People who know me tend to know that for some reason, I love harmonica magazines. I tend to run BOOMco blasters, which have harmonica magazines, and I also am one of the few people who loves the Battlescout because of its dumb harmonica magazine. While I haven't gotten around to picking up an X-Shot Regenerator yet, when I saw the Swarm Seeker, I knew that it was a blaster that I had to have. I picked mine up for $19.99 at Target the other day, and it is already one of my favorite blasters.
Contents
In the box you get the Swarm Seeker blaster, a 10-dart harmonica magazine, 12 X-Shot darts, a bug launcher, and two flying bugs targets. The blaster and bug launcher are held into the box with some neat plastic screws that are very easy to remove, but the blaster has three extra holes in its shell from where the plastic packaging screws attached. The clip is held in with zip ties, and the darts and bugs are in their own plastic packages.
Overview
The first thing you'll notice when you pick up the Swarm Seeker is just how light it is. Seriously, it has to be less than half the weight of a Kronos. The plastic definitely feels slightly worse than Nerf plastic, but still far better than Buzz Bee plastic. The green parts of the blaster have a slight texturing that makes it feel good in the hand, and the brown parts have a wood grain texture, while the orange and grey parts are smooth glossy plastic. The grip is rather comfy, with the small exception of a random circle that sticks out a bit at the bottom which is a bit annoying to have pressing into your hand. The harmonica magazine is transparent blue, and instantly I was able to tell that it is quite a bit smaller than the Battlescout magazine, despite holding the same number of darts. Comparison:
The darts are the standard X-Shot darts, shorter than other brands, and quite a bit lighter.
The tips on my darts were rather inconsistent, some were definitely not glued on quite centered, but they all fire and function fine. The bug launcher takes 4 AA batteries under a door with two screws on the bottom, and it feels quite solidly built. The flying bugs themselves are very light and their bodies are hollow, but they don't feel fragile. The two bugs are different colors and are different molds, with slight but noticeable differences.
Size comparison:
The darts are the standard X-Shot darts, shorter than other brands, and quite a bit lighter. The tips on my darts were rather inconsistent, some were definitely not glued on quite centered, but they all fire and function fine. The bug launcher takes 4 AA batteries under a door with two screws on the bottom, and it feels quite solidly built. The flying bugs themselves are very light and their bodies are hollow, but they don't feel fragile. The two bugs are different colors and are different molds, with slight but noticeable differences.
Size comparison:
Build Quality
The Swarm Seeker blaster feels well built, despite clearly being made from a slightly worse quality plastic than that used by Hasbro. Some parts look and feel a little bit cheap, but its definitely not a big issue. The plastic feels decent in hand, with minimal creaking. The harmonica magazine is very rigid plastic, with absolutely no flex or creaking, it feels great.
The bugs are very light and feel cheap, but they have to be light to fly. The bug launcher is the most solid feeling piece, and it seems like you could throw it around without any damage. Overall, while it isn't the best quality blaster I've ever held, its significantly better than the worst blaster construction, and I have no concerns about longevity.
Build Quality Grade: B
Aesthetics
I know for some people, aesthetics don't matter, but I've always been a fan of things that look good. Personally, I think the Swarm Seeker is, appearance wise, easily in the top 3 blasters that Zuru has ever made. The shell has a lot of details built into it, with tons of little ridges and indents and even some greebling that breaks up the surface well without being too disconnected and chaotic. The shell reminds me a lot of a Kronos, but I personally slightly prefer the Swarm Seeker's appearance to that of the Kronos. That being said, I do have two minor issues with the Swarm Seeker shell. When you get it, the blaster is held into the packaging with three small plastic screws. These screws are easy to remove to make unboxing the blaster quick and easy, but they leave three small holes in the shell that run all the way through. I wish the screws had gone into existing screw ports or something, but the extra holes could be easily covered or filled if they bother you. Secondly, the blaster has two huge stickers, one on each side. The stickers are smooth and well applied, but with extended use they will certainly begin to wear off, making the blaster look worse over time. Despite those two minor issues, this blaster is one of my favorite blasters aesthetically. The shell has exactly the right amount of texturing and detail, and it looks fantastic from any angle.
Aesthetics Grade: A+
Performance
Out of the box, this blaster performs great. Depending on the darts, the Swarm Seeker shoots between 75-85 feet per second, which is decently above the "standard" for Nerf blasters. I tested the Swarm Seeker with as many different darts as I could find, and it will fire pretty much anything. Out of the box, the only darts that it struggled with sometimes were darts that didn't reach the bottom of the clip, as they weren't entirely engaging the air restrictor. Despite that, I was able to fire all the typical darts, Elites, waffle tips, X-shot, Dart Zone, Koosh, etc. and even pretty much any old dart, including suction cup darts, velcro taggers, whistlers, buzz bee suction cup darts, and even streamlines. Despite being built for the slightly shorter X-Shot darts, this blaster is compatible with nearly anything you can put in the magazine.
Both these clips fired every dart out of the blaster:
Performance Grade: A
Usability
Inherently, harmonica magazine blasters that fire foam darts are going to be less usable than those that don't. The harmonica magazine is simply too large for the number of darts it holds to make it as economical as a more conventional magazine fed blaster, and the fact that it is likely no one else will have harmonica magazines that you can borrow at a game makes it even harder to use effectively.
Magazine size comparison:
If you're playing HvZ or having a long war, you can definitely reload the magazine as you fire, which is useful, but since the blaster only comes with one magazine, you'll find yourself reloading very frequently. If you're gonna play really quick games, where you might only fire 10-30 shots, reloading the magazine is quite easy, and if you get used to the way the blaster functions, you can be fine just reloading your 1 magazine.
One of my least favorite features on this blaster is how you insert the harmonica magazine. On the Battlescout, the magazine is inserted properly when it is flush against the side of the blaster, but on the Swarm Seeker, the magazine has to be only halfway through the blaster.
This makes it quite a bit harder to reload quickly, since if you're not careful with your magazines, you can easily skip your first dart. However, if you get used to this system, it shouldn't cause too many issues. One feature on this blaster that is much better than the Battlescout however is that the magazine indexes properly every time, and doesn't fall out at the end. The Battlescout has a tendency to not line up the magazine properly, resulting in shots that only go 10 feet or so, and if you're not careful, at the end of the Battlescout magazine, it sometimes ejects it out the side, which is really frustrating if you're actively running around. The Swarm Seeker doesn't seem to have either of these problems. In all my testing, it has indexed and fired properly every single time, and the magazine has never fallen out when I don't want it too. This blaster isn't what I would call practical, but if you're looking for a small blaster with a relatively high capacity and you don't mind having to reload your 1 magazine over and over, it isn't that bad.
Magazine size comparison:
If you're playing HvZ or having a long war, you can definitely reload the magazine as you fire, which is useful, but since the blaster only comes with one magazine, you'll find yourself reloading very frequently. If you're gonna play really quick games, where you might only fire 10-30 shots, reloading the magazine is quite easy, and if you get used to the way the blaster functions, you can be fine just reloading your 1 magazine.
This makes it quite a bit harder to reload quickly, since if you're not careful with your magazines, you can easily skip your first dart. However, if you get used to this system, it shouldn't cause too many issues. One feature on this blaster that is much better than the Battlescout however is that the magazine indexes properly every time, and doesn't fall out at the end. The Battlescout has a tendency to not line up the magazine properly, resulting in shots that only go 10 feet or so, and if you're not careful, at the end of the Battlescout magazine, it sometimes ejects it out the side, which is really frustrating if you're actively running around. The Swarm Seeker doesn't seem to have either of these problems. In all my testing, it has indexed and fired properly every single time, and the magazine has never fallen out when I don't want it too. This blaster isn't what I would call practical, but if you're looking for a small blaster with a relatively high capacity and you don't mind having to reload your 1 magazine over and over, it isn't that bad.
As far as the bugs and launcher, they seem to work pretty well. You step on the button on the launcher to allow it to spin up the bug's rotor, and then you release the button to launch the bug. They are quite difficult to actually shoot down, as they don't fly all that long and they're rather small targets, but its a fun gimmick and they work well for what they are. You can also buy refill packs of the bugs, in case you manage to lose yours, or if you simply want more. I've already been brainstorming ways to use the bug launcher in wars, perhaps as some sort of objective, and I definitely think that can potentially be useful beyond just working as a target.
Usability Grade: C+
Mod Potential
Opening up this blaster is incredibly simple. All the screws are the same size, so you don't have to worry about getting them mixed up, which is very convenient. There are some hidden screws under the slide, meaning you have to remove the slide first, but there isn't any solvent weld or other complications. There is a small metal pin and an extension spring that might fall out, but the insides are remarkably simple. The plunger tube is rather short, but is very wide, moving a good amount of air.
Comparison to some random other plunger tubes I had lying around, from top to bottom: Swarm Seeker, Slingfire, BOOMco Dynamag, Stampede
The front of the plunger tube is simply clipped on, and I was able to remove the air restrictor in about 20 seconds with just my screwdriver.
The plunger rod itself is also quite wide, and many of my spare springs wouldn't fit around it, but I was able to find a large spring and put it in. My replacement spring was a few inches longer than the stock spring, but was able to catch fine. The only concern I had with modding this blaster is that the spring stop is a rather flimsy plastic, so I'd be cautious about putting in anything super strong unless you reinforce that. Getting the blaster back together was a bit of a pain, simply because my longer spring didn't want to keep the plunger in place, and I had to be a bit creative to get it together, but it worked in the end. Be certain that your plunger rod is the right direction, as the nub on the bottom of it has to catch on the magazine advancement mechanism to function. With a few minutes of simple modding, I removed the AR and upgraded the spring, getting noticeably better performance. EDIT: Now that its been nearly a week since I modded this blaster, I finally got around to chronographing it. With my simple spring replacement and AR removal, it shot an average of 96.2 FPS, with several shots hitting over 100.
One other amazing feature is that the shell actually is made in 4 different pieces,
and they come apart easily with clips. This means that it would be incredibly easy to paint the different shell pieces different colors without needing tape. Additionally, if you aren't a fan of the Bug Attack slime on the top of the blaster, it is simply clipped on too, and comes off very easily, albeit leaving a somewhat weird gap.
If you get this blaster and you have a screwdriver, you can at least remove the AR and paint it easily, which is awesome.
Comparison to some random other plunger tubes I had lying around, from top to bottom: Swarm Seeker, Slingfire, BOOMco Dynamag, Stampede
The front of the plunger tube is simply clipped on, and I was able to remove the air restrictor in about 20 seconds with just my screwdriver.
and they come apart easily with clips. This means that it would be incredibly easy to paint the different shell pieces different colors without needing tape. Additionally, if you aren't a fan of the Bug Attack slime on the top of the blaster, it is simply clipped on too, and comes off very easily, albeit leaving a somewhat weird gap.
If you get this blaster and you have a screwdriver, you can at least remove the AR and paint it easily, which is awesome. 
Mod Potential Grade: B+
Value for Money
I paid $19.99 for this blaster, which is the typical price. For the money, you get a fun, easy to mod, very cool looking blaster, but honestly, the blaster itself isn't worth $20. The downside is that you also get the bug launcher and the two flying bugs, which are cool, but raise the price. If you really like harmonica magazines like me, or you think you have a use for the flying bugs, its definitely worth the price, but if you just want the blaster, or for some reason just want the flying bugs and launcher, it might not be worth it. That being said, $20 is far cheaper than any similar Nerf product would be, making it still a fairly good value.
Value Grade: B-
Final Grades
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