ToyCyte: Toy Culture Collected

Compared to the artistic collectibles ToyCyte showcases on a daily basis, Nerf guns seem downright childish. You might pull them out for a thrilling session of cubicle warfare once in a blue moon, but as a cheap item you can find at any toy store, there’s nothing intrinsically valuable, and rarely anything particularly remarkable about the toys themselves.

But just the same, there are quite a few toy enthusiasts who have been waiting for the Nerf Switch Shot EX-3. Why? Because they are part of a community of modders who seek to make and adjust Nerf guns to be the worthy playthings of adults — and this particular gun is the first that designer Hasbro has ever made where the entire firing assembly is removable.

Unfortunately for them, this Nerf gun is among the most nerfed I’ve ever seen.

The official selling point of the Nerf Switch Shot EX-3 is that its Nerf barrel is interchangeable with the remote of a Nintendo Wii — you can pull it right out, drop a Wiimote in, and have a light gun. We tested this out over at our sister publication GameCyte, and came away incredibly impressed — the Switch Shot is certainly one of, if not the best light gun housing we’ve ever used.

But as a $15 Nerf gun, the Switch Shot is fairly worthless.

Though we liked the overall look and feel of the blaster (save its undersized handle — a far cry from the ergonomics of guns like the Nite Finder) we immediately noticed that in order to make the barrel interchangeable, some compromises had been made. The barrel was too short to hold the entire length of the foam dart, possibly shortening the gun’s range. The rail system that allows the gun to add accessories and/or attach the weapon to other guns had been mounted on the bottom, making most useless.

But we also noticed, comparing the gun’s firing mechanism to that of the popular and highly-moddable Nite Finder, that the length from barrel to the tip of the plunger handle was exactly the same. Might this gun prove equally useful?

However, Comparing the Switch Shot to a stock Nite Finder and a slightly modded Scout at a nearby park, the Switch Shot came up lacking every time. Averaging 15 feet for straight shots and 33 when angled skyward, the Switch Shot compared unfavorably to the Nite Finder at 19 and 42 feet respectively, and the air-restrictor modded Scout at 21 and 44. Range testing was conducted on a sunny day in California with brand new sonic darts and a slight breeze blowing perpendicular to the field of fire.

Cracking open the case with ease (the Switch Shot’s firing assembly is held together by only four screws) we discovered that the basic mechanism is indeed identical to that of the Nite Finder. But there are some very important differences:

Nerf has taken precautions against modding with the Switch Shot. Where the Nite Finder’s air restrictor is easily removable, and in fact slides right off, here we can see that the Switch Shot’s entire barrel assembly has been permanently bonded together. To add insult to injury, Nerf has also drilled holes on both sides of the barrel. In combination with the spring-loaded air restrictor, this means that as soon as the plunger builds up enough pressure to force the foam dart out, the rest of the air escapes rather than continue to push the dart along. We weren’t about to cut the barrel in half in order to deal with the restrictor, but found we could add several feet of range simply by blocking these holes with duct tape.

Though both barrels are approximately the same diameter, the Switch Shot’s airflow pales in comparison to that of the Nite Finder. Where the air traveling from the Nite Finder’s plunger courses through three wide slots to the removable air restrictor, all the Switch Shot’s air has to travel through a single tiny hole.

Lastly, when speaking of how that air is generated, there is really no comparison. The Nite Finder has a nice heavy spring and well-lubed plunger, the Switch Shot does not.

Furthermore, Nerf doesn’t want you to trade that spring for another one — though the plunger tip is held on by a screw, Nerf has also taken the trouble of gluing the assembly together. The Nite Finder, again, has no such restrictions.

And even if you did somehow manage to remove the plunger head, you can’t just drop in a Nite Finder spring, either — the plunger arm on the Switch Shot is just short enough that when a Nite Finder spring is fully compressed, there isn’t enough leeway to cock the gun.

The Nerf Switch Shot EX-3 makes a great TV blaster, but at $15, it doesn’t offer half the potential of Nerf’s $8 Nite Finder — and it seems that’s entirely intentional.