Nerf Zombiestrike Dreadbolt Review (6/10)

Norman Reedus approved.

Nerf's bows have never really been that good. Before they were just regular plunger powered blasters with some useless bow arms and elastic stuck to them that most people removed anyways. Lately they've decide to take those useless bits and actually make them do something but as we've seen before, they're not all that great. Granted, everyone seems to be long past wanting to imitate Katniss Everdeen and Daryl Dixon so Nerf has been dialing back on it's lineup of bows. Apparently someone at Hasbro wasn't ready to give up just yet and this was the result: the Dreadbolt. So, is this big bad crossbow any better than it's predecessors? Let's find out.

Size compared to a 1995 Crossbow. It's considerably more massive.

The Dreadbolt is simply put, massive. Like holy shit, with how small Nerf's crossbows have generally been in the past this thing feels and looks genuinely awesome. The shell is rather excellent with large grips and a full sized stock, it feels generally pretty solid. The Dreadbolt also feels surprisingly balanced despite having most of it's size in the front. I may just be skipping over the point here, but this shell would be a great use as a base for modified blasters considering I highly doubt any serious modder plans on using elastic as their preferred firing system. 

Priming lever fully extended.

To avoid having to prime the Dreadbolt with two hands, Nerf gave it a very helpful priming lever located in the front of the blaster. The action is very smooth and it greatly speeds up what would otherwise be a remarkably terrible blaster to load. That being said, the Dreadbolt is still kind of a pain in the ass to operate. The arrows have to be pushed into a slot in the front and then all the way back to disengage a lock that can be seen through an orange indicator on top, a process which is so hit and miss it's ridculous. Sometimes the arrow will stay put where other times, it will get bumped forward locking up the trigger mechanism again. This all comes on top the trigger being so goddamn stiff. Like you'd need to be the Incredible Hulk in order to pull this thing repeatedly, shot after shot.

This all boils down to performance; as the Dreadbolt isn't generally pleasant to use to begin with, you'd probably expect the performance to suffer as a result. Well, to be honest it's actually not too bad! The Dreadbolt's crossbow design obviously eliminates a lot of the finesse required to effectively operate bows like the Arrow Revolution and as a result, the Deadbolt can fire around 40 to 50 feet with relatively good accuracy, though this is largely dependent on the condition of the arrows. Too crooked and the accuracy will suffer as a result. Angling the blaster can drastically increase range to around 80 feet although hitting something at that distance with this thing is kind of a pipe dream. Nonetheless, the decent performance and screaming arrows make it pretty fun blaster to use, despite the quirkiness of it's loading operation.

The Dreadbolt is a pretty strange blaster that I doubt has any real use outside of a few niches. While the shell is excellent and it performs more consistently than it's non-crossbow predecessors, things like the finicky reloading procedure and overly stiff trigger still make it unfortunately impractical compared to anything that hurls darts which is why I believe deserves a 6 out of 10. It's a fun blaster to mess around with though and pegging someone with a screaming arrow is pretty satisfying but beyond that, the Dreadbolt doesn't have much else to offer.

The Verdict

Class- Heavy Crossbow

Range- Good, around 40 to 50 feet. Angling the blaster can net range of around 80 feet.

Reliability- I mean, really? What could possibly go wrong here?

Ammo- 5 Rebelle Arrows

Modding- Not much really, but if you could re-tension the elastic, you may see some better results.
Value- At $50... yes really, half a Ben Franklin. I don't think so.

Is It Better Than?

Arrow Revolution Bow- Depends, the Arrow Revolution suffers infamously from being an absolute pain in the ass to fire effectively. The revolving quiver is a neat idea and boosts the rate of fire, but it has a tendency to just dump ammo out of the bow. The Dreadbolt is far more consistent and easier to use if you can get over the few somewhat unpleasant problems with it.

Crossbow- Yes, barring any fervent nostalgia the 1995 Crossbow is a pretty terrible blaster by today's standards. It's got acres of dead space that just kills any sort performance you'd hope to get out of that massive plunger tube. The Dreadbolt would absolutely smoke the Crossbow in stock form. Modified however, the Crossbow is far superior although a bit much considering how immensely expensive these things have gotten.