AN1999 unboxes, pic spams, test fires and reviews Elite Spectre; My opinion

As many of you know the Elite Spectre has been released in Singapore as part of their Nerf Powerplay Tournament.
A good friend of mine, AwesomeNerfer 1999 has managed to get his hands on a set, and has given us plenty to drool over and be jealous of, in the forms of an unboxing video, some pic spam, and a review.
I stress right now, the following content is not mine, and belongs to AN1999.


Unboxing Video


Unboxing Video and some Pics (post)
Some notable images from said post:

Now a test firing of the Elite Spectre.


And last but definitely not least, the reviews of the Elite Spectre.


Write-up linky!

So what do we know?

• Elite Spectre is legitimately Elite and not just repainted
• Shell has actually been changed, presumably internals are new and improved
• Rapidstrike is semi-officially confirmed by box of Elite Spectre

So jealous of AN1999 right now, I really want an Elite Spectre.

Why? Good question. After all, the Spectre is statistically inferior to the higher capacity slam firing Strongarm.
Well, besides the threat of me being slapped in the face by my friend if I get a Strongarm, consider the following.

When I first started my Nerf journey, the only Nerf revolver available at the time was the Maverick. Sure it might be a decent first blaster, but for a modder like me the Maverick is terrible. The plunger is far too small to get good ranges, and the inherent ability for a Maverick to misfire, jam and misrotate is ridiculous. I have seen more than 7 different units, and all of them have started to misfire, jam and misrotate more frequently when they were new in box. Some have developed to the point that you have to pull the trigger slowly to get the rotation mech slowly. Yes you can glue the rotation mech, but the Maverick's rotate on trigger pull design means that it will only fire off a 'good' shot when trigger pull is perfect, and that will happen very rarely in a combat situation.
As a result of this uncertainty, bad usability and terrible ranges, the Maverick has become my most hated blaster, beating even the Deploy and Buzz Bee Belt Blaster.

And so salvation came in the form of the Spectre REV-5, which I got my hands on early 2011 because Aus releases are always late. I'd read all the reviews naturally, and pretty much everyone had said that despite its reduced capacity compared to the Maverick, it was superior in range, accuracy and most importantly reliability. Unlike the Maverick's rotate on trigger pull, the Spectre rotates on prime, thus there is a much reduced chance of misrotating and jamming, and practically no chance of misfiring without user error. Additionally although the plunger of the Spectre isn't much different from the Maverick's in size, the Spectre's plunger system seals much better with the turret, providing more power and efficiency.
In short, besides capacity the Spectre completely outclasses the Maverick.

So why don't I just get a Strongarm and be done with it? Well, besides the obvious slap factor, the bitter memory of Maverick is still with me, as I have 4 in my possession. While the Strongarm has been completely overhauled from a Maverick, the fact remains that it started out in life as a 6-shot revolver, and although the Strongarm is completely and utterly superior to the Maverick, I still see it as an Elite Maverick rather than a Strongarm. There's no point debating just how much a Strongarm isn't a Maverick to me, because in my eyes the Strongarm is a Maverick.
Of course, there's always the ZombieStrike Hammershot/Rebelle Wildshot (of which I prefer the latter's styling), but they're hammer action rather than traditional slide action. This results in potentially awkward priming, despite the vastly improved ability to dual wield and all that. While I will probably get at least one Hammershot/Wildshot (maybe 2, or even one of each), the fact remains that I am extremely comfortable with slide action revolvers that don't suck (ie not a Maverick), and as such the Elite Spectre remains to be a good blaster in my eyes.

Besides the Elite Spectre itself being a comfortable design and a good revolver, the tacticool ability of the Spectre is one I like. Although many people don't care for tacticool, I like fooling around with stupid attachments because it's fun and makes some awesome looking and feeling blasters. Additionally, I have a Stryfe awaiting a blue Spectre silencer, because the Stryfe looks awesome with a Spectre silencer, even in yellow. The stock I don't care a whole lot for, although UT will appreciate it since he liked the Spectre stock on the original AT.