Review: Brits n Pieces Saturator STR80: Clear is the new black

Clear with orange internal parts. How original!

Clear is the new black. Everyone's doing it, it's so hot right now:P Now I normally don't deviate away from the Super Soaker line, but this particular blaster has had my interest for a while. Britz n Pieces Saturator line is a fully automatic, battery operated electronic water blaster.. anyone remember Entertech from the 90's?

"Saturator" is a lil oversell. More "Light sun showers" 

Motorised electronic water blasters have come and gone throughout the years and tend to be very high in the "that's cool" department but unfortunately equally high on the "it's kinda crap performance wise" scale. As a wee tacker I was fascinated by the Larami "Entertech" series- motorised water blasters modelled on real life automatic machine guns with the tag line "the look, the feel, it sounds, so real". They apparently were discontinued pretty fast because of that whole realistic tilt..or maybe it was because they were about as powerful as a tomato sauce bottle.

Woulda looked better with a black or clear clip.

But I digress. The Saturator STR80 is the flagship model of the Saturator line- ironically even though it's called the "STR80" on the box, there are stickers all over it saying 'AK-47'. In fact some of the marketing blurb is it even got the design thumbs up from the genuine AK-47 gun designers. If that's not a gold star and a half, I dunno what is:) This blaster is available in several colour schemes, but here domestically (and maybe it's just the toy store buyer's personal choice) they're only available in clear (actual clear plastic unlike the translucent frosted effect of Nerf's clear range). 

The STR80 takes four AA batteries. Interestingly enough, there's no on-off switch or "safety"- once your batteries are loaded, the blaster is ready to go. A squeeze of the trigger and the motors whirls to life. Loudly. It boasts "realistic sounds" which I guess are as realistic as a whipper snipper, but that's to be expected for a motorised blaster. 

Clip removed. Banana?

The water is stored in a banana style clip; it's a switch (like with Nerf CS blasters) that you push to the side and can attach the clip easily. The clip itself has two holes, one that attaches to the blaster, and the other that has a little plug that you open up and use to fill with water. If you fill it to the top and plug it up, science suggests the clip shouldn't leak so you can store it on your person and attach later should you wish. Apparently extra clips are available but not at the time of my purchase.

Once it's attached, it's a matter of pull the trigger and let the water reign! Well not quite.. it does take a few seconds for the water to pump up from the clip and into the blaster so you may want to prime it and shoot a few rounds off first to make sure it's fully ready. Once you fire, the STR80 boasts 4 shots a second, and it's performance, while no Super Soaker, is still pretty decent. It's actually kinda fun. The water streams are more lil splashes rather than an absolute soaking, but this at least conserves water, which in this day and age, is a good thing:)

The Saturator STR80 goes for $29.95 and should be available at toy stores Australia wide. You can also find the STR70 which is just a cosmetic alteration with a different mold (black internals, and a straight clip) for the same price.  It's not badly priced for what it offers, and while it's no serious water war piece, it's still fun to muck about with.

Usability: 7/10
Out of the box performance: 7/10
Cool factor: 8/10
Price point: 8/10

Britz N Pieces Saturator website