Alright and we're finally done for now on the latest of the NERF Rival blasters. Those are 3 big beefy videos that hopefully answered questions people had, but of course we have another video in the near future on testing Hasbro's accuracy at 30 feet to see if there's actually any difference (as well as testing wind resistance and stuff). So stay tuned! But until then, we're going to shake things up a bit.
For the next round of testing you could set up an electric fan behind the target and to the side (45 and 90 degrees) to simulate front- and sidewind. Might be that rival accustrike rounds perform better in those cases because they are slightly heavier and smoother ?
Only insight I can offer about the newer balls comes from my golf profession. Larger dimples will put less spin/lift on the balls, in theory making them more accurate.
Higher mass should also mitigate outside factors, I expect you will only really see a difference over range under less favorable conditions - probably not 'more accurate' as much as 'more reliable'
I think a nice addition to your reviews would be an added photo of the sight picture on some of these blasters. Especially if the backdrop is the target device you use to measure the grouping, i think it would give us a nice idea of what you're working with when doing these tests.
The new rival round has a HUGE nerf logo on it which 100% negates any improvements made. The should have just had their logo PAINTED on like a golf ball
to be fair 100% is a pretty huge hyperbole. in reality its pretty negligible either way for an extra step in the manufacturing proccess. cheaper for them to make doesnt mean cheaper for us to buy, of course :l and the main improvement over yellow balls is the coating that holds the spongy foam together for a pretty even compression and much more consistent whereas the yellow coatingless balls can compress in weird ways and get pushed out inconsistently as far as i can tell, the difference in dimples styles offer really somewhat negligible improvement. but in theory it should work ever so slightly better in stronger winds... not that the balls are actually heavy enough for the dimples to actually do anything.
While the designs are pretty skeletal, it works. Some of the previous rival blasters are over the top needless shells and we had to pay for all that extra plastic. This is fairly bare bones while managing to look pretty good. Not to mention its hard to go wrong when its painted like a Shinx xD
It's coming full circle. I remember when I was a kid in 89-90 we got a set of two pink NERF pump blasters. You loaded yellow round soft balls at the tip of the long cylinder tube blaster and pumped it out with the handle at the end, making a POP sound.
I don't get it. It seems like the Rival line is generally well designed and well received but Hasbro seems to be very hesitant to want to design or market it.
I think because they're a toy company, they're hesitant to REALLY market a toy to teens or hobbyists, and would rather stick to marketing for little kids who'll bug their parents.
@@darklordofsword Well, if that's the case, then that's stupid. The rival blasters all have safeties, and it can't be stressed enough on the boxes that the line is meant to be 14+. It's not like it's inappropriate or too violent to market to kids.
@@Seismitoad3 It's probably not that it's just as much as online there seems to be a majority of the community who want performance, mod-ability, and pragmatism in reality the majority of Hasbro's revenue probably comes from kids and parents who buy for their kids.
@@LumpyHippoexactly. People act like Hasbro cares about the 5% of return customers like us over a kid making his first buy which is the rest of the market
I wonder if the ultra compact design is to emulate Speedball markers, they are always super small and tight to give you a better ability to peak and stay behind cover. I have always felt like rival was Nerf's move towards a youth friendly 'speedball' format with how fast the projectile's travel, the high capacity, and the relatively low accuracy.
This blaster is even fun to just walk around with 1 ball of you're a casual plinker. Shoot ball and go to where it landed, load it into the chamber upside down and go again. For a father who watches his kids outside, this is fun. Then I got the Pilot and now that's my main boy
@@ziploc2000 you're right. they even sell these little notches to pop into the rival mags so they'd fit the pathfinder properly. without the upgrade, it'll fire all except the last round in each mag.
my theory is that the "optimized barrel" does most of the accu-stuff because when walcon fired the original rounds they also went relatively straight and that the accu-rounds only provide a small boost of accuracy
Drac actually did a nice mod guide on this one, you can see during the disassembly that it's litterally just a plain tube XD Nothing fancy inside it, just a straight up tube. Other than that, it actually takes very well to modding.
Is it possible he just gets better at accurately firing it after more shots? Hard to be objective without even using a gun rest or locking it in like Bradley Phillips
@@lastwymsi I think the barrel optimization comes down to the diameter. It seems to be larger caliber, which probably imparts less drag than the thinner barrels of older Rival blasters... thereby increasing range/accuracy. At least theoretically. Of course there's such thing as a compression barrel, which has a much thinner bore for better air seal, and thus better range/accuracy. Those are usually the best performing, with large caliber the next best. A barrel in between those it probably the least optimal.
I love the way this looks, I think it’s the best looking rival blaster. I personally prefer shorter stocks, so I think I would love this. I would probably get this and a fate with some mags and extra rounds with a stronger spring for both (if possible)
Agreed on the looks. And there’s some great add-ons that have been made to adjust the priming grip and extend the stock that keep the blaster looking awesome at the same time. The long diagonal magazine also looks great and clicks in and out realty well. Out of Darts mentioned how cool it would have been to see a flared mag well and I agree with that too, curious to see what Nerf puts out for Rival in the future. It’s my favorite ammo type.
Honestly, despite the not glowing review, this is still decidedly the blaster from the new line I'm most likely to pick up. In terms of practicality, at least in my opinion, pump action can't be beat. The rate of fire without sacrificing accuracy that can be achieved with a reliable pump action blaster can't be touched by anything with a far less ergonomic top prime, whether it's a slide, t-pull, or otherwise. Do wish it had slamfire, but that's not a dealbreaker by any means, particularly considering how rarely I use it on my current Hades anyways. On a different note, one thing I feel I've noticed across all three of these videos is that in the outdoor footage the new rounds seemed to go notably further almost every time. At least like 5~10 feet it looked like. Maybe this is contributing to the aim claims, particularly since they did have the target 30 feet away rather than 15. It's possible that while the new rounds are roughly equal at closer ranges, but lose less of their velocity over time and thus drift a bit less over time, resulting in improved accuracy at more medium ranges. This could also mean that the accuracy seen outdoors was possibly misleading, because if the new ammo curved roughly the same distance to the side but traveled a further distance, then that would mean that at the distance that the old ammo landed the new ammo wouldn't have drifted to the side as much yet, thus being more accurate. Something to keep in mind for further more expansive testing.
Magazine-fed pump grip Rival Springer with a stock, what's not to like? The stock is way too short, and worse the older magazines don't feed. Both these can be fixed we think, but honestly.
I know it's a bit late to the party but the left/right sight adjustment is windage and up/down is elevation. I'd be interested to see if your grouping could get tighter with adjustment.
The Pathfinder is by far my favorite of the three accustrike rival blasters. I just love the angle the magazine sticks out, it looks cool i also just noticed the trigger on this thing is black which is nice if you wanna paint your blaster but dont like painting the trigger to keep it smooth
Oh wow, getting some Tek Recon vibes from that general shape. bet someone's gonna paint one up in that green-and-black color scheme and try to catch folks off-guard doubt it'd work but hey neato throwback
I've heard from a few reviewers that there's feeding issues with the clear rival mags released before , if it's true then it's gonna be the biggest disappointment of this blaster .
For your testing from 30ft is to use the rival Prometheus so you can load up 200 accurival rounds in to it then fire all of them do the same process with the yellow rounds to see the spread of the two rival rounds
I skipped the Pathfinder but did pick up the Fate and Vision. I made a choice to forgo all mag fed Rival blasters and have all of the single load, internal mag and hopper blasters offered so far. I know it's a personal choice but to me it seems like if I am going to have to reload a mag then swap mags, might as well skip a step and just reload the blaster's internal mag or hopper. I do hope they come out with a Perses level hopper fed fly wheel blaster for the accurate line. But my Perses are great and I'm pretty happy with them. Got two more during a black Friday Walmart sale for $50 each! They still have them for about $76 right now. Added the Out of Darts hopper extensions and front grips and these things are near perfection for full auto Rival blasters.
As someone who’s been using this gun against my younger siblings for a year now. I love it. I have huge ands and it fits me very well and it’s incredibly accurate. I love the sights cause I could adjust them to how I hold it and if you know the gun you can easily adjust for distance. Only complaint is the lever to drop the mag cause when we get physical they can just tap that lever and I have one shot.
Theory! What if it's the pop-up causing the curves? Like holding the gun very slightly at an angle is causing the pop up to give it a different direction than head on
this is like the rival version of the 12 round spring action elite 2.0/elite/modulus guns we've been getting. its just like the retaliator/alpha trooper/ delta trooper/echo/recons (wow there's a lot of em)
I am really looking forward to the video you make with older rival blasters with the new rounds….. some of the blasters I think you should try most… - Apollo (because it was the Rival starting point) - Hera - Kronos - Jupiter (because Edge subline was supposed to be for sharp shooting, but the rounds didn’t change Then) - Artemis/Hades (doesn’t matter which) And, just for entertainment value alone… one of… - Prometheus/Nemesis/Persus….
Great group of videos on some pretty nice blasters. Gonna get my hands on the Fate and Pathfinder this weekend and see what I can do with them. Thank you.
I just got one today from my local target. I like the look, it remind of a design from black ops 3. I havent checked out the accuracy of the new balls yet, but it will be fun, i love that rival's is making a comeback!
I think something awesome would it be the first lever action rival, I think that would be awesome, am I the only one who think that? (By the way when I say first lever action rival blaster I mean one officially release by nerf)
I can’t wait to get my hands on these blasters! I wish that I would have found a Hypnos when they were available. Awesome video! Keep up the great work!
You'll have to pardon me if you've mentioned this in the past, but it seems to me that "this-new-slick-coating" could be just the ticket to make the Nerf Hyper truly what it was initially intended to be. Provided it's "glow-in-the-dark" Which is something I think you personally should champion. Obviously, 'you've' gotten Hasbro's attention. If can make you happy, hell they've made 60% of all Nerferdom happy. Speaking as a parent before I was a True Nerf Hobbyist, I think it would be great if ALL Nerf Ammo Was Glow in DamDark.! Geographically where I live in the US, if you're having a birthday party, which is understood that there's an abundant supply of Nerf, and there will be a Nerf war.! Unit ALL AMMO IS EXPENDED, OR UNTIL DARK, OR UNTIL IT STARTS POURING DOWN RAIN. There's probably a hundred various rounds of Nerf ammo in the back yard right now.
Just picked up some of these for xmas for target. The pathfinder was only $20, the vision was 12.99 and a box of 60 rounds was 9.99, all on sale. Can't wait to try them out, i got another pathfinder for myself when i found they were only $20. I plan on modding mine. Has there been any research on the power and accuracy of custom barrels for the accu-round ammo? The pathfinder has a second open barrel design, not sure if thats a safety feature or it actually helps performance? I would assume a continuous tight barrel would perform better, or perhaps one of those 'suppressors' that induce a spin on the ammo? If anyone knows what works better, I would like to experiment. I have access to 3d printing as well as a metal lathe.
At least they gave you a good magazine lol. I had no rival mags and the one that came with my Pathfinder likes spewing the balls while loading because the tab doesn't stay in place. I have some official (was gonna order offbrand but decided not to) 12 round mags coming in next week so hopefully those will work better. I did see a review on Amazon that said official mags don't work but uhh... I don't put a lot of faith in Amazon or especially Walmart reviews. Edit: got my mags today and they work perfectly in and out of it :) no more spewing blue balls out the end of a long tube on Valentine's Day 😆
It's so funny that everyone seems to pick apart every recent Nerf blaster to try and find something wrong with it. We never used to do this until 2020 I know 2020 was a rough year for Nerf, but guys... We need to stop getting mad at every little imperfection on a Nerf blaster! This is apparently what everyone thinks: Small stock = bad blaster Anything under 70 fps = bad blaster Anything a couple dollars too expensive = bad blaster Not as good as a Nexus Pro = bad blaster And guys... STOP BRINGING UP THE VILLAINATOR!!! I was wanting a Flip 32, but everyone said... You could get a Villainator for a lot cheaper! But I already had one. Yes. The Villainator is great, no question. But we need to stop recommending blasters that some people are not wanting to get. Because I'm sure most people in the Nerf community know about the Villainator already. So before you just straight up just recommend the Villainator to someone, please just ask what they're looking for, before you recommend a blaster
So if it's four times the price, has a bunch of ergo problems, doesn't shoot as far, hold as many darts, shoot as fast, but it's purple and lights up a single red LED when you fire it that's totally fine and the competition doesn't matter? That's not how reviews work. If you like something more past all the issues it has that's great but the thing doesn't exist in a bubble where nothing else matters.
@@WalcomS7 First of all I'm honored that you replied. You're one of my top favorite RU-vidrs! Obviously if a Blaster is bad, then it needs to be addressed. And yes. The Mandolorain blaster is terrible, no question. There is a limit, and Nerf has definitely crossed that limit several times. I wasn't referring to you're review, I thought it was spot on. I was referring to when people just automatically recommend a Nexus Pro, or a Villainator. When they don't even know what you're wanting, Beret covered this in one of his recent videos. I'm mainly referring to a comment I saw on this video, that was saying since the stock is not the best, that makes it a terrible blaster. Which is not necessarily the case And I personally wouldn't get this particular rival blaster myself. I am interested in the fate however. But I totally agree with you... If a blaster is bad, then people need to know about it But we also need to make sure we know about the blaster before we criticize it. For instance: The Rival Finisher was considered a bad blaster because it jammed all the time. But what people didn't realize is that if you pull the priming handle back before you put the mag in (like a Retaliator) it doesn't jam
Hi! im buying a nerf for my 12yo. options are this rival, nerf fortnite compact smg, fortnite B-AR and dinosquad rex rampage. what would you recommend? ty a lot
The little baby pistol appears to be the best performer of the trio, despite its single capacity. Honestly, none of them really appeal to me. Theres nothing really new here in terms of practicality, functionality, or even a new gimmick -- beyond maybe a different barrel. So to me, the one with the integrated mag as a side arm on a carabiner is the most interesting. But the primary class one here should be good for anyone lacking another rival primary
Another RU-vidr noted that his had troubles feeding from the older magazines due how they designed the magazine release; there’s a small gap now cause the release holds onto a stepped piece of plastic on the new one that isn’t on the older ones. Does yours have the same issue?
