Nerf N-Strike Jolt EX-1: Noisy Cricket

It's absolutely tiny, and came out of NOWHERE; the Jolt EX-1 is pretty close to being the smallest Nerf blaster available (The Secret Strike..mmm maybe smaller? But it doesn't really look like a gun!) and for what it is, it's pretty damn impressive. It's a single shot direct plunger piece that we really liked the look of.. did I mention it's absolutely tiny?!:P Thanks to Jerm from Nerf Mods + Reviews for this!

 The Jolt EX-1 comes in a small blister pack with two whistler darts. It is mostly orange with grey and black accents- in  fact whack two stripes onto it and it could easily be a part of the Gear Up range:D  You can see by the photo the blaster isn't that much larger than the darts.

 There aren't a whole lot of "bits" to the Jolt relying on a lot of molded plastic. The design of this blaster looks fantastic and it's hard to not love it on looks alone; it resembles anything from some sort of kids power tool to the top of a hair dresser's spray bottle to some sort of garden hose attachment.

 It's as simple as sliding a dart down the barrel of the Jolt and pulling the cocking arm located in the bottom of the blaster.

Down the barrel- customary dart peg

The Cocking Arm

I've got pretty small hands so the size of the blaster really didn't bother me; I was just still pretty amazed at how little the Jolt is. Which is why I was very impressed with it's performance out of the packaging; quite the minimalist design and it was getting some pretty decent above average (over 12 metres) ranges given there's not much to it.

We love the way it looks, and we're impressed with the performance for such a little size. But here are the downsides for us- it's pretty uncomfortable to hold. Because of the "open" style design around the grip, holding the Jolt cuts into your hand and doesn't feel particularly ergonomic. The trigger is also one large piece that goes into the grip and it's basically releasing a catch rather than be a smooth gliding trigger in other Nerf blasters.

Close up of the grip of the Jolt. 

The back of the blaster is a square block that your thumb doesn't sit very well around, or over, it also pushes into your hand and doesn't feel particularly good either.

The other gripe we had was the practicality of the cocking mechanism. Like with the Lanard Rotator X-8, priming the blaster is pulling the arm DOWN below the grip of the blaster. Cocking a blaster by pulling BACK is intuitive and comfortable and with practice you can rapid fire with decent results. Pulling down is counter intuitive and not the most comfortable; It's also quite a stiff arm and therefore not the easiest to prime quickly. The blaster may be pocket sized, but it'd be unwise to prime it before you hide it away as it'll jut into your hip/side.

On price (around 5 bucks US) , size, aesthetics and ranges- this Jolt EX-1 is AWESOME. I love this thing, it's little and deceptively powerful for such a tiny thing.

On ergonomics- Personally I gotta say it's pretty bad. It doesn't feel nice in the hand, is awkward to use and the cocking mechanism doesn't allow for quick intuitive fire.

That all being said though, it's probably not meant to replace your Nitefinder or Scout- it's size lends itself to being a stealthy "last resort" style piece. We still love it and I would definitely recommend it, but think of it as something to just carry on you that won't take up space but can get you out of a pickle.