Aesthetics: Both blasters fill that crucial assault rifle style that is so popular. The Demolisher mimics an assault rifle with underslung grenade launcher which is so popular in videogames, while the Rapidstrike fits a more generic full auto rifle style. Both look awesome in their own right.
Accessories: The Demolisher comes with itself, a detachable stock, a 10 dart banana clip (mag), 10 Elite darts and 2 Elite missiles.
The Rapidstrike comes with itself, a clear 18 dart clip (mag) and 18 Elite darts.
I'm calling this round a draw, because the Demolisher trades the extra capacity for a detachable stock and an underslung rocket launcher.
Range/Power: The grey trigger Demolisher, despite being an Elite XD blaster, gets ranges of about 7-8m, which is pathetic. A good number of N-Strike blasters beat that. The rocket launcher can get ranges of 10m+ easily, but we're comparing dart blasting.
The grey trigger Rapidstrike is better, but only slightly, getting 9-10m average ranges. Neither blaster is realy worthy of the title "Elite" in stock form.
Obviously the Rapidstrike wins this round, but it was a pretty sad round overall.
Accuracy: The Demolisher has passable accuracy, probably as a result of its low power, though of course it's not perfect as it uses Elite darts. Rocket accuracy is actually surprisingly good once you develop a good firing technique, but again we're comparing dart blasting here.
The Rapidstrike has just downright bad accuracy, it's a struggle to hit anything consistently at a range of about 7m.
The Demolisher wins this round.
Usability: Both the Demolisher and Rapidstrike have their share of usability and ergonomic issues.
A stock Demolisher entirely fails to feed Koosh and Streamline darts, despite the latter being a Nerf-made clip (mag) system compatible dart. Additionally, the rocket launcher is initially very hard to use as it is pump to fire, especially so for younger/weaker users who will struggle to get decent rocket shots off. Additionally, there is no comfortable place for your off hand to grasp the Demo, as the rocket launcher's grip is a significant distance below the handle. This isn't usually a problem with Nerf blasters, which are usually fairly comfortable to grip under the barrel.
A stock Rapidstrike on the other hand suffers from a unique jamming problem not present in any other flywheel blaster I've used, and as we all know jamming is a major issue. Unlike the Demolisher, which at least feed Elites perfectly fine, the Rapidstrike can jam on any ammo you give it, whether it be Elites, Streamlines, Kooshes, or other third party darts. Additionally the weight of the Rapidstrike's 4 C batteries is significant compared to the Demolisher's 4 AA batteries, which can be an issue for younger users.
I'm calling this round a draw as well, because while the Rapidstrike's jamming is a major issue, so is the Demolisher's incompatibility with dart types it should be compatible with, and the Demolisher has a bigger ergonomic issue than the Rapidstrike due to the Rapidstrike's battery tray placement in the underbarrel grip area.
Rate of Fire: The Demolisher, as I've shown in my recent HFCBE video, can spew out darts at a rate of just over 9dps, though this requires a higher voltage to keep the motors from stopping. A stock voltage Demo is limited to about 5dps.
A stock Rapidstrike, as shown in a less recent HFCBE video, spews out darts at about 3.5dps consistently.
Naturally the Demolisher wins this round.
Capacity: The Demolisher comes with a 10 dart banana clip (mag), while the Rapidstrike comes with an 18 dart clear clip (mag).
Obviously the Rapidstrike wins this round.
Value for Money: The Rapidstrike is available for about 60AUD off sale, going down to about 40-45AUD on sale. Likewise, the Demolisher is available for about 60AUD off sale, however as a newer product the cheapest it has been is 50AUD on sale.
While the Rapidstrike is an overall more effective dart blaster primarily due to the Demolisher's abysmal range and lower capacity, the Demolisher does have an underslung rocket launcher which totally steals the show, being ridiculously fun to use as well as surprisingly powerful and accurate.
I'm going to have to call this round a draw as well, because value wise I can't pick between tacticool and a gimmicky rocket launcher, and practical dart blasting.
The Demolisher has won 2 rounds, and the Rapidstrike 2, with 3 draws. Thus this comparison is a tie. However, if I was playing to win, I would have to say that the Rapidstrike is a better war blaster because it is the more practical dart blaster. If I just wanted to goof off and have fun though, I would take the Demolisher to just have fun, purely because of how fun the rocket launcher is to use.
Honestly though, both blasters in their stock form are pretty bad in their stock form. For instance, a stock Retaliator outranges both and has significantly better accuracy with the barrel on, and is significantly cheaper.
Doesn't the Rapidstrike get a few more points for it's full auto feature?
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure it's really a feature, since it's the Rapidstrike's fundamental firing mech. That would be like calling slam fire a feature, which I feel should only be brought up to break a tie, rather than determine the accessories or value for money round.
DeleteI would say the Rapidstrike's full auto is easily the equal of the missile thing. You can easily single shot it too. I suspect that the RS you have is one that has the issue with magazine alignment. To test if this is the case, push the mag up into the receiver whilst firing. If it stops jamming, then that's your problem the fix is to re shape the lower ramp on the flywheel cage to allow the dart to feed better into the flywheel. Throw the rubber skirt away too. Check out "The Dart Zone" for lots of pictures, including one of the correct shape for the ramp. It's in an old post of Toruk's somewhere on there.
DeleteYep mine is one of those issue Rapidstrikes, I've grinded down the bottom ramp and it works fine now. I pull out the rubber skirt of every flywheeler I get, I really haven't noticed any issues from doing it.
DeleteIMO the Rapidstrike's full auto isn't equal to the Demo's missile launcher purely because the missile launcher is a separate firing mech to the main dart blaster part. I spent quite a few minutes deliberating about the full auto, and came to the conclusion that while it is a beast when modified, in stock form it's easily beaten by other non-full auto firing mechs, and thus for that reason in the context of this particular comparison, having the full auto feature is barely different to having semi auto.
If you put significant value on the full auto ability, feel free to make the Accessories round a draw, and give the Rapidstrike an outright win in the Value for Money round. It's simply that in stock form, I personally feel that it brings little value because it doesn't fire particularly fast.
a rapid strike is way better
DeleteThat's a good point. I am probably not the least biased reviewer, I have 9 RS's at present. Having only had a stock one for a day (then it got modded) I almost forgot how slow it is.
ReplyDeletemaqybe your batteries were half used for the demolisher. also rechargeable batteries also lose power after time, even at full charge
ReplyDeleteI was using new non-rechargeable AAs, with one fully charged rechargeable AA. Verified using a battery power checker thing, the Demolisher was receiving at least 5V of its recommended 6V.
DeleteI've used a lot of blasters on lower voltages before and still gotten better ranges, so I'm pretty sure it's not an issue with my batteries.
I've also confirmed that another grey trigger Demolisher gets the same ranges with different fully charged batteries, so it's not just my Demolisher that sucks.
Which do you prefer? I wanna know which to get.
ReplyDeleteThe Demolisher can be fun, but the Rapidstrike is just the overall better blaster, though this is only really evident when you get into serious mods.
Deleteits best just to wait for the rapidstrike XD, which will probably own all.
ReplyDeleteExcept for the data from BFU that suggests no significant difference between regular Elite and XD, backed up by the data of new XD blasters (Demo, Cam) that show no significant difference between those and regular Elites.
DeleteGod bless it, I just bought a couple XD firestrikes too.
DeleteWhat is the best unmodded primary and secondary
ReplyDeletePrimary, I'd say any of the following, depending on personal preference:
ReplyDeleteEAT, Retal, Rampage, Demolisher
There are other good choices, but those are the first few that come to mind as "good" primaries.
With secondaries as well, personal preference has a big influence.
Hammershot/Sweet Revenge, Strongarm and Triad are the first few that come to mind.
With the variety we have nowadays, there is no one "best" blaster.
We getting any nerf rival products through oz and if so will ut be detuned worst than gray trigger elite blasters?
ReplyDeleteI believe at the moment Rivals is purely a US release because basically every other country has extra toy saftey regulations to meet, so releases in other countries will come as Nerf detunes the Rivals blasters as necessary.
ReplyDeleteBased on that, I think the chances of us getting Rivals isn't that great, and even if it does come down here it'll probably be close to grey trigger performance.