Usain Jolt
Still high off of the back of our recent Nerf Rapidstrike CS-18 review, we were sent a pocket-sized pressie from the gadget guys and gals at RED5. We weren't expecting much from the contents of the small package, and once opened the Nerf Jolt looked a little comical next to it's big brothers such as the Retaliator and the Vortex Diatron. Boy, were we wrong.
Just as you should never judge a book by the cover, never judge a Nerf blaster by the size. At just a few inches across the Jolt is the smallest Nerf gun ever made and cashes in with the smallest ever price. But what a wallop it packs!
Still high off of the back of our recent Nerf Rapidstrike CS-18 review, we were sent a pocket-sized pressie from the gadget guys and gals at RED5. We weren't expecting much from the contents of the small package, and once opened the Nerf Jolt looked a little comical next to it's big brothers such as the Retaliator and the Vortex Diatron. Boy, were we wrong.
Just as you should never judge a book by the cover, never judge a Nerf blaster by the size. At just a few inches across the Jolt is the smallest Nerf gun ever made and cashes in with the smallest ever price. But what a wallop it packs!
Fitting comfortably in the palm, the Jolt is a (half) pint-sized projectile pistol with similar colours and styling to the rest of the N-Strike range. The barrel can accommodate just one dart at a time, is front loaded and is so short the dart actually protrudes from the end when loaded.
To cock the Jolt simply yank down on the orange plunger at the base of the grip to prime the internal spring. The plunger will click into position just an inch or so further out, suggesting the spring isn't very big at all - something that also made us feel the blaster couldn't be up to much, the first time we fired it. As we've said, we were wrong.
Firing the Jolt is easy; once primed simply squeeze the trigger and WHAM! the dart goes flying. The first time we used it we were genuinely shocked not just at the distance the Jolt achieved but also the power at which the dart is launched. A watered-down Nerf blaster this is not.
During range testing we found that the Jolt could easily match the Retaliator in terms of distance, although suffered somewhat with accuracy. To be fair, the Jolt is working with essentially zero guiding barrel, whereas the Retaliator enjoys a nice long rifled one. But still, in a straight out distance competition, there wasn't much between them.
Despite the miniature size the Jolt sits comfortably in a adult male grip, yet fits snugly into any pocket. This makes it the perfect secondary weapon should you be battling it out in the back yard. If things get a tad too close for comfort, whip out the Jolt and and give them a blast.
We don't leave the house without it.
£6.95
Visit www.red5.co.uk/nerf-jolt