Overview
For today’s entry, we are going to take a look at the newly released Adventure Force Tactical Strike Titanium HIR blaster ( Titanium for short ) and do a little comparison between it and its kissing cousin, the Ballistix Powerball.
The Powerball was released in
blue last year as a Target exclusive in the US and as Adventure Force blasters for Walmart Canada in
blue and Adventure Force
green as the Tactical Strike. I have seen reports that the Target and Walmart blues are different shades, but the websites pictures make them appear the same. It was the first entry by Prime Time toys into a section of the market established and occupied almost entirely by Nerf Rival products. The general buzz was impressed, particularly when you took into account the blaster’s ability to use a hopper feed or a Rival stick mag and a price point nearly a third under the entry level Rival blaster. All in all, a solid springer.
The Titanium is one of two new Prime Time Toys entries in the HIR space, again produced exclusively for Walmart’s Adventure Force line. You can see a discussion on the Accelerator, the other new blaster,
here.
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| front of the box |
The Titanium is a spring powered, hopper fed, HIR blaster sporting a horizontal pump grip and a hand-guard grip. Like the Accelerator, it features removable plates for indicating the player’s team in red, blue, and Adventure Force green. The sculpt gives it a Space Opera feel compared to Rivals Near-Now SF styling. It wouldn’t have been too out of place as a prop on The Fifth Element or Babylon 5. The shell is made of three different colors of plastic with no apparent solvent weld. Both grips and the Tactical Strike branding clip-on plate are cast in medium grey, the bulk of the shell Adventure Force green, and the trigger, safety, hopper release, and nose of the blaster in safety orange. As with other recent releases, the plastics used feel thicker and sturdier than non-Nerf branded releases of the past. I’m not too keen on the green in general but it isn’t a horrible look as a whole and thanks to the construction, should be an easy paint for those so inclined.
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| back of the box |
Packaging is an open-faced boxed, tied down with three decently solid zip ties. Included are the blaster, the small capacity hopper, a short instruction sheet, and 8 Tactical Strike HIR rounds. Extraction and assembly are pretty straightforward.
Teardown
The Titanium butterflies easily, having no solvent weld. Both the pump and pistol grip are easily separable and can be done without opening the blaster core, giving a customization opportunity to those less inclined to open up a blaster once alternate parts become available.
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| The pistol grip pegs into the blaster core and only screws into itself. |
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| The pump grip pegs into the pump slide and only screws into itself. |
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| blaster core butterflied. |
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| spring shown vs pump grip. Oh, Captain Xavier! |
The internals of this blaster float, nearly everything is held in place by either other parts or structural supports in the blaster shell. The only exceptions being the trigger and plunger release. As such, disassembly and reassembly is very easy. The mechanics are simple. On pull-back, the spring is compressed, also pulling back the housing over the chamber so a round can fall into position. On pull-forward the chamber closes back over the round.
There are three major differences between the Powerball and the Titanium internals. The first, the upper lock mechanism is a little more complicated due to the smaller shell in the Powerball. The Powerball has a multistep lock allowing players with a little less strength to prime it in multiple pulls. The Titanium lacks this, requiring you to prime it in a single pull. The second, the springs are not the same. The Powerball spring feels a lot stiffer, but I lack the equipment to verify that.
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| Titanium above, Powerball below |
Lastly, the launching mechanism is different. Take a look.
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| The Powerball uses air, with a minimal restrictor to launch the round. as seen from the front. |
The Titanium uses and air-powered plunger to push the ball out. Notice the white plate at the front of the plunger tube. That is attached through the center of the restrictor by a pin with a quarter inch diameter head which is what strikes and launches the HIR round.
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| “pushee” end of the air plunger. |
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| striker end of air plunger |
Based on my disassembly, it looks to be possible to swap everything up to the shroud housing with almost no effort, but I am dubious how primable the Powerball internals would be in the Titanium.
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| Also worth noting, the Powerball plunger head is a padded. |
There also appears to have been a small redesign in the hopper. Towards the front, there are a couple of reinforcement pegs between the two halves of the hopper shell.
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| Powerball left, Titanium right |
Lastly, if you’re wondering, you can’t *quite* swap the pump grips without modification.
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| a few seconds with tin snips would fix this. |
Conclusion
The Titanium is a nice follow-up to the Ballistix Powerball. It provides an excellent alternative to the Atlas, Apollo, and Helios at a lower price. It is a lighter prime than the Powerball but seems to provide roughly the same performance. It is an excellent first, backup, or loaner blaster.
Other Reviews
More as they come available.
