Nerf Modulus Regulator Review (8/10)

Rock n' roll at the flip of a switch.

Fall is here... well almost, it's still hot as hell outside but that means another thing; lots of new dart blasters. Nerf's Modulus line has honestly been pretty meh since it first started. The ECS-10 was no different than a Stryfe, the Recon MKII was pretty much inferior to the Retaliator in every way, and don't even let me get started on the Tri-Strike. So Modulus has some long needed redemption in order but how are they going to deliver it? With this: the Regulator, Nerf's first select fire blaster.

All attachments removed.

The Regulator sticks to the Modulus theme of customization, or promoting generally overpriced and useless attachment kits. Luckily this blaster comes with a ton of attachments right off the bat so you can at least save your money and bear the brunt of the $60 dollar price tag. I'll be honest, fully kitted out the Regulator is not a good looking blaster. It's like they just threw a bunch of random attachments on what is basically "generic flywheel blaster #100" and threw it onto the market. That being said, it's fairly comfortable and the stock is a vast improvement over the other stocks Modulus blasters come with. I will say that the magazine is pretty far in front of the blaster and the otherwise garbage placement of the release button right in front of the trigger doesn't help things.

This thing just makes no sense what so ever.

Thankfully the Regulator fixed Modulus's long standing problem of not putting locking nubs for the barrel attachments so they don't just fall off anymore. The Regulator comes with a whopping three barrel attachments and needless to say, they obviously don't do much. The two extensions have rail mounts on them for some reason but the real kicker is the barrel mounted fold out grip. Good lord this thing is about as much of an afterthought as an afterthought can get. It's flimsy, looks cheap as hell and serves no purpose other than to make your barrel bend in the middle. Also, look how high the sight aperture is on this blaster. The top rail is mounted so low to the frame that they actually intend for you to use one of the barrel extensions for a scope. Wait, what?

The top one is the only option obviously. For sure. No arguments.

So the aesthetics of the Regulator are not good, but they can be easily fixed by ditching the blaster's more extraneous attachments in favor of some that actually benefit it's appearance. Now onto function: on both sides of the baster you get a fancy new select fire switch that allows you to change between single, burst, and full auto. Neat right? But how well does it work? Single works as well as you would expect, tap the trigger and it sends a dart out. Burst has a notable delay in it's response and the fire rate of the burst is admittedly a bit underwhelming. Full auto is, well full auto, bogging down your flywheels and everything. When you're finished mag dumping, a red light above the the stock mount flashes telling you to reload. Gimmicky? Yes, but kind of neat.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? RELOAD NOW!

As for performance, it's actually quite good. Single fire shots get sent to a soaring 60 to 70 feet flat and can apparently break 100 angled. Full auto and burst however get bogged down and lower ranges to around 30 to 55 feet with prolonged firing. So all in all, it's to be expected from an automatic flywheel blaster but hey, how about some voltage mods? Inside you'll find a belt feeder mechanism similar to the Hyperfire although I've had much less trouble with this one skipping shots and being generally inconsistent.

Not bad.

All in all the Regulator is actually a pretty solid blaster and I honestly didn't have high hopes going into this. It shoots very well and the select fire ability allows you to... heh, regulate the blaster's rate of fire depending on the situation. Most of the downsides largely come from aesthetics and ergonomics. Does it bring anything new to the table? Not really, especially for anybody whose used about a million flywheel blasters prior; the select fire is neat but not exactly game changing and it kind of leaves you wishing this $60 dollar blaster had more to offer. That being said, if you're in the market for a flywheel blaster and have money to burn, the Regulator is a pretty good choice. 

The Verdict

Class- Flywheel Assault Rifle

Range- Excellent, 60 to 70 feet on single fire. Range get bogged all the way down to around 30 feet with prolonged automatic firing.

Size- Comparable to a Stampede.

Reliability- Possible jams.

Ammo- 12 Elite Darts with spare mag storage in the stock.

Modding- Voltage mods, voltage mods, and more voltage mods.
Value- At $60, it's good performance may not be enough to justify it's price tag.

Is It Better Than?

Elite Hyperfire- Yes, the Hyperfire was notoriously inconsistent with it's performance and it's radical shell design leave a lot to be desired in the realm of customization. The Regulator's vast attachment options and select fire greatly help remedy many of the Hyperfire's problems.

 Rapidstrike- Depends, the Rapidstrike is still the poster boy for flywheel assault rifles, employing a more consistent mechanical dart pusher mechanism and a rather excellent shell design. However, I would not be surprised one bit if the Regulator starts gaining some ground against the Rapidstrike in the future.