Hunson Dubostryke Rapid-Fire/Cool Combination Soft Bullet Gun
Yet another blaster without a proper name, this blaster seems to be sold under multiple different brands and names. The box that I got mine in had Hunson listed as the brand, and then the box said Dubostryke and Rapid-Fire, but there are other blasters with the same thing on their boxes, so it seems to be a line of products and not the name of this specific blaster? (Also I don't even know if it says Dubostryke or Dub Stryke with a picture of a target in the middle, I found listings for other Hunson blasters that clearly say just Dub Stryke, but also listings calling it Dubostryke) The blaster itself says Cool Combination and Soft Bullet Gun, but upon searching for Cool Combination, there's at least one other blaster packaged with that name, so this blaster doesn't really have a name. I've seen images of the same exact blaster with the same colors but different darts packaged in at least three different packages, so I'm not sure who actually makes it or what to call it.
I found this blaster on ebay, I was just browsing for weird crappy blasters to review and I saw this one. Pretty much as soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to buy it. The shell is just so unique. It looks cheap and crappy, but doesn't look like other cheap crappy blasters? The aesthetics are very different, and I just loved the overall look. I paid $12.50 for the blaster and another $11 for shipping, but I'm not sure what the blaster's actual MSRP is supposed to be.
Contents
This package contains the blaster itself, a belt clip dart holder, and 10 darts. There are very simple instructions on the back of the box, but no instructions in the box, and there is a target printed on the inside behind the blaster, but it isn't perforated or anything, so if you want to use it you'll have to cut it out and find a way to stand it up or hang it yourself.
Overview
This blaster, despite having a very cool looking shell, is barely any more complex then the absolute simplest dart firing mechanism. You simply front load one dart, pull back on the handle to prime it, and then fire. The one thing I didn't expect is that the handle actually auto returns after you prime it, so it doesn't stay sticking out like a Firestrike. The handle of the blaster is tiny and has a handguard that makes it far worse, allowing only my trigger finger and two others to fit in, albeit uncomfortably.
The priming handle is fairly well sized however, and I can comfortably fit two fingers into it to prime the blaster. The blaster is quite small overall considering its design, it has a rifle shape but is definitely not rifle sized.
The belt clip dart holder that the blaster comes with is an interesting design, it is curved. presumably to match the shape of your body, has 14 holes for darts even though the blaster only comes with 10, and a small clip on the back that allows it to attach to thin belts.
The curve is far too extreme for probably anyone who isn't a very small child, and because the belt loop is in the middle of the concave part, it kinda causes the sides to dig into your body when trying to wear it. There's also for some reason no bottom to it, so if the darts are at all worn out, they'll definitely drop straight out of it during use. I attached it to a belt, put darts in it and ran across my apartment and back, it stayed securely on the belt, but one dart fell out and all the others dropped down a good inch or so, so they probably wouldn't stay in very well during an intense game. I might actually use it for games of Trouble in Terrorist Town or other less intense games though, since it does work decently if you find darts that fit well in it. It would also be very possible to simply glue a piece across the bottom of it so that darts can't drop out.
The darts that come with this blaster are simply horrible. They're FVJs, and their size is very inconsistent. As you can see here, they're far shorter than standard darts, and the two I photographed here not only are different lengths, but slightly different colors for some reason too.
Some of them are quite notably longer or shorter than others, and in my testing they performed worse out of this blaster than other darts, despite having a better barrel fit. I see no reason to ever use them assuming you have literally any other darts at all.
Build Quality
Its not good. Now, its not the worst I've felt, but its definitely not good. The blaster is very light, far lighter than a Hammershot despite being almost twice the length. I weighed them both on my kitchen scale and the Hammershot was a good 100 grams heavier.
The plastic doesn't feel like it would break immediately from use, but I'd be wary of even dropping it onto concrete. It is clearly very thin, you can push on parts of the blaster and feel it flex, and holding it up to the light on the "nice" side you can see the screws showing through. The paint application is also quite bad, I've only had this blaster for a few days and already some paint is starting to come off on raised parts of the shell, and there are areas where the paint is just applied poorly and it spills over onto other sections. Some of the screws also appeared to already be partially stripped when I got it, I would be concerned about taking it apart and putting it back together multiple times, although there are a weirdly massive number of screws, so if some strip I suppose its not the end of the world. Seriously why are there so many screws on a blaster this size?
Build Quality Grade: C-
Aesthetics
I know that this is very subjective, but I adore the aesthetics of this blaster, and they're the reason I bought it as soon as I saw it. The part above the barrel immediately reminded me of the old Max Force Razorbeast, and the aesthetics as a whole reminded me of vintage Nerf lines in general. Unfortunately, I didn't have a Razorbeast to compare it to, but a Sawtooth is close enough I suppose.
I could see this fitting in with vintage Nerf if it was different colors and better build quality. So many off brand super cheap blasters have incredibly chaotic shells with just far too much going on, but this blaster is the opposite. The shell is actually sleek and fairly simple, with some cool looking details that don't clutter it too much. If the shell was bigger I would definitely want to integrate it into something more functional.
Aesthetics Grade: A
Performance
The first thing I noticed when I started messing with this blaster is that it has a perfect air seal. Not just a good air seal, but its one of the best air seals I've ever seen. I used a stopwatch to time for one minute of holding my finger over the barrel after firing, and the plunger still moved forward after I removed my finger. I have no idea why the seal is so good, but its truly impressive. That being said, the performance isn't great. The plunger tube is tiny and there's some dead space, so even with the perfect seal I was only getting results of around 40-50 FPS with Adventure Force waffle darts. With the included darts, which seem to have a better fit in the barrel I was somehow only getting about 32-37 FPS. The waffle tips do fit quite loose in the barrel, there's some fins for lack of a better term at the back of the barrel that serve to narrow it to squeeze the back end of the dart in, but the rest of the barrel is very loose. Performance overall was better than I expected, nothing amazing, but definitely not as bad as I thought it would be.
Performance Grade: C
Usability/Stupidity
As I said in the last review, for this type of review instead of grading based on usability, I'm grading based on stupidity, with stupider blasters getting better grades, since this is what this type of review is all about. That being said, this blaster is definitely less stupid than I thought it would be. Is it war practical? No. Is it war usable? Honestly, yes. It shoots about as well as a Jolt, and while that isn't impressive, I'd say its good enough to use for fun in a low FPS game. The fact that you have to front load isn't ideal. but it isn't any worse at rate of fire than any other front loader. I think this blaster pretty well strikes the balance between usability and stupidity, its stupid enough to be fun, but usable enough to not just be frustrating.
Stupidity Grade: B
Mod Potential
Honestly, I'm not certain about this one. I'm sure a better spring could be added, although I didn't have a single spring in my collection that would fit inside the plunger tube. It might be possible to brass the barrel, considering how good the air seal is, but considering that the better fitting darts that came with it performed worse than the loose waffle darts, I'm not certain that that would actually be beneficial unless the spring was also upgraded. I don't know how long the cheap internals would last with a spring upgrade, but part of me really does want to find a better spring and brass it and see what kind of performance I can get out of the tiny plunger. Overall though, I don't really think its worth the time and effort it would take to mod, probably.
Mod Potential Grade: C
Value For Money
This is another difficult category, since I wasn't able to find it listed anywhere other than the ebay listing that I bought. Assuming that it does sell for the $12.50 that I paid for it, I'd say that it is honestly kinda worth it. Its not a great blaster, heck, its not even really a good blaster, but its a very unique shell and it is usable enough to be a fun joke blaster. Don't pay $11 for shipping though, it was definitely not worth the $23 I paid, but I also don't regret it.
Value for Money Grade: B-
Final Grades
This blaster is one of the more unique off brand blasters I've found, and I just really really love the shell for some reason. Its a pretty meh blaster though.
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