The Dart Zone Quick Fire 12 is a rather novel handheld blaster that utilises a 6 round revolving barrel, much like the Nerf N-Strike Maverick REV-6. What makes it that little bit more interesting is the fact it comes with an additional barrel that can be interchanged (hence the '12' in the blaster's name).
I picked up one of these early in my trip to the US for some novel fun to muck about with on my travels, as it hadn't made it to Australian shores at the time. Ironically, while I was away The Quick Fire 12 WAS actually released in Australia, albeit rebranded as the "Air Zone Double Barrel Shooter" and hence found at Toys R US. For the sake of this post, I'll keep calling it the Quick Fire 12 though:)
The Quick Fire 12 comes in an open pack with a card backing; you also get the additional 6 round barrel and 12 darts that are already loaded. The darts are pretty poxy- they're some weird flat plastic head that looks like a sucker but..doesn't stick to anything. They're also a tad shorter than a standard Nerf dart, but personally I found the good thing is it doesn't mean you have to cut your darts down- Nerf darts seem to work fine and I tried them with suckers, streamlines and dart tag darts. Which is a good thing because the darts it comes with are kinda rubbish:P
The barrels are clear and easily slide in by releasing a latch at the top of the gun. The top of the Quickfire then pivots open on a hinge; there are two holes on the side to line the barrel up. It's easy to do, but at the same time it's fiddly and not something I'd recommend doing in the heat of battle without cover. The barrels don't stay put- you have to line them up and hold them there till you snap shut the top of the blaster; otherwise the barrel drops and you're left.. err.. barrel-less:P
The Quick Fire 12 also comes with a clip on the bottom of the blaster that allows you to attach the secondary barrel to the blaster. This is a cool idea, and is so secure; it's so secure it's an absolute bitch to detach. The little button to press and release doesn't seem to work that well, so it's one of those brute force things which I'm just waiting to crack my barrel.. so far so good though:P
Performance wise- it's not bad. It's probably on par with the Maverick if not even a little better, depending on the darts you use- I found it surprisingly did some crazy distances with the dart tag darts or even the streamlines, although at times accuracy went out the window as the dart would just fish-tail everywhere. Definitely turf the darts it comes with if you want decent distances. On my travels I didn't have my trust stair case of my apartment to test it on, but one side of a hotel room to the other, no problem:)
If you love your Mavericks, you're probably not going to get to excited over these; for just under 25 bucks it is a tad on the dear side, but you DO get the two barrels. That being said, for the price you'd probably do better with getting two Mavericks for real battle, but I kind of enjoyed having the interchangeable barrel; it just gave it a bit of a gimmicky edge to it, AND it's easier to carry around than two Mav's too, luggage wise.
I liked it because it was novel and different; in a sea of same ol same ol lately, it's cool to see manufacturers trying new things for funsies. The Quickfire 12 definitely grew on me and it's a solid performer if you're looking for something a little different.
They're available in Australia at Toys R Us as the Airzone Double Barrel Shooter- its identical in what you get in the packaging too so it's basically no different to the Dartzone kit.
I get epic ranges with the Air Zone darts in my Sonic Mav - something like 13-15m flat. It's inconsistent because the darts are not identical, stupid Air Zone people.
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