NerfN-Strike Elite Rukkus ICS-8 Toy, Brown

My ProChrono Digital chronograph measured the speed of the darts fired by this stock Nerf Elite Rukkus ICS-8 blaster at an average of 70 feet per second (FPS) using Nerf Elite darts (it is capable of shooting any standard Nerf Elite darts; blue, green, white, orange, purple/blue, Starwars- themed, Accustrike, or any assortment of decorated darts of the same size). The standard average velocity of a Nerf Elite blaster is 70 FPS, so the Rukkus is tuned exactly where an Elite blaster needs to be in terms of power. I will be frank with you, dear reader, I was dreading the purchase of this Rukkus blaster because I knew just by looking at it that it would have very few strengths, and I was right. One of those strengths being the aforementioned Elite level velocity. The other two are it’s durable higher quality plastic (which should be expected from Hasbro/Nerf), and lastly the decent ergonomics of the pistol grip. That’s pretty much it. So what, then, is the list of problems that it has? Well to answer this question I will have to say that there are also a few problems with it. What I mean by this is that this is a very simple blaster which seems theoretically to have been reverse-engineered from a cheaper quality blaster from Buzzbee. A toy blaster company that has been undercutting Nerf sales for years. Specifically, the Jaguar, a foam dart pistol from Buzzbee which is currently still on the market. The Jaguar has 2 darts less than the Rukkus’ already meager 8 darts, but the Jaguar is capable of firing Nerf Elite darts at a higher FPS (at an average of 73 FPS). I wondered if Nerf would endow the Rukkus blaster with it’s classic Slam-fire ability, and yes it does have slam-fire (holding down the firing trigger and repeatedly priming the blaster to fire a dart off every time it is primed, resulting in some semblance of rapid fire). The tradeoff of using this function is often the reduced accuracy due to the shaking of the blaster while it is being furiously primed and this seems to be the case with the Rukkus. The Jaguar does not have this “rapid firing” ability. The top priming slide of the Rukkus and Jaguar are both very similar in color and shape and are both attached to the auto-indexing mechanism that moves their internal in-line clips (The Rukkus’ ICS-8 stands for Internal Clip System 8-dart capacity), but the Jaguar’s straight clip ratchets forward to the next chamber at the beginning of the priming motion while the Rukkus’ curved “banana-style” clip (not to be confused with a banana style magazine) ratchets forward to the next chamber at the end of the priming motion. This difference is not noticeable during operation but it is more labored for the Rukkus due to the physics of the clip being of a larger size and the use of heavier, higher quality, and stronger plastic. But what I think is the biggest difference between the two is that the Jaguar’s priming handle is attached to a return spring (because the blaster is already primed and ready to fire the next dart when it is pulled all the way back) and the Rukkus requires you to push the slide forward to finish the priming motion and advancing the clip to the next available dart chamber. Younger or weaker users may not appreciate this extra “labored” feeling of resistance at the end of the Rukkus’ priming motion because it slightly interrupts the operation, giving it a clunky operation instead of smooth. It even makes a “clack” sound each time the clip advances to the next dart chamber. It is not good for people who like to aim down their sight lines to use the Rukkus, you can expect your vision to be blocked by the advancing clip about halfway through your capacity. Interestingly enough, the blaster still works if held upside down with the priming motion becoming a pump action shotgun style blaster, however, the pistol grip looks unsightly sticking up in the air. There are no tactical rails, shoulder stocks, or barrel attachment points on the Jaguar which is to be expected, but unfortunately the Rukkus is also lacking tactical rails, a shoulder stock, and a barrel attachment point as well. This may have been an opportunity that was missed for sake of cost reduction, but the Rukkus looks “bald” and “stubby” as a result. What it does have is a sling mount “cavern” that travels a third of the way up the pistol grip. Despite the way it looks, it does not impede function or get in the way when you attach a Nerf bandolier sling. In terms of artistic appeal, the Rukkus has this generation of blue Elite Blaster family traits, complete with the ELITE logo visible between two layers of black and blue panels, and unnecessary slotted openings in the shell for the sake of some kind of aesthetic (either that or the Nerf design team likes the idea of easy access for dirt or debris to find it’s way into your blaster). In conclusion, the Nerf Elite Rukkus ICS-8 blaster does what it is designed to do. It is the first instance I can think of where of a Nerf blaster is completely based off of a competing toy company’s model and then improved upon with higher quality design tweaks and materials. In my opinion, the price point is not exactly going to beat it’s competitor’s product value, but I digress. The Rukkus should outlast and outshine the competition in visual appeal. It may only have 8 darts, but if you compare it with an old classic, the Elite Roughcut, which also has an 8-dart capacity, you will find that the Rukkus is better because it fires off it’s shots in succession at a consistent velocity. Meanwhile, the Roughcut’s 8 darts fire two at a time, giving it only 4 pulls of the trigger before you are out of ammo, and every shot is of a weaker velocity (due to the Roughcut’s smart air restrictor design). The Rukkus is solid, durable, and seems to be designed to last a great while. It’s harmonica style integrated clip may make it a bit frustrating to have to reload, but it will ensure that the owner won’t lose or misplace it. I cannot see this being a good choice in a Nerf War judging by the Rukkus’ limitations compared to other Nerf blasters on the market, but I am confident that it can still be a fun blaster to play around with, and for a longer time than most comparable Buzzbee products. I understand that Hasbro is making the Alpha Strike Series of blasters to combat another market rival, Zuru’s X-Shot line of blasters, and it shows that Hasbro is starting to feel threatened. While I applaud “upping their game,” perhaps Hasbro should avoid copying them in order to compete, and instead start coming up with other ways to impress their customers. The bottom line with the Rukkus is that it is simplistic, unimaginative, and unoriginal. Basically a Buzzbee blaster built by Nerf.

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This nerf blaster has one defining trait: it's odd, built-in clip which rises up through the gun as you fire. Sadly however this is also it's most defined weakness. In summary this blaster is built pretty much exactly the same as the delta trooper's core blaster except its priming mechanism which feels very gritty; this is caused by the mechanism that rises the clip but we'll get to that in a moment. The grip isn't quite comfortable to my taste, however this isn't unbearable like some of nerf's smaller blasters. The rukkus has an interesting feature called slam fire (this allows the user to fire simply by holding the trigger and repeatedly priming to allow faster firing on spring powered blasters) which is very nice, however this is just about all there is to this gun in terms of nice features. Throughout my testings I've found this nerf rifle to be incredibly unreliable due to the firing mechanism entirely relying on the magazine ascending, which often doesn't happen. This is made worse when attempting slam fire, where in some cases the gun would stop shooting after a mere 3 shots. Another big problem caused by the clip is the fact that it is absolutely impossible to aim the rukkus after firing more than 2-3 shots; the clip ascends directly in the user's view, a problem easily solved by designing the back of the clip to have some kind of crosshairs (which could've been a nice feature) however this isn't truly a solution since the clip's curvature makes it nigh impossible to see through, rendering this blaster useless unless you want to fire inaccurate hip shots. Reloading the rukkus is also quite a chore, while one of its selling points is faster reloading, this blaster's clip is too small, only allowing 4 darts to be loaded in its highest position, with the remaining 4 requiring to be loaded in its lowest position.In short, the clip should have been placed horizontally; several other nerf blasters have this feature, and it works well enough. The clip should be longer at the bottom to allow all darts to be reloaded from the empty position, which would pretty much solve all the issues this rifle has as far as I'm aware.

Our 9yr old daughter picked this out to play with her brothers. They got a different gun. It is a bit difficult to pull the thing on top back in order to pull trigger to shoot, spring or whatever seems very tough I dunno lol. It does shoot 8 bullets I believe, if not a couple more consecutively. In my opinion the aim is a bit difficult because the ammo, if up, blocks view. It shoots pretty far, but not as far as the guns her brothers picked. I forget the names of it I believe its the Nerf Elite 8 round barrel gun. But it seems good for the price to us. She doesn't play with it much now though. Got it couple weeks ago.