Hi, it's Luke.
Today on Out of Darts, I'm going to run you through my top five most comfortable nerf
grips.
Let's get right to it!
Nerf blasters come in a massive array of different types of blasters, sizes, grip feel, and style.
Now I'm no expert, but I do know what I like.
I got kind of turned onto ergonomics, which is the study of human interaction in design.
It's essentially how we interact with everything in our environment, be that the height of
your table or your chair, to the spacing of your furniture, or how (in this case) a blaster
fits your hand.
Now I am in my mid-thirties, and I have generally large... normal size hands, I guess—large
male hands.
So if we were to look at this, my hands from the tip of my middle finger down to the base
where it turns is about 7 1/2 inches.
So, it's worth noting this whole video only applies to me because this is my personal
opinion.
So if you have average male hands -- I generally wear large gloves but not extra-large, it's
worth noting.
My span from left to right is about 9 inches when fully extended.
Different people are going to have very different needs, and just because I don't put something
doesn't mean it's not a good grip for you.
So please don't leave me a comment telling me that I'm wrong because you like the other
one.
However, I would like to hear the comments down below about what your favorite is and
whether you like any of the ones I'm talking about.
So number 5: Starting right off is a classic Recon.
Now, this is the Modulus version, and it's the Mark-2, but the grip feels very similar.
It's got a nice comfortable grip; the only downside is that the trigger well is a little
small.
What I like to feel in a blaster is that it's very comfortable to hold, aim, fire.
It's not difficult to get your hand into the grip or out of the grip, and there are no
pinch points; uncomfortable points pushing on your hand.
I think it feels very good; it's comfortable to hold all day.
I have played entire days with this and never had any sores on my hands or anything like
that, and honestly, that's probably the best indicator that something is reasonably comfortable
is when you do not notice it.
Because the best ergonomic decisions are the ones you never even know existed.
[Number four]: This is the hammer shot -- one of the most popular blasters of all times,
especially in our hobby.
It has a rather different grip from a lot of the other blasters because there is a nice
recess for your middle finger to sit in to give you the leverage needed to actually prime
this.
This one was painted by our Mod Tech Greg.
He gave it to me as a gift a while back, along with these custom brass cylinders, which was
pretty darn sweet.
Swirl paint: got to love it.
But this grip, overall, is fabulous.
I have played very long extents of days with nothing but these, and I've also used them
as sidearms extensively.
I have found them to fit both large hands and small, and they never tire on my hand.
It is worth knowing that when you do have a large spring load here, you will feel a
little rubbing on your middle finger, but in the stock configuration, that is non-existent.
So this comes in at number four; really, really, really great blaster overall.
Man, I love this thing.
Number 3: Now, some of you might be saying, "why would you put a Ceda In this list."
The reason I would is that, even though this plaster is not perfect and all ways -- it
definitely has its flaws, and I think the magazines are inferior to Talons -- it is
a really comfortable grip, albeit a mighty, mighty basic one.
I'd love to see different texturing on here to feel a little bit more...
But this grip feels fantastic.
It's really easy to get your hand in here.
It's very easy to access the Meg release, which is fantastic.
And it just feels very, very good with plenty of extra room.
My hand hits the same point on the grip every single time, and it just feels very, very
comfortable.
I think this could be improved with some rubberized grip or something, but the basic shape is
phenomenal and hard to beat.
It's also worth mentioning that there are other variants of this exact same grip.
This is the Game Face Prime, which, if you can't tell, is literally Identical, coming
from the exact same mold.
But, the same thing exists there: is a very comfortable, very, very comfortable grip overall.
So that is number three.
Number two: This is the Dart Zone Pro Mark-1.
This also applies to the Mark-1.1, which you can now buy at Target.
This is a lovely grip.
Now, they went with a rubber over-covering, but not to be confused with an overmold -- So
these are not attached.
You can actually take this off.
I think the only way to improve this would have been to make that an actual overmold,
where a second mold is made, and the TPU, the flexible rubber that's in here, would
be molded and actually connected.
But, that being said, this is a very comfortable, very ergonomic grip.
It feels great in the hand.
It seats very nicely in the hand.
I have full-size hands, again, and is this, for my geometry, is perfect.
I think if you had smaller hands, like say, my wife, she might find this a little less
comfortable because it would stretch your fingers out due to these larger nubs here,
but I think they knew their audience.
It was the 16+, on average adult male and...
Because this is a $180 blaster, it has some nicer perks.
Its cousin, however, also gets an honorable mention here, in slot number two, and that's
the Nexus Pro.
Now the Nexus Pro has a very similar profile on this grip, but they've gone a little more
universal, a little more basic on the actual feel, and it doesn't have the rubber [over-covering].
That said, this is one of the most comfortable grips you can buy on a $50 blaster, and I'm
always really impressed with it; and it never makes me tired, and it feels great.
Now I know a number of people have made new grips for this, and honestly, I was a bit
was surprised by that.
I might play around with that, but I don't think ergonomically, there's a lot to improve
here.
It really would just be about aesthetics.
So at number 2 is the Dart Zone Pro Mark-1, which a $180 Blaster: it better have a good
grip, and it certainly does.
And finally, Number One (this might be a bit of a surprise): The Khaos.
This is the most understated grip, I think, of all the Rival blasters, and if you've tried
them side-by-side, you'll know that this is for adult hands one of the most comfortable
grips you'll ever feel—the placement of the rev trigger, the actual shape of the grip,
and everything seats perfectly.
And the spacing between the back of the grip and the bottom of the blaster is just ideal.
This really seals just fantastic.
This plaster, aside from the grip, was a bit of a nightmare.
The 40-round capacity was really hampered by a terrible magazine system.
That said, you can put this on to a Proton Pack with an adapter, and I actually think
it's probably the best option for the Proton Pack, surprisingly, because the balls come
out -- the hose comes out the bottom, it's very comfortable, it's got a great grip, it's
got good balance, and I think its just a fantastic blaster.
When this first came out, I was excited because my previous favorite grip had been this classic
Zeus grip, but the Zeus grip is a little small; if you look at the grip, it's pretty tiny
compared to the Khaos here.
But, I was disappointed with this blaster overall as far as performance.
However, I think a lot of people are going to give this new life with the Proton Pack.
So at number one, definitely give it to the Khaos.
I think this grip is hard to beat for my personal preference.
Designing grips is something very interesting, and when I did Jupiter, I spent a ton of time
working on my original blaster, which was Sylphrena.
This was one of my first large design projects that took more time than ever.
I went through probably 50 or 60 iterations just getting a grip, and as Trivial as it
looks, It's really not that simple because everyone's hands are different, and the width,
the thickness, the depth -- everything matters.
And your trigger-style matters, and it takes more time and thought than you would think.
I got inspired to do this video because Orange Mod Works has just released the SR-200 Blaster,
and they had some information there on all the work they did on their grip; and I think
their grip looks really good, so I'm excited to get my hands on that and check that out.
But this to date is still (for my hands) absolutely perfect, and I took clay and putty, and I
actually built one physically to get close to the ergonomics I wanted.
I looked at blasters that were already out that I enjoyed and liked and then modified
from there, iteration by iteration, until I had a really comfortable grip.
Now there are a few people that have felt this at a trade show or at one of the events
and might actually have felt, but a lot of the people have not, and I (obviously) would
not do buttons like this.
When I did these buttons, I just didn't know how to design a trigger, so obviously, later
on, we did Jupiter.
Jupiter is very close to this grip, though it changed a little bit due to printing needs,
an actual, you know, being production-ready, so it's a little bit different than Sylphrena,
but it's pretty darn close.
I'm excited to see where grips go on future blasters.
If you're interested, let me know in the comments and I'll do the top 5 worst, because boy,
are there some bad ones, and I think it might be fun to do that as well.
Thank you so much for watching.
We're trying a different video style here.
I would love to hear from you whether you find this actually compelling and interesting
or if I should be doing something else altogether.
YouTube's a weird place these days.
If you watched this far, seriously, thank you.
And you're probably already subscribed to me and hit that like button.
But if you haven't, do it for me.
And until next time, I'm out of darts.