Man Falandorn! I swear the guy never sleeps. Just last week I reviewed his new stock,
the MagLock Pro and already he's got an even newer one!
This is the Sidewinder.
It's an evolution of the Wolverine Ultralite which is an amazing stock
I reviewed in March of last year and as far as I know,
when it comes to the Sidewinder, there is no other stock on the market like it.
Like the Ultralite before it this stock is designed to be lightweight and easy to wield,
even one handed. Where the MagLock Pro is designed to accurately simulate almost any gun in any VR
game you might play, the Sidewinder is designed to be fast and accurate to give you a competitive
edge. Your dominate hand controller is semi permanently mounted to the stock so you don't have
to clip in and out when switching to your sidearm or to throw a grenade or use other equipment.
In the past Falandorn has used zip ties to secure your dominant
hand controller to the stock but he has since redesigned the controller
dock making attaching and detaching your controller WAAAYYY easier to do.
You simply pass the shoulder stock through the tracking ring of the Quest 2 controller,
slide it forward to the dock and then squeeze these wings in a little bit to
allow the tracking ring to slip over top and then push the dock down into the controller
until the bottom edge of the dock snaps into place under the tracking ring and you're ready to go.
To remove your controller from the dock you get your finger nails in here like
this to pop this lip off the bottom like so on both sides and as you slide the controller
off the dock you'll reach a point where you'll need to squeeze in on the wings
of the dock a little bit to get the uh, tabs I guess I'll call them, past the top edge of
the tracking ring and then you just slide the controller the rest of the way off the stock.
Like all off Kobra VR's other stocks the Sidewinder uses a grip handle on the front which
is molded perfectly to the Quest 2 controllers and allows you to quickly disengage your hand to strip
out an empty magazine, slap a new one in, rack the charge handle if need be and then reengage.
This one feature is what set Kobra stocks apart from all the others
when I bought my first stock. All the others I saw at the time used
a magnetic attachment system of some kind which is slow and clunky in my
opinion. By comparison this grip handle is lightning fast and feels completely natural.
While the Sidewinder is designed to be fast rather than a super accurate sim stock that's
not to say it doesn't have any adjustability. If we loosen this thumb wheel here we can adjust
our dominant hand controller forward, tighten it back down and now we can use super compact
sub machine guns like the P90 which many other stocks are not really able to simulate. Since
the shoulder stock isn't collapsible though this does leave the butt of the gun quite a
bit longer than what you see in game, but once you're playing a match you quickly forget that
things aren't perfectly lined up because you're too busy trying to put your sites on opponents.
We can then lengthen the Sidewinder back out for our other SMG's and rifles and for the most part
hand placement and shoulder stock length are really close to what you see in game. There
are of course some guns like sniper rifles and shotguns that require an even longer reach with
your front hand which the Sidewinder is unable to simulate on it's own but thankfully most games are
very forgiving of your hand placement and even though your hands in real life are not quite
in the right position, your in game hands will grab the appropriate parts of the virtual gun.
And speaking of shotguns, since the front grip here is designed to attach to the stock via this
little picatinny rail the Sidewinder is fully compatible with Kobra VR's pump shotgun module;
which is a bit pricey but an absolute load of fun to use.
This means
the Sidewinder is also compatible with Kobra VR's bi-pod if you're in to some long range sniping.
Ok, so now to finally address why this stock is called the Sidewinder and what this stuff here is.
As you may have guessed, this is a hinge that allows you to change the
configuration of the Sidewinder so you can use a pistol without the shoulder
stock getting in your way and limiting your range of motion. This is also a very
nice feature to have when throwing grenades and performing other tasks
that are tricky to do with the shoulder stock hanging out there all willy nilly.
The thing I think I had the most fun with though was using the tiny sub machine guns
like the Spectre M4 and the Uzi which you want to use two handed to control
the recoil but then don't have a shoulder stock. You're more or less hip firing these
guns when using them but it was a ton of fun running around just spraying people with those
little guns. The Spectre in Contractors was especially fun because that thing has a 50
round magazine or something like that so you can just pull the trigger and spray forever.
Now if you know anything about Falandorn you know that he doesn't add a feature like this
simply for the sake of adding a new feature. He is incredibly passionate about VR and his gunstocks
and wants any feature he builds into a stock to make the experience better. So he designed this
'sidewinding' action to be something you can do quickly and with as minimal effort as possible.
It does take a little practice to become proficient at it but the easiest way I've
found to collapse the Sidewinder is to first make sure you're holding the stock with both
hands, then place the shoulder stock against the outside of your shoulder,
forearm or anywhere in between and then quickly bring your rear hand into your body. To extend
you just give the shoulder stock a good smack with the back of your finger tips and you're
right back in the fight. The Sidewinder uses two sets of magnets to facilitate this action. One
set here in the hinge which hold the stock securely in place while the shoulder stock
is extended and another set that keep the stock in it's collapsed position.
Like all of Kobra VR's stocks there is some assembly required when you first
receive your Sidewinder. If I remember right mine came in five different pieces I think.
First you'll want to place the shoulder stock onto the shorter end of your hinged aluminum
strut and secure it in place with the included Allen key. Next you'll want to place on the
controller dock like so and tighten down the thumbscrew to secure it. We can then
slide on this magnet piece and to position it correctly, you just fold the stock in half,
position the magnet where it holds the shoulder stock in place and once again tighten down the
screw with the Allen wrench. Lastly we can place on the front grip handle and screw it in place.
As for things I don't like about the Sidewinder, there's really only one complaint I can think
of and that's the limited amount of space for your thumb under here. I have somewhat
large hands and fat fingers so my thumb rubs on the aluminum strut here a little
bit. It's not super uncomfortable or anything but it is something I felt I should point out.
The only other complaint I feel like I have is it's not as sexy looking as it's brothers,
the Wolverine DMR and MagLock Pro. But where the Sidewinder lacks in looks it fully makes
up for it in performance, which in my opinion is the most important part
anyway. This stock has all the goods to help you dominate the leader board. Thanks to the
through the ring design you get zero occlusion and perfect tracking. It's
compact and lightweight making it easy to control and quickly get your sites on target. And it can
be adjusted to work well, not perfectly mind you but work well with every gun in
whatever game you may be playing and it does all of this while being a ton of fun to use.
The Sidewinder will be launching shortly after this video goes live for 65 Great
British pounds which, as of the making of this video, is around 80 U.S. Dollars.
Also, for current owners of the Wolverine DMR, Kobra VR will be offering a Sidewinder
Conversion Kit so you can kit out your DMR with this folding action rather than having
to buy an entirely new stock. At the time I'm recording this they haven't given me a price
on the conversion kit but it will of course be less expensive than buying the Sidewinder itself.
I've linked Kobra VR's Etsy page in the video description where you can check
out the Sidewinder along with all the other stocks and accessories that Kobra VR offers.