Flip Fury and Strongheart Bow

Ready for testin'!

Two?! TWO blasters?! Yes, that's right readers, we got our hands on the Zombie Strike Flip Fury and the Rebelle Strongheart Bow. While we didn't have a ton of time to do a full review (we'll probably discuss them more on the next podcast) we did have enough time to give you some first impressions and chrono results. Hit the jump for our initial thoughts, numbers and a few quick videos. Don't forget to click on the chrono results to enlarge the pictures!

Waitaminute...

First off, the Flip Fury is every bit of fun that you'd expect. It really is a great little blaster. While it likely won't be replacing anyone's Hammershots, anyone who is running a Strongarm as a primary might want to give this some real consideration.

The blaster itself is just smooth. From the trigger pull, to the cylinder switching, to slamfire, this thing feels well built. The flip feature works well and is honestly more fun than we expected.  Getting 12 darts down range is a breeze, and the flip in the middle of it makes it arguably more fun than just slapping in a bigger capacity magazine. For fun factor this thing is high on the list.

That's better!

Now for some potential downsides. Obviously 12 rounds isn't quite as useful as the 18 that most people use with any clip system blaster, and reloading individual rounds is a blessing and a curse when compared to being able to swap in another mag quickly. For this reason it isn't exactly the ideal primary of most players.

Why we can't have nice things.

Unfortunately it's also not ideal for a secondary either. While it's higher capacity than most sidearms is ideal, it's size and double handed operation is not. It will be relatively difficult to find any holster that will currently carry a beast of this magnitude. At the moment it's likely homemade cardboard and duct tape. Even then it is rather large to be strapped to most people's sides, but we're in no way telling you you shouldn't.

All in all, it's a great blaster that is tons of fun, and we recommend using it as such. If you can figure a way to fit this into your loadout, go for it. If you can't, consider running it in a fun round or a less serious game type. Sometimes fun>effectiveness.

Gonna get bought!

On to the Strongheart Bow! There's not a ton to say about this newest offering. It's an upgraded version of the Heartbreaker. If you liked this you'll probably enjoy this one even more. If you didn't there's a few upgrades that might sway you, but it's doubtful that this will change your mind.

Short and sweet.

It's obvious that Nerf is getting the most out of the smart AR technology we've grown to love and putting it into this bow just made sense. One of the biggest drawbacks of the Heartbreaker was it's limited ammo. Now the Strongheart allows for 4 shots as fast as you can pull back and fire. Ours had a slight problem with one of the dart sensors, but this seems to be a fluke according to all other accounts.

Aside from the obvious upgrade in ammo capacity, the bow itself no longer has a huge dead draw. The Heartbreaker didn't prime until nearly the end of the drawstring, giving very little allowance for power fluctuation and an unnecessarily long draw if you were trying to snap off a quick shot. The Strongheart seems to have fixed this as well, utilizing the entire draw length of the bow.

Seriously, this is why.

If those were you're only gripes then you might be sold, but for some of you that just didn't find the first iteration fun, it's unlikely that you'll be taken aback by it's upgraded counterpart. Still, Nerf did a good job with listening to the shortcomings of it's predecessor and upgrading what they could.