Spinning barrels are always an enticing feature of blasters. Regardless of how impractical they are, theyre just plain cool. The Buzz Bee Ultra-Tek Cyclonic promised spinning barrels and full-auto flywheeling. This, we see with the Ultra-Tek Brute shows, is something that the company can do fairly well. The Cyclonic was a Cyclonic that I received with the hopes it could be used, as the Brute, as a full-auto budget flywheeler.
Everything in the Cyclonic package.
Disclaimer This blaster was sent to me by Buzz Bee Toys for review. They are very kind and I thank them. It will not affect the review in anyway.
The CyclonicBox
Front of the box.
The back of the box.
The same box design. Cable ties that hold in any large object, and the darts in a plastic tray.
The Cyclonic Design
Left side of blaster
Right side.
Go down to the top.
The bottom.
The Buzz Bee Cyclonic is quite a big and bulky blaster. Its very chunky to support the spinning barrel, yet has no stock or rear weight to balance it.
It feels a little clumsy to handle compared to most other blasters.
Close-up of the „fiesta” texturing.
Looking at the other texture pattern.
The Cyclonic has Buzz Bees fiesta shell shell detail on many of its side faces. There is also diagonal hatching in some areas. This hatching may be indicative of what well be seeing soon with the carbon fibre texture weve been told will be used on newer waves.
Closeup of the battery tray cover
Exposed battery tray. This is the battery tray.
The Cyclonic is powered by 4 AAs, which are stored in a tray at the back of the blaster. These AAs are not sufficient for this type of blaster and its power requirements. Ill discuss more in Performance.
Close up of the spinning barrel.
Looking at the barrel’s front.
Spinning barrel in action
Close up of the handle.
Handle with care
Trigger partially pulled.
Trigger completely pulled.
The Cyclonics handle, unlike the rest of blaster’s, is quite small and thin. Although it is well-designed, it lacks bulk and has good curvature.
Even compared to semi-auto Nerf flywheelers, the Cyclonic’s trigger pull is quite long. This is because the Cyclonic has a dual-stage trigger system. Nerfs flywheelers only have a single rev trigger. The first half of the trigger pull spins up the flywheels, and powers the spinning barrel and its lights. The pusher is powered by a full trigger pull. I have never seen a trigger pull that is as stiff as I’ve ever encountered. It’s far more powerful than any Nerfs semiauto flywheelers or any other blaster I’ve used. The return spring is strong, but perhaps not necessary.
Close up of the magwell.
Looking into the magwell.
Try to reach for the mag release.
Loaded with Nerf 18 mag.
A Nerf 25 drum.
The Cyclonic is another of Buzz Bees mag fed blasters. It can be used with any Nerfs clip (mag), system. It fits most mags very loosely and some mags have a bit more room. There is a single electrical safety that disables the flywheels and pusher if a mag is not inserted. However, the spinning barrel will still light-up and spin but it is a „try me“ feature. In fact, the Cyclonic actually includes 4 AAs in box.
The mag release is the same as other Ultra-Tek blasters: a small cylindrical button that releases when pushed up. It was a little too far for me to reach with my middle finger. I would prefer a more traditional one, such as the Stryfe/Rapidstrike/etc, or a lever.
Next to Stryfe.
The Cyclonic is not an especially large blaster, particularlycompared to beastslike the Mastodon. It is, however, a large stockless blaster.
The Buzz Bee 20 Dart Mag
Buzz Bee 20 mag beside a Nerf18 mag.
Loaded in a Stryfe, Nerf 18 mag for comparison.
In a Hyperfire.
A Buzz Bee 20 dart magazine is included with the Cyclonic. It was seen previously with Buzz Bees Ultra Tek Brute, but was also released in its own retail package earlier. In many ways, it is directly comparable to Nerfs 18 dart clip since they have a similar capacity and size, and are both available separately. The 20 dart mag works well with the Nerfs clip (mag), system, just like Buzz Bees 8 dart magazine. There are certain blasters in which it is very tight (such as the Rapidstrike and Rayven), but for most Nerf blasters (such as the Stryfe and Hyperfire pictured), the Buzz Bee 20 mag fits just fine. This mag is a great replacement for the Nerf 18-round mag and holds 2 extra darts.
The Completely Assembled Cyclonic
All loaded.
Heres the Cyclonic loaded up with the Buzz Bee 20 dart mag. The Cyclonic is a strangely proportioned blaster. On the one hand, its large spinning barrel and bulk make it a heavy weapon. It doesn’t have a stock or a good fore-end grip. Its a little awkward to handle, with significant front-end weight and bulk, and no stock or rear weight to balance it.
Cyclonic Performance
FPS shot.
Is the (EU Cyclonic) Cyclonic up to its Ultra Tek brethren in performance? Range is rather disappointing, at around 8-10 metres with Ultra-Tek darts.
It doesnt lose much, if any, range in rapid fire however, which is at least an advantage over most Nerf flywheelers.
Although accuracy is good, it is not possible to destabilise darts with the Cyclonic. You would probably see similar accuracy at higher flywheel speeds to that of other flywheelers such as the Nerf Stryfe.
The rate of fire is also very disappointing. I saw between 1.5 and 2 darts per second using AAs, depending on the voltage of the batteries. The Buzz Bee Cyclonic’s performance is heavily dependent on having good AAs. Initially, I tried it with a set of rechargeables at ~1.1V each, and it struggled to cycle through any darts unless the mag was half empty. I switched to a set of relatively new non-rechargeables (~1.3V) and it performed much better, but still showed signs of struggling.
The Cyclonic is a great example of why typical C/D/etc and AA cells should not be used in a high-level flywheeler. These cells are not able to supply enough power for a basic semi-auto flywheeler with only 2 motors. This causes poor torque and long spool up. The Cyclonic has a total of 4 motors and 2 (relatively low power) LEDs. It pulls far more current than a semi-auto. This is evident when you use it. After the barrel and flywheels spin at maximum speed, the pusher starts to decelerate the engines significantly. They accelerate back up to speed very slowly. The pusher is also slower at actually feeding darts when the mag is empty.
Something else to note is that I actually had to do a bit of fixing on my Cyclonic. When I first got it out of box, it was constantly misfiring.
One of the flywheels seemed slower than the other. After determining the cause, I opened the motor to find it. The motor’s brushes were coated in a grey paste, which added friction to the commutator and slowed it down. After removing the paste, the motor quickly picked up speed and the blaster stopped misfiring.
Role In Gameplay
The (EU) Cyclonic is not a great choice for any role, considering its overall performance. One advantage is that the flywheels spin up faster than standard stock (grey trigger), Nerf flywheels. The flywheels reach full speed in less than a second, where most (grey trigger) Nerf flywheels still have a ways to go to reach top speed. This lets you get good shots off much faster with the Cyclonic than most other flywheelers. It doesn’t really stand out from the rest of the pack. Many blasters can match or exceed its range and ROF. Unless you absolutely must have a full-auto mag fed flywheeler on a low budget, theres nothing really that the (EU) Cyclonic does particularly well.
Summary And Value
The Buzz Bee Cyclonic’s RRP is 20USD. This is comparable to the Stryfes RRP. The least youd be looking at for one of Nerfs full auto flywheelers is 30USD (RRP). The Cyclonic is a much better blaster than the US spec. (And if it’s comparable to the other UltraTek blasters, it will be). However the (EU) Cyclonic is just not that great a blaster and therefore doesnt represent exceptional value. Theres no doubt its still fun, as everyone loves spinning barrels, but it could easily have been substantially better without them(see the Buzz Bee Brute, for instance).
Modification Potential
Overall, internals are great.
Closeup of the internals of the rotating, lit up barrel.
Looking at the flywheels.
Closeup of the pusher mechanism.
Most internals of Buzz Bee Cyclonics are fairly ordinary. The spinning barrel mech is pretty much what youd expect. The 130 motor drives the gear train, which in turn drives the spinning barrels. The motor is wired parallel to the LEDs. Mounting the flywheel motors on a plate is done by screwing it into place. The flywheels are toothed in typical Buzz Bee fashion. The trigger pushes against two tab switches, which power the flywheels and barrel, and pusher respectively.
Its worth noting that the Cyclonics flywheel cage has a much larger flywheel gap than usual. This allows it to apply less friction to darts fed through. Because flywheel velocity is determined primarily by friction, the Cyclonic has a lower flywheel velocity ceiling that Nerf flywheelers. This issue can be fixed by altering the cage, but it is worth noting.
The pusher mech is rather different. Although it cycles as normal while the trigger is held, when the trigger is released, the pusher is automatically mechanically retracted. This contrasts with Nerf Rapidstrike’s trigger interaction only electrically. Cyclonic mechs have two main advantages: the inability to pusher runaway and the guarantee that the pusher will return. Its main disadvantages are the inability to complete a partial cycle if the trigger is released early, as well asthe painfully long trigger pull.
A link to the same review can be found on my blog, Outback Nerf.
