Nerf Gel Fire Mythic

[Cdn_Cuda]

Today me and the kids are going to be messing around with a Nerf Gel Fire Mythic blaster. These shoot those little gel balls that look like fish eggs.

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Here is what you get (plus a pair of safety glasses and a second pouch of balls - both not shown)

Features: Battery operated with a USB rechargeable battery, semi or full auto modes, extendable stock, extendable barrel and hopper.

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Firing mode is selected by a selector switch on the top rear of the marker and has a reminder to wear eyewear directly above it
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The trigger has a safety catch to lock the trigger. It works well and is firm, I cannot pull through it applying a reasonable amount of pressure. For trigger snobs, this feature a slider trigger so you can still shoot with your pinkies in the air.

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[Cdn_Cuda]

The battery slides into the trigger frame and is small and light. You’ll notice the bright orange is used on any surface you need to me away of. The barrel tip, the stock release, the battery, trigger and safety.

36591BBC-13BE-4B4A-B131-50488EEED021.jpeg The battery slides in nicely and clicks into place so you know it’s connected. Removing the battery is not smooth and is a bit rough. You have to move the battery back and forth a bit to free it. Long term I could see this damaging the plastic tabs. Battery must be removed to charge. No idea how many shots per battery it gets.

Next the hopper. It’s basically just a plastic bottle with twist fit threads. Its plastic is extreme thin, like a bottle of water. It’s not meant of impact like a paintball hopper, which is fine, but when you are inserting the hopper into the marker you need to apply a fair amount of twist and the bottle twists as well. Holding the base of the hopper while twisting it in. The design of the hopper annoys me slightly, as is is mostly vertical, I’d assume these balls don’t roll well, so this allows for the best feeding.

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[Meleager7]

any feel for if Gel Blasters are increasing in popularity in Canada? these do look fun, Cabela's Canada have (or maybe had) another model named SplatteRball

[Cdn_Cuda]

No idea. Bought this one at Toys R Us originally for my nephew but my sister didn’t like it. So gave it to my youngest for her 6th birthday. Age appropriate? Not really, but she shoots paintball markers often and was thrilled when she saw it.

[Cdn_Cuda]

And finally we’ll look at the biggest selling point of these blasters, the balls! The package comes with 10,000 balls!

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There are teeny, tiny little balls and need to be hydrated for 3-4 hours to reach their proper plumpness. That’s the drawback to this, as you need to plan good and in advance. First thing this morning a poured a small but significant amount of balls into a big ol’ bucket of water.

Slightly larger balls in the bucket:
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So you need to plan in advance to use the balls, and don’t go pouring all 5,000 rounds into a bucket at once, unless you plan if shooting a lot of balls. To my understanding they are not reusable.

[Cdn_Cuda]

To update, have some balls sitting in the bucket for several days. They didn't over expand and were fine to use. So you can dump ammo in a bucket Friday night and shoot some gel balls all weekend.

[Cdn_Cuda]

The balls appear to be ready to go. They’re still pretty small, and feel firmer but not hard. I now understand why some of the ammo buckets for these come with strainers. The water is damn cold to be scooping balls out of!

First test is just shooting for the first time. Safety of, single fire mode. Trigger just slides into a button to shoot, no feeling of kick at all, just a little noise and the ball goes flying. It hits a my plastic deck box and “explodes” leaving barely any mark.

Next we move over to the side yard where I have a little paintball range. I have a mask hanging on some plastic pipes as a target. Make for a saft and simple spot to fire.

Shooting is simple. Trigger is a light and easy to pull. Neither my 8 year old or 6 year old had any trouble shooting it. The stock was too long for them, which is understandable as it’s mention for ages 12+.

The velocity of the ball is well under that of a paintball, as expected. Shooting range is about 25 feet. Kinda of like a paintball shooting around 200 fps. I do not know if various types of gel blasters shoot faster.

Accuracy was decent, could generally hit my target. It was more of a lob/arc than a straight shot at my target but doable. These barely leave any mark and it’s equivalent to a drip of water. I could not tell where on the target I hit. So the claims of non-staining are true.

This leads us to the final test: getting shot! I, of course, went first. So I donned a Grill mask, handed the loaded (but safety engaged) blaster to my kids and told them to fire away. They were thrilled, once they figured out to disengage the safety. Eventually they managed to hit me. Shots were light, feeling like being firmly poked. It did feel like impacts would vary a little, likely due to the gel ball not breaking. Didn’t hurt, just more like a snap from an elastic band at worse. Most shots you barely feel at all. Getting shot directly in the bare hand was fine and did not even leave a mark. In fact you could barely see any mark of me even after taking multiple direct hits.

My oldest was next up, and had ask to be hit. She was wearing a tshirt with a sweatshirt over top. So she tossed on the Grill and stood down range. After each hit I would ask if she was okay. She was fine, and most hits resulted in a giggle. Again, no marks on her afterwards.

Last up was my youngest, wearing a lightly puffed jacket. Again, on goes the Grill and off she went to be hit. With the puffy jacket she didn’t feel any of the shots. I’d shoot, hit her and then she’d ask if I’d shot yet.

General Thoughts: cheaper than darts or paintballs, leaves minimal marks and no need to have to find ammo after like darts.

use a full-face or paintball style mask. Impact is not a concern, but you aren’t going to want to take one inthe mouth. Nerf Rival style masks would be fine.


Overall impression: I like these. They are light and easy to use, ammo is cheap and easy to use, you just need to plan in advance. I’d put them in water the night before as they will say they will not over-expand.


further points of investigation: indoor use. Not thinking this is something that should be used in your house, but might be great in a warehouse-like setting.

[Cdn_Cuda]

Saved for video of me getting shot!

[Chuck E Ducky]

I have the Gel blaster brand I’m curious how these compare.

I picked up 8 of the Gel Blaster type last year, my boys and their friends love them. We have had some epic battles from drive by ATV battles to Easter I had my grandparents out chasing the kids around with em. They are super fun and so cheap to run. If you use warm water it cuts the time it takes to swell to the right size almost in half.

[Cdn_Cuda]

Good tip! My hand was frozen grabbing balls.

[Chuck E Ducky]

Haha yeah that ls another benefit.

[Cdn_Cuda]

Just a little more on the shooting impressions. We filled the hopper up all the way and tested the full auto setting. My daughter had too much fun scraping me on full auto. The odd shot would sting a little, but my daughter also took joy in aiming at sensitive areas….

There were times when the hopper would jam, so it would require a good shake to get the ammo flowing again.

My daughter also thought it was fun to get hit with the jell balls and her puffy jacket appeared to be apple padding. She did complain about a gel ball hitting her neck, but only that it was cold. It was just a splatter from her jacket.

She really enjoyed it and was happy to have her own special marker.

[Meleager7]

I have the Gel blaster brand I’m curious how these compare.

I picked up 8 of the Gel Blaster type last year, my boys and their friends love them. We have had some epic battles from drive by ATV battles to Easter I had my grandparents out chasing the kids around with em. They are super fun and so cheap to run. If you use warm water it cuts the time it takes to swell to the right size almost in half.

Is the range on the Gel Blaster brand the same as Cuda described above with the Nerf version ie. 25 feet ?

I wonder what the range of Nerf Rival is in comparison?

[Chuck E Ducky]

Mine go way farther then 25’ haven’t measured it out exactly but it’s a very usable range. I would say they shoot better than my TR-50’s and are more accurate.

[Chuck E Ducky]

The new Serge XL shoots them 170’ that’s pretty impressive.

I just have the standard ones they shoot approximately 100’ but the new ones seem to be improving. Lots of different types on the market now. Mine has a slider that ports the barrel so you can turn it down so they hurt even less.

Nurf has one now just like what Cuda posted with a low profile higher capacity hopper. I might try some of the newer ones out.

[Cdn_Cuda]

Need also has a pistol that is spring driven. It’s pretty cheap, so might pick one up to see how spring fire works vs battery fire. Sadly I do not have ATVs to get the full enjoyment with. Perhaps my ride-on mower can be a stand in.

And after showing my daughter your picture she chimed in that she had a Barbie Jeep that could be used. Might be time to Mad Max up the Barbie Jeep!

[bellicose]

Don't forget the silver spray paint!

[Brandon]

My son got one of the Nerf ones for Christmas. We haven't gone out yet, the snow has finally melted off the lawn. I'll have to get it read for him. I've been eyeing the SURGE XL myself.

[Chuck E Ducky]

You can get like 15000 rounds for like less than $6 on Amazon. Don’t bother with the bucket kits just hit up Home Depot for a couple of 5 gal buckets. I fill up two for opposite sides so you don’t get campers on the reload bucket.

[flyweightnate]

Get a Gelblaster instead. Nerf (hasbro) is going all Smart Parts on the competition, grabbing patents and reneging on licensing terms after negotiations.

Screw 'em.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/joanver...h=76d6dbcd3f8e

[Cdn_Cuda]

That's crappy to hear.

[flyweightnate]

Yeah - seems like such an awesome extension of the paintball concept, especially with kids. But like with Smart Parts, nobody is gonna know about Hasbro flexing on GelBlaster unless they stumble across the correct article.

It's ironic - your review of the Nerf one got me looking in to getting some for my kids, which is how I found out about the whole thing. But yeah - I'm gonna ease the kids (6 and 4... the little one might need to learn to sit upright first) towards paintball pretty soon with these.

[Chuck E Ducky]

Well that makes me want to buy a Gel Blaster xl even more. I won’t buy any more Nerf stuff. I’m actually going to bring the Nurf stuff I got for Easter back.