Guardians of the Galaxy Star-lord Quad Blaster Review

While searching for early arrivals in Mattel's Boomco line, I found a new Marvel blaster at Target for $19.99. Despite the range claims of only 25 feet, the blaster intrigued me. Here are my observations, thoughts, and internal pictures!

Is it just me, or would this make a great base for a Halo Plasma Rifle?

The secondary trigger releases the swiveling pieces on the top and bottom of the blaster. It's mainly for aesthetics, but it also needs to be released to fully utilize the blaster - you can fire the first barrel on top and bottom when closed, but have to retract the panels to use the last ones.

Ooohh!!! Pretty!!!

The barrels work the same as those in the Nerf Triad, Roughcut, and Crossfire Bow. There is a smart AR box in each set for sequential firing.- first the inner barrels, then the outer ones. Also note the two priming handles in the rear - you can fire one OR two darts at once. You may as well throw a frisbee on the side of this thing and use it as a Manta :P

Shots fired!

The first big disappointment comes in priming the blaster - total movement amounts to only 2cm! Well, only one thing left to do - open the blaster and see what's up with this thing!

How sad.

A dozen screws or so later, and we find that not one, but TWO Jolt internals are in this thing. 2cm draw, 2.5cm diameter plungers, and some dead space between the plunger tube and barrels. That explains the 25ft ranges, as opposed to the normal 35-40ft ranges of a Jolt.

The trigger assembly is nice and complicated!

One of the plunger assemblies:

Jolts. They will never die.

And one of the plungers: exactly the same as a Jolt, down to the catch on the plunger head.

Look at the giant head, huehuehue

Conclusion:

The Star-lord Quad Blaster performed as advertised in testing, reaching 25ft ranges when fired level. Having four shots total was also a plus. But the $20 price tag is too much to justify recommending this blaster for stock use.

I'm not sure how well the existing internals can be improved. However, there is one nice thing about a plunger tube with a 2.5cm ID:

Nice and snug!

Yep, Air Max firing tanks slide in perfectly! If I can't improve the internals, then I'm going to replace them :)