Beware, fellow squaddies, for a tiny BOMBSHELL has landed in the S.O.F.T. HQ. Of course, I’m talking about the new Nerf N-Strike Jolt EX-1, recently arriving here in Tasmania a few weeks ago. Thanks to Alex Cooke of the Hobart Nerf Squadron, we have access to not one, but TWO Jolts. This should be fun :D And, it’s time for a ‘tiny’ review. :P (PIC SPAM DETECTED :P)
The Jolt is, as it describes on the box art, a surprisingly awesome package. :P Don’t be fooled, even though it measures the same in length as a Secret Strike AS-1, the Jolt packs heaps of power, thanks to a Direct Plunger system, similar to the mighty Longshot CS-6. What is it then? An excellent last-resort blaster, perfect for the execution-style take-outs, or casually mucking around with. :P
In your basic pack, you get the Jolt, and two Whistler darts. Not much else to say, it shares the basic package size along with the Secret Strike.
The first thing that I like about the Jolt, is that Nerf tried to make it as compact as possible, but tried to cater to all hand sizes and shapes. It feels great in hand, except if you grasp onto it too tightly, the handle ridges dig into your skin a bit. Other than that, it feels reasonably great. And it looks great too, going for an orange colour scheme and digital camo markings similar to that of the Stampede and Rayven.
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| Notice the back area? It's VERY fat, I wasn't expecting that. |
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| Trigger feels nice, and comfortable. |
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| Up close and personal. :D |
How the Jolt is fired is VERY simple (even for my father to figure out :P) load up your single dart into the Jolt’s barrel, pull DOWN on the grey priming handle, and simple press the trigger. If I had one complaint, it’s a bit hard to pull down on the handle to prime the Jolt, it might prove a little difficult for our younger readers :P. I can tell this is due to a very strong spring, of which I have no complaints with.
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| Un-primed position |
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| Primed position |
Ranges? Well, there’s no problem there. Pretty crazy ranges for such a small blaster. :P It can get to the other end of my living room, and that’s good enough for me :D (Outside range test coming soon.) J And, it can be quite accurate too.
Since I have two Jolts, I tried a little dual-wielding, and I must say thanks to my big hands (spare fingers make light work), it works very well. You might want to keep some spare Whistler Darts on you, such as on a Bandolier. :P
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| Bow down to your leader! :P Just kidding... |
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| Size Comparison to the Secret Strike AS-1 |
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Size Comparison to the Maverick... TINY.
The Jolt EX-1 can be seen as the new Single Shot blaster on the block, but thanks to its Direct Plunger, it might even replace the Maverick as favourite for casual shoot-outs at the office. It is a great starting blaster for any newcomers, and a worthy addition to any arsenal. The Jolt is newly flying around Big W Australia-wide for four bucks. Get on it!
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S.O.F.T.’s Official Rating: 8 darts/10 darts
Nice to see such a thorough review on such a simple little blaster :P
ReplyDeleteOne thing I'll add as well; the Jolts I have are such good performers that in stock form they have a small amount of vacuum loading (where if you have the dart inserted only part of the way, when you draw the plunger to cock it, the dart will be sucked in :P)
I've found by priming the blaster *BEFORE* putting the dart in, makes it much easier and comfortable to do *and* adds another foot or two of range.
Hope this little gem of info helps :P