A while ago I noticed this kinda interesting listing on Amazon while looking for a Dart Zone Havoc that was listed as the "Rampage performance dart blaster set" that came with both a Havoc and two harmonica magazines, and also another blaster simply referred to as "rifle dart blaster." The rifle blaster didn't seem to be available anywhere else, or without the Havoc, and while it didn't look like anything too special, I was interested to check it out. I finally got around to buying it months later, so here's my thoughts!
Contents
The blaster ships in a plain brown box printed with the name of the set and practically nothing else, but I don't have a photo of it because my shipping label was stuck directly over the front of it. Inside you get the Havoc, two 8 dart harmonica magazines for it, the rifle blaster, a sight for the rifle, and 18 waffle darts.
I'm going to split up the rest of the review into parts on each blaster, before coming back together to finish off with value and final thoughts.
Havoc Overview
The Havoc has been around for ages, but this is my first time actually getting one myself. It's a springer that fires from an 8 dart harmonica magazine that moves upwards through the blaster as you fire. The priming mechanism is interesting, it functions like a bolt action in that you rotate the handle up and pull back to prime, but there's really no reason to rotate it back down, and it feels more like a cross between pump action and straight pull bolt action with the ability to fold the priming handle down when you're not using it.
The blaster has simple iron sights, no tactical rails of any kind and no attachment points for accessories. Kinda strangely, at the top of the blaster where the magazine comes out there's a little spring loaded door that opens as the magazine pushes up against it, but it seems to serve no purpose at all that I can tell.
There is no paint on the blaster, but there are two Dart Zone Covert Ops stickers for decoration.
Havoc Build Quality
The build quality is up to the usual Dart Zone standard, the blaster feels well built enough, but not quite as good as Nerf quality. The priming handle feels very solid, and no part of the blaster feels overly cheap. On mine, the stickers weren't applied quite perfectly, but nothing noticeable unless you're looking for it.
Havoc Build Quality Grade: A-
Havoc Aesthetics
I honestly love the aesthetics of the Havoc. I don't know why it took me so many years to finally pick one up. I think the overall shape of the blaster is great, the proportions are good, and it just looks nice. That being said, the shell has a TON of different patterns on it, horizontal lines, diagonal lines, small inset circles, larger inset circles, etc. If you wanted to paint up the shell and go over the details with a different color, the overall effect would be a bit busy and chaotic, but without any paint I think it works well enough. I appreciate that the harmonica magazines aren't perfectly straight but instead slightly slanted, which hasn't been done in many harmonica blasters. The priming mechanism sticks out quite a bit on one side, but honestly it doesn't bother me nearly as much as some asymmetric parts of other blasters (looking at you, Stryfe). Overall its a good design that could be slightly better with less chaotic design choices, but I like it.
Havoc Aesthetics Grade: B+
Havoc Performance
The performance from the Havoc is exactly what you'd expect from Dart Zone stock blasters, which is far better than Nerf. Putting 20 shots over my chronograph, I got an average of 78, with many shots hitting over 80. I never got any jams or misfires, the whole system works great and feels good to use. Also of note, there is no air restrictor at all in this blaster, or any locks, allowing the blaster to be de-primed easily once primed. The harmonica magazine doesn't have any dart posts, so half length darts can easily be loaded into it. However, like most other Dart Zone blasters, there's a mechanism that blocks the barrel unless a full length is sticking out of the magazine, blocking half darts from firing without modification. This is a simple spring loaded piece of plastic that the front of the darts push out of the way before they fire, and it would be very easy to cut it off or remove it to allow the firing of half darts, even without opening the blaster. Even with modern Dart Zone blasters hitting even harder, the Havoc still outperforms stock nerf blasters and delivers very usable performance out of the box.
Havoc Performance Grade: A-
Havoc Usability
For a harmonica magazine blaster, the Havoc is quite usable. The magazines only hold 8 darts, so you won't get a massive number of shots out of it, but the fact that the set comes with two magazines and more are available on Dart Zone's website is a huge plus. Unlike many BOOMco and X-Shot harmonica blasters, there is a definitive stopping point when you insert the magazine, making it impossible to over insert it. This means its faster to reload and easier to do without having to devote attention to making sure you put the magazine in just right. While you can't share magazines with other people around you and you are limited to 8 shots, the Havoc makes it work well with the extra mag and very intuitive loading system. I know for a fact that I'll end up running this blaster a good amount.
Havoc Usability Grade: B-
Havoc Mod Potential
This category is a difficult one for the Havoc, I literally couldn't get mine open. Something in the middle around the trigger just wouldn't separate, no matter how much I pried at it, and since I really do like and want to use this blaster, I didn't want to break it. Not sure if that was a fluke, if there was some glue or a screw that I somehow missed or what, but I went to the end of the effort I was willing to put in to open it and couldn't get it open. On Blasterhub there's an old review from when it first came out that has internals pictures, so opening it is doable, I just couldn't for whatever reason. Assuming you can manage to get it open, it could definitely take a spring upgrade, and if you remove the little dart blocking part it can fire half length darts with minimal modification. I'm not sure how much air is lost in the interface between the plunger and the magazine, but the seal is nearly perfect against my finger. I don't know how much else you can do, but I don't think much more modification is needed. As a harmonica magazine blaster, it will never be hitting as hard as something with a proper sealed breech and actual barrel length, but it seems that if you could open it easily, it could be made to hit 100fps or over very easily.
Havoc Mod Potential Grade: B-
Rifle Overview
The rifle sure is an odd blaster. It is quite small, very narrow and minimalistic. It has a pump at the front to prime it, a small button on top that opens the barrel to load a dart in, and a small tactical rail on top to accommodate the scope that it comes with. The stock is not really a stock at all in that it is comically small, but it does serve a function as storage for four extra darts. There's no other attachment points for anything, or other features to speak of. The scope itself is very simple, just a hollow tube with no crosshairs or anything inside. It does seem to be compatible with other Dart Zone blasters, I put it on my Villainator with no problem, but it wont work on any of the Dart Zone pro blasters with picatinny.
Rifle Build Quality
Much like the Havoc, the rifle feels about like what you'd expect for a Dart Zone blaster, if maybe slightly worse. The plastic is the usual Dart Zone fare of slightly worse than Nerf but overall pretty good, but there are a few things that make this one feel a bit worse. The main complaint I have about the build quality is the pump handle. For some reason, it just rattles like crazy. If you move the blaster at all, the pump rattles against the shell. Its not unusably bad, but it certainly feels cheap. The other minor complaint I have is the tolerance on the mechanism to lock and drop the barrel, it works great if you swing the barrel up into position, but it really needs to be closed solidly to latch. If you close it too gently, it will likely fall open again.
Rifle Build Quality Grade: B+
Rifle Aesthetics
The rifle has a sort of weird look to it, being a rifle shaped blaster that is really quite small. I think the decor on this one is a bit better than on the Havoc, since there's less space to fill with different chaotic designs, but I think overall the aesthetics are a bit plain. I wish there was a trigger guard, I think that would improve the look, and I wish the stock was a bit longer. Overall though, the design works and looks decent, its just not an amazingly cool looking blaster.
Rifle Aesthetics Grade: B-
Rifle Performance
I wasn't really sure what to expect from this blaster, it was clearly not a blaster that was significant enough to be released in stores or even released by itself, but Dart Zone almost always has pretty good performance numbers, so I was optimistic and I wasn't disappointed. In 20 shots of my chronograph, I got an average of about 79, just slightly better than the Havoc. This blaster was also a good bit more consistent than the Havoc, with almost all the shots being right around that average. Like the Havoc, there is no air restrictor and no dart posts, meaning that half length darts can be loaded in stock. However, a mechanism in the barrel section blocks half darts from firing without modification. That being said, the modification to allow it to fire half darts takes about 30 seconds and just a screwdriver.
Rifle Performance Grade: A-
Rifle Usability
Despite the performance being quite good for a stock off the shelf blaster, this one really isn't at all practical to use in a game. The fact that loading takes so many steps, press the button to open the barrel, load one dart, close the barrel, pump the priming handle, fire, gives it a very slow rate of fire. The dart storage on the stock is nice, but four extra darts isn't really enough for anything in a game, and the dart holders are awkwardly positioned, meaning that getting the darts out of them is a bit bizarre. To its credit, pressing the button to drop the barrel is really smooth, and the action of swinging the barrel closed works great as long as you give it a good swing, so I could see someone using this blaster with a dump pouch of darts for fun, but no break barrel single shot blaster will ever be truly practical.
Rifle Usability Grade: D
Rifle Mod Potential
Unlike the Havoc, I had no problem at all getting this blaster open. Inside is about what you'd expect, its a very simple system with a fairly decent plunger tube. The inner diameter of the plunger tube is .98 inches, and a simple spring upgrade could get this thing hitting even harder. To allow it to fire half darts, all you have to do is open the barrel and take out the simple mechanism contained within to block the barrel without a full length loaded. Honestly, what I think would be the coolest mod for this blaster is minimizing it, cutting off the stock and barrel and turning it into a pull back pistol.
Rifle Mod Potential Grade: B-
Value For Money
On Amazon, the only way to get this set, it sells for $24.99. For two blasters, two magazines for the Havoc and 18 of the great Dart Zone darts, this definitely isn't a bad deal. However, when the Havoc first came out in 2016, it sold with two magazines and 16 darts for $10. That leaves the rifle and 2 darts making up the other $15, which is definitely not a good deal. The very similar X-Shot Hawkeye blaster comes with 12 darts and 5 target cans, all for only $10. However, with the Havoc no longer being readily available for $10, I think $25 is a reasonable amount to pay for this set, but certainly not great.
Value For Money Grade: B-
I feel like I can't end this review without a brief comparison to the X-Shot versions of each blaster. The X-Shot Hawkeye and X-Shot Quickslide are both very very similar to the two Dart Zone blasters in this set. When it comes to the Hawkeye vs the rifle from this set, I much prefer the Hawkeye. The Hawkeye is also break barrel and pump action, and also comes with a scope and a stock that holds four darts, but the Hawkeye looks cooler in my opinion, performs just as well, and has a trigger guard. Plus, it has the fun "recoil" action that is far more satisfying than you'd expect. When it comes to the Quickslide vs the Havoc, its a closer match. I LOVE the Quickslide, its truly one of my favorite blasters ever (see my review of the Bug Attack Swarm Seeker, its the same blaster). However, at the moment, its impossible to buy more of the X-Shot harmonica magazines separately, while the Dart Zone ones are available on the Dart Zone site, and the Havoc comes with 2 instead of the Quickslide's one. Performance is about the same, but the X-Shot offering comes with ten dart magazines instead of 8, making them a bit more usable. I truly think I'll use both of them all the time at games, but the Quickslide is still my favorite, especially aesthetically.
Final Grades
