Nerf Rebelle Sweet Revenge Review (20m Aus grey trigger)

This will be a review of the Rebelle Sweet Revenge (Kit), formerly known as the Wildshot. Along with its brother the Hammershot, the Sweet Revenge (SR) is a hammer action revolver that was highly anticipated since its unveiling. So just how good is this new revolver?

NOTE: Since the Sweet Revenge and Hammershot are effectively the same blaster, this review can apply in most respects to the Hammershot as well.

The Sweet Revenge comes in a semi-open box with a large portion of the blaster exposed, but everything else is concealed within the box.

A really bad shot of the side of the box, with a picture of a Rebelle girl with all sorts of Rebelle stuff. Also the Rebelle paragraph full of stuff I didn't bother reading.

Back of the box, pretty standard stuff.

The box all opened, pretty standard for an open box.

Comes with a manual, but really you don't need one for the Sweet Revenge.

All of the stuff that comes with the Sweet Revenge - the blaster, its 5 teal non-deco Rebelle darts with J. code, the blaster's holster and a set of Rebelle Vision Gear. Looking at this, it makes sense why the Sweet Revenge costs more than the Hammershot, and why it costs so much more than a standard revolver like the Strongarm.

The Rebelle Vision Gear included is pretty much just a white and pink version of the DT Vision Gear that came with the Furyfire. It's sturdy and (supposedly) blocks out UV-A and B, but for the most part will be too small and uncomfortable for people older than about 14 years.

The Rebelle designs on the side of the Vision Gear. Nothing particularly new or special about it.

Here's the Sweet Revenge in all its curved glory. The orange part helps to ensure a good turret-plunger seal, alongside a moving plunger tube and a thin piece of foam. There is a little turret play though, meaning that some shots can have a bad seal and thus a bad shot. It doesn't happen frequently but it does happen enough to be a problem worth writing about.

The back of the blaster. Here you can see the few ribs in the back of the handle, which really don't contribute to the feel of the blaster. You can see how short the vertical pull of the hammer is, as well as how little the SR bulges out with the turret in comparison to a say a Maverick.

A view from above behind, whre you can see the full extent of the SR's hammer draw as well as the SR's smooth pink tac rail. Also from up here you can see how smoothly and slowly the SR bulges for the turret, which is in stark contrast to for example the Maverick's or Strongarm's spherical protrusion. The small piece at the front of the blaster makes up a tiny iron sight.

Here's the front of the blaster. Pretty ordinary stuff for modern revolvers, but you can't see the single  AR on the plunger tube and the empty dart pegs in the turret. You can see how the orange turret support keeps the turret against the plunger securely and tightly for a good seal.

The turret rotates on prime, clockwise from the perspective of the user. The one dart loaded here is rotated upon prime into the top barrel space, which is then fired.

Close up of the handle section and trigger. Note the unusual curved sticking out trigger guard.

Here is the trigger depressed. This demonstrates how the trigger pivots on an axle, rather than the usual push in triggers that you find on most other blasters. You don't have to pull the trigger this far for the blaster to fire. The trigger is in fact the catch, so to release the plunger to fire the blaster, you only have to pull the trigger about 5mm, rather than the full trigger pull, allowing for an easy and quick shot.

Here is the hammer in rest and primed positions. As you can clearly see, the draw on the Sweet Revenge is far shorter than that of any other blaster with a manual prime.

Here you can see how it is possible for an ordinary sized hand to just reach the hammer. I'm pretty ordinary by size for a teenager, so a good proportion of people should be able to use the SR one handed. Naturally for such a short draw, the prime strength is much greater than most other blasters, thus if your fingers are weak, you'll have trouble priming the SR. Of course, younger and smaller persons may have trouble one hand priming the blaster as the hammer is quite far from the handle, only barely close enough to one-handed by an ordinary hand.

Here you can see the Rebelle motif and the one sling point of the SR. I personally dislike how the circular sling point juts of out of the bottom of the otherwise smooth handle.
After using them at many Uni games though, I've begin to use the sling loops to pull the SRs out of their holsters, and they work surprisingly well for that. I also use them to swing the SRs around, which would not be possible without a circular sling loop.

Here you can see that despite the handle's initial curvature, the blaster is actually held rather normally, like a regular pistol grip. I personally find the handle extremely comfortable to hold, as it is shaped and curved excellently for a human hand. Although I do have to shift my hand from this position to one hand prime the SR, holding and firing the blaster in this position is extremely comfortable.

This is the holster included with the Sweet Revenge. As you can see it is purely grey with a Rebelle motif in pink. It's very minimalist and simple, and doesn't even wrap around the entire blaster. It has been specifically shaped for the SR though, hence its odd shape. The holster is asymmetrical, designed for right handers who are of course the majority of the population. For left handers this means that you can't holster the SR with its included holster, which is unfortunate for those who are left handed and use the SR.

View from above. The screws hold the belt clip onto the holster, with the belt clip being a separate piece, but the main part of the holster is entirely one piece of plastic. The tapering in of the holster holds the SR tightly. The three slots at the top hold three darts, with the barely visible nubs at the bottom end of the slots keeping the darts in place.

Here you can see the clearance of the belt clip after being worn. It's enough to fit on all sorts of pants/skirts/belts, and when pressed against your body holds on surprisingly securely.

The holster holds 3 darts very securely. They're on the "front" section of the holster if you wear it under your right hand, which makes the darts quite easy to access. As the darts are gripped at the bottom of the dart holders, I recommend putting them in head down, which also makes it easier to reload.

Here is the Sweet Revenge slotted into its holster. It's very much secure and fits comfortably. The design of the holster means that if right handed you can one-hand the blaster even in the holster. This gives you three extra shots at the cost of not being able to use the tac rail.

Here's a video of me attempting to dislodge darts from the holster, and then dislodge the holster from my pants.

And here's the SR upside down in its holster, for left handers. As you can see it isn't anywhere near as secure or deep as for right handers, although the SR does fit to a certain distance. I don't recommend it at all though.

Here is the Sweet Revenge compared to some older revolvers. It's significantly less bulky than the Maverick though pretty much the same length and height. Obviously the SR is thinner than the Mav which has 1 more shot. It's also more sleek than te slightly boxy Spectre as well as shorter because of the short plunger draw. Compared to the most similar Snapfire though, the Sweet Revenge is longer. The Snapfire is significantly wider of course because it has 3 more shots. If you have a holster that fits the Maverick or Spectre well, it'll probably fit the Sweet Revenge (and probably Hammershot) reasonably well.

Here is the Rebelle Vision Gear compared to the old Dart Tag Vision Gear. As you can see they're basically identical, with minor aesthetic differences.

The Sweet Revenge is hammer primed, readied by simply pulling the hammer from rest position down to the bottom of its slot. After this, pulling the trigger fires the loaded dart, and the hammer returns to rest position. Because the turret rotates on prime, the SR's simple prime method allows for a psuedo-slam-fire technique called 'fan-fire'. 'Fan-fire' utilises the user's palm to prime rapidly and release the hammer at the end of the prime, thus causing the blaster to fire instantly, and allowing for rapid fire. Fan-firing is the fastest that the Sweet Revenge can be emptied, as it bypasses the trigger stage of conventional firing, as with slam-fire. Unfortunately, fan-fire is far more uncomfortable than slam-fire is on just about every blaster that has it, making it far less of an awesome feature for the Sweet Revenge as slam-fire is for say the Alpha Trooper.

Now for performance.
Ranges are 13-14m, with a few stray low and high shots. Consistency is a little lacking, which is partly due to the Rebelle darts and partly due to the open cylinder design. Decent considering that the SR works with just one hand, but a little low for the Elite line.
Accuracy is rather lacking, with darts often swerving quite far from a straight path. At maximum range, deviation is up to 1.5m left or right on a bad shot, which is quite large considering the accuracy of a lot of other Elite blasters.
There are the occasional dud shots that fly only a few metres and swerve really badly, but not particularly often. It's enough to be worth writing about, but it's not consistent or frequent.
Maximum ROF is determined by your ability to 'fan-fire' the Sweet Revenge. I really don't recommend it as the stock hammer digs painfully into the side of your palm and makes fan-firing incredibly painful. Using regular priming techniques, a ROF of around 2dps is possible as well as stable if you use both hands.
Here's a video of SR rapid firing.

After just 5 fan-fire shots, the side of my palm was quite sore for several minutes.

In summary, the Sweet Revenge is a great blaster. Though it isn't the best revolver statistically, its hammer action sets it apart from the rest, making it worth owning along side other revolvers like the Strongarm. Though its performance is not the best we've seen from Nerf blasters, it does beat its one-handed competitor, the Snapfire 8, but more on that in a future post. It is available for 24AUD at BigW only, which may seem a little expensive considering Strongarms can be bought for around 12AUD at Kmart. However, the Hammershot is also available in Australia, for 24AUD at Target, and no that is not a typo. The Sweet Revenge is available for the same price as the Hammershot meaning that unless you have a particular preference for whatever reason, there is no reason to get the Hammershot instead of the Sweet Revenge. 24AUD may be a little steep for a revolver, but with the Sweet Revenge it's much better value due to the inclusion of the holster and Vision Gear.
Besides all of the above mentioned, the Sweet Revenge is noteworthy simply because it is ridiculously fun to use. Though all Nerf blasters are meant to be fun, the Sweet Revenge as a hammer action revolver is one of the most fun blasters I've ever used, and definitely should be considered if you're looking for a fun blaster to use. It's also excellent as a sidearm because of its one-handability and ease of reloading.
I highly recommend picking up a Sweet Revenge kit, or at least a Hammershot (assuming they perform the same) if you live in a place where Hammershots are cheaper.

Pros: Hammer action is unique (Hammershot isn't really a different blaster, just the same blaster with a different shell), unique holster fits SR well and holds three darts, free Rebelle Vision Gear, handle is incredibly comfortable, SR is fun to use - more so than other blasters
Cons: Capacity inferior to most other revolvers e.g. Strongarm and Snapfire, prime can be hard with small hands or a stronger spring, fan-fire is terrible, inaccurate compared to other revolvers

Power: 6/7
Accuracy: 3/5
Value for Money: 5/5
Usability: 4.5/5
Rate of Fire: 3/5
Overall: 3.96/5

Personal Rating: 5/5 - though it is by no means a perfect blaster, it's just so much fun to use. That alone makes the SR worth the purchase. Besides fun factor though, the Sweet Revenge works great when dual wielded. In fact, I liked it so much I bought two, and I do not regret it at all, as I regularly dual wield these beauties at various Nerf events.

My BlasterHub review: link