Buzz Bee Toys is putting a lot of faith in their Steady Stream blasters for this season. No less than four are listed on their website at the moment, and three of those are new models this year. The Adventure Force Poseidon is the largest and most widely available, but it’s only available at Walmart. Although it doesn’t produce a lot of water, this blaster can fire for a very long time if the user keeps pumping. Its a bit large for small kids, but older ones and adults should find it satisfying to use in combat, especially compared to other pump and spray models.
Under Pressure
Buzz Bee has had a unique patent on their hands since 2007. The patent consists in a spring-loaded piston being placed behind the blasternozzle. It does not have a trigger valve. When the user pumps water into the piston, it in turn pushes the water out the nozzle. The chamber can be filled faster than it can empty so users can pump fast to add more water into the chamber and compress the spring further for consistent long-range shots. The chamber serves as a buffer and keeps the shot flowing between pumps.
As you can see, the mechanism itself is very simple. You only need two check valves for the pump, one to drain the reservoir and the other to push it into the chamber.
The spring behind the piston is quite beefy, a necessity for applying force to water via a large piston face. Its also strong enough that, even when pumping with reckless abandon, most users wont fully compress it.
The Rest Of The Blaster
The Poseidon blaster is approximately 79 cm long. The blaster design favors a long, narrow reservoir, instead of a more bulbous design. This makes the blaster somewhat unwieldy for smaller users; for the rest of us, though, its quite well balanced. The pump grip is large and easy to use. It also has smooth movement. Although the main handle is large enough to fit larger hands, these angles can result in pinching your index and thumb on the webbing if you choke on it. Buzz Bee has made improvements in making the blaster handles larger, but there are still issues.
The reservoir is said to hold 90 fl.oz water. It appears to be exactly that. Since the reservoir is not pressurized, its sealed off with just a snap-on cap.
The nozzle itself is tiny, but is surrounded by a large orange muzzle piece.
Overall, the blaster is quite pleasing to look at. Granted, Buzz Bees designs are usually quite simpler than that of Hasbro, but thats a plus in the realm of water blasters. Its a seasonal item that just needs to do its job, and if it happens to look nice, its a bonus.
Performance
Poseidons pumps move approximately 17mL of water from the reservoir to its piston chamber each pump. Compared to the 90 fl.oz of capacity (nearly 2700mL), that means you can pump for aLONGIt takes a while before you run out of water. You can also compress the spring quickly with rapid pumping to get it as far as you want before water exits as fast as possible.
The stream that comes out of the water may not be very large in diameter but it is consistent. Insanely consistent. Its possible to arc the stream of water the entire 11.6m range (as claimed on the box) without the stream losing cohesion. This blaster is a great choice if you are looking for a blaster which can just arc water behind cover.
Of course, since its still a blaster that relies on repeated pumping, accuracy will vary. Although it will improve with practice, it is not designed for shouldering unless your arms are long.
