I’m a fan of Five Below.
I enjoy a good treasure hunt. Maybe it’s silly, but I have a fun time wandering in and seeing what shows up.
On my most recent trip I had a bit of luck and ran into this line. The line appears to be called, simply, Hero. It consists of four products, colored in both red and blue colors. Blasters come in the smaller Covert and Alpha model pistols, along with color coordinated 40 packs of darts. A somewhat unusual addition, over to the right, paintball style masks with an operational light.
I picked up one of each of the blasters. Here’s what I found.
 |
| Comparative sizes, Covert and Alpha |
Covert Hero
This is a small single shot pistol, about 8″ long, similar to the Exact Strike and similar pistols. It primes the top of the tail, like most in this space, and features a spring-back on the pull. The mold features three colors of plastic with the model name and “DART BLASTER” as part of the mold on the left side. The only paint is the line’s “Target Hero” logo on both sides of the slide. The plastic feels surprisingly solid for its price. It’s thick enough to not flex when squeezed, though not quite up to the level of the most recent Buzz Bee or Dart Zone releases. The mold makes this piece feel more decorated than it is. It would make for a solid prop.
On the ergo side, well, it is small. I would put this in line with most similar blasters. It isn’t uncomfortable, but my pinky falls right off the end of the handle. The prime is a little stiff, I’m unsure my seven year old could manage it. One semi-interesting feature is the included, but optional, single dart storage loop that can be attached to either side of the blaster. You can see it just in front of the zip tie in the photo above.
 |
| The Hero, Butterfly’d |
This is a troublesome blaster to open, everything internally is held in place by friction or pressure. Once opened, springs jump. The plunger is middling sized, and lubed with what looks to be petroleum jelly. It was applied very sloppily, even blocking up the air restrictor. No doubt this impacted performance.
 |
| Goopy! |
Alpha Hero
The Alpha pistol is a large single shot pistol more in line with the scale of most magazine pistols and revolvers on the market. Like the Covert, it is a top tail prime with a spring return. The Alpha forgoes paint and instead has stickers for both the branding and the model label. “DART BLASTER” and “AMMO” are molded on the left side. Aside from that step down, it is a similarly attractive pistol. The mold deco does a lot to make up for the lack of paint.
 |
| Alpha Hero, Butterfly’d |
Internally, they are nearly identical, including what a problem they are to open. The Alpha’s plunger was much cleaner than the Covert’s leaving me to wonder which was the anomaly.
The Darts
The Darts are your bog standard Elite-alikes. In my barely scientific testing I found the performance was in line with the elites I shot as a comparison. For variety, I tested with the Covert’s darts, Buzz Bee Precise Pros, Buzz Buzz Bee Long Distance, and Glowstrike Elites from the Covert, a Tactical Storm, and an Eradicator. I lost light before running the Alpha and will update when that comes through. The Covert averaged between 25 and 32 feet with all but the Long Distance darts, which were roughly ten feet longer. Comparatively, the Tactical Storm and Eradicator averaged about twice that.
Summary
These are solid looking, if low performing pistols. For $4 and $5 respectively, there isn’t much outside of a Buzz Bee clearance that can compete. The darts line up well enough with Elite performance and at half the price of most brands, as good as you’ll see on the shelf.
Do you have these? What do you think?
