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| Nerf N-Strike Vulcan EBF-25. Get back to the chopper! |
The Vulcan is a fully automatic, 3-rounds-per-second 25 round belt fed beast of a foam dart gun. Running on 6 D cell batteries, but also has a manual primer to shoot single shots if you need to (or ran out of batteries). It comes with the belt and an external ammo box to clip to the side of the gun. It's so big it needs a handle on top of the gun for you to hold on to.
Out of the box, it takes a bit of fiddling around to put the gun together and load it with ammo. It uses whistler style foam darts which you slide into the round 'tubes' on the ammo belt. The Vulcan uses a manual 'pin' primer like the Longshot to cock the gun- it's a case of sliding the pin back towards you and then forward to ready the gun to fire one round.
But.. where's the fun in that? One doesn't buy the Vulcan for single shots:) Under the gun is a battery compartment to load up your 6 D cell batteries. This does add to the weight of the gun, but given the type of gun the Vulcan is, noone really complains:) An on-off switch sits on top of the trigger handle that is also protected by a safety cover (ie a piece of orange plastic) to prevent accidental operation. The Vulcan does not operate if the ammo belt has not been fitted to the gun.
Once it's on, it's simply a matter of load your belt, and squeeze the trigger.
Normal reactions are mild disbelief followed by excessive hilarity and madness as whoever's wielding this animal bursts out with laughter and proceeds to spray the room with orange foam.
Only issues is because it does shoot so fast, the experience is over pretty quickly, leaving everyone to scatter and find all of the bullets (and one is ALWAYS missing, under the TV unit, in the fridge etc) and repeat the arduous task of loading the darts into the belt again.
I had an indepth conversation with a 10 year old boy in Toys R Us about the merits of bringing a Vulcan to an indoor Nerf war. Personally I think it's overkill and leaves you stranded pretty fast if you don't have additional ammo belts. He didn't agree and proceeded to get one, but bumping into him a few weeks later he sheepishly 'fessed up that he was owned by his friends with a pair of Mavericks:)
The Vulcan IS AWESOME but it definitely crosses into the 'nerdier' category of Nerf rather than the casual user. My girlfriend, or any girl I know thinks it's just silly; guys think it's awesome but for an urban apartment dart war, it's pretty much overkill!
Prices of them are also all over the shop- cheapest I've seen them is under $40 AUS, up to $120 (!!!). Shop around!
Usability: 5.5/10
Out of the box performance: 7.5/10
Cool factor: 9/10
Price point: 6/10 (if you go with the 70 buck average mark)
it might not be good as a primary weapon but as a stationary turret it would absolutely pwn
ReplyDeletelolfrols
ReplyDeletevulcan=fricken awsome
ReplyDeleteit wld be better if u modded it to shoot faster and farther because i hav one and b4 i modded it it only shot about 20 ft and about 3 shots per sec and now it shoots 50ft and at 4-5 rounds per min to seee my plans click here
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
its personally my favorite nerf gun of all time because i always use it when i have indoor wars since im afraid my friends will break it.
ReplyDeleteJust got one today at Target in northern California. About 55% off normal price, it was the only one left. Works fine, but the belt is a pain to load.
ReplyDeleteMUAHAHA I got a clear one for 25 USD recently. bargain of a lifetime.
ReplyDeleteAll it takes to kick butt, is to yell 'EAT FOAM SUCKERS!!!' and pull the trigger to send everybody near you running for dear life. only thing i dont like is that the tripod automatticaly springs closed.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't underestimate the single-fire - you get a lot longer range, and since the battery switch is easily flipped (it's under the thumb of your firing hand, complete with hat switch to cover it) you can easily go full-auto at a moment's notice. (I tend to notice that the single-shot fires further as well.)
ReplyDeleteThe reload time is atrocious, true. But buying a few more chains helps. I have four and use the ammo bags to hold them (a chain will fit nicely in each half of the compartment, and they feed out no problem). I have a Speedload 6 as my holdout gun in case someone comes looking for me while I reload the chains.
And yes, it works *far* better to hold territory (a strap is a must-have if you're going to walk around with it), but it definitely satisfies my inner TF2 Heavy. :)