Review: Star Wars Clone Wars Blaster: Captain Rex

Captain Rex Blaster: "Fires Projectiles!"

Hasbro's  new Star Wars Clone Wars branded blasters were showcased at the TIA Toy Fair in New York last week, and I happened to spot some of them at my local Toyworld (Fyshwick ACT). There's a total of three available- The Captain Rex, The Cad Bane and the General Grievous, but only the Rex and Bane seemed to be on the shelves today. I opted for the Rex- I like blue:) It's essentially using Nerf tech, so I figured I'd give it a go..

 The Captain Rex Blaster is a single shot foam dart blaster that is similar size (perhaps a LIL' bigger) to the Nerf Reflex IX-1. It uses a similar cocking mechanism too, pulling back the top of the blaster to fire the dart. It comes with three darts that have different style tips to Nerf ammo- sort of like a whistler dart but flatter. Depending on the Star Wars blaster you get, you'll get either blue or red darts- I got blue to match my Rex:)

 Back of the packaging comes with a clip out target you can remove to "practice your aim". I can't say I bothered to do this:)

Pics of the other two blasters available in this line

The Captain Rex blaster is quite well made, but is very "angled" in its design and isn't that comfortable to hold. The grip sort of cuts in to the hand, and it's not really very grown up hands friendly (although I do have lil girl hands so it was fine for me) I kind of liked the aesthetics, but think it'd definitely look better with a decent paintjob..

 The nice part about these blasters is the ability to hold TWO darts in the butt of the blaster's grip, unlike the Reflex which allows for.. none. It only comes with three darts anyway.

Star Wars logo in the blaster's plastic

  It's simply a matter of sliding the dart into the barrel, cocking it back and firing your shot. Anyone familiar with a Nerf Reflex will have no issues with this blaster.

Down the barrel, with the peg and AR.

How does it perform? Initially? Like crap. I was very disappointed with the performances; it's distance was pretty substandard compared to a Reflex or..ANY Nerf blaster for that matter, and accuracy was not fantastic either. It also CANNOT shoot streamlines, a dribble at best, or nothing at worst.

Strange thing was as I kept working with the blaster, it DID get better. It was almost like the Captain Rex blaster needed to "warm up" and in the end, I was semi satisfied with it being an ok single shot blaster, but I still found it a little under par compared to the Reflex, which packs a decent punch for its size. It's not BAD, but it's nothing fantastic. And here's the thing- you can pick up a Reflex for under 10 dollars (mostly around 7) whereas these Star Wars Clone Wars blasters are going for NINETEEN bucks. Bang for your buck is therefore VERY poor- for that money you can get almost TWO Nitefinders, or almost THREE Reflex's or for a lil more.. a Spectre?

Size compared to a Maverick

I don't think even die hard Star Wars fans would like this, and I'd only suggest it to modders who like the shape and plan to do ridiculous things to it. Or, if it ever goes on special and you can pick them up for under 10 bucks.. and even then, performancewise it doesn't outdo the Reflex. We thought it was very steep in the store when we bought it, but wanted to get one to review for ya.. we have, and now we doubt we'll be going back to pick up the others.

Maybe it's got something to do with the Star Wars licence (I know the older Clone Wars blaster was also pretty steep) but these blasters are just not fantastic. Leave 'em on the shelves, and wait for bargain basement bin time:)

If you're really hell bent on getting one, they're 19 bucks AUS from Toyworld.

Usability: 7/10
Out of the box performance: 6/10
Cool factor: 6/10
Price point: 2/10