It's hard to pin down exactly when Nerf started going for broke with its gun designs, but it may have been around this time last year when the Vulcan was released. That gun featured a 25-dart, belt-fed design that handled both full-auto and single-shot firing, but it also had some issues with jamming and was a little too heavy for child-sized warfare. This year, Nerf went back to the drawing board for the Stampede, and the $50 package features several steps in the right direction.

From office warfare to friendly dart battles in the backyard, this is a great addition to the arsenal.

This is an entire package

The newer Nerf weapons feature a modular design, so the scopes, flashlights, and magazines from different blasters all work with each other. The Stampede comes with three extended capacity magazines that each hold 18 darts, as well as one standard-sized magazine that holds six darts. It also comes with 60 darts, enough to fill them all to capacity. Those extended magazines will also work with the Deploy, the Longstrike, and the Recon. If you own the Raider Rapid-Fire, that gun's 35-dart magazine will also work with the Stampede.

The Stampede ships with a riot shield attachment, and that can also be fitted on any of the existing N-Force line. A gray plastic handle can be attached to the tactical rail on the bottom of the Stampede, and by pressing a button, you can deploy two spring-loaded legs from the bottom of the accessory to turn the handle into a bipod so you can drop to your stomach and lay down some nice covering fire one-handed.

Range is good, with 25-35 feet per dart depending on the wind, and the gun jams far less often than the Vulcan. Jams that do occur are easy to clear by opening the sliding door to remove darts from the breech. The gun fires around two to three darts per second, giving you some time to aim each shot. Expect to blow through clips very quickly while firing in full automatic mode, although you can also pump the trigger to fire one dart at a time.

The problem is that this gun is completely reliant on the batteries. You could manually cock the firing mechanism on the Vulcan by working the slide and firing the darts one at a time, but if the batteries in your Stampede die, you are completely helpless. Of course, if you're not carrying two Mavericks in addition to your larger weaponry, you're already asking for it; a smaller blaster is a necessary accessory to any fully automatic Nerf weapon.

Common sense here, people.

Early on in my time with the gun I tried to tape the magazines together, alternating up and down to create a 54-round mega-magazine, but the tactical rail on the side of the gun kept it from sliding in cleanly. It's possible to create one über-magazine, but you'll need to place something between each magazine to space them out. The ability to dry a magazine and then have the next one ready to go is going to be a nice advantage on the field of battle. Take advantage of it.

For $50 this is a helluva gun, but purists may be put off by the reliance on the batteries and modding challenge. The inclusion of multiple, larger magazines and the piles of darts included go a long way toward creating value with the package. You'll be able to find the Stampede on store shelves come September 9.