Overview
As I mentioned in the Quantum review, it has been a really good year for Prime Time Toys’ Dart Zone line. In the dart space, we’ve seen the Dart Storm, the Light Command, the Titan, and perhaps most interesting – the Commandfire. It is fair to note that the Light Comand and Dart Storm were fourth quarter releases last year and the Titan is essentially a reshelled Light Command less the light effects. The Commandfire, however, is both a new release and arguably a new platform.
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| Aside from screw ports and the rev trigger, both sides are the same. |
This blaster is exclusively available as part of the Wal-Mart vanity line, Adventure Force. This line has been treating us well the last couple of years, allowing a number of surprisingly solid blasters to come to the market at really nice price points. Blasters in this line are usually manufactured by our favorite second-tier companies; Buzz Bee, Zuru, and Dart Zone. While most of these are recolors of existing products, a few have been unique reshells or even first releases of new designs. The Commandfire is in this last category.
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| A view from the top. |
Sporting a $39.99 price tag, this blaster features a boxy, if Kirby inspired, minigun form factor. It is middle-sized, coming in at just under two feet long, 9 inches tall and 4 inches wide at its thickest point. The front third of the blaster has what appears to be two barrels. The lower being the actual barrel and the upper being a roll-top dart storage container, capable of holding 40 Sure Strike darts. Below the barrel is a foregrip best suited for smaller fingers. The grip is comfortably sized and more than accommodates an average adult hand but is not so large that the young end of the promoted age range will have issues with the blaster. The trigger is smooth and has a solid return spring. The one negative I have with the design is it carries over the rev switch common in Dart Zone’s belt blasters. A rev trigger seems more appropriate for this design. Also worth noting is the blaster comes with 80 of Dart Zone’s new Sure Shot darts.
The unique feature to this blaster is that it is hopper fed. The hopper opens with a two-part hinge, allowing both the top to flip back completely and the back wall of the hopper to pivot back about 45 degrees. This pivot point helps tamp the darts into place for proper firing when closed. The hopper lid also contains a light descending platform that helps gently push the darts down as the blaster fires. This helps with crushing the darts like a spring load might. Darts feed into the flywheels assisted by a pair of angled flappers at the bottom of the hopper which in turn drops the dart onto a slightly toothed belt and ultimately struck by the pusher arm into the flywheels.
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| Hopper fully open, side view. |
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| Hopper fully open, top view with darts in tamped position. |
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| Gravity Tamper, fully extended. |
The firing mechanism is effective. Through the course of several hopper-loads, I had no jams, and only the occasional skip-fire, perhaps one in ten to twelve. I only encountered one double-skip. Beyond patience, the blaster required no intervention to completely fire the full hopper load. I had no jams or leftover ammunition in the bin. There are reports that some ammunition types do not work well, or at all in this hopper. I hope to follow up with an evaluation later.
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| Minimal crush, no concavity. |
Conclusion
Don’t Take my word for it, see this other reviews.
Walcom S7’s giddy video review
Gizmondo’s Review of the Commandfire and Quantum
Lord Draconical’s Video review