Lanard Scatter Blast Grenade Review

The Lanard Scatter Blast Grenade is a truly unique toy. It's made by one of Nerf's major competitors, Lanard, who also makes the renowned Tripleshot/Shotgun, the very awesome looking Punisher Gatling Blaster and the Big Salvo rocket launcher. The thing when you're against several opponents, or you're in a cramped, indoors space with a dangerous enemy is that you want to take them down fast. You could use Magstrikes/Powerclips/etc, but the risk is that someone will get a shot off before you mow them down. With this, you could lob it, then duck into cover and listen to them cry out.

The Scatter Blast comes with 10 darts, and uses 6 at a time. This is a nice addition as it is really easy to lose darts with this thing. The darts are suction darts, and while they don't stick as well as Nerf suctions, they fly further. I've tested them in my Reflex and LSFG and they fly as far as Whistlers and Streamline darts, respectively.

The Scatter Blast, while it may seem difficult to use, is actually quite simple and very useful. Couple of notes for using it:
1) Performs best when fully loaded with 6 darts
2) Pumps up best when fully loaded
3) Safety button may not function if thrown with decent force
4) Throwing technique is essential for proper detonation and use
5) Will not pump up properly if safety is off
Otherwise, it's pretty simple. :P
More usage tips here.

The Scatter Blast performs best with (it says) around 15 pumps, but I pump it around 10-12 times as it's faster and yields similar results.

Now onto the range. There are two key factors: throwing range and blast radius. Throwing range depends on the user, and those who have played AFL/Rugby/other egg-like ball games will probably throw this with ease, as I believe it is a similar size and shape. Also, it's weighted at the front so that the detonation tip has a greater chance of being set off when thrown correctly.

The actual range of the darts is not great. Because the pump is kind of short, and it's shooting 6 darts, range is around 5m per dart, if held horizontally. However, the spray is immense. Watching the darts, they can move outwards nearly 4m when the Scatter Blast hits the ground. This vastly increases your chance of hitting people who are around corners. Also, the darts can fly 3m vertically when the Scatter Blast is dropped vertically.

Overall, the Scatter Blast is unique and brilliant. It fills one of the gaps that Nerf doesn't, and now cannot fill (copyright reasons), and performs its job brilliantly. I highly recommend this, and at $15 from Target, it's very affordable.

Do note that it fits perfectly in the holster of the Tactical Vest. Almost as if Lanard had the Vest and said "Let's make it fit this vest." Probably just a coincidence, though.

I can't rate this like a blaster, so I won't. Either way, I rate it 4.5/5 - I feel it'd do better with a higher capacity.
It's not very practical unless you have an extremely good throwing technique, because the Scatter Blast only detonates if the tip is hit.

UPDATE: I've experimented with dropping it, and extending the tail pump to full length before dropping/throwing appears to assist in keeping the tip pointing down so that it detonates. Anyone who can explain why, please post below.