Disk jockey.
As you read the
following paragraph please imagine a brass band playing in the
background:
Eee it was hard in
our youth. All we had to play with was a battered old Commodore Amiga
500 and a pirated copy of Lemmings. With no internet we were forced
to 'telephone' our friends, hoping they were in to get the call, and
arrange to meet up and go out to play. And when we were out in the
open air, cold wind blowing our exposed knees, all we had to play
with was a Nerf football. You threw it and it whistled. Eee, it was
hard back then...
Not so these days. Not only can kids tweet their mums to tell them what they want for dinner, but they can also text each other to meet up and then blast the crap out of each other with a whole new generation of Nerf products. One such weapon from the masters of the foam dart is the Nerf Vortex Diatron. We locked, loaded and hit the streets.
Then
came home and wrote this review.
In
the modern world the Nerf brand is no longer simply associated with
soft footballs and large foam arrows. Instead they are world renowned
for being producers of really effective toy weaponry, utilising air
pressure and springs to rain down foam bullets upon your friends. An
impressive catalogue of guns is the company's legacy, including the
Vortex range which launch small spinning foam disks as opposed to the
standard bullets. The Diatron belongs to this disk shooting sub-group
and good golly does it pack a punch!
Sitting
comfortably in one hand, the Diatron can easily be wielded like an
oversized pistol, being light enough to lift and aim without support.
There is the option to fit a Nerf shoulder stock to the back of the
Diatron – something that we really liked as it creates
opportunities to customise your gun. There is also a 'tactical
rail' on top for sights and the like.
Simply
flick the switch by the trigger and the magazine will slide open, and
in there you can load your ammunition that comes with the Diatron.
Eight disks are supplied with the gun, although it states that it can
actually accommodate ten. Why they haven't popped in two more to make
a full magazine we don't know, particularly because the Diatron
shoots two disks at once. With only eight disks provided you'll get
just four shoots before having to reload. We were a little
disappointed at that and were hoping for not only more included ammo,
but also a larger capacity. Still, game on!
To
cock the Diatron you must crank forward a loading arm and then pull
it back. At first it felt like an odd thing to do, and the crank arm
certainly adds a bit of bulk to the top of the gun, but soon it
become second nature to push and pull with your off hand to load.
Getting
the disks into the loading chamber was a little less pleasurable
however, especially during a frantic battle. We found we had to
carefully place the ammo two disks at a time to get them in straight
– nowhere near as easy as some other Nerf guns, one of which we'll
be reviewing soon.
Having
said that, once the Diatron is stocked up and ready to rock the
smaller pistol-like size is a bonus. Unlike other larger guns that
require two hands to carry and aim, the Diatron feels light and
compact and is a breeze to swing around and quickly aim at a target.
Or your gran. We thought the Diatron would be at home as either a
main weapon to do most of your blasting, or as a backup pistol
hanging from your hip for the time when your larger weapon runs dry.
In
terms of ballistics we discovered that, on average and depending on
the wind, the Diatron achieves a range of around fifty feet. We were
impressed at how accurate the shots were, with both fired disks
staying close together for most of that distance. Because two disks
are fired at once it actually increased the chance of you hitting
your target and certainly makes it harder for your gran to duck out
of the way.
So
in summery, the Nerf Vortex Diatron certainly isn't our favourite
blaster in terms of both looks and operation, but as a uniquely
looking, uniquely loading and certainly uniquely firing weapon,
you're sure to turn more than a few heads out there on the streets.
£15-20
Depending where you buy.
Visit
www.hasbro.com/nerf
