Nerf Accustrike Alphahawk Review (7/10)

Accuracy only goes so far.

Well here we go, a dart blaster review. I've been sitting on this blaster for several months and as most of you have probably been aware of, I just haven't had the heart to review some of the new stuff I got a while back. Let's see if I have some juice left for this one. This the new Accustrike Alphahawk, and by new I really mean several months late but whatever, let's get on with it.

Size compared to an Elite Alpha Trooper.

The Alphahawk is part of the new Nerf Accustrike series which prominently features a new kind of dart that supposedly fixes the infamous fishtailing of the Elite Darts. The Alphahawk is a rather well designed and balanced blaster. The shell is pretty fantastic and they even added rubber pieces to the already excellent handle for extra grip. Priming handles are on both sides of the blaster however the chamber release is only on the left side which will be a little annoying for left handed users.

The new darts are great, but a bit heavy.

In all honesty though the Alphahawk pretty much stops being interesting one you get past how great the shell is. You get a five round cylinder and that's it. It sounds quite a lot like an Elite Spectre or the new Doomlands Longarm and that isn't exactly exciting news if you happen to already own one of those. The darts are the real kicker here though. They have this interestingly shaped solid rubber tip that helps stabilize the dart in flight making for more accurate shots.

BlasterThinkTank's internals. This thing is bitch to open, especially if you already installed the priming handles.

I can attest to this claim being true for the most part. The shot pattern of the Accurstrike Darts in notably tighter than when using Elites however I think the added weight in the tip has a lot to do with this too. This kind of raises a problem with the Alphahawk though; it feels horrendously underpowered. Shots I've taken fall around the 30 to 40 foot mark most of the time and that's not exactly great coming from a rifle style blaster. You can nail a doorknob with it from across a 15-foot bedroom but you can't really hit anything past 35 feet. Granted you look inside and you find very Spectre-like internals. The blaster does have a bit of mod potential but in it's stock form paired with the heavier darts, it's less war practical and more fun just to mess around with.

The Alphahawk is an average blaster to say the least. It's got a fantastic shell but it doesn't really bring anything new to the table in terms of features or performance. The darts I've found you can throw into some high powered tight bore blasters and nail stuff for long range with them but that's about it. The blaster itself is easy to use an fun to mess around with but that's really all it's got going for it. It would probably make a nice base for a cosmetic mod or an internal swap with something more powerful. Overall the Alphahawk is fun, but don't expect too much of it. Perhaps the next Accustrike blaster will bring more to the table? We'll just have to see.

The Verdict

Class- Revolving Rifle

Range- Sub-par, 30 to 40 feet although it gets solid accuracy.

Size- Comparable to a Longstrike without the barrel attachment.

Reliability- No known issues.

Ammo- 5 Accustrike Darts, can accept Elites.

Modding- Similar to the Retaliator.
Value- At $30, it's somewhat pricey for something not all that special.