Hi, I'm Luke. Today on Out of Darts, we are checking out the Dart Zone Pro Mark 2, and I have
to say right off the bat I am totally blown away by the engineering in this thing. Let's get going!
Dart Zone has really hit the ground running with the Dart Zone Pro line.
I have been impressed with every blaster they have released, and the releases have gotten
more and more polished as time has gone on. They started out with the Dart Zone Pro Mark 1: An $180
hobbyist blaster that hit hard right out of the box,
performed very well but did have a few flaws as far as dart compatibility, mag compatibility, and
just generally wasn't as good as it could be. That said, it's really a fantastic blaster, and
I think it was worth the cost that it came along with it, even though that is a very pricey blaster
for a foam toy -- or a foam flinging toy, that is. After the Mark 1, they released the Mark 1.1,
which was a red variant for Target. It was functionally the same, but they improved the
stock; the collapsing stock back here had a few issues as far as
collapsing while you were using it. Then they hit us even bigger with the Nexus Pro, and the Nexus
Pro is a nearly perfect blaster. I have been blown away by how good this thing is at $50, and its
little sibling which is the Aeon Pro. I would show you that on frame, but it's currently in a bucket
getting modded. So working on a few things there, but the blasters have all been incredibly solid.
Now I feel like I have to mention all of these other blasters because Dart Zone has not just
released one happens-to-be-good blaster. They've released four, and they've all been exceptional.
It is clear to me that Dart Zone, and the team of engineers, and product designers, and everybody
else are seriously listening to the hobby and are very much invested in what we do. And that
makes me really really excited because Hasbro has clearly just turned around and ignored all of us.
They don't care about the releases, they release blasters that we can't open...
But enough about that, let's get to the Mark 2. The Mark 2 is easily the most powerful
little mini blaster pistol that I have ever seen. It reminds me when using it a lot of one
of my favorite blasters which is the Boomco M6. The Boomco M6 being about the same size as this,
but only single-shot. This blaster features a six-round internal magazine.
It's fed through the top. Here you can feed single darts at a time or you can use the included two
quick-reloaders which come with their own holster pouch. These quick reloaders can basically be
loaded and then put on top here. Trying to do that for camera was a little weird, but it clicks in
place and very quickly reloads, and you're back at it. And, uh, my safety's on, so that's a problem.
That's a really ingenious little thing. I think that's a little bit of a nod to the community
because we've been doing quick reloaders for a variety of different blasters for quite some time.
I do say "we," but I don't mean I'm the person that came up with this idea. I'm certainly not,
because the idea has been around for quite some time. But it's a pretty ingenious way to make this
work. And we'll get to how that works and why later, but I think it's a really great little
feature. This blaster is very simple in operation. It's a top-slide prime, six-round internal
magazine, and boy does it pack a punch. A lot like the Boomco blaster, when you fire this thing you
really feel it. The blaster, in my testing, is hitting 135 average FPS, and up to as much as 140
depending on the dart type you use. Now the darts that come with it are these bamboo darts,
as the community has dubbed them, and they do seem to perform a little bit higher than the adventure
force pro darts that are available at Walmart. The Mark 2 does seem to work with all short dart
types that I have on hand including Worker darts, Jet darts, and of course the bamboo and Adventure
Force Pro darts. I think that's fantastic, and it's obviously a big improvement from the Mark 1,
where the Mark 1 couldn't fire as many dart types. Overall, the blaster is really a pleasure to use.
the bamboo darts definitely give you the best performance. And there's so much power in here,
when I first shot it I literally giggled because it hits as hard as basically the Aeon Pro
in a fourth the size or something. Now part of where they've got this power is a very compact
plunger tube. This plunger tube can't be more than about 40 millimeters long and I'm blown away by
getting this much performance and the way they've done this is a very very good air seal, a very
tight fit all the way across, and on top of that they've got a very unique plunger tube
in that it's an oval. This oval gives you a little bit more air volume. This is, as my dad actually
was mentioning the other day, this is done in hydraulics as well, and I think that's a really
interesting choice that I certainly haven't seen Hasbro go with before. I'm not aware of whether
that would cost any more or less to manufacture, but the thing it does ultimately allow you to do
is have a slimmer profile on the actual blaster itself while getting a larger air volume.
That said, this air volume is still very small for the amount of power that's coming out of here,
so it is clear to me that they've got the dart fit, the barrel fit, and the seals just perfect
on this thing. I'm going to say something now that I have never said before: I don't
think I'm going to be able to do much to mod this performance-wise. One thing that Tarik and I have
learned in developing the Little Rocket platform is that once you've maxed out a plunger volume,
the amount of compression force going into a specific plunger volume size,
even if you can get a heavier spring in there you will not get the returns you want. Little Rocket,
for instance, we have put heavier springs in there that are twice as hard to pull back but
only give us, you know, a two-percent improvement. And on that note, it's the same reason where
our low power spring and our high power spring are only about a 15-percent difference in performance,
despite being massively different in priming strength required to prime those two
springs. That means that I don't think there's a case to put an upgrade spring in here,
not that I'm not going to try. The prime right now is really quite pleasant. I think the shape of the
back of the top slide is very good, it makes it very easy to prime. It does have a very
hefty chunk, especially if you dry fire it. I can only assume that it'll take dry firing
because everything else the dart zone pro has made has been just fine dry firing. That said,
there is no air restrictor in here to actually slow down the velocity.
Now interestingly enough, there is a very good air seal, clearly, but if I plug the
tube I don't get the same obvious air seal that I get on some of the other blasters.
Now that could be because the amount of air volume is simply overcoming the length of the
barrel because the barrel is probably only 50-70 millimeters, maybe 100 millimeters at max. I don't
have calipers handy at the moment. Overall, I am just blown away by this blaster. I do have a few
small gripes, but they come with an asterisk in that I do understand why the decisions were made.
So thing number one is I love how small it is but this looks like a firearm. Like plain and simple.
If this wasn't bright red you would really have a problem bringing this anywhere. And even with
it being bright red, I want to advise all of you to be very very careful. From a distance,
especially in mixed lighting or low lighting, this looks like a firearm. It does not look like a toy.
Dart Zone does include this extra muzzle, which makes it look a little bit more like a...
*larger* firearm, but at least it's a lot more orange. So I would highly highly recommend that
if you are going to use this somewhere make sure that it seems like you're making a good choice
as far as the location, use the extra-long barrel for the large extra orange tip. It is worth noting
that the included holster will not work with this extra barrel. there's sort of an odd hook
here where you can maybe use it on something or hook it on your belt, but I'm not entirely sure
how that's intended to be used. Because if it's on something it sits a little low, it's kind of a
strange option. So it sort of appears like this can be used as a holster slash barrel extension.
Clearly, it's meant to be a muzzle that can make it look less firearm-like, and brighter,
and oranger. That said I think at our games where we play in public parks and schools,
this is concerning. This really looks like a toy, I think
especially compared to this in its stripped-down form. Now that said, I love the fact that it's
small and I think the build quality is fantastic. It's got a nice weighty feel.
That is a pretty minor gripe, but it's just something I think everybody should be aware of
my next small complaint is the thing I always complain about so maybe I'm just that one person,
but you'll have to let me know what you think if you've seen this in person. The grip is a
little uncomfortable, and it might just be how my hand is shaped, but I find that this little
area right here rubs on the back of my thumb so much so that the test-firing has actually made
the back of my thumb a little red. Like a firearm, you're going to put all of this force into here,
though in a blaster it's happening when you prime it rather than when you fire
it because there is no recoil in a dart blaster firing a 1.1-gram dart.
But, when you do prime this, you are pushing it into the soft section of your thumb and it does
cause a little bit of wear on my hand. That said I like that they made it very low profile,
very small. I know some people are going to wish that the magazine went through the grip,
and there's a pretty obvious reason they didn't do that. It would require a massive
massive grip to fit a magazine inside that can be actively reloaded through the magazine.
It also makes the reload mechanism more difficult because you've got both the mag lips that have
to somehow magically open and be able to feed, and so I think this was a really great choice.
I think this is going to be an insanely popular sidearm, but that brings us to the final point
which is maybe a downside, depending on how you look at it but that's the price.
This is $79.99. I did grab a $10 coupon which essentially just cut off the nearly 10% sales tax,
so all said and done this is $80. Dart Zone did send me this one, but I want to be clear that
I also purchased one and I'm not canceling that order, because it's well worth purchasing for my
use in my opinion. So these thoughts are my own. This is not sponsored by Dart Zone in any way,
but I do appreciate them sending this to me earlier because I think I got this about a week
earlier than I would have if I waited for Target to ship mine. Overall this blaster is fantastic;
I give it a 5 out of 5. It is nearly flawless in execution, it is very powerful,
it is really fun to use, and it's just awesome having such a compact blaster that can hit so hard
made just for our hobby. One final reminder: Do wear your eye protection all the time when playing
with this blaster. That is the case for any of the Pro line of blasters because they are powerful
blasters. These are not simply toys, despite being on Target.com. I think it's probably a good thing
this isn't on Target shelves. I think parents could mistake it for a true toy. I think it being
an online purchase is probably better considering the shape, form factor, and how hard it hits. I
hope you've enjoyed this look at the Mark 2. I cannot wait to see what Dart Zone does next
because four blasters in they're still wowing me. The engineering in this thing is amazing. I think
my hat's off to you guys. Thanks so much for watching. Do hit that like and subscribe button.
I will attempt to mod this, and I'll do a video on that, and the results, and whether it was
possible. I do have some ideas for some cosmetic things and little accessories, but I'm not sure
about that spring. One last thing I would like to hear before you go: since this hits 130-140 FPS,
do some of you want a low power spring? That was my first thing I thought that we could
put together because I'm pretty sure I already have a spring that fits. We'll talk more about
that in the mod video. Thanks again for watching. Until next time, I'm out of darts... literally.