Nerf Elite Stockade Review (15m Aus grey trigger)

Behold, my first review in ages! This review will be of one of the first Elites to be released, and like a lot of the early Elites, it is a remake of an N-Strike blaster.

The Stockade is a remake of the N-Strike Barricade. Unlike some of the other Elite remakes, the Stockade includes its own unique accessory that the Barricade didn't have, a stock. Besides that stock though, the Stockade is the same as the other Elite remakes, with a near identical shell and new internals.
Due to their similarities, consider reading my review of the Barricade.

 Here's everything you get out of the box, besides the instructions and other useless rubbish. You get the Stockade, the stock, and 10 Elite darts. The Barricade had only itself and 10 Whistlers.

Darts were J. coded for those of you who care.

Everything assembled, with 5 darts in the Stockade turret and five in the dart holders of the stock. 
The colour scheme makes the Stockade look much better than the Barricade despite them having the same shell.

Let's look at the base Stockade blaster first.

As clearly evident, the Stockade appears to just be a blue painted Barricade. It's chunky and bulky while also being very short.
Like the Barricade, the Stockade is characterised by its unusually large muzzle and flywheel section,

it's bulging 10 dart turret,

and a short jam door not found on any other revolvers.

The Stockade is very clearly an Elite blaster though, as evidenced by the Elite logos,

the white and grey/silver detailing,

and of course the ever disappointing grey trigger.

The Stockade isn't a very tacticool blaster, having only one tactical rail,

and a stock attachment point. Just like the Barricade.

The Stockade also has a single sling point at the bottom of its handle.

Here's the Stockade in hand. Like the Barricade, it sports a rather large handle which I myself find a little uncomfortable. It probably suits those of you who are larger teens/adults, but for child hands they're probably not great.

The Stockade takes 3 AAs inside the orange plate with the Elite logo on it. Unlike the usual 4 batteries now found on the Stryfe, Hailfire, Rayven and Rapidstrike.

The Stockade is a flywheeler like the Barricade, but unlike modern flywheelers uses the more traditional (and more annoying) thumb switch to turn the flywheels on and off. The thumb switch also blocks trigger movement when in the 'off' position.

This lets you leave the Stockade on without having to hold a button, but is much less user friendly than the acceleration trigger, as the thumb switch is much harder to turn on and off.

The Stockade is a semi auto blaster, firing one dart every time you pull the trigger fully. The 'fully' part is very important, as the dart will only catch the flywheels at the very end of the trigger pull.
The first half of the trigger pull rotates the turret, while the second half is devoted to pushing the dart into the flywheels.

There is a trigger lock in the trigger, which prevents the trigger from moving forward if the trigger has been half pulled but not fully pulled. This usually results in jams at the most inopportune times.

The jam door area has a small hole that shows a small green patch on the jam door when the jam door is closed.

Furthermore, when the jam door is open (which you would logically do when you feel a jam), you cannot unlock the trigger from this position, as the trigger does not move past the lock point when the jam door is open. The trigger does lock though.

This trigger lock is incredibly annoying, usually jamming up when nothing is wrong. This and the aforementioned thumb switch cause the Stockade to lose a lot of usability marks.

The Stockade's semi auto nature results in single hand firing being very unstable. The length of the trigger pull in particularly is one of the longest of any Nerf blaster, being shorter than only the Snapfire. This results in one-handing, particularly by kids, being very difficult to get much accuracy from. By two-handing the Stockade, you do get much needed stability which lets you get off much more accurate and stable shots, as well as an easier trigger pull as your main hand does not have to support the blaster and fire it all on its own.

Rather annoyingly, the Stockade doesn't have any particularly good place for your second hand to hold on to. The shell underneath the turret is not quite large enough to get a good grip on, while the bottom of the flywheel case is a little uncomfortable and also has a small risk of the Elites dragging on the back of your hand, potentially causing jams.

The Stockade's 10 dart barrel gives you a superior capacity to just about every other revolver, and its semi auto gives you the ability to empty the Stockade faster than a lot of other revolvers.

Finally, here's the Stockade compared to the base Stryfe and Retaliator.

Now let's look at the Stockade's stock, by far the most interesting part of the Stockade, and probably the main reason people buy the Stockade.

The Stockade stock is the first detachable stock to have dart holders. It's also only the second Elite detachable stock to be released, the first being the Retaliator's stock.


The butt section of the stock appears hollow, but is rather solid. The actual butt is rather small, being significantly thinner than the butt support, which results in the butt feeling like it cuts into your shoulder if you press on it too hard. I usually don't press this hard, but for those of you who do, this may not be the stock for you.

Unlike the Retaliator stock which is stocky and bulky, the Stockade stock is actually fairly thin, except for the cheek rest, the butt and of course the attachment point. Despite this, it is extremely sturdy, at least on an EAT/Stryfe/Retaliator.

Here's a closer look at the inside of the dart holders. As some of you may have noticed, they greatly resemble the dart holders found on the old N-Strike Firefly REV-8. Thanks to the small ridges on the inside, the dart holders hold Elites quite snugly. Note that darts are much easier to insert from below than above due to the cheek rest, which also pretty much prevents you from removing darts upwards.

The Stockade stock does have a bar seemingly designed for slings, however inserting darts into the dart holders will prevent you from using a sling, and using a sling will prevent you from using some of the dart holders. Additionally, a sling attached to the bottom bar will jiggle about a lot, making a lot of noise.

Here's the Stockade stock compared to the other two blue stocks, the Raider stock (top) and Retaliator stock (bottom). The Raider stock is fully extended and is slightly longer, however feels very slightly weaker, purely due to it being extendable/retractable. The Retaliator stock is significantly shorter, and is bulkier and slightly lower than the Stockade stock. Of these three stocks I far prefer the Stockade stock because of its stability and extra function of holding darts.

Here's the Stockade stock compared to the Super Soaker Lightning Storm stock. The latter is possibly the sturdiest stock ever made by Nerf, being even more solid than the Stockade stock. However, it is slightly longer (which I find a little uncomfortable), and the butt is much flatter, making it easier to slip off your shoulder. The Stockade stock 'grips' onto your should much better, making it my preferred stock.

Like the Retaliator's stock, the Stockade stock does not attach to the Pyragon, Praxis or Lumitron. This is a little disappointing, but since the dart holders are redundant on said blasters, isn't that much of a negative.

Here's the Stockade stock on the Stryfe and Retaliator. It works fantastically on both of them.

Since I don't use the Stockade for wars, I can't really comment on how well the Stockade stock combines with it, but having used an EAT and Stryfe with the Stockade stock, it works really well. The dart holders allow you to hold an extra bunch of darts for when you have no time to pick them up off the ground. I suspect the Stockade will probably work pretty well with its stock given its open turret allowing for fast reloads.

So how does the Stockade perform? Being a grey trigger Elite, it's not that much better than a Barricade, but it still does ok-ish.
Ranges with used rechargeable AAs is around 10-11m. Rapid fire drops ranges depending on just how fast you fire, with 8m or less ranges possible. Brand new non-rechargeable AAs will probably get 12-14m depending on quality.
Accuracy is surprisingly decent with the Stockade given it is a flywheeler. Spread at maximum range has a radius of only 0.5m, and most of the shots landed at the same distance. Of course there will be a few duds and stray shots, but the majority of shots flew relatively straight.
Rate of fire is pretty good, however the Stockade still has the annoying half-trigger-pull lock which has a tendency to lock up if you start rapid-firing and don't pull the trigger hard all the way. Additionally there's the issue of the trigger pull being extremely long, preventing it from firing as fast as a Stryfe. I can get at very most 3dps before jams and dart skips.

The Stockade retails for around 27-30AUD, typically available from BigW and Kmart. Elsewhere is significantly more expensive. So is the Stockade worth your cash? Honestly, probably not. Besides the awesome stock, the Stockade is largely outclassed by other Elites. Its place as a one-handable revolver has been taken by the Hammershot/Sweet Revenge and to some extent the Snapfire. It has pretty much no advantage over the other Elite flywheelers, the Stryfe, Elite Rayven, and Rapidstrike, except capacity when using 6 clips (mags) (which almost no-one uses anyway). The sole reasons for getting a Stockade are for collection/completion and for the stock.

If you can find one for cheap, consider getting it for the stock, but unless you really love the Barricade/Stockade design, I don't recommend actively hunting one down for war use.

Pros: The stock is solid, holds darts, is a good length for me, and is just all round awesome.
Cons: The blaster is the total opposite, lacking notable range, accuracy and rate of fire (due to the trigger lock), and generally just being outclassed by most Elite era "primary" blasters, and some pistol sized blasters too.

Power: 4.5/7
Accuracy: 4/5
Value for Money: 3.5/5
Usability: 2.5/5
Rate of Fire: 3.5/5
Overall: 3.34/5

Personal Rating: 2.5/5 - while the blaster itself is inferior to a lot of other Elites, the stock is fantastic, being a decent length, sturdy and capable of holding ammo.

If you were wondering why I didn't put comparison pictures up, it's simply because I no longer have any stock Barricades to compare with. Sorry about that.