Aesthetics: While the two blasters share the same base shell, the Barricade is primarily just yellow with few highlights, while the Stockade makes the point of having white and silver highlights on its primarily blue shell. I feel that the Stockade looks superior, but of course no points here.
Accessories: The Barricade comes with itself and 10 Whistlers.
The Stockade comes with itself, 10 Elite darts and a unique stock.
Stockade wins of course.
Range/Power: The Barricade got around 9m using Whistlers, and was rather consistent if you let the motors recover between shots. Already a little low by N-Strike standards, the Barricade is very outclassed compared to Elites.
The (grey trigger) Stockade on the other hand, gets around 10-11m on used rechargeable AAs. 12-14m ranges are possible if you use new out of box, good quality non-rechargeables.
Stockade wins again, though not by that much.
Accuracy: The Barricade uses Whistlers, which are reasonably accurate. Though the Barricade does lose a bit of accuracy from being flywheel, on the whole it's not bad especially compared to a lot of clip (mag) system blasters.
The Stockade on the other hand uses Elite darts. Though its low power isn't enough to send Elites spiraling out of control, they do still swerve about a little.
Both blasters 'recoil' a little when you pull the trigger, simply because of how far you have to pull to fire.
By Elite standards the Stockade is pretty good, but it still doesn't have the same consistency you get from using Whistlers, and for that reason the Barricade wins this round.
Usability: In this section I'm going to ignore the extra benefits of the Stockade's stock, since it would otherwise immediately give the Stockade the win. Both blasters share the same flaws, with the half-trigger-pull lock and the jam door trigger lock, as well as the thumb switch on/off rather than the much more comfortable push button found on most other flywheelers. So this round comes down to how the motors compare. The Stockade has different motors to the Barricade, which is the only reason Elite ranges are possible with 3AAs. The one main usability difference that I noticed was the noise. The Barricade, despite taking only 3AAs is somewhat noisy, with the whirring being immediately noticeable and annoying. The Stockade is significantly quieter. Though it still has the distinctive flywheel whine, it is much less noticeable and thus much less annoying than the Barricade, and for that reason the Stockade wins this round.
Rate of Fire: Both the Barricade and Stockade have the same trigger mechanism, thus have equal ROFs and thus this round is a draw.
Capacity: Both blasters have the same 10 dart turret, but the Stockade's stock holds 10 extra darts. For that reason the Stockade wins this round.
Value for Money: The Barricade was available for 30-35AUD back when it was still around. It was initially available in Target, but slowly spread to other stores as the year wore on. The Stockade is currently available for 27AUD or more, from a variety of retailers. As the Stockade has basically a free stock compared to the Barricade, and is available for as much or even less, it wins this round.
Overall the N-Strike Barricade has won 1 round, the Stockade 5, with 1 draw. Thus I declare the Elite Stockade the winner of this comparison. Had I instead compared the Barricade's value pack (includes a yellow Raider stock), both the Accessories and Value for Money rounds would be draws rather than Stockade purely due to the inclusion of the stock. The Stockade would still have won, but it would have been a closer 3:1 rather than the 5:1 thrashing it currently is.
After the alteration of a previous Elite vs N-Strike post, the score is:
Elite: 3 -- N-Strike: 1
Though N-Strike is being totally thrashed at the moment, if I ever get a Rampage or Rapidstrike expect N-Strike to make a fightback.
how far does the stockade shoot with whistlers?
ReplyDeleteMy Stockade jams as soon as the Whistlers hit the flywheels. As I've heard of other people successfully firing Whistlers from Stockades, I'm going to assume that it's either just my Stockade being defective, or grey trigger Stockades being too weak to force the Whistler through.
DeleteCool, I knew the Stockade would win.
DeleteI got a stockade
DeleteIn your first review/comparison you said that the nerf recon had a lower capacity because of the mag It came with, you said even though it has room for another mag that doesn't count because it doesn't come with enough darts. In this one you said the stockade wins as it has extra space.
ReplyDeleteTo use the Recon's extra space, you have to also have an extra clip to put in the stock. With the stockade, you can simply slot extra darts straight into the stock.
DeleteI like the barricade witch in 2011 came with a yellow raider stock?
ReplyDelete