Transformers Optimus Prime Battle Rig Blaster product reviews

My son is a real fan of anything that lauches projectiles of any size... typical male... be they as small as the Lego Bionicle squids and darts, or as big as the standard Nerf darts as used in this unit. Add to that his absolute fascination for anything Transformers-related (which he must have inherited from me, as I still have my very first Megatron toy from nearly 20 years ago!)... and things like this become chart-topping winners in his books!

So very simple to use, this is a quick arm-stuff into the trailer unit, grab the handle to the top of the rig's cab, a gentle but quick pull up-and-back, and suddenly you are holding a blaster instead of a truck! As a smart operatore, once he got the hang of the switch-over moves, he would load the gun while still in 'truck' mode, do the transform (making a fairly good attempt at the sound effects from the movie too, I must add) and before the victim, erm, I mean family member had time to reach, -thud-, a dart had just whopped into their stomach!

When we invited a couple of his classmates over to play with this, and some other toys, there was such a ruckus over whose turn it was, we ended up unpacking the Nerf Dart Tag game and then chose who got which dart launcher by random ballot. After that, peace and quiet... OK, not so quiet... for the next hour as they ran around the lawn lauching darts at each other with wild abandon... -sigh- Time enough for the adults to sit back and enjoy the sunshine and a cool beer.

Overall, this is a very fun toy, sure to appeal to kids across all age ranges... but take care to dodge the right way if you see a dart heading for you... though they have soft, distorting head caps, they can still pack a bit of a whollop at short range, and let you know they were there if they manage to catch you in the face by accident. "No higher than the shoulders" is the rule when shooting these.

The first thought I had upon seeing this was 'What a cool idea' . Take your average Big Rig push around toy and have it transform into an awesome foam dart firing blaster with one real easy step. And it is that simple, just grab the handle located just above the trucks cab and pull it up and back in one smooth motion, and that's it, you are now in Dart firing mode.

Firing the gun is simple load a dart into the barrel from the front, cock the gun by pulling back on the orange sleeve located at the end of the barrel and releasing, then aim and shoot! Simple as that.

The darts themselves are very much like the darts in the Nerf Dart Tag, just a bit bigger, and they can also travel a considerable distance so be careful of where the gun is being pointed when it's fired.

One thing to note is that the gun is a bit cumbersome, but if your child is into Transformers like mine is, he won't notice one bit.