Hi, I’m Luke with Out of Darts. Today we've got another review. This
is the Dart Zone Pro Max Stryker
This time of year is always crazy with blasters; the reviews come
non-stop. We're trying not to do too many of them, but on these blasters where I feel they
are really key to the hobby and very popular ones, I want to make sure I at least touch on them
to kind of give you my thoughts and also get a chance to play with it on the field.
The Max Stryker is obviously very much a sequel to the Nexus Pro: one of the most popular hobby-grade
blasters of all time, just coming out a year and a half? Year to year and a half ago.
And this blaster has been tremendously popular, and so have all the accessories we sell for it.
And that brings us to the Dart Zone Max Stryker.
The Stryker is available at Target only. It has very similar internals and externals
compared to the Nexus. It features a similar buffer tube stock, which is compatible with
airsoft and other buffer tube stocks. It's got the same size muzzle up front,
so this is totally removable. It doesn't really do anything. as far as I can tell, the darts
don't contact the inside of there, but aside from looking cool doesn't serve a whole lot of purpose.
Now, this is the same sizing as the other blasters, so it is compatible with
our Thanh scar barrels as well as the Little Rocket adapter, which is kind of fun. So,
you can put the Little Rocket adapter in here, and you can put
different kinds of Little Rocket barrels on the front to fire those; and then you
can still fire through the center when you're not using one of the Little Rocket barrels.
probably don't want to try put that in there that doesn't work so much(!)
You may be able to tell that I am quite warm. It is another heatwave here in the Pacific
Northwest. I think today is going to be 100 degrees, followed by 107 tomorrow. Always fun.
The Dart Zone Max Stryker comes with a few accessories as well, including an
optical sight up top which is not optical. It is, of course, just air inside there,
very much a cosmetic thing. I don't think I would use this though
the 10-year-old in me really likes it. So, I have to remember that sometimes that they're doing this
for the kids that are kind of into the appearance more than anything. The iron
sights themselves are actually pretty decent. I think they are very good and very practical,
though the sightline is a little low when you're resting your cheek on this actual stock.
So, I don't find that I can actually effectively get my eye where I want it to be for those iron
sights. So, to me, they kind of end up being more of a cosmetic thing anyway, so ultimately…
Ultimately, I’ll drop my buffer tube stock on the floor and remove those sights,
and I think the way I will be playing with this is pretty stripped down.
Ergonomically, the blaster is very solid. The grip feels very nice. I actually prefer it to
the grip of the Nexus quite a bit, though the Nexus is also very good; I don't think either
of them is bad grips. This is a little bit more of a pebbled [and] contoured. It's got a kind
of spacing for each of your fingers, and the comfort of this is really going to depend on
your individual hands. This one happens to match my hand quite well, and it is quite comfortable.
On a blaster like the Nexus, since this is smooth, if you've got smaller hands,
they're going to line up no matter what you do. If you've got smaller or larger hands, the
feel is going to be a little more universal. Sometimes, I’ve noticed that when you
got this contour for the individual fingers, if you've got smaller hands like my wife,
she doesn't care for these because they sort of stretch her fingers open
when she's holding the trigger. Again, your mileage may vary depending on your hand size.
One minor gripe I do have is this pump grip. While I love pump grips, and I would love for this to
have a pump grip versus the angled foregrip (or sort of vertical slash angled… I don't know,
I guess that's an angled foregrip. it's somewhere in between a true angled and a vertical foregrip),
but the Nexus Pro: this was very comfortable on my hand comparatively. This is comfortable,
but I do find that these side ridges strike both my palm and my fingers. So, when I prime,
I am constantly jamming my finger in here.
Now again, I have larger hands (or adult large hands), so this isn't maybe intended for me,
but I have to sort of choke up on this grip, leaving a little space
in between here so that my fingers don't actually get jammed each time.
I’m definitely going to offer a replacement grip for this. It's just too small
for someone my size or for any adult for that matter. I just can't consistently prime it without
having these edges here and here hit my knuckles or my fingertips and my palm.
Ultimately, that's not a huge deal. It's not a deal-breaker or anything like that,
but I do think it can be massively improved. So,
look for a design on that at some point here in the near future. I think it's great having
a pump grip, so I think I’m just going to do something that's sort of in theme -- it looks
similar to this but just is enlarged to fit an adult-sized hand much like the grip does.
The Stryker includes a 12-round magazine, and it is also compatible with the other Dart Zone mags,
and it is compatible with Talon mags and our Tachi mags. So, that's pretty cool. Right out
of the box, with the adapter, it basically works with everything that hobby uses.
The blaster feels really good to fire, use, and handle. I think it's a really good
platform. The biggest advantage of this blaster is that, if you don't like shopping at Walmart,
this is available at Target. It is a Target exclusive if you couldn't tell from the color
already. I think that it's nice to have options at both big box stores. There's a whole faction
of people that don't shop at Walmart, and there’s a whole faction that don't shop at Target, so this
gives access to the hobby to both of those crowds of people.
I expect we are going to see a lot of these on the field in 2021 and 2022
The blaster also comes with a completely new dart type, this is the dart type for the Max
Stryker line, and you can buy these at Target as well. They are nearly identical with just a
different tip and hole pattern than the Adventure Force Pro darts. But, I have to say I really love
the color because these are miserable to find tip down in grass, or in dirt, or
pine needles and other things. They're really kind of a tough thing to find,
and this red is going to stick out much more. So, I would like to do some comparative analysis
at some point as far as accuracy with some brand new darts, but I’ve got to figure out a better rig
to more consistently test that and take the human error out of that system. But,
I think these will be great. It's just more opportunity for people to get darts locally. So,
now both Target and Walmart will have the darts you need for your weekend of gaming.
Subjectively, the accuracy and reliability seem very similar to the Nexus. I haven't
done any scientific tests on that, but it feels very good during gameplay.
It's worth noting that it's also compatible with the Worker mag adapters. You’ll want
to make sure that you do get the springer version, but pretty straightforward there,
and it's kind of just a preference based on how you like to run your blaster.
As far as our mod parts, we're going to be offering a new sling point mount. This is
our existing one, and you can see that there's a gap here; that gap should not be there, but the
patterning on the side of this buffer tube is a little bit different. So, I’ll have a new release
version of this that will replace this, and it'll sit snug on there. That way, you've got a nice
ideal point to hang that from a sling -- specifically a one-point sling.
This rear cap is the exact same design as the Nexus. That's very welcomed because
all of our tuning caps will slot in there just fine. Our tuning caps now on the website have
updated guides to what fits what and what the actual ratings will be once you put them on,
but they just twist in place this one's the 175 fps. It varies a little bit from blaster
to blaster (between this blaster and the Nexus), but they're really easy to just
swap in. we've also got about 10 springs available for this blaster between worker
springs and our own spring, so I’ll have some of those links down in the description as well.
Performance-wise, this blaster is delivering the hits as expected. It's very comparable
to the Nexus with similar spring loads or the stock configuration, and the tuning caps were
all within 5 to 10 fps of the Nexus plus or minus, depending on which setup. So,
it's a very solid blaster all around, as I have come to expect from Dart Zone.
I couldn't be more excited for a company than Dart Zone. The Mark-III is going to be coming out
sometime this fall, and I think that is going to be a colossal game-changer in the flywheel space.
A lot more to come. Thank you so much for watching! I know it's kind of a lot of reviews,
again, here this past month and the next month. But, we're trying to cover some of
these new blasters as they come out because the hobby is changing fast,
and I want to make sure that I’m on top of it. Until next time, I’m out of darts.