a sidearm. It might be pretty big and too difficult to operate for some people, especially younger ones, but for those that can find a place for it in their loadout it's a whole lot of fun and can definitely give darts a run for their money. The Apollo in my book is worthy of a solid 9 out of 10, I highly recommend you add one to your arsenal.
The Verdict
Class- Magazine Fed Pistol
Range- Excellent, around 60 to 70 feet.
Size- Quite big, well over 15 inches long and it's pretty chunky.
Reliability- Jams are possible and a bit tricky to remove. This will hopefully be nullified with the updated version.
Ammo- 7 High Impact Rounds
Modding- Relatively untapped, but not much seems to be possible without ruining it's functionality.
Value- At $25, it's cheaper than the Zeus but still packs a massive amount of power and practicality.
Is It Better Than?
Vigilon- Yes, this was the closest thing to the Apollo back when Vortex was still relevant. It still hits great range but it's loading door style system is slower than the Apollo's mag fed system. Plus the HI Rounds seem to be more stable than XLR Discs in flight. Overall a win for the Apollo.
Retaliator- Depends, the Apollo is big for a pistol and this is the closet dart launching equivalent to it and it can be stripped down to around the size. The Apollo is more powerful than the Retaliator stock but the latter has more mod potential and with some work can rival the Apollo. Pun unintended. Seriously.
Stryfe- Depends, the NIC's baby bar none except only to maybe a Rapidstrike and Nerf's for it's overused internals. This is a bit of a different class of blaster but it's commonly run as a secondary and it boasts a better rate of fire than the Apollo stock but less power. With mods a Stryfe can become a high rate of fire mag dumping weapon capable of taking on an Apollo at range. It's larger variations are no different.
Vigilon- Yes, this was the closest thing to the Apollo back when Vortex was still relevant. It still hits great range but it's loading door style system is slower than the Apollo's mag fed system. Plus the HI Rounds seem to be more stable than XLR Discs in flight. Overall a win for the Apollo.
Stryfe- Depends, the NIC's baby bar none except only to maybe a Rapidstrike and Nerf's for it's overused internals. This is a bit of a different class of blaster but it's commonly run as a secondary and it boasts a better rate of fire than the Apollo stock but less power. With mods a Stryfe can become a high rate of fire mag dumping weapon capable of taking on an Apollo at range. It's larger variations are no different.
Vigilon- Yes, this was the closest thing to the Apollo back when Vortex was still relevant. It still hits great range but it's loading door style system is slower than the Apollo's mag fed system. Plus the HI Rounds seem to be more stable than XLR Discs in flight. Overall a win for the Apollo.
No comments:
Post a Comment