Buzz Bee Ultra Tek Destiny Review (8/10)

Bringing the rain like it's the year 2000.

There was a time many years ago where people didn't use springs or flywheels to hurl foam at each other. Well nobody really did in general actually, they were all too busy with their Super Soakers. But of the few who had the pleasure of enjoying dart blasters in the late 90's to early 2000's most of them were powered by air pressure. Blasters then had a massive variety of how they operated using air pressure; it could be used for highly powerful single shots, rapid semi-autos, and of course insane full auto fire. The days of wearing your arm out pumping these things and springing leaks eventually fell out of fashion in favor of plunger and electric power, however a few still carry the air power torch today. This is Buzz Bee's latest entry into that field: the Destiny, the fastest firing stock blaster in history and it's fun, lots of fun.

Size compared to a Magstrike.

The Destiny is an air powered automatic of the type that was last revisited by the Rapid Madness. The idea is that you fill up a rubber bladder which exerts constant pressure on the air inside it and when the trigger is pulled it releases this air driving a spring loaded piston that both fires the dart and advances a clip(Not a magazine for all you gun Nazi's) at an absurd rate of fire. Some versions used a revolving turret but the function is the same. 

The Destiny is a bit of an unwieldy package compared to the rather sleek Magstrike. Much like the old PowerClip the grip is in the rear with no stock, although accuracy is the last thing you should expect from a blaster like this. It's also really wide and semi-top heavy although the front grip helps manage this. It's not uncomfortable, it's just that the shell could have been designed in a way that makes more sense. Build quality is good, but the whole bright blue and yellow color scheme really makes the Destiny look cheap especially alongside it's Nerf or BOOMco. equivalents.

Blarghhh...

And Buzz Bee looking cheap isn't actually really new... okay looking cheap is new considering how shitty many of their older blasters were in general, but apart from the better build quality and performance nowadays, they still look about the same as before, even down to silly detailing like throwing something that looks like fiesta confetti into the mold. Now unless you have a real hard on for cosmetics this isn't a big deal; they are coming out with a revised carbon fiber pattern soon, but it just shows how Buzz Bee is almost like the anti-Nerf when comes down to blaster design. It's pretty much just typical of them now but when you pay $14 bucks for a Sentinel that has a stock that's too short and a lever that digs into your hand yet shoots absolutely amazing, you can't really complain.

Detail of the receiver, it sort of works.

That being said there are some quirks about the Destiny in terms of the clip. It shares a fair bit with the Rapid Madness being a horizontal feed design but the piston shares more in common with the Magstrike. The clip is held into the receiver by these little spring loaded nubs but they are so loose that the clip can actually fall out if you move too much but most of the time it seems to stay put. I would honestly have to say that between the four blasters in existence that use this same style of firing mechanism, the Rapid Madness is the only one I've never had a single issue with the clip in some form. At least for me this is just like the clip in the Magstrike falling out of place so it's almost familiar. Once you pop off a few shots it gets basically locked into place so it will stay put until empty.

Outback Nerf's internals since my Destiny is being a turd to open. Glue sucks.

Once you pump the the blaster about 20 times; the OPRV should kick in, pull the trigger and smile. The Destiny unleashes it's 20 darts at a insane rate, the shots falling between 30 to 40 feet average. The accuracy sucks but this isn't a precision blaster where you sit back behind cover at a distance and take potshots. Not one bit, this thing is a return to the days of storming into a room, a PowerClip in each hand and spraying down every poor soul in sight. Speaking of the PowerClip, it just got dethroned as the fastest stock blaster at 10 darts per second. The Destiny squeaks out a lead with 13 darts per second, wow. It's still somewhat controllable although a quick trigger pull will only warrant a burst of about three to four darts. 

Once you crack it open, if you can manage boiling off glue without screwing up, you will find internals remarkably similar to a Magstrike. Not too surprising; there's a piston, a bladder, and a trigger valve, only difference being that there is a pressure release switch on the side. Most mods for the Magstrike and PowerClip might be able to transfer over to the Destiny in some way. Now find yourself some extra clips and get an air tank.

The Destiny is an absurdly fun blaster and it absolutely destroys anything else on the market right now in terms of sheer rate of fire. It's only quirks are it's somewhat odd shell design, the clip potentially falling out, and your arm getting sore from pumping it too much. Again it's not a precision blaster like Reataliator or something so if you don't intend to adopt a play style to match the rate of fire and lengthy pump time then it's a bad choice. In all seriousness though it's the only way to get rewired Rapidstrike levels of fire rate from a store at a cheap price and every time you pull that trigger it may cause excessive grinning. The Destiny has scored an 8 out of 10, not without it's quirks but it's so much fun that you won't even notice them.

The Verdict

Class- Air Powered Assault Rifle

Range- Decent 30 to 40 feet.

Size- Similar to a Magstrike.

Reliability- Leaks can happen being air powered.

Ammo- 20 Elite Darts

Modding- Voltage and motor upgrades are in the cards, flywheels might need fixing.
Value- At $20, it's considerably good value for something this absurd.

Is It Better Than?

Rapid Madness- Depends, the Rapid Madness is remarkably similar to the Destiny in terms of horizontal layout. It's shell is night and day better than the Destiny and clip does not fall out of it easily. Range is also slightly better however the rate of fire is down compared to the Destiny although you may or may not actually want that. Ammo is also proprietary which sucks in general. The Rapid Madness is typically more expensive too but it's often marked down. Both are great choices either way.

Magstrike- Yes, the Magstrike is now discontinued but it was a good enough substitute in the absence of the PowerClip. It's rate of fire was roughly the same if not slightly less but it was more prone to leaks and clip issues I've found than the PowerClip for some reason. The Destiny blows it away in general and is a viable replacement for anybody with a Magstrike.

PowerClip- Yes, as much as it pains me to say it, the Destiny really is better. Out of the box the PowerClip requires some light modding for you to be able to swap clips out of it. It's ammo capacity regardless is still half of that of Destiny and having almost the same rate of fire as the latter you have to reload more often. The PowerClip is a lot of fun, but you will have much better luck finding a Destiny, usually for considerably less.