Nerf Alien Menace Voidcaster Review (8/10)

Out of this world.

Nerf's Alien Menace line has been kind of stagnant as of late, launching with only two blasters and it's been that way for quite some time now. Finally they've churned out something new and rather fresh, featuring a radical new firing mechanism and seriously unconventional looks. This is the Voidcaster, and it actually surprised me a bit.

Size compared to a Sidestrike and an Electric Eel. It's not that small.

The Voidcaster is the first sidearm in the Alien Menace lineup and compared to the Incisor and Ravager, this is probably the most ridiculous looking of the lot. The Voidcaster has this insane forward grip design that kind of resembles a Plasma Rifle from Halo with a four finger trigger and a bunch of fins jutting out everywhere. It's not exactly small either and it dwarfs some of the larger sidearms out there. That being said, it's not that it's uncomfortable which it really isn't; the shape of Voidcaster just makes it a little unwieldy compared to literally anything else.

Extra darts stick out both sides of the blaster.

Other noteworthy features is that the Voidcaster has a whopping eight spaces for dart storage in the lower half of the blaster. This means you really can't set the thing down with both sides loaded as it would probably squish your darts but I think this was done more out of aesthetics than practicality. Then again, I'm pretty sure the design team for this blaster kicked the idea of practicality down a flight of stairs before working on this thing.

Four dart smart-AR gets the job done.

Some of you may have noticed by now, how the hell do you fire this thing? Well, there no priming bar, it's not pump action, and it sure isn't battery powered, so that leaves out only one option. The Voidcaster is actually solely operated by the trigger meaning it's the first true semi-automatic sidearm since the Dart Tag Snapfire 8. Whereas the Snapfire was a weak and massively uncomfortable disaster of a pistol, the Voidcaster is actually good! Damn good in fact. The big trigger is much easier to pull than the insanely long and difficult draw on the Snapfire and the ranges are fantastic, about 40 to 55 feet. 

Internals are rather beefy, but I don't think there's much you can do with them.

However the accuracy is pretty awful when you're one handing it and the four dart capacity seems a little low, although I believe this is primarily to prevent the blaster from getting bogged down with dead space. I bet dual wielding these things can be fun but you'd have to have the world's steadiest hands to hit the broadside of a barn so I'm sure that it will take some getting used to. Inside the Voidcaster, you'll find a short but rather wide plunger tube backed by a very beefy spring. This all helps to explain the great performance but I doubt you can do much to it without making it massively difficult to use or by ruining the smart-AR. This probably one best to leave stock.

The Voidcaster is a surprising blaster. It's seemingly impractical design gives way to a powerful and fast firing sidearm. While the design of it makes for some bad one handed accuracy and the ammo capacity might be considered a little low, this thing could make for a helpful backup blaster when you need to quickly sling some darts down range at a target. I wasn't expecting much but in the end, I quite like the Voidcaster and it gets an 8 out of 10 in my book. However this blaster is a Toys R Us exclusive and with the possible demise of all their stores looming on the horizon I don't know what Hasbro has planned for this thing in the long run. Perhaps it will wind up at other retail locations in sometime in the future, otherwise it might be smart to get one while you still can.

The Verdict

Class- Semi-Automatic Pistol

Range- Great, around 40 to 55 feet although it's challenging to stay accurate.

Size- Uhhh... comparable to what?

Reliability- Smart-AR leaking could be a possibility, also tired hands.

Ammo- 4 Elite Darts.

Modding- Spring upgrades might be all there is to this thing, if you don't mind a little extra work.
Value- At $20 it's a little pricey but it's a fun, solid performer.

Is It Better Than?

Snapfire 8- Yes, looking back at thing thing made me realize that it's the most uncomfortable blaster I've user used. While it's ammo capacity is double that of the Voidcaster, it uses this goofy extension spring based firing mechanism that can be tuned to certain power settings. This ranges from easy to use but gutless, to more powerful shots but an absolutely painful trigger pull. Seriously, the trigger sucks on this thing and it has like a mile of draw length, I bet if they went with even at least a two finger trigger the Snapfire would be a much better blaster. But they didn't, and that sucks.

Hornet- Yes, if the Hornet was a reliable blaster I'd be more forgiving towards it but as many people know, it's basically the Jaguar XJS of early 2000s' Nerf blasters. It looks and sounds promising but it's needlessly complicated and often times comes broken straight out of the box. I own a good working Hornet and I won't lie, they're pretty awesome, but trying to find one of those isn't worth the effort when you can just buy a Blastfire or a Voidcaster instead.






Blastfire DX500- Depends, I still firmly believe this is the best semi-auto Nerf has ever produced although compared to the Voidcaster, it's more of a multirole blaster which compensates for the added slowness of it's air pressure system. It has a plenty powerful five round single shot mode as well as a shotgun blast mode  by hitting the button on top. It's like a Hornet, but it actually works. The Voidcaster is a much more user friendly blaster but this is one of those I think everyone should have in their collection.