This is ridiculous. Nobody needs this much Nerf gun. But the nice thing about Nerf’s new Modulus blaster is that you get to pick just how much Nerf gun you want.
Nerf Modulus ECS-10 is actually a pretty decent blaster. It’s one of the quietest, furthest-shooting magazine-fed, battery-powered, flywheel-driven dart shooting designs you can get without modding your Nerf guns.
But the main idea behind the Nerf Modulus system (a single core blaster which you can attach a bunch of modular accessories) isn’t new at all.
Sure, it’s cool:
But Nerf blasters have been doing that for nearly a decade now. Just take a look at the original 2008 Recon or 2006’s Longshot, which came with modular parts.
Here’s the difference: you don’t need to buy a $90 box set and then go hunting through a toy store or eBay or Goodwill for that part you crave which only ever came with one gun back in 2010. If you want any single piece of the Modulus set — right down to the blaster — you can get them piecemeal (at least on Amazon, we haven’t seen spare parts in Oz just yet). And it’s awesome.
They don’t take up shelf space or ship in fancy cardboard boxes. Just a part, with free Prime shipping, sent directly to whoever wants it. Genius.
And assuming they don’t clash too much with your style, you may even be able to just add them to your existing Nerf blasters. See, this Demolisher doesn’t look too bad with this red dot sight, double-rail barrel and dart-blasting stock:
They don’t necessarily make it a better blaster, but they definitely set mine apart from others at the park. Or how about my Elite Alpha Trooper with the same stock and a transparent dart shield up top?
It’s a little odd that Nerf made all the new Modulus parts white when most blasters that can use them are blue, but perhaps parent company Hasbro is hoping it will help them sell more white blasters in the future.
Which accessories are worth it? Which suck? And where the heck do you find them? Here’s a full list:
Hot
- The $US10 Red Dot Sight, which actually tries to helps you aim high enough to hit with a Nerf dart.
- The $US7 Dual Rail Barrel, the first decent way to add official rails to a Nerf blaster. Or set world records for the longest Nerf gun:
- The $US7 Drop Grip, the first and only official Nerf vertical foregrip that fits adult hands and doesn’t jiggle a ton.
- The $US12 Flip Clip, which (at 24 darts) gives you the most ammo of any single dart holder you can currently buy for a Nerf blaster.
- The $US8 Distance Scope, which is just a prop with no magification, but at least it looks cool on most Nerf guns and has sights that line up.
Not
- The $US8 Pivot Grip. Jiggles around.
- The $US8 Targeting Scope. Only has one sight — nothing to line up with.
- The $US8 Blast Shield. Who protects themselves in a game of Nerf?
- The $US9 Bipod Upgrade. Not even remotely stable.
- The $US7 Proxmity Barrel. Doesn’t have a lock to click it in place.
- The $US8 Long Range Barrel. YMMV but it looks weirdly small on every blaster I’ve attached it to thus far.
- The $US9 ECS-10 Stock. Wiggles around, but holds an additional clip.
- The $US12 Blaster Stock. Cool idea, but you can’t actually fire the dart without detaching the stock, because existing Nerf blasters that take stocks have bits that block the barrel. And you can’t remove the stock without two hands.
- The $US30 Modulus blaster itself — unless you’re going to do something about the grip.
Wait, What’s Wrong With The Modulus Blaster?
Oh, nothing much: it’s just that the one critical piece you can’t replace is the blaster’s primary handle. For whatever reason, Nerf decided to make the handle and trigger super skeletal, which rough edges that can dig into hands and pinch skin.
In almost every way, the Modulus is identical to the Nerf Demolisher. It takes the same 4 AA batteries, fires the same way, and has identical range. (I put a Modulus and Demolisher side by side, and the shots landed right next to each other practically every time.)
The main differences are just that the Modulus is a little bit longer and lighter, and trades the underbarrel rocket launcher for three extra accessory rails, a carry handle up top, and a battery compartment that’s moved to a new foregrip.
But for me, none of these things trump the fact that the Demolisher doesn’t make my hand sore.
So unless you really want to do this…
…the Demolisher is still going to be our recommendation for the best all-around Nerf blaster. You just might want to use your Amazon Prime account to add a scope or something, too.