Nerf Doomlands 2169 Double Dealer Review (3/10)

Prepare for trouble and make it double.

Alright, back to business and we'll start off with a new Nerf blaster. We've had our fill of pump action blasters; they're everywhere yet they never seem to get stale. Probably because pump actions are so practical and usable that it's not too much of a complaint that the market gets saturated with them every now and then. Nerf decided to put a new twist on the concept; two barrels, two mags, Double Dealer. So that should mean double the fun right? No, not one bit.

Size compared to a Retaliator.

The Double Dealer looks basically like a siamese Raider/Rampage with two side by side barrels and two receivers. It's actually pretty neat looking and it's not too cumbersome when fully loaded. The grips are plenty big and feel pretty comfortable. The stock is a little short but on the plus side it also holds two spare mags if needed. I will also note the the locking on the jam door is very weak and it flips open all the time when you pump it. Not a big deal but you would expect it to stay put.

Twin Raider style receivers on both sides. 

What many people initially expected of the Double Dealer was that it had dual plunger tubes feeding into each separate barrel. In actuality, there is only one plunger tube feeding into both barrels at the same time. I almost view this as a cost cutting method as opposed to engineering a dual plunger system with a two stage trigger. Dual plunger blasters that I've used in the past have worked much better than this new style and a prime example of this is the Roughcut 2x4 against the Brainsaw which presented night and day differences in performance, mainly that the Brainsaw was complete shit. It can work if the single plunger tube seals well and is big enough to feed into two barrels without a drop in power, however just like the Brainsaw, the Double Dealer has none of that.

Internals look normal, until you dig deeper.

The Double Dealer gets piss poor performance on all counts. Pretty much the furthest this thing can shoot is about 35 feet tops but's also quite inconsistent and a number of shots actually fell within 25 feet, some actually falling out of the barrel. If you thought that's bad, the accuracy is also horrendous and the darts sometimes spread so far apart that your target is basically safe, so long as they stand right in front of the blaster. Not to mention the thing jams nearly every other time I tried to shoot it. I didn't find it surprising at all that when I put one mag in and fired the Double Dealer as a single shot, it got better ranges of around the 40 to 50 mark. So a cracked it open to see what could be done and needless to say, it's a lost cause.

Why.

So the internals deceivingly look normal but I popped the whole plunger system out to get a closer look. The plunger is a fairly large size but the spring is pretty weak. The true menace is that there is a huge slot cut into the bottom of the plunger tube and it serves no real purpose other than to kill performance. There is a plastic peg attached to the plunger rod that moves through this slot, presumably to help guide the rod but why is that necessary when the rod is perfectly guided just by the stopper in front of the catch? The slot takes up over half of the length of the tube which means there is only around an inch long section of the tube that fully seals. That's why the ranges are so terrible and it's because of stupid design decisions like this. Filling the slot is probably too tedious too be worth it. In all honesty, this thing is going back to the store the first chance I get.

The Double Dealer is blaster with a lot of promise packaged into a jamming, inaccurate, and terribly underpowered mess. On top of that, the internals are made in such a way that makes modding a bit of a pain in the ass. It is probably best served as a close quarters spray and pray blaster as it is but other blasters can fit the bill with better performance. All in all the Double Dealer is worthy of a 3 out of 10 because it's just an overpriced piece of junk that at least looks kind of cool. Save your money and get an Atlas or a Rampage instead.

The Verdict

Class- Pump Action Shotgun

Range- Poor, 35 feet tops.

Size- Similar to a Alpha Trooper but considerably bulkier.

Reliability- Jams are frequent.

Ammo- 24 Elite Darts

Modding- If it wasn't for the slot in the plunger tube, this might have had potential.
Value- At $40, there are many better options out there.

Is It Better Than?

Atlas- No, the Atlas is a shotgun like the Double Dealer but it fires much harder  and it's in a slightly more manageable form factor than have dual mags sticking out the sides. The Atlas does have reported inconsistency issues but they are easily fixed. For the same price, this is a better performer if you're a fan of Rival.

Rampage- No, the Rampage is a high capacity blaster like the Double Dealer but it's smoother operating and despite it being single shot, it can still shell out close quarters punishment. The Rampage can also handle ranged targets wheras the Double Dealer cannot. At the same price, this is a hands down better blaster.