One of the side effects of my previous collecting hobbies is I have a (possibly unhealthy) fascination/attraction to off-brands and imitations – particularly those that look well made. Sometimes they even are. This may be one such case.
I’ve never been able to find a solid confirmation on the company ( BuffDaddy believes it is Feng Jia) behind these designs, we mostly see them imported under what look to be holding companies or other, rather abstracted entities. Most recently we’ve seen them imported in the US as Maxx Action and World Tech Toys brands in regional and national chains. They’ve been here for a bit as demonstrated by this Lord Draconical video from August of 2016.
Packaging
If you’ve purchased this type of third party toy the box will seem familiar. It is an open cutout, showing off the contents directly while callouts and branding frame the opening. Compared to many I’ve had in the past, the translations are pretty good, though a few lines, particularly the “soft bullet gun” label we see so often are just plain awkward. This instance of the line seems to be branded as “Trailblazer Phantom” which I expect is some variation of the “Ghost Recon” style fictional military unit nicknaming. The blaster itself has no model name, just a number – FJ846.
Again we see the familiar pattern with callouts to features and inset art focusing on them. Some of the translations seem a bit off but are pretty clear. The most interesting thing here is a pair of insets labeled “Two ways to fire.” Does this blaster have slam fire?
Darts
The blaster also comes with 80 rather unusual darts. They have a soft dome with three triangular cut-outs across one axis. Additionally, these are short – about the length of classic X-Shot darts. I’ve seen these tips before, though never in a sub-elite length. The glue is kinda meh in the application ( frequently only on one half of the head and the stem) but was clean on the darts I examined. The foam was quite sturdy. And again, two full drums worth, not too shabby if they hold up.
How does it look and feel?
The blaster’s design takes the near-now sci-fi design and kicks it up into cosplay prop territory. The grip has been slightly altered so that it fits larger hands a little better than the original. Aside from that and the extra height due to the rails it is nearly the same profile. The build is sturdy. The plastics feel strong like we are accustomed to for an X-Short or a Dart Zone blaster. There isn’t a lick of paint to be seen, all colors are via plastic that is clipped, screwed, or sandwiched together – and it mostly works. There are places where it appears the assembly either needs to lean on a solvent weld or stronger clips and related joins. These are entirely on cosmetics and unlikely to cause a real issue.
Aside from the general sculpt, this blaster differs from the Turbo Advance in three ways.
The F846 has added two top and one each left and right rails to the blaster. These look a little off to be proper N-Strike rails, seeming more like the rail system we saw on the X-Shot Regenerator, particularly the side rails.
It adds a peculiar (useless?) rubber sling point on the heel of the pistol grip. I cannot fathom the intent here – it is the only sling point and while it supports the weight of the blaster I cannot help but think “how long?!”
Slamfire. Yes. Slamfire. Much like the Scravenger, this blaster adds an (orange) mechanical switch allowing it to eliminate the need for the trigger and go straight pump action.
I was able to swap drums between this and the Turbo Advance, though the Turbo advance drum did not want to rotate despite fitting, once locked into place. It appears that the sealing gasket for the switching mech is a little bit thicker than the Turbo Advance and was preventing the cylinder from rotating. The inverse worked fine.
The internals are an interesting mix of completely identical and completely different. Notice how different the priming bar and catches are, while the rotation mechanisms appear to be direct copies. The slam-fire switch work by lowering the catch so it does not engage – that’s it. There is also a small plunger tube diameter difference, roughly 4mm. That plus what feels like a weaker spring probably accounts for the difference in performance we talk about next.
Now the bad news. I fired a set of ten of the included darts and ten fresh darts from an Adventure Force Super Drum in this blaster and compared it to the same in a Turbo Advance. Both sets of darts fired in the same FPS range, averaging out at a sad 62.2, ranging from 55 to 74. The Turbo Advance ranged from 69 to 79 with an average of just under 75.
For giggles, I tossed in a few Dart Zone Waffles and averaged just over 60.
Conclusion
Until I complete a teardown, I cannot recommend this blaster unless you’re in love with the shell or really At $39.99 on Amazon, it comes in between half again the Adventure Force Super Drum reskin and a little more to the same price as the better performing X-Shot Turbo Advance.
One thing it does prove – the Turbo Advance would be an HvZ absolute beast with slamfire.