Review: Nerf N-Strike Magstrike AS-10

Nerf Magstrike AS-10. Like a Super Soaker. Without..the soak.

The Nerf N-Strike Magstrike (there's a mouthful!) AS-10 has been available worldwide for several years but as the Magstrike it has only really been available in Australia in the past 8-9 months. Prior to this it was released as an Iron Man N.R.F with the Iron Man inspired red and yellow colour schemes, and apparently before this it was even considered as part of the Dart Tag line, in blue and red guises. It's reminiscent of the old Super Soakers of the 90's, using pressurised air as its firing mechanism, but instead of shooting water, the Magstrike fires off 10 rounds of foam dart goodness in super fast succession.

Nerf Magstrike AS-10. Looks funny. Performs beautifully.

The Magstrike is a midsized powerhouse that allows for fully automatic rapid fire without the use of batteries. We're talking 10 rounds in under 2 seconds.It's quite a solid, nuggety looking blaster that works equally well with either one or two hands. (though being an automatic fire blaster, it does lend itself for dual wielding.. once it's been pumped up) Out of the box, you get the Magstrike, the removable clip and 10 micro sucker darts (apparently in the old days you got two clips.. lucky). The Magstrike isn't limited to just suction cup darts; you can load it with whistlers, streamlines and dart tag darts with no issues.

Magstrike with the neck pump extended and mag poking out

Although it has been around for several years, the Magstrike AS-10 isn't the first air pressure blaster Nerf have released. During the late 90's and early part of the decade, Nerf did release numerous blasters such as the Airtech line (personally I find them ugly as hell) and the more relevant Powerclip DX-1000 and the DX-500 which incorporated very similar mechanisms to the AS-10. Interestingly enough, the Magstrike features the unusual form design of putting the air pressure bladder on the OUTSIDE of the blaster.

Magstrike AS-10 vs Powerclip DX-1000..same same but different..

Another improvement on the old DX models is the Magstrike's removable clip.The Magstrike clip holds 10 darts; it's a great idea for the clip to be removable from the main unit , but for some weird reason Nerf have elected to NOT sell individual clips separately which in my opinion does defeats the purpose somewhat (unless maybe you want to remove the clip to.. clean it?!) Older Dart Tag versions came with extra clips. What a good idea?

Magstrike 10 round clip. 

The bladder that stores the pressurised air of the Magstrike is housed in a rather odd looking plastic tank that sits on the back of the blaster.Surprisingly enough, it isn't as intrusive as it looks and is quite comfortable to tuck under your arm, or even if you're single hand wielding I find it just sits against your forearm neatly. It doesn't look that great but it works well.

The bladder. Nuff said:)

Priming the blaster takes about 15-20 pumps of the neck at the front of the Magstrike, just like with a Super Soaker. There's always a danger of over pumping and bursting the bladder, rendering your Magstrike effectively..busted.. so be conscious of this and pay attention to how many pumps you've done; use common sense- if it's feeling pretty full.. stop:)

After priming, a squeeze of the trigger and you're away. If you're good with the trigger, you should be able to fire off single shots nicely, whereas if you're a heavy trigger like me, you'll end up emptying your "load" pretty darn fast. The Magstrike is loud as while you pull the trigger back, the clip "slides" up the shaft as the darts fly out, allowing you to replace the empty clip with a swift grab and replace with...um... an imaginary replacement clip (that you'd have..in an ideal Nerf world). Ranges aren't bad depending on the air pressure- I got around 15 metres or easily up my staircase no problems.

The clip..

I myself am personally not that excited by air pressure blasters, but the Magstrike AS-10 is pretty fun even though aesthetically, it does somehow remind me of a fish:) Performance-wise it's very cool-it's hard NOT to laugh (or at least smile big) when you watch a sea of foam just fly out of your blaster and into a heavily blinking, hands waving randomly target on the couch. It's apparently quite a good choice for Nerf wars and has modding potential for those inclined to do so.

They're readily available at Kmarts Australia wide for under 40 bucks but you can probably find them at other toy stores too. I noticed that the current batch on the shelves say "more powerful than previous Magstrikes" which makes me wonder WHICH previous Magstrike they're talking about. Still, for the price, it's worth picking one up, and maybe two, if you want to dual wield, or put one away and cull it for the clip. (would be an expensive clip, but it's the price you pay for..er.. backup clips)

Usability: 7/10
Out of the box performance: 9/10
Cool factor: 6.5/10
Price point: 7.5/10