Hey, it's Luke from Out of Darts.
Today we are checking out a really cool production
injection-molded sidearm, and who doesn't like a sidearm?
Let's get going!
This is the ZWQ S200 Fire Rat.
This unit was dropped off by Chris, a customer of ours.
Thank you very much for letting me check this out.
We have been speaking with monkey mods about
carrying these as well because I think they're a pretty interesting offering.
But it was nice to be able to get my hands on this earlier since he had already ordered one himself.
This blaster feels very familiar in a couple of different ways.
It feels somewhat similar to a Dart Zone Pro Mark-II;
it also feels very similar to other community blasters.
In the back here, the actual feeding mechanism and air turnaround is very similar to a lynx,
but there's obviously been a lot of independent design work, and this is far from being
a direct clone, in my opinion – especially since there are only so many ways to make a blaster.
Ergonomically the blaster is extremely comfortable.
It is probably the most comfortable through grip I have ever felt.
Now it is using one little trick to get to that point, and that is the magazine itself.
This magazine is not an angled talon magazine.
The magazine itself is 12 rounds.
It feels a bit flimsier and lighter weight than most of the magazines we've become
used to, such as the Tachi or the talon mags.
However, I don't say that as a fault.
It is a feature ultimately because it needs the thinner walls and thinner profile to fit
in this grip, to keep this grip very comfortable and small.
The grip itself has a rubberized cover on it, much like the Worker Phoenix 2.0.
Now, this brings me to another point:
Apparently, these are designed by the same designer, and I can definitely see that
both the shapes, the effects that are on the blaster,
and the styling feel like they could very easily be the same designer.
They're a good complement for one another, actually.
Up top, we've got really nice fiber optic sights that pull in daylight.
It's got a nice feel, and it's definitely an easy blaster to actually aim.
The trigger itself is actually metal which is a spectacular addition to
what is essentially… a stock blaster?
Do we call these stock blasters anymore? I'm really starting to wonder.
That's a whole other conversation for probably another day.
I've also been told that there are metal magazines on the way, so that would feel more
like an airsoft magazine in terms of build quality and perhaps reduce the like cheap feel this has.
Again, I’m not saying that as a degrading factor I get that the walls can only be so
thick if you're trying to achieve the small magwell, and I do think that's the right
direction for this even though it doesn't use the magazines that my existing blasters have.
I just find that the full-size angled talons going through a mag in-grip…
It's really just not quite as comfortable.
It's a lot larger, and it works really well in this form factor where the blaster
is physically so much bigger -- I have no problem with this grip;
I feel it's just fantastic.
But, when you move down to a sidearm, it's nice to slim that up.
I think he's managed to cut about five or six millimeters
off of this direction and a few off of this direction as well, so take that as you will.
The blaster operation is quite simple:
You've got a prime, a spring-loaded slide return (which I really like), and then you fire.
It is very easy to rail off –
As I punch myself in the face (!)
It's a very easy blaster to use.
You simply prime-fire, and if you want, you can even double load it.
The performance is not super high.
It's right around 100 FPS, but this slide is so easy to prime (you can do it with two fingers).
I expect there's room to actually upgrade the spring itself.
However, I’m not aware of how well the internals can take the upgrades.
Looking inside, from what I can see (without taking the blaster apart),
it's clear that there is a metal plunger tube and a few other metal components.
I believe there are some aftermarket components available as well.
It's a very compact, very comfortable, lightweight blaster.
I think it is a perfect complement as a sidearm for various game types.
The accuracy given the shorter barrel length is definitely not on par with a higher FPS blaster,
but given that it's a sidearm and a very small form factor, I think that's pretty forgivable.
The mag release feels very good on the side.
It's a single button.
It does not look to be ambidextrous.
However, it does look like these…
Nope. It's definitely not ambidextrous.
I thought for a second that maybe you could swap these two parts,
but I’m looking at the holes they don't line up.
So, it's really only easy for a right-handed person.
If you're left-handed, you're going to find this a little bit obnoxious.
Sorry for the 10% of people that are left-handed; that's a bummer.
I do see why they did it this way. It’s just difficult to design ambidextrous
things when you're really trying to keep thing your blaster profile small.
One very odd note for me is that this top slide has a very odd design.
First, we've got these two pins here, which in theory clamp in and keep the slide in position.
However, if I push them in, they do keep the slide there, and when
they spring open, and the slide can move, they don't seem to work very well.
What I mean there is if I just fire once -- and I’m not going to touch those two pins,
I can prime normally without them.
I don't really know why they're there.
It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me because
you naturally can grab them; they’re not really a problem.
But we have heard of users just taking them out completely because they don't seem to do anything.
Even if I clamp them, if I pre-press them in place first, and then I pull the top, it still fires.
I'm not entirely sure what the thought was there.
Perhaps they didn't initially have a return
spring, but I really like the return spring. It’s nice to just grab it while you're out playing.
Oh, that time I didn't…
Next feature:
The slide stays open when your magazine is empty.
Really cool.
What's happening there is that when the magazine itself is empty, we've got a wall
here on the pusher for the mag that will actually collide with the blaster, finishing to prime.
So, we see it stays in the locked open position and lets you know immediately that you can't
fire it again, which, when you're actually playing with it, is an excellent feature.
A few notes on the magazine itself:
It is definitely a little bit finicky to reload.
You need to be careful because it's an angled magazine, and because the spacing inside
is shorter in this direction than most magazines, it's a little bit more work to load this.
You're not going to load this super quickly on the fly.
Obviously, you can get better over time.
I think I found when playing around with this just two fingers pulling down both
and try to center them as best possible, but once they're in here, they only have about a
millimeter--millimeter-and-a-half of play between the front wall and the back wall of the magazine.
It's not terrible once you get used to it,
but it definitely was not as quick and easy as a talon or especially a Tachi.
I've become very used to top-loading a Tachi where you just press it down.
Everybody's got their own preference.
I might do a video on that someday as far as the speed of reloading and wear and tear on the darts.
Let me know in the comments if that's a video you'd actually like to see.
But now we're ready to fire again.
You get 12 shots in the magazine, plus you can keep one chambered,
which means you can actually have 12 plus 1: 13 shots.
Pretty darn good for a basic sidearm.
My go-to previously was really the Dart Zone Pro Mark-II.
Now, they are different sizes and different form factors.
This is definitely smaller and lighter, but with only five shots,
they're not really in the same category.
As far as comfort, they're not in the same category.
However, the Dart Zone Pro out of the box definitely beats it in terms of performance.
However, the S200 is a more affordable blaster of the two of the blasters.
So, there are pros and cons here.
I'd love to see this amped up to this performance
level getting it up to 130 FPS -- even maybe 150 FPS.
It's hard to say with this little plunger tube
how possible that actually is, but I think it's something that can probably be done,
and I’m expecting I’m probably unaware of what upgrade options are available for the blaster.
One major caveat with this blaster is its profile.
If you take off, especially that little protruding barrel, this
blaster very much looks like a real steel firearm.
Now I do understand it is clear, and there's a little bit of red there,
but this is not blaze orange.
If we carry these, we will not be carrying them with this.
I want this whole muzzle here to be bright orange and this barrel to be brighter.
That's going to be my only condition.
There's no way I can sell these in their current form.
However, a lot of the fields we've been playing at -- I can see if you're playing at an airsoft
field or if you're playing in your house, it’s totally acceptable to have this blaster.
I just don't think it's a great idea to bring this
blaster in its current state to a public park, a school, or anything of that type.
I even find this somewhat questionable.
This is the Mark-II from Dart Zone, but at least this one's bright red with bright orange.
It’s a little bit better.
This one really has a horrible profile for a toy,
so definitely keep that in mind if you do pick one of these up yourself.
In the end, I’m going to give this a solid 4 out of 5 stars.
There are a few little quirks with this top slide -- not really sure what's going on there,
and I’d love to see some different colors as far as an orange muzzle for US release.
But other than that, really stellar offering, and I can't wait to see what this designer does next.
I don't know if this is the same designer as the Swift, but clearly, the design language is here.
At the end of the day, I think the S200 Fire Rat is a really compelling offering.
I believe this comes in at around $85?
I'll correct myself on the screen if I’m wrong.
Currently, I know you can get these from monkey mods,
but we are in talks to hopefully carry them on the shop as well because I was really
impressed, and I will definitely be picking one of these up for the right field
and the right gameplay because I think it's going to make a terrific sidearm.
Thank you so much for watching!
I would love to hear your opinion on this blaster and what you think it looks like.
Do you think it's something that should be at most games or just private games?
If it were the right color, would that be more compelling to you?
I think it's a really cool blaster, and I’m excited to get out and play with it some more.
Until next time, I’m out of darts.
At the end of the day, I think the SR200.
“SR,” I keep wanting to add an “R.”
Boop(!)
At the end of the day, I think the SR – nope(!)