Nerf Air Tech 4000 Review (6/10)

Average has never been this weird.

This going be a first for me. For someone who's been in the Nerf game as long as I have, it's kind of odd that I've never owned one of the venerable Air Tech blasters. Renowned for their rock solid performance and extremely simple mod-ability, they are probably some of the finest blasters to ever grace this earth, or at least the Air Tech 2000 and 3000 were. Naturally, I didn't buy either of those two and had my eyes set on a bigger prize, the seemingly more badass Air Tech 4000 which unlike the other two blasters, never got a re-release because it was so surrounded in mediocrity. But is it really all that terrible?

Size compared to a Strongarm. This is not a small blaster.

The Air Tech 4000, or AT4k for short can almost be seen as a successor to the aging SuperMAXX 3000 as the biggest turreted blaster in it's series and they share a number of similarities. One of which was the sort of wacky, curvy design which considering it was the early 2000's, was basically squeezed out as leftovers from the late '90s. It's also unexpectedly massive, even to myself whose never picked up it's smaller brethren in my life. The AT4k has double the ammo capacity of the AT3k and is at least 50% larger, which basically puts it into a whole other size class. That's not exactly a bad thing since you get a freaking massive grip that's actually very comfortable for my rather average sized hands.

This is just wrong on so many levels.

There are some rather significant faults with the AT4k's design though. One of which is the lack of a stock, which on a blaster of this size, would be a very welcome addition. The other is that the pump handle is far too small. Like, really goddamn small. my hand basically engulfs the whole thing and the somewhat slick surface of it makes it kind of a pain in the ass to pump comfortably. The pump stroke is also rather short and the pump stiffens up rather quickly after one or two charges so imagine being in the heat of battle trying to repeatedly pump this thing with sweaty hands. It's just criminal.

The signature "Liquitron Power Gauge". It's actually a pretty original touch.

So while that's bad, the AT4k is just weird blaster in general. It's design has all these weird organic shapes with molded hoses stuck on it that all tapers down into this big red, faux air tank in the back. At the centerpiece of it all is this thing called a "Liquitron Power Gauge" which most of the Air Tech blasters have. It's basically a goo filled cylinder on the top of the blaster that fills up as you pressurize the blaster. It's kind of pointless as it's easy to pump until you hear or feel the overpressure valve kick in but I honestly live for weird little features like this. It doesn't really hamper performance and it looks kind of like a cool little lava lamp. Modifications often call for it to be pulled from the air line so it doesn't blow up when you over-pressurize the blaster but it's a neat little party trick we don't really see the likes of that much these days.

 Internals aren't too complicated, but that rotation mechanism is a bad omen.

Performance is pretty decent to say the least, hitting roughly 30 to 45 feet with good accuracy after three pumps. Consistency is all over the place though, most shots fall closer to the 30 foot mark where some rocket past 40 with no complaints. This could be a whole number of factors: one thing worth noting is I'm using probably 18 year old suction darts which are the only darts I have that fit this thing properly along with what I suspect are pretty strong ARs. I've heard and seen far worse performance figures for this thing, like sub-30 foot ranges so I have no idea what the deal is here but regardless, it is slightly underwhelming for something as large as this. Inside is a good sized tank; close to the AT3k in size paired to a rather short and wide pump.

And this was a good idea because???

It's also worth noting that the rotation mechanism is needlessly complex and often prone to breaking. The turret rotates on the first pump similarly to the SuperMAXX 3000; the pump basically pulls back this little lever that rotates it and keeps it disengaged until the trigger is pulled, but the pump still racks the lever on every charge which might explain why it breaks so often. Luckily mine works perfectly but I have no idea why Nerf thought this was better than rotation from a trigger pull. It apparently is fairly easy to fix if it does break but I've devised a solution to hopefully prolong it's life. Do the first pump stroke like normal to rotate the turret but don't push it all the way forward on each consecutive stroke so you're not hitting the lever on every single pump. It's takes about four pumps with this method but it might save you a headache.

The Air Tech 4000 is a pretty weird blaster that has a number of ups and downs. It's got an interesting design that's relatively comfortable and decent performance to boot. It does however have several faults, namely it's uncomfortable pump handle, it's infamously unreliable rotation mechanism, and the fact that it's just downright underwhelming for how large it is. This blaster is typically more expensive, and more rare than the smaller Air Tech 3000 and yet I don't see many benefits this one has over it's smaller counterpart other than ammo capacity. I do see it's vast mod potential though and I was planning on doing some heavy work to this one but decided against it because it's just in too nice of condition, so I bought another one. We'll see how that one turns out later on but as for it's stock rating, the Air Tech 4000 gets a 6 out of 10. I like it, but it really could have been a whole lot more.

The Verdict

Class- Air Powered Revolving Rifle

Range- Decent, around 30 to 45 feet with kind of wack consistency.

Reliability- Rotation mechanism is notoriously unreliable. Also leaks, of course.

Ammo- 12 Micro Darts

Modding- Insane potential. A good re-barrel and pump replacement can send ranges over the 100 foot mark easily.
Value- Good examples can go for around $40 to $60 on eBay. You can get an AT3k for less.

Is It Better Than?

Air Max 10- No, the Air Max 10 was a pretty big surprise from Buzz Bee, and was the first time I gave them a perfect score under my old review scale. It has nearly twice the power of the AT4k with a far more reliable mechanism and is probably just as capable of mods. I don't believe these are still being sold in stores but it's worth checking out if you want a very good air blaster.

SuperMAXX 3000 "Blue"- Depends, I can't really speak for the "Yellow" and "Green" models, though I'm sure the former is definitely superior. The SM3k "Blue" probably isn't much better or worse than the AT4k. Similar tank sizes, and a very similar rotation mechanism that's a bit more robust. The AT4k does have a much nicer shell though and a bit more ammo. I did own a "Blue" SM3k once, but it wound up in the trash since it had unsolvable air system problems so this thing already doesn't sit well with me.

SuperMAXX 1000- No, absolutely HELL no. The SM1k holds the distinction of being one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful stock blaster I've ever tested. While the rotation mechanism is just as unreliable as the AT4k, the ammo type is pretty obscure, and it has half the ammo capacity, this thing shoots absolute lasers out of the box with just three pumps. Mod potential is more limited due to the rearward cylinder but it's hard to be disappointed by this thing's stock performance. It makes one hell of mean sound too.