Review: Nerf N-Strike Raider CS-35

Nerf N-Strike Raider CS-35. Tonight you sleep with da fishes.

The Nerf N-Strike Raider CS-35 was the first gun to come with a massive 35 bullet drum, with cues from a gangster tommy-gun. In Australia, it was also the first Nerf N-Strike gun to come in another colour other than yellow. If blue and orange is more your cup of tea, the Raider is the gun of choice:)

SO.. let's start with just the aesthetics. It's dark blue and orange (although there is a new clear version that's floating about). The gun comes with a detachable stock that is interchangeable with other compatible N-Strike guns- ie the Recon:) It's got the tactical rail grooves on top of the gun for you to fit it out with scopes and sights and other N-Strike add ons to make it LOOK tough. It has two hand grips, one for the trigger and one for cocking the gun. Nice!

Nerf Raider Box. Justin Bieber wants his haircut back.

The Raider is very lightweight, even with the 35 bullet drum attached, but obviously more so if you were to load it with a standard 6 bullet clip. The drum supports the Streamline darts and is relatively easy to load.

Now for the fun part. 35 bullets at your disposal? Whoo hooo! A simple cock of the front hand grip loads the gun and you're ready to go. Pull back on the trigger and let a round fly!

But.. this gun also comes with "Slam fire" which basically means by keeping your trigger depressed, you can simply pull back on the front grip rapidly and those foam bullets will come a flyin'! In general this will mean rate of fire goes up.. and probably accuracy will go down. But who cares about accuracy when you're showering your loved one with orange foam dart goodness?!:)

Apparently the internals of the Raider are identical to the Recon, which means modders aren't a fan of the reverse plunger system it uses. Personally, I find it does shoot further than the Recon, but as always, I am using it in a confined apartment space.

Raiders are a LOT of fun and I personally have it as my Nerf tagger of choice. They're pricing is ridiculous- I've seen them for $30-$90 AUS- crazy!

Usability: 8/10
Out of the box performance: 7.5/10
Cool factor: 9/10
Price point: 9/10 (I got mine for 30 bucks)