Toy Review: Nerf N-Strike Maverick

OK, I admit it: I was jealous of my cousin's 9- and 7-year-old sons. But who wouldn't be? You see, for Christmas, they each received a Nerf N-Strike Maverick. What that, you say? Why, it's a Nerf revovler. That's right: a 6-shooter that fires harmless Nerf suction-cup darts. This thing was one of the coolest kid's toys I'd seen in quite some time, so I had to go out and buy myself 1 for myself. Hey, I thought, if it's good enough for Gabe and Tycho, it's good enough for me. Actually, I purchased 3, which---I hasten to point out---is not as extravagant as it sounds; this way, Alison and I can go chica-a-mano at home, and I can still stick darts to Bob's forehead at work.

Here's a list of what I liked about the Maverick:

• It's fairly well made.
• It fires the darts surprisingly fast and far.
• It only costs about 10 bucks.
• Did I mention that it's a freakin' Nerf revolver?
  

By contrast, here's what I didn't like:

• The cylinder doesn't swing all the way out, which (a) makes loading more difficult and time-consuming and (b) just isn't maximally cool.
  

It turns out there's an easy modification* one can perform** to improve the cylinder out-swing. In fact, there seems to be an entire community of people who modify Nerf weapons for greater range or to other ends. Who knew? Anyway, I encourage any young-at-heart readers to drop a sawbuck on one of these.

Overall, I give it 9.0 out of 10.

* I hope to post a "how-to" on this mod soon.
** Yay! An excuse to use my Dremel.