BOOMco. Rapid Madness Blaster, Blue Edition

First, I want to say that I have been a Nerf fan for years, and the idea of buying another Blaster, especially one that cannot use Nerf darts worried me a bit. However, I have been looking around for some other blasters to add to my arsenal and the BOOMco. Rapid Madness Blaster was on sale for $18 so I figured why not.I am very impressed with this blaster. It is not a single pump fire blaster like most, and it doesn't use batteries either. It has an air pump that is manually pumped and stores the air in a tank. Around 12 pumps will fire all 20 darts in the stock magazine; around 20 pumps will activate the emergency air release. If there is still air in the tank after you use a magazine it does not auto release, you can throw another magazine in and keep firing. It is a great blaster for overwhelming firepower and you don't have to worry about changing batteries. However, it is very inaccurate; the barrel provides to accuracy what so ever. If you like spray and pray, check it out. I also recommend the extra magazines and darts because it does get annoying when you have to reload the magazine after every use. I've only used the blaster for a couple hours and I've had no issues so far.It is recommended that you use eye protection whenever you use dart blasters, but I would especially recommend it for BOOMco blasters because their darts are stiff and I can imagine them doing some eye damage.Pros:No BatteriesAir Pump allows rapid fireRapid Fire!!!20 Dart MagazineComes with 30 DartsVery FunCons:Air Pump might be too hard for small childrenBlaster is largeLong reload timesNot accurateOther:BOOMco Blasters cannot use Nerf darts and vice versaTry to empty the air tank after each use to insure longevityUltimately, I recommend this Blaster. It is really fun.

A lot of people compare this with the Nerf Magstrike, but I think this is a vast improvement. The gun can stop firing mid clip, so firing everything in one burst is not the only option. The clip is also double the size, and it's more pump efficient. That last one sounds great, though the unfortunate part is that you have to pump it to get started. The redeeming quality is that since you can fire as many or as few rounds as you want at a time, you can fire and then pump when you go back to cover. The main thing to remember is just not to get in a position where you are either out of ammo or air because it will take a while to get back both. I've also had a few problems with it not firing the first dart because I'm not sure when I'm lining the clip up correctly, but I'm starting to get the hang of it. The gun has an insane rate of fire, though the downside is that the maximum range is on the lower end of any Nerf blaster within the last 2 or 3 years. Still, it's amazing for suppressive fire, or for short range crowd control, and that's still not bad for any indoors fighting. It's also very intimidating, partially because of the size, and partially because of the rate of fire. Just let it go once, and everyone around will keep you in their peripheral. Another negative is that because of the size, it is a little heavy, and it can get tiring for smaller players or for players who plan on using it for extended periods of time. Regardless, it is a very solid short-range blaster that can very easily dominate a game.

This was such a disappointment. For about half a week, I had the toy at the office that everyone wanted to check out. In a "controlled" environment, I could empty the 20-round clip in a pair of seconds. It would take five minutes to pickup the darts and reload the clip. Then the darts started sticking in the clip, so the clip wouldn't advance. Then the thing developed a leak and won't hold pressure.I didn't even get to use it once in a "real" battle. It was only used inside and only by adults. Hardly abused.What really sucks is I ordered an extra 100 darts and two more clips that I can use without performing surgery on the gun.

PROS:- looks intimidating- shooting an entire clip sounds intimidating- Smart Stick is neat- pressure release valve helps increase the life of the air bladder- doesn't need batteriesCONS:- takes too long to pump- darts won't fire if you push them in too far, but if you don't push them in enough they fall out or cause issues- rarely shoots all 20 darts in a single "spray"- range is not great- darts are incompatible with "other" brands so dart retrieval is a hassleOverall this is a decent suppression blaster. I got this for office use and the two biggest downsides are 1) it takes too long to prep for spontaneous blaster battles, and 2) since the darts aren't compatible with competing brands, I can't just use whatever darts ended up in my area after a battle. Not that big of a problem, but it does make me hesitate to use this blaster sometimes.

Does not work for me! The bullets didn't shoot out! I don't like it!

I have both the regular red Rapid Madness and the Amazon Blue Edition. I'm not sure why, but the blue one has noticeably greater firepower (at the recommended 18 pumps, it can easily fire more than 20 rounds, whereas the red one has almost exactly 20 rounds worth of power). In addition, the blue blaster fires darts faster and harder, especially the first few in a magazine. The only drawback is that, consistently, it fails to fire the last dart in a magazine of 20 or 40 (if you load another magazine, it still has enough power for more shots, so it's not a lack of power that's causing this).I don't know if the blue one was manufactured differently or if this is simply the degree of variation that one can expect (maybe there are red ones that fire harder too?). Whatever the case may be, I'm willing to accept that children's toys, especially at a reasonable price, aren't going to be precision-manufactured, and the fact that both of these blasters are durable and rarely ever misfire is more than I've come to expect from the comparable Nerf guns.