Sorry, but I couldn’t think of a better name for it. Anyway, a slapdash guide can be found here with slightly-mushed photos.

When Mattel released their BOOMco line, we were intrigued by their reported power. Of course, as they fired their own proprietary darts, they were kinda “useless” to us. Not to be dissuaded, a few members of the community (WalcomS7 and justusUMBC on reddit, in particular) came to an awesome realization: when you take the AR system and barrels from a Rebelle Messenger and slap them on a BOOMco Whipblast, you make something downright awesome. We here at Derp Mods agree, and Derp One has made his own. This following guide will show you how relatively easy it is to make one of these bad boys for yourself in just a couple of hours (give or take).

Is it not glorious? Are you not excited? I know I am just looking at it. It’s a bit rough but definitely works quite well, so let’s show you how to make one for yourself, shall we?

For this project, all you’ll really need to work on these blasters is:

A rotary tool with some grinding bits, maybe a cutting bit.

A hot knife (optional, if you don’t want to use the cutting bit).

A hot glue gun (or glue/epoxy of your choosing).

Electrical tape.

Tubing, PVC, or some other “branching” material (you’ll see what we mean).

A screwdriver or two.

SECTION ONE: The Messenger

All you really need to do with the Messenger is open it up and yank out the AR and barrel assembly. As there are only a small handful of screws in your way of a well-designed modular system, this couldn’t be easier. Unscrew, remove parts, put the rest aside wherever you please.

As a small note, the “whipping” function of the completed product sometimes made my Elite Streamlines slide out of the barrels. As such, I brassed them with about 1.75 inches of 17/32” brass. You could probably get away with 1.6 inches for the lower barrel as it’s a bit shorter by design, but really the lengths are up to you.

Note that these measurements do not go all the way back. They leave ample room for the AR units to slide, and as such they squeeze the darts ever so slightly at their end points. Be ready for a bit of dimpling and wear from prolonged use or storage.

Anyway, that’s really all you need from the Messenger. Let’s move on.

SECTION TWO: The Whipblast

Working on the Whipblast itself is a bit more complicated, but not too bad. It’s a bit of a “clockwork nightmare” with how finicky the gear placements can be, but that’s easily addressed and accounted for now. First, though, you must open it. To do so, remove the screws only on the red plastic shell. The grip is its own unit, so you don’t need to unscrew it at all.

Note that the “target flap”, when moved, slightly changes internal mechanism placements. When you actually go to open the blaster, return it to its “down” position. However, lifting the flap is necessary for removing some screws.

Once you have it open, take note of the gear placement. There’s an annoying little “tooth” that plunges down for priming and firing, but it must be in the “up” position when at rest or your blaster will not ratchet. I learned that the hard way, through trial and error. The problem area has been circled for your convenience.

Now it’s time to say goodbye to the BOOMco barrel and dart holders. Note that from here on, your Whipblast will never be able to fire BOOMco darts easily again. If your desire is for something that can fire both, can’t help you there. Apologies.

Go ahead and yank out the black muzzle/dart holder, the black cones (two in this side of the shell, one in the other), the white…lock assembly?..and the barrel. Cast them aside. They are now dead entrails of a forgotten blaster.

Once they are removed, you’ll want to cut away the areas of the shell marked in green squares as best as you can, and try and grind the resulting area as smooth and flush as possible. Keep the peg (yellow circle) intact, as your AR assembly will basically rest against it. The blue-lined areas are what I had to shave down for my particular coupling method. Keep in mind the tops of the curved barrel supports should be intact, as this will help prevent upward wobble.

Once you’re happy with your cut-out area, it’s time to jam the Messenger assembly in and couple it up with the Whipblast’s already-impressive plunger. I wanted mine reversible, so as you can see all I did was use a bit of tubing from the TriadStrike project, securing it with hot glue around the plunger opening and then using electrical tape to marry it to the Messenger’s AR. That way, I can easily just take off the tape and restore my Messenger if I so desire.

After that, everything should be able to be closed up. Don’t worry about securing the Messenger AR any further, as the shell holds it pretty snuggly. It actually held ours a bit cock-eyed, so some simple shimming with thin bits of plastic was employed to straighten the barrels. Not pretty, but effective.

Cosmetically, it’s really down to your choice on this one. I like the original color scheme, so I’m keeping it. However, I did make one minor improvement….



ALL HAIL THE GOOGLY EYES!

Whimsy aside, performance is slightly higher than that of a stock Messenger, surprisingly. I can’t tell you how it compares to a stock Whipblast, as I immediately hacked away on the project the moment I got it home. Expect a much more powerful “Messenger,” however, and if your results are like mine you should be getting about 10 more feet of range or so. Less accuracy, but hey, this thing is pure whimsy. I’d call it a success.

Thanks for reading, and happy tinkering.