Monday 20 May 2013

Slydev 4cm Nerf Rail, Nerf Rail Blank, Rail to Rail Connector Review

Yet another Slydev review, this time on some more general Tac Rail related pieces.


4cm Nerf Rail
This simple and cheap Slydev product is a 4cm long piece of plastic in the shape of a Nerf tac rail. It's extremely light, but very tough as you'd expect from Slydev.



Nerf accessories fit perfectly fine on Slydev rails. The little notches cut into the middle of the rail fit the little 'teeth' on each Nerf accessory which allows them to attach firmly and securely. The notches cut into the sides of the rails allow the use of Slydev accessories extremely tightly and securely, much more so than Nerf accessories.
 3 of the 4cm Nerf rails can be put together to form a 12cm rail very easily, as they are all identical and symmetrical along 2 axes.
Here you can see the orange compared to the Nerf orange. IMO it's a 'pumpkin' orange rather than a Nerf bright orange, but it still matches fine with Nerf orange.
I really don't know what to say about the 4cm Nerf rails. They work, and work well. For $3 AUD + $1 AUD postage per rail, it's much cheaper than getting a blaster to slice a rail off.

Nerf Rail Blank


The Nerf Rail Blank is a device designed to secure any object it is attached to to a Nerf rail. It uses the traditional Slydev protrusion-in-a-gap system which holds it very, very securely onto a Nerf rail by two screws.




The Rail Blank is around 5cm long, and has a single protrusion in the middle to fit into rails. This presents problems in blasters such as the Stampede's side rails, which have blocks in the middle of their rails to hold attachments more securely. Such rails are incompatible with the Nerf Rail Blank because of the design of the Rail Blank. While at first this seems rather annoying, considering the Rail Blank is only useful to modders, it's extremely easy to just saw or sand off the small blocks on the rails to allow the Rail Blank to fit.

The Rail Blank can be attached to almost anything, provided it can be suitably attached. Epoxy is the recommended method, but a combination of hot glue and screws also works well.

 Here the Rail Blank is attached to a Retaliator barrel, just past mid way. It's extremely secure and barely wobbles around. Trying to remove it with brute force just results in a sore hand.
Here the Rail Blank is attached to my tank expanded Secret Strike, to turn it into a tac rail attachment. It uses hot glue and two screws to make the connection incredibly secure. I can hold my Elite Alpha with one hand, and pump the Secret Strike with the other, with no fear of breaking anything.

There's not much else to say about the Rail Blank either. If you're looking for a way to attach custom made accessories and want them secure, the Rail Blank is the way to go. At $4 AUD + $1 AUD postage, the Rail Blank is cheaper than buying a Recon to cull for the attachment pieces, and much more stable than any attachment Nerf has made.

Nerf Rail to Rail Connector
Possibly the most interesting piece in this review, the Rail to Rail Connector. The Rail to Rail Connector is a piece which allows connecting two tac rails together opposite one another, using the same usual Slydev connection system.
The Rail to Rail Connector uses screws, as with all other Slydev pieces, which allows for secure attaching of rails. Like the Rail Blank, the Rail to Rail Connector has limited use on rails with blocks in the gaps.

The Rail to Rail Connector can be used for various combos, from the sensible (Stryfe-Scout) to the completely ridiculous (Stampede-Stampede). It should be noted, however, that even the Stampede-Stampede connection is reasonably secure, and although there is noticeable bending from the weight of the Stampedes, you can hold both Stampedes up by just holding one of them up.
Like the other pieces, there's not much to say about the Rail to Rail Connector either. It does its job properly, holding to rails together securely and easily. It allows for some easy psuedo-integrations, ideal for when you're not sure whether to complete an integration of not. It's also fun to tool around with on all sorts of blasters, like attaching a Stryfe to an Elite Alpha.

If you're looking to attach blasters to other blasters without using glue, zipties, screws etc, the Slydev Rail to Rail Connector is an easy way to do it, and reasonably cheap at $5 AUD + $5 AUD postage.

In summary, a bunch of simple and effective rail related Slydev attachments. If you're looking for rail-related tacticool, Slydev is the place to go.

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