Hi, it's Luke with Out of Darts.
Today, we are checking out the Star Wars Mandalorian Phase-Pulse Blaster.
This is a big one; let's get going!
I don't very often do unboxings because I’m not really that interested in watching unboxings.
However, this blaster is a little bit different.
It's a collector's item, and it does have some
kind of cool styling on the box and everything, so we're going to carefully get this guy open.
Looks like I’ve got a slide here to start.
This blaster's been a little contentious because they delayed this multiple times.
I paid for this blaster well over a year ago.
You can see there's the nerf limited logo up front.
On the back, we've got a pretty cool outline of the blaster.
I think the box art is actually pretty sweet.
On the front, we've got whatever writing this is supposed to be.
Obviously, it's the Mandalorian writing.
I love the series.
I've seen everything that's coming out so far,
and I can't wait for the next season here really looking forward to that.
So, we're going to dive in here; we're going to carefully cut this open.
I'm normally not much of a collector when it really comes down to it.
I like to have blasters that I can get out play with use and run as a loadout,
so it's less about putting things on a shelf for me.
That said, I can really see why people into Star Wars would be into this one.
Inside we got kind of cool some cool box art.
Again, I’m not super into boxes, but I know someone that might want these instructions.
Oh boy, there's a lot of white!
Interesting…
*Loses knife immediately(!)*
Alright, so we've got a plastic coffin here inside.
I don't know if I’m supposed to slide this whole
thing out the end or if I can get this out this way.
Nope, I can get it out.
Get out of your coffin!
Okay, we're gonna go from the front first.
No… Okay, I’ve decided I can't get it out this way.
I have no idea if that's the way you're supposed to do it, but we're gonna go out through the end.
Mandalorian, in my opinion, is one of the better pieces of Star Wars that's been made yet.
The stories are really simple, and the plotlines are really simple,
but it's so well-executed, and the acting is really well done.
It's beautifully shot; I think the cinematography is gorgeous,
and it's just got a real balanced, true to life feel to it
I really like that.
So, I was excited to pick this one up at least to check out.
This might be a transient blaster; you may see this pop up on the shop for resale.
Not to gouge anybody, just to recover our funds – wow, that's light!
What the heck?
Huh, interesting.
So, there we've got the blaster.
It is massive. It’s easily the longest nerf blaster I’ve seen yet.
Oh my gosh!
Okay, I have so many thoughts.
This is a live unboxing, so I have not touched this yet or played with it.
Before we get into the blaster, let's talk about some of the controversy.
The first problem is this blaster got delayed over and over and over.
$120 pretty pricey prop pretty pricey toy definitely aimed at adults.
The second problem is that shortly after (maybe six months after announcing this and people
took the pre-orders for the limited series), they announced a second version for GameStop.
Then a few months later, the GameStop version became a Target version as well,
and now Target's got that version on sale for $50 United States Dollars.
This was $120 that one's $50 and is orange.
The general concept there would be that you're looking to
this is the more color-accurate blaster in theory.
It's a little closer since the other one's bright orange.
However, as you'll notice, there is a lot of white on here.
It does not really feel like the movie prop at all.
You also get lights and sound, which we'll get to a little later,
but that is kind of what it is at first glance.
When I’m picking this up, it is surprisingly light and feels…
I wouldn't call it necessarily cheap, but it doesn't feel rock solid or anything.
It feels fairly flimsy. It doesn't weigh very much,
and I can say right off the bat it's no surprise, but this is not a practical blaster.
The action is presumably back here. We’ll pop that open in a minute but
going down a barrel that long is just a recipe for not very much performance.
Speaking of performance, we will put those numbers up on the screen
even though this blaster is really not about performance.
We've got a breech back here.
Nope, that's a jam door.
No, that's the breech.
- You have to prime it.
- Wait… for it.
How do I prime it?
Wait, what?
I literally haven't watched anything on this, so this is great.
No, I’m serious do how to prime it?
- That white thing -- the square white right here.
- What? Oh, that’s…
- Pull forward to prime.
- Okay…
- And then push back.
- Wait. No… Oh, then I close! Okay.
So, we just discovered how the action works.
We pull forward; you load a single dart in the back just like they do on screen.
You close that and then fire.
It has the most anemic sounding plunger tube, which is clearly back here because I can hear…
Huh, that is interesting.
There's a plunger tube in there.
Right off the bat, this thing is just not going to be comfortable to hold.
This feels like… horrible?
I get they're trying to make it like the screen prop, but it definitely does not feel comfortable.
This is not something I would want to actually play with
other than maybe playing around with some other people in cosplay.
Obviously, that stock is a disaster.
Not only does it not fit on my shoulder, it needs to be about that much longer.
Actually, if it was that much longer, it'd be pretty good.
That would actually work.
It's not an ergonomically comfortable blaster.
That's honestly not the point, so I can't say I would ding them on that.
Up top, we've got just a faux optic.
Inside you'll see there's just a distorted piece of plastic kind of has a cool look, especially as
you look at something bright it's kind of warpy, but I don't think it is a very practical blaster.
I cannot see myself ever even
attempting to play around with this unless it was an awfuls round or something similar.
The darts included with the blaster are a first for Hasbro, I believe.
They are all silver with kind of a dark gray head.
Again, if we're gonna fire this rather complex loading mechanism,
but that is pretty cool because that's exactly how Mando does it in the actual show.
But boy, is that awkward, and that doesn't look very straight.
What the…
If you look at the blaster here,
you can actually see the front of mine is kind of tilted to the right.
I don't know how well that's going to show on camera, but definitely,
this part here is really leaning that way.
I'm not really impressed with the quality of this for $120.
I know it's a giant mold, and anytime you've got really large, molded pieces,
it's a lot more difficult to get accurate parts, but Hasbro has the experience to do this.
It's worth mentioning that I did pay for this blaster; I bought this out of my own pocket.
I do like the gold accents; I think those look very nice, especially up top.
The action itself is cool, but I’m really disappointed with the amount of white on here.
I know they didn't want this to look like a firearm, but it is.
It’s just so far from the screen prop with it being white.
I don't understand why this tip couldn't have all been orange and make the rest
of this more like a screen color -- silver gunmetal gray or whatever, more like this.
The other thing I’m seeing is
there's like a little bit of “weathering,” if you'll call it that.
It looks like someone took a sharpie -- and I wouldn't even be surprised if that's about it, or
a brush, but it almost looks like a silver sharpie -- and did these little accents all over here.
They don't look good.
They look terrible.
They look like someone drew on it with a sharpie.
It kind of looks like a six-year-old taking their first attempt at weathering their blaster
to the point where here on this back spot, it's not even on the
edges. It’s not like weathered edges where there would naturally be wear.
So, from a prop perspective, I have to say I’m pretty disappointed.
I wouldn't recommend buying this blaster.
If you can deal without having the lights and sound,
the $50 on sale or $60 retail version that Target and GameStop have is a much better buy.
You can paint it yourself and get it up to a very cool,
much more screen-accurate version of the blaster.
I think this would be fun for those that are casual cosplayers,
but if you're serious into cosplay, I don't think this is the blaster for you.
I would recommend getting the cheaper one buying some really nice paints,
and painting this exactly how you want it to look instead of looking like it does now, which
is so far from what we see on screen.
It's disappointing; I have to say, at least at a bare minimum.
The molding details on the back are pretty cool as far as looking like wood.
It's obviously injection-molded ABS, but I do think that kind of looks nice.
And they've gone through some extra lengths of plugging the holes here with plugs.
That way, you don't see the screw holes, which is kind of a nice effect as well.
In general, on this back half, you don't see any screw holes; they're all plugged nicely.
Then you get up front, and they just have abandoned that idea,
so I’m not sure what that's about, to be honest.
Up here, we got a normal two-shell where you see all the screw holes,
and then everything from here back, including white and all the silver parts, has been plugged.
Very interesting choice on Hasbro’s part.
One other issue I did want to address:
It wasn't so bad for me, but many users have reported online
that their boxes have been shipped in the collector box,
which is definitely disappointing if you're buying this as a collector's piece.
Mine did come in a larger
Amazon box because it was from Amazon -- so cardboard box, and then this box.
Normally I wouldn't care, but if you're buying it as a collector's
item and with the size of the box, I can definitely see wanting to keep that intact.
But with a $50 or $60 version living out there as a variant,
I just do not see the reason to pay for this.
The lights and sound on this blaster are supposedly what would really set this
apart from the fifty-dollar variant that is again $70 cheaper than this version.
Here is the great sound that comes with this blaster.
I'm coming at you actually a week or so after we shot the original portion of this video.
We did figure out that this is not supposed to rotate. It’s a one-time
rotate and locks into position, and then this button actually activates the lighting effect
down the scope on the side, so at least we got that kind of clarified.
I just can't see the extra $70 being worth the lights and sound
again… and this little red led in here.
For my money, that is definitely not a great value compared to the much cheaper version.
With all the issues that have surrounded this blaster,
it's really becoming apparent that they just do not care.
There are no refunds on this blaster both through Hasbro Pulse or through Amazon.com
I find that to be absolutely insane and completely absurd.
Additionally, you can still pre-order this
on hasbropulse.com, and on top of that, Hasbro Pulse has not actually delivered their blasters.
I talked to my buddy Brett (who sometimes wears a beret) this past weekend at a game here in the
warehouse more on that in a future video, and he said that he still hasn't received his blaster.
So somehow, Amazon beat Hasbro delivering these blasters by a month or more.
Seems a little weird.
Additionally, you can now buy this on Amazon
with Prime shipping. You can get this next-day or two-day (whatever Prime is in your area).
That seems a little odd considering this was a “pre-order, limited edition.”
Hasbro Pulse also announced their next blaster:
The Destiny Gjallarhorn blaster, which is a giant projectile, I think it shoots a big rocket.
I've played destiny a little bit, but it's been a few years.
Now they also, a while back, announced the Aliens Pulse Blaster and the Halo Needler.
I find it weird that they keep announcing more blasters,
but they haven't even delivered this to people.
I do not understand this marketing tactic.
At the end of the day, given the price point, the issues with the blaster, the bent alignment,
the poor-quality paint, and sharpie marks that seem to be all over my blaster, including…
There are sharpie marks on the white parts!
Why would the white go silver?
It makes no sense…
I'm distracting myself.
Rating at the end of the day: I’m gonna give this a one-star review.
I love the show; I think Mandalorian is one of the best pieces of Star Wars
that has been done certainly since the original trilogy.
This thing is not worth your money.
If you want to buy this, don't buy this one. Go buy the $50 one.
It’s a much better value.
You can paint it yourself, weather it yourself, make it look better than this,
and who really cares about lights and sounds.
I'd love to hear what you think in the comments.
Clearly, the Amazon reviews are matching (somewhat) my thoughts on this.
So, I’m not alone, but I am just pretty disappointed for what this piece is.
Thank you so much for watching!
This was a bit of a different one.
Until next time, I’m out of darts…
Okay…