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Wednesday, May 18, 2016

ERTL Rapid Fire Shotgun Review (3/10)

There is nothing more underwhelming than this.
Everybody loves a good pump action right? Practical, high rates of fire, and powerful. The Alpha Trooper and Rampage are probably the most refined examples of a pump action blaster on the market right now. So what happens when someone else tries to make one? ERTL who we already know for the god awful Pump Action Shotgun also made a bigger, more badass brother for the craptastic ball shooter we had rebuild from the ground up to love. This is the Rapid Fire Shotgun, twelve rounds of complete and utter front heavy failure.


Size compared to an Alpha Trooper and the ERTL MCS
To put it very simply, the Rapid Fire Shotgun is a piece of shit. I can't talk a bit about it's design history, whatever. It's just that bad and for these reasons why. After you tear the thing from it's box which has twist ties made of adamantium, you will find that the RFSG just feels ever so slightly off. The blaster is quite heavy, especially in the front. Granted this is good sign for build quality but once you realize how terrible the stock grip is, the rest of the blaster just feels wrong despite the pump grip being very nice and the stock a manageable size. The trigger is tiny and the guard is massive. This results in your three gripping fingers to be crowding for space below the trigger guard and it just feels terrible. The colossal width of the grip isn't exactly a nice factor either which is weird considering the general shape of the grip is fine. It's like the most basic, neanderthal definition of ergonomics ever, compared to Buzz Bee at this time whom had zero knowledge of ergonomics.
You are perfectly safe, as long as you stand over 10 feet in front of the barrel.
The blaster interestingly features an actual functioning safety switch unlike the PAS which had a fake solid one molded into the grip making it's already trash grip even worse. This one works well, even though it serves little purpose on a blaster with no lethal capability(Yet) and that you tend to activate it on accident a lot. It is rather loose so if you're in the heat of battle and you accidentally flick the safety on, you're screwed. You would be screwed anyways because the RFSG is one of the most dismal performing blasters I have ever used.
Beefy internals with little results.
Seriously, upon firing this for the first time the furthest shot went 25 feet. Every other dart fell further and further below that; my lowest shot distance, if you can even call it a shot landed about a foot in front of me. The rotation mechanism also failed to work unless the blaster was pointed completely upright. Now I have no idea if this is because of the darts, the ARs, or just shitty seals but this blaster sucks hard. So with my curiosity on my side I cracked the RFSG open and found this; a very large plunger system with a strong spring paired with an average sealing gasket head. The plunger seals to the turret with this thin rubber piece on the top of the plunger tube and the seal just seems pretty poor, especially paired with the possibly strong ARs. It's boggle my mind how this would fail, it has more than sufficient plunger volume for good ranges and spring strength but they cut corners on everything else. 
Granted I wasn't the only one who saw the potential for greatness under the hood of the RFSG. Back in 2007, ForsakenAngel24 created the first modded RFSG with extended PETG barrels, more springs, and better seals. The blaster hits ranges of over 100 feet flat with great accuracy and rate of fire. We know it as the Doomsayer and the name now infamously applies to any RFSG modded in a similar manner. It may be banned from a number of wars but it shows that the RFSG, despite how terrible it is stock can be transformed into one of the best modded blasters out there.

The Rapid Fire Shotgun is by all standards, a complete hunk of crap. It's heavy, uncomfortable, and it fires at ranges so low and so inconsistent, a guy with a blowgun could outgun you easily outside your effective range, what range it has that is. Plus the rotation mechanism failed to work right and the safety is finicky. It's crap. It is by all means crap but just look at it! It's awesome! And that makes it so disastrously underwhelming when you first use it. The Rapid Fire Shotgun deserves a rightfully cruddy 3 out of 10 for these reasons. Nevertheless it still deserves all your attention, that is if your willing to get your hands dirty and unlock it's true potential.

The Verdict
Class- Pump Action Revolving Rifle
Range- Crap, 25 feet max with insane inconsistency.
Size- Similar in size to a Longshot with no front gun.
Reliability- Rotation mechnaism failed to work out of the box, bad seals.
Ammo- 12 Mega Darts
Modding- Insane potential. Put some work into this blaster and you get one of the best modded blasters ever created.
Value- Discontinued, but it's worth it just for modding potential.

Is It Better Than?

Rotofury- No, the Rotofury is about the closest modern equivalent to the RFSG on the market. This blaster absolutely destroys the RFSG in all aspects through it's mod potential is limited because of how the pump grip and barrel are setup. Get one of these if you want a good stock mega dart firing pump action or get the RFSG if you plan on modding it to destroy all opposition. 

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