The Dreadbolt is an odd entry for Nerfs 2017 Fall lineup. Until now, nearly all of the arrow blasters have been in the Rebelle line, fired almost exclusively from bows. Although the flight characteristics were not perfect, they performed well enough. They also took advantage the bow craze, which was also evident in movies like The Hunger Games. Now, however, most Rebelle blasters have been phased out, with arrow launchers largely gone.
What is the purpose of this new blaster? Is it worth it to fight against the receding waves?
(Disclaimer, this blaster was sent to me for review by Hasbro)
Plastic: A Huge Chunk Of Plastic
The Dreadbolt is large. It is incredible large. Just look at it beside the Rebelle Courage Crossbow. Its little wonder why it costs so much more than its predecessor ( compared to ). It is so large that I don’t understand why anyone would want to put a flywheel blaster in the shell. Without the bow arms, the blaster has eerily similar dimensions to a Rapidstrike. The front would be a comfortable and curvy foregrip if it didn’t have the priming handle. Alas, I dont sit in on Hasbro design team meetings.
The large stock and shell make for a comfortable platform. There is storage for five arrows directly over top of the firing mechanism. A scope is optionally available on the Dreadbolt. This is a cosmetic feature. The priming handle is a wrench-shaped lever. It operates smoothly and evenly pulls the elastic band back. The bow arms themselves are a separate piece in the packaging, and require snapping into place prior to use. As usual, there are several safety locks preventing the blaster from firing without an arrow loaded, etc.
The Dreadbolt
The elastic band powering the Dreadbolt is surprisingly strong.
A proper priming assembly is required. The lever-action helps to prime the blaster with relatively little effort it pulls two plastic hooks on either side of the assembly. Contained within the priming handle is a sort of ratcheting mechanism, preventing you from only priming the blaster part of the way. Its all or nothing once you start.
We can also see the locks that prevent Nerf arrows from being fired. One safety is directly at the mouth of the ammo slot, while another sits directly between the two catch ramps. Pulling the trigger will activate both safety by properly loaded arrows. The catch ramp assembly will swing forward when the trigger is pulled. This will launch the arrow. Easy enough to understand.
The indicator is the orange piece at its top. If youve properly loaded your arrow, it will show through a hole in the shell, similar to a priming indicator on a Longshot or Centurion. To check if your blaster is not firing, first look at the shell.
Performace
The Dreadbolt fires decently well. The blaster can reach up to 40 with level shots and 85 with angled shots in static testing. Assuming no wind, the shots are also largely accurate. Thats a characteristic of the ammo, however, not the blaster. Be aware that performance can vary depending on the ammo used. Bented arrows won’t fire nearly as well.
The performance was still disappointing for a blaster. The Courage Crossbow has a roughly 10 deficiency in comparison, but is far less expensive. This led me to look into ways to improve the ranges, whether by tightening the elastic or some other method.
That other method turned out to be 3d printing.
Due to the way the holes in both the blaster and bow arms line up, there was an opportunity to set the bow arms farther forward, as well as slightly lower. This increases the tension in the elastic, and it keeps the bow arms out of the way of the accelerating arrows. An increased launch force causes arrows to flex more, before they can achieve stable flight. Lowering the arms stops the head from hitting the ground and causes it to bounce ten feet in one direction. With the spacer that I designed, you can take angled shots up to 120 degrees with accuracy maintained. The spacer can also be removed so you don’t store the blaster with tension. The Thingiverse.stl file will be uploaded to me shortly. I’m sure other people can improve it. Its not a perfect fit, but its really darn close.
Setting The Stage For War
The Dreadbolt was much more feasible after the spacer. I tried it out at Endwar during Mission Zero (the warmup prior to main activities). It was quite effective in hitting distant targets, like boomers. The large ammo travels slower than darts, and that has to be accounted for. Reload time is another issue. Even with the easy lever priming, you need at least five seconds before you can get another shot off. Regardless, there is nothing but sheer joy when it comes to launching a large projectile, hearing it whistle, and watching it hit a target in the distance. I believe the arrows were clocked in the 80s in feet per second during Foamcon.
It has been used in both indoor and outdoor wars. It is clearly inferior to full-auto flywheel systems and dart bombers in general. Even so, large flying ammo makes everyone duck out of the way and buys time for the user, so youre not completely outclassed.
Only a small percentage
Final Thoughts
Even though the Dreadbolt’s price tag is prohibitive, it is an enjoyable blaster. Youre paying for a giant, albeit wonderfully comfortable shell. The rate of fire is abysmal compared to the vast majority of Nerf blasters The range is decent, and can be improved in creative ways. It all comes down to your preference for unusual ammo or whether you play any games that would benefit from such ammo. Even then, blasters like the Rebelle Courage Crossbow offer decent performance for a far lower price.
A blaster is only fun if you use it. It is not worth purchasing a Dreadbolt if you don’t plan on using it regularly.
