Review: Buzz Bee Eradicator (15m) [Tactical Storm]

The Buzz Bee Eradicator is a recolouring of the new and primarily blue Tactical Storm, a modular mag fed blaster very similar to the Champion/Ultra Tek 8. As part of Buzz Bee's new releases, it includes some of Buzz Bee's new darts, in this case some Long Distance darts. Given how good so many of Buzz Bee's recent mag fed blasters have been, I was rather excited to try this one out.

Disclaimer: This blaster was sent to me for review by Buzz Bee Toys. Despite their contribution, I will do my best to ensure that this review remains as objective and unbiased as possible.

The Box

Standard open style Buzz Bee box, nothing special.

The Eradicator Blaster

The base Eradicator is a decent looking, relatively compact blaster. Like with many of Buzz Bee's newer releases, a lot more effort has been put into the shell's aesthetic design, with many more minor details that help distinguish it from older Buzz Bee blasters. Like with the Stryker Force, the "Eradicator" name is also printed on, rather than being just a sticker. Those aesthetic details, on top of seemingly improved plastic quality compared to older blasters make the Eradicator look and feel like a much more sophisticated blaster.

The Eradicator's handle is reasonably sized, being more than large enough for my own hands. It also lacks the odd shaping of a lot of other Buzz Bee handles that make them uncomfortable. Overall, I'd say that the Eradicator's handle is probably the most comfortable Buzz Bee handle I've held in a while.

The Eradicator is a manual action mag fed blaster, operated using this orange priming slide, akin to a Champion/Reaper/Ultra Tek 8, or of course a Retaliator. The slide is of a reasonable size, being quite wide and fairly easy to grip. My main gripe with it is that it is quite far back, starting above the trigger and moving behind the handle. I personally find this a little more awkward than the Retaliator's more forward top slide.

The Eradicator is a pretty ordinary mag fed blaster. It uses the same mag release that most other Buzz Bee mag fed blasters use, which I personally dislike. It is reachable with your second or third finger at a bit of a stretch, but I would have preferred a more conventional mag release.

The Eradicator accepts Nerf mags with no issues. I have tried a variety of my Nerf mags in it and they have all worked flawlessly.

The Stock

 The Eradicator includes a small detachable stock. It fits only on the Eradicator and is not compatible with any of Buzz Bee's other removable stock blasters, at least as of writing this review. It is a simple piece, just a stylised chunk of plastic with no extra function that Nerf stocks often have.

The stock fits on to the rear end of the blaster, sliding on to the rectangular protrusion on the back. The notch near the end of the back of the blaster locks the stock in place, and there is one on each side of the blaster.

The stock continues the lines of the blaster quite nicely, however is incredibly, and almost unusably, short. There is a comparison photo with a Retaliator further below, showing that the stock is shorter than even the Retaliator's stock, which I believe is the shortest (or near shortest) detachable stock that Nerf makes.

The stock can be removed by pinching the two buttons, one on either side, and simply pulling the stock backwards.

The Barrel

The Eradicator's barrel is very similar to those from the Range Master and Snipe/Ultra Master Tek. It is a long, wide tube with a series of cutouts through it.

The barrel has threading at one end of it that allows it to attach to the muzzle of the blaster. I believe it is the same threading as the Range Master and Snipe, thus I believe the barrels are cross-compatible between the three blasters, though I cannot personally confirm.

Barrel attached, it is a simple screw-on piece. It offers no real functional value.

Fully Assembled

The Eradicator is a surprisingly large blaster when fully assembled, measuring around 70cm in length. It is a seemingly direct competitor with the Retaliator, sporting the same sort of modularity and attachments.

That said however, I find the Retaliator to be an ergonomically superior blaster. It has a slightly better stock length, especially with Nerf's variety of detachable stocks, and a more comfortable priming slide position.

Performance

Muzzle velocity data can be found in my chrono spreadsheet. With Long Distance darts, the Eradicator averages around 85fps, which is impressive even by US-spec standards. You'll struggle to find any stock Nerf-branded blasters that can keep up with it. Using the included Long Distance darts, the Eradicator can achieve ranges of around 15-20m true flat, though they can be very inconsistent. I have had some darts veer straight into the ground at around 8 metres, and a few soar well beyond 20m.
Accuracy is pretty poor, as beyond a certain point (around 6-8m), the Long Distance darts love to veer or spiral off in various directions. I actually had very few darts fly straight, most would go off on a detour.
The barrel attachment has essentially no impact on performance, it is too wide to have much of an effect.
Rate of fire wise, I was able to achieve around 2-2.5 darts per second, a little bit slower than the Thermal Hunter. This is primarily due to the awkward positioning of the Eradicator's slide, which is high and quite far back. I find that I can get a slightly higher ROF out of a Retaliator, due to its more ergonomic slide position.

Game Utility
The Eradicator can serve as an effective, compact mag fed blaster. With cross compatability with Nerf mags, it can be used effectively as a direct substitute for a bare Retaliator or similar. Its raw power gives it an edge against a lot of other stock blasters. It lacks the attachment compatability that the Retaliator has however, and its stock attachments are rather poor, making it a little less suitable as a rifle type blaster. Additionally, the Eradicator is a little slower firing than similar blasters, and can be easily beaten for ROF by a number of other blasters.

Value and Summary
The Tactical Storm, the US release of the Eradicator, retails for around 16-22USD. This puts it at a lower price than the Retaliator, and represents quite solid value for money. It is overall quite a good blaster, and the inclusion of two mags on top of the blaster's attachment makes it quite a substantial package, especially for its price range. It also compares favourably against other blasters in its price range, and is competitive with similar blasters. If you're looking for a solid entry level blaster, or a decent and cheap manual action mag-fed blaster, I'd definitely recommend giving the Eradicator a look.

Power: 7/7
Accuracy: 1/5
Rate of Fire: 3.5/5
Usability: 3.5/5
Value for Money: 5/5
Overall: 3.6/5

Personal Rating: 4/5 - though ergonomically a bit awkward, the Eradicator's sheer power and overall functionality make it quite a solid blaster.

A link to the review I posted on BlasterHub: link