Author’s Note: This blaster was provided to me for free in exchange for my review. Thanks, Prime Time Toys!
The revolver is a standard in the hobby. The NStrike Maverick, perhaps the most famous blaster ever created, shows that the revolver format is a common feature. That trend continued with the Elite Strongarm (and to a lesser extent the Disruptor). Mega was able to use the Cycloneshock. When it came to Rival, however, the revolver never appeared. What revolver is the best way to use ammo? It’s difficult to say, given the variety of magazines and hoppers that you can use with Rival-type ammunition. It is still fun to blasters, regardless of the ammo type. It is, you bet!
Dart Zone now has the long-awaited blaster in the Apex. It’s as good and fun as you would expect, at a great price.
Smaller Than Expected
The Apex is smaller than youd expect, even though its using wide ammo.Its comparable in size to smaller pistols on the market, even if its wider in a few aspects. This is partly due to the fact that it only has five barrels. I would imagine six would make it unwieldy. At least this way, theres a chance you could holster the blaster.
Also, five shots in a Rival pistol is almost a standard at this point, thanks to the Kronos and its brethren.
The Apex is strong, just like you would expect from a Rival blaster. It has thick, textured plastic. The secondary safety trigger is still present, and the grip isn’t perfect but it still works well. There should be enough room for all your fingers, even if you don’t have very large hands. Meanwhile, the priming grip might actually be better than the Kronos; its solid, with curves that fit your hand for an easy prime. It is a revolver with no internal magazine, so it can be loaded from any place. No need to push it back. The plunger rod does extend out the back when primed; given the internal setup pictured below, its understandable.
Still a bit unsightly when weve seen self-contained systems like the Cycloneshock, Kronos, and Sentry X2.
A rail is located in front of the vehicle. It looks great, but it’s purely for aesthetics. The transparent cylinder allows the user to see whether a barrel has been loaded. The cylinder rotates on the prime; its also easy enough to rotate the cylinders by hand for loading them that way. Each barrel has its own ridges that can be used to spin the ball.
The cylinder can only be loaded from the front. Users will need to make sure that they push the rounds backwards. Older users shouldnt have an issue.
What Is This?
Interestingly enough, the blaster comes with side panels, like the ones you see on the Adventure Force blasters for showing team colors. Humorously, they simply say TEAM on them, and come in green. No red or blue panels are included. I don’t know why this is so. Perhaps Dollar General didn’t want to include the additional panels. There is space in the packaging for them to be included, but they arent there, and no mention of this is in the instructions. Perhaps Dart Zone could do us a solid and give out a proper 3d model to download and print
Performance
Apex PR sheets advertise a blaster firing at 90 fps. After many firings, I was able to achieve an average speed of 93fps. This is exactly what you would expect from a Rival blaster. This is a significant improvement on the Sentry X2, which was lagging in performance.
Rate of fire seems to max out at two balls per second, although youll empty your ammo fast at that rate.
The blaster is as accurate as youd expect from a ball blaster; shot placement is easy at closer ranges, and acceptable at long range as the ball loses velocity and is more subject to wind and slight ammo variations.
The barrels can hold multiple rounds but the Apex will not shoot shotgun rounds in stock form. This will result in a decrease in range and spread.
Internals
The Apex stuffs a wide plunger tube inside, as well as the various parts of the rotation mechanism.
Youll also notice an extra lever above the trigger; this presses the plunger tube forward against the cylinder prior to firing to make a seal.
I have not yet tested the Apex with other springs to determine if it can handle more power or if the dimensions of the spring rest within are correct.
