It had to happen - the fully-automatic Nerf Rival Blaster. Having bought and enjoyed (and reviewed) the Apollo and Zeus last year I've been waiting for the next generation of Rival blasters, and this doesn't disappoint.



The Khaos holds 40 rounds, so the magazine is BIG, as is the whole blaster. 40 rounds also takes a little practise to load, but the system works well. There are 4 10-round tubes with a lock-down spring and a flip top lid. Flip the top, lock down the springs, and you can drop rounds in quickly, as quick as reloading the 12 round magazine for the other blasters. It's easier to insert and drop the magazine than with the Zeus, more like a real magazine-fed rifle.



Once the magazine is in and you pull the power trigger (with your middle finger) the motor goes into action, and by pulling the main trigger (index finger) you can unleash a steady spray of balls until the magazine is empty - i.e. fully-automatic. You can release single shots or bursts too, and that's really how you'll want to use it unless you want to spend more time reloading than shooting. The magazine feeds to a pair of flywheels with a conveyor belt, pulling rounds from the rearmost tube first. There is a jam release door on the right side of the body in case you manage to jam it.



The battery compartment works well, is easy to load and secure (you need a cross-point screwdriver), and the blaster is well balanced. It is noisy though, as with all battery & flywheel blasters. It's big too, I'm 5'10" and this blaster fits me very comfortably. I wouldn't recommend it for a child younger than 14. That said there are similar larger blasters for normal and Mega Nerf darts, so this is not breaking new ground.



The flip up sights are nice, but as always for me they're more for show than serious use, you're better off aiming from fall of shot, especially if you're going full-auto.



I hope Nerf release a spare magazine pack soon, I'd want a couple of pre-loaded magazines with me in any serious Nerf battle, and I'd feel better letting this baby rip if I could reload in seconds rather than minutes.



Addendum: I've had this a couple of weeks now, and also got the red version. Both seem to drag the balls to the left, not a huge problem if you're aiming by fall of shot, but it does make the sights useless. The blue one now shows a very noticeable drop off in power after the first shot; the batteries may not have been brand new when I started, but I haven't fired a full magazine more than ten times. Battery life is certainly something to be aware of, especially if you're going to go full-auto a lot.



I also realized that there are no attachment points for a sling, which is a serious oversight. It's a heavy gun, and anything to relieve the weight or allow you to use a secondary weapon would be helpful. This isn't enough to lose a star rating, but just suggests they didn't fully road-test the blaster. Maybe next year's Rival blasters will finally have all the desired features incorporated in one unit.