Hey, it's Luke with Out of Darts. Today, I've got something a little bit different.
This is the Spyra One. The Spyra One is a water blaster that is
quite literally one of the coolest toys I've played with in years. Let's get soaked!
I have loved super soakers for forever,
and when I say forever, I mean literally since the birth of the series. When 1990 came around,
I got myself a super soaker 50. that's the yellow and green one that I sadly don't
have anymore because they had plenty of defects and frequently broke after a few years of use.
My parents were not huge fans of toy guns -- look where that got them, but they did let
me have quite a few super soakers, and between gifts, and allowance money, and other purchases,
I ended up with probably around a dozen blasters. Now, I remember having the original super soaker
50, and when that came out, it was game-changing. You have no idea. Going from little tiny pistols
that could squirt little squirts of water at once to a constant stream that you could pump
and keep hosing people down... it was amazing. And then I remember when the 100 came out, and
it just snowballed from there because the blasters got better and better and better.
Later on, the CPS or Constant Pressure System blasters came out,
and those were absolutely legendary. I had the 1500. Though I never owned the 2000, I do have
the 4100, which has a very large capacity. It doesn't have quite the kick that the 2000 did, but
these blasters were bonkers. And there are other variations. This is the flash flood, which was a
surprisingly fun blaster (or water gun). In this case, it had a standard nozzle. It also had a
valve up top, which would open the entire contents of the bladder. Really really cool blasters.
Now CPS blasters had their problem, however, because they basically ruined regular games. The
only thing you could play against this super soaker with was a hose. You needed a hose,
a bucket, or a really well-placed water balloon. But there really wasn't anything else,
and this took the games from playing for a couple hours to a matter of minutes, and we would all
just be dripping wet. Now, on a hot summer day in Minnesota, that was perfect, but on a day when it
wasn't super warm, the games ended pretty quickly because these can really put out some water.
I bring up all this backstory because I want to be clear how much I love super soakers and how
big that brand when it was owned by Laramie, and then nerf -- or Hasbro, rather had the patents.
And then, in 2009, it disappeared completely for a variety of different reasons. Ultimately,
there was a big settlement with Lonnie Johnson, who owned the original patents, and I believe
they settled for $73 million. Way to go, Lonnie Johnson. That was money well deserved, and that's
like one of the few times you get to hear about one small designer getting paid properly and not
getting steamrolled by a billion-dollar (or multi-billion dollar) corporation.
CPS blasters are gone, and at this point, are literally collector's items.
Now, I expect Hasbro with their recent re-release of the vintage blasters;
I expect we're going to get the better blasters later (the CPS blasters). I assume they're coming.
We only can take guesses there because it might be a few years before they do that.
They seem content to release 30-year-old tech first, so we're literally getting
versions of my childhood blaster: the 50 and the 100 were at Target just the other day,
and I snapped this photo. I did not purchase any of these blasters because
compared to today's blasters, and specifically the Spyra One here, they're not as compelling.
First of all, before we get into the review, I do want to say that Spyra sent me these
blasters for free, so obviously, my opinions are my own, this is not a sponsored video,
but I did not pay for these blasters. I want to thank Spyra for sending them to me,
and I want to also apologize for not doing this review in November.
However, when these showed up on my doorstep, it was pouring outside...
With that out of the way, I want to run you through the specs and features of this blaster.
This is an electrically powered blaster with a lithium-ion battery. It features a USB-C charging
port in the bottom, an on-off switch, and a beautiful custom segmented LCD screen up top
that actually shows you an accurate percentage of water you have left along with showing your
water capacity. The LCD screen also shows you your battery meter, which is really nice. I'm
not exactly sure how long these work, but it seems like you could probably play with this
all day long before needing to charge. Charging itself is via normal USB-C, so it's pretty much
just plug it in, leave it for a few hours, and you are good to go. The circuitry inside manages
the battery, so unlike a LiPo, you don't have to deal with any of the precautions for managing and
storing, and caring for the LiPo. that said, it's probably a better idea to keep the charge at about
fifty percent, maybe one third, if you're going to let it sit long term -- that's always good
for lithium batteries, and I wouldn't recommend leaving this in a super hot car (just in case).
Now, this water gun functions a lot differently than all the water blasters and super soakers
in the past. This shoots "water bullets," which are tight streams that fire each time you fire
the blaster. And it's also got a max-power feature where it dumps a larger volume of water as well.
This is a really neat feature for a variety of reasons. First, when you're sitting there playing
with these, you're not drenching your opponent in three seconds because one dump from a blaster like
this literally will you can have your shirt and your whole body completely soaked from
what one pumping of that. This becomes more of a tactical game, and I think it's fascinating.
Ergonomically, the blaster is really fantastic in the back. We've got a nice kind of textured
stock point there, and we've got a thumbhole stock which for my hands is decent. I can get a very
good purchase on here. Personally, I'd like it a little bit larger, but that is the extent of
my complaints on this blaster. The rest of this is just beautiful. You've got this dual-purpose
trigger in the center of the blaster that both reloads and fires. If you hold down the firing
trigger, you can get a maximum power shot, which is a larger burst, and that is a really
fun feature to play around with. up front, we've got two holes, one for the actual firing and one
for the reloading, where the water comes in, and we've got a nice textured fore grip surface here.
The lines and feel and sci-fi look of this blaster are fabulous. I think this is just a beautiful
piece of design. There's not a single straight edge on this whole thing, but at the same point,
it doesn't just feel like a round bubble. We noticed when we were trying to get this to
sit flat for some B-roll, on a table it did not... there's no surface that it will stick straight on,
and that's because it's just got these beautiful curves. It's very reminiscent of, you know,
modern automotive design. It's almost like one of their designers is... that's kind of their
aesthetic. And this is designed, that for a lot of us newer designers, this is harder to do. Boxes,
triangles, hexagons, squares, rectangles, and fillets, and camphors, on those -- that's all
pretty easy stuff to do. This is a lot more sculpting work in the 3D environment which
is fabulous because I think it's just beautiful. I think the sci-fi aesthetic is also really nice in
the fact that it kind of looks like a, you know, a pulse rifle or something almost Halo reminiscent,
and because of that, you know this doesn't look this looks very much like a toy, it's never going
to get mistaken for a firearm it's great to be outside with it it's nice bright colors.
I think the colors are also fantastic. We've got sort of a muted pastel
red and blue without being too, you know, too overpowering or looking tacky. I love the spiral
logo the only other thing I've got on this blaster from an ergonomic standpoint, and the design
complaint is: the screw holes are on the right side. If someone can explain to me why the screw
holes are on the right side, I would love to hear it. This is like a left-handed person
designed this blaster, because generally if you're going to design a blaster, a squirt gun, whatever,
you would design it so that when you're holding it, you don't see all the holes
for some reason 90% of people, a little over 90% I believe are right-handed,
and if you hold it right-handed... like you're basically always showing the holes
to the camera and I noticed in their promo videos they're making people shoot left-handed a lot,
so they must know what's going on. I don't know. It's kind of a weird choice.
that's interesting(!) So Perry, my video guy here, just pointed out as we were doing this review, and
I hadn't noticed: the CPS blaster is also on the wrong side. The screws are all on the right side.
Someone's got to know. I really want to hear from you in the comments. Is this a transition
that happened at some point, and there's some reasoning for it being on this site, I
cannot figure out for the life of me while you would do that,
a right-handed person is going to hold it like this; why would you want to see the screws?
And clearly, I mean, it's very possible that Spyra just followed that. I'm not entirely certain. I'm
going to ask Spyra because I think that would be a really interesting question to find out.
Reloading this blaster couldn't be easier. You simply push the trigger away from you with the
blaster submerged in water. You want nice clean tap water only, of course.
And you'll hear it pump, and it will fill itself up. There we go.
You've got to have it at about the right angle for this to fill up.
After you you've reloaded your meter up top will say 100%
again, and then you simply fire. And it is super satisfying because every shot
is like a little water bullet. There's no other way to say it! and playing with these
is unlike anything you've ever done before with regular water guns, and I think there's only
one way to show you is we got to get out in the field and play. So let's show some more of that!
All right, so we're out on a beautiful day here. It's like 75 degrees up in the Pacific Northwest.
We're at my parents' place, and we are going to do a match here. And my concept is my brother-in-law
Mehdi; he and I are each going to get one of these blasters. We're going to get one refill, so it'll
just be full when we start. We're going to do three rounds. We're each wearing these shirts,
and then at the end, whoever got the other person's shirt the wettest is the winner. And it's
going to be the best out of three rounds, so if you win two, you win the game. My sister Audrey,
who's been in a few previous videos, will be the judge. Let's go for it!
No! oh, he got a good hit in there!
Gotta make those shots count—only the shirt counts.
Um, I declare...
Oh! Jeez!
Yeah, I think I'm gonna say, Luke!
Okay, one round takes it!
No! Such weak performance!
Oh, hey, you know.
I'm
at 16%
You're at 16%? I gotta run then. Wait a minute! Wait a minute! That's not gonna work!
Now let's talk about the price. These blasters are definitely a premium product. They come in
around $150 apiece. They are not available in the US directly, but you can buy them shipped
from the company directly, and I believe they're also offering free shipping currently. I'm going
to put the link in the description to where to purchase these down below. Again, this is not a
sponsored video, so I don't get anything whether you buy or not. Just keep that in mind. At $150,
it's obviously a premium price, and it is a luxury product, but it is a very, very cool one,
all things considered. I think you're getting a tremendous amount of value when you compare this
to something like, say, the Dart Zone Pro Mark-1.1 (or the 1.0), where those blasters were $180,
and you know this has got electronics. It's obviously got a custom PCB and display;
it comes with a battery. It's got a lot of features for the price point.
Now, given it's not a 40 or 30 super soaker, so it's not as cheap as that,
but I think it's a really good value and a wonderfully designed product.
This is a breath of fresh air in a very stagnant toy industry Spyra,
my hats off to you on this design. I think these are fabulous. Thank you again for
sending these to me. I give these 5 out of 5 stars. I think they are just
fantastic blasters -- squirt guns --- squirt blasters. I don't know what to call these
anymore. We used to call them super soakers. It's not a super soaker. It's way cooler.
If you're still watching, thank you so much for tuning in to the end. Do hit that like
button and subscribe if you're interested in more content. For my regular viewers,
I do have a really important question to ask you. I know this isn't a super soaker channel.
It's not going to become a squirt gun channel or anything like that, but do you want to see cool
products like these when they are available. Is a review like this interesting to you,
or would you rather just see me stick to nerf content. Obviously, I really liked this one so,
I had had to give it a shot, and I am going to have so much fun with these at backyard
barbecues and stuff all summer with my family and friends as we start opening
up and having more gatherings. Thank you again for watching. Until next time, I'm out of darts.
So fun!
In the back, we've got a nice curved grippy
bit... grippy bit that's, a grippy bit. That's what we call a stock point.