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Saturday, July 21, 2012

Nerf N-Strike Elite Rampage: Juiced up Raider


A Raider for the new era; that's exactly what the new Nerf N-Strike Elite Rampage is. Streamlined down to a leaner, meaner, more powerful package, with a more manageable dart drum, sans stock and revamped internals, any lover of the original CS-35 will take to this with open arms. Neil from the Canberra and Southern NSW Dart tag crew was generous enough to lend us his unopened Rampage to give the UT treatment; how'd we find it? Our thoughts after the jump.



Straight away, out of the box the Rampage starts off with being a tad.. underwhelming. Whereas the Retaliator is full of all new accessories and fun things to play with to make what otherwise could have been a revamped Recon into an all new experience, the Rampage just feels.. like a Raider, only sans cool stock.




There's a real feeling of "is that it?", featuring just the blaster and clip guide, and the new 25 round drum. Oh and the darts. Oh and a.. manual. And a cardboard...insert. Am I clutching? A tad.



The Rampage exterior looks so much like a Raider, with a few subtle changes. The grey plastic is now a darker shade; there are some new white accents that bring it in line with other N-Strike Elite blasters, and it features 'N-Strike Elite" branding and Rampage badges.

Spot the difference- Raider vs Rampage

 



Otherwise, it's the same shell. Whereas the Retaliator brings in a new traditional camo etching in some of the plastic, the Rampage sticks with the original digital camo of the Raider.



Comparison to the Raider and AT drums
 Probably the main selling point of this is the new 25 round drum. It has a slightly different design to the original Raider's 35 round capacity and the Alpha Trooper's 18 round drum in that it's actually centred rather than off centre making it a tad more balanced and potentially easier to wield. It's relatively compact, and takes both regular streamlines and the new Elite darts. I can't see anywhere in the drum that would add to the performances of the new Elite series, and firing tests with other drums resulted in similar ranges.


The new Elite darts are a nice dark blue and orange tip that are slightly weightier than a streamline and I think this does help in the range and accuracy department. Contrary to earlier rumours, the darts are pretty much very similar in size to a streamline, hence are interchangeable with existing N-Strike blasters.

Although the Rampage doesn't come with any other accessories, being a Raider shell means it can support them. The Elite colour scheme does work well with all of the existing finishes; examples below:

Super Soaker shot blast scope, Raider stock
With a Gear Up Recon stock

With Super Soaker Lightning Storm stock
 Soo. Performances. Impressive- definitely. Compared to a stock Raider, the Rampage definitely kicks it's butt, and I'm assuming it's new direct plunger internals are partially responsible for this. You can definitely feel the difference and it's ranges are similar to what you'd get (possibly better) than if you removed the Air Restrictors from an original Raider.

The accuracy is pretty decent although I am still not personally convinced that it has anything to do with the rifling in the barrel. All of the uber science geeks in my life have said it's a foam dart and therefore unlikely to offer any benefit; it's more likely the accuracy comes from a combo between the new better weighted elite darts and a direct plunger mechanism than plastic grooves.

It fires ordinary streamlines further too, although I don't know if it was just me but I had constant jammings occurring when I used them, and it easily chewed up 6 of my darts in testing, but had no problems with the Elite darts.

The tracking of the front grip/cocking mechanism feels different to the Raider too- whereas the Raider is a clear snap back and forth, I found the Rampage to be a little 'springier' which caused me a few dramas in quick reloading of the drum/clips (it needs to be all the way back to be able to remove/attach a clip)

Before the Alpha Trooper came out, the Raider WAS my blaster of choice, and so I did sort of rekindle the love affair, only this time with its slightly hotter twin sister this time around:) The Rampage is a great blaster and don't get me wrong, I have always loved the way it feels and fires, and the added improvements to its performance make it a fantastic blaster. I'm glad to see the Rampage still keeps the slam fire capabilities which is a real bonus.

I guess in a way, I was expecting a little.. more to be honest- what the Rampage reminds me of is the 'New and Improved" Dart tag Swarmfire or Sharpshot- same blaster, just improvements to the performance. I think Nerf should have definitely included the rumoured shield- just SOMETHING to make it a lil bit more than just a Raider for the new era. Get one if you love the Raider or always wanted one, but I don't see it as a show stopper, with the majority of sales of this will probably be for the new 25 round drum.

Available now from Amazon.com and yes, they ship internationally:D


15 comments:

  1. I wan't it for it's direct-plunger slam fire awesomeness, screw the drum.

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    Replies
    1. I feel about the same. It'll be nice to have the drum, to be sure, but why I'm getting it is because of the Elite range and slamfire. I'd actually prefer if it came with Raider accessories (larger drum and good stock).

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    2. Yep. Great direct plunger modding potential.

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  2. I find my Retaliator shoots more accurate with the barrel than without.

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  3. I did a test between my Recon barrel and my Retaliator barrel on my Retaliator and found that the Retaliator barrel does indeed seem to impart a spin on the dart. The problem is that either thanks to the dart's light weight or the very conservative rifling lines in the barrel or both, it forces it into this strange corkscrew in the air. It did hit more consistently within the target "box" (I suppose you could call this the blasters "circular error probability"), but in terms of overall accuracy for actually hitting a pinpoint target from 30 feet away it doesn't really work that great; in fact, the Recon barrel allowed two direct hits on target, but the Retaliator barrel didn't hit once.

    But I will say that barrels do help with accuracy overall now as opposed to past blasters, if only just to stabilize the darts since they hit these higher speeds.

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  4. If almost everything from the Nerf arsenal gets the elite treatment, would we be seeing an Elite Maverick? I can see every person's jaw dropping from seeing this comment :D but seriously, someone please reply with their speculation.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @Bob there is also the Spectre Rev 5, try looking it up.

      Delete
  5. @Bob
    As a matter of fact, I did see an elite maverick.
    Try looking up the Nerf Strongarm.

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  6. Has anyone over here at UT looked at the box for this gun?

    On the side it has a picture of someone wearing new accesories coming with the Elite guns.

    In the new tactical vest, there is what appears to be an ELITE NITEFINDER!

    It says next to it:
    Look for FIRESTRIKE blaster in 2013.
    Subject to availability.

    Just wondering if anyone noticed, and if not, looking forward to finding out about it!

    Thanks!

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  7. just when i bought my raider they release the rampage.....

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  8. I keep using elite darts in my raider but they jam super easily.
    Screw you Nerf... liars.

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  9. what is the weight of the gun?

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  10. does anybody else's cocking grip action feel ..sticky and slightly crunchy in the first few cm of movement?

    i cant tell if tis simply the design or a faulty item :\

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  11. Can I use the raider drum on a rampage?

    ReplyDelete