Nerf Alien Menace Ravager Review (6/10)

"One ugly mother****er."

Man, they just keep churning this stuff out! Well, I have been out of the loop for quite a while now but that's not going to stop me from throwing my two cents on some of this new gear. Anyways, Alien Menace has prided itself on being weird and unconventional although most of the blasters aren't really all that strange beyond their appearance. This right here is the Ravager, it looks ridiculous but is that really it? Let's find out.

Size compared to a Strongarm.

The Ravager is the second blaster released in the Alien Menace series and to be totally honest, even though it's goes well with the formula of rocking this half-machine, half-organism design scheme, it's pretty easy to tell this is a pretty basic blaster. It's your average sized pump action revolver, but with a significantly greater amount of bulk in the front than these blasters usually have. The grip feels totally normal which is a plus but the pump handle is a little bit of a strange shape. It fits in the hand relatively okay but I guess you can't expect the ergonomics to be totally perfect on a blaster designed to look kind of like a cross between the Predator and Ridley Scott's Alien. Oh wait... that's actually a thing. 

The cylinder is pretty excessively large for only holding eight darts.

It works as you would expect. Cock the thing, pull the trigger, and send a dart flying. Like most of Nerf's current generation revolvers, the Ravager uses a mechanism to rotate the cylinder after the dart is fired which helps make for a better air seal against the cylinder. The problem is the Ravager's cylinder is so large and heavy that this mechanism works with almost a delay. This isn't particularly noticeable when firing normally but the blaster features slam-fire, which basically does not work as the side locks up for a split second after every shot to let the damn thing rotate. That sucks but it's not a huge deal breaker when you only have eight darts to work with. Also worth mentioning is because the turret uses smart-ARs for each two dart cluster, barrel modifications are basically a no fly zone.

This is further compounded by the fact that while the Ravager gets relatively decent performance at around 35 to 55 feet, it's seriously inaccurate, like really bad. Shots out of this thing tend to fishtail erratically past 20 feet and will veer so far off target that you're probably better off not actually aiming. This is largely because it's firing lightweight Elites out of relatively short barrels, otherwise the blaster doesn't feel that down on power. I chucked Accustrike darts in just for the hell of it and the accuracy dramatically improved. So that's one mystery solved, how about what's inside? Wow, what a mess. There's more locks in this thing than a bank vault and it's unfortunately geared in some parts as well. I wouldn't have modded this thing just based off the cylinder alone but this just settles it.

The Ravager is a blaster of the sorts I'm surprised even still exists in large numbers. It's neat aesthetics is easily the coolest part about this blaster, but some the faults with this blaster stem directly from the looks over performance idea. I mean it's not a bad performer, but there's just a number of little things that don't make this blaster all that practical compared to other options. I think with heavier darts, it can make for a perfectly capable stock war blaster but beyond that, it's quite the oddball. The Ravager gets a 6 out of 10; it's not bad, but it could be better.

The Verdict

Class- Pump Action Revolver

Range- Decent, 35 to 55 feet but with horrendous accuracy.

Reliability- Slam-fire jams consistently.

Ammo- 8 Elite Darts

Modding- Basically no potential.
Value- At $35, there's more versatile options in the same price range, although not many this crazy looking.

Is It Better Than?

Flipfury- No, this thing right here still wins me over for being one of the most, if not the most kickass pistol you can buy. Take an already excellent blaster like the Strongarm and double the ammo capacity. Simple right? While it is a bit on the bulky side, it put's out respectable power and the slam-fire is quick as all hell. For $15 bucks less, he Ravager just doesn't stand a chance.







Doominator- Depends, the Doominator is basically a Flipfury after getting injected with roids, so you can expect much of the same from it. The problem stems largely from the fact Nerf basically tacked two extra cylinders on this thing without taking into account how much weight the Flipfury mechanism can take to smoothly switch cylinders. The result is a bit of jamming mess with kind of underwhelming power for a blaster it's size.

Rampage- No, magazine fed for the win. This is my favorite way to end most reviews involving pump action blasters, or an Alpha Trooper, but I think the Rampage has a nicer shell. You get plenty of power and a colossal 25-dart drum to spray down your targets with slam fire. Also, considering it's internals are pretty basic, it has tons of mod potential. Everybody should have one. End of story.