Ladies, meet your new favorite Nerf blaster, the Nerf Rebelle Rapid Red!

Nerf Rebelle Rapid Red Blaster

The Nerf Stryfe is the pinnacle of flywheel blasters. Its form and function have been copied and transplanted into various other shells, shapes, and designs. Apparently, it was time for a “girl” version to the Stryfe. So here we have the Rebelle Stryfe, formally known as the Nerf Rebelle Rapid Red blaster.

A Stryfe by any other name…

What’s in a name? That which we call a Stryfe by any other name would shoot as sweet. So the Stryfe would, were it not Stryfe call’d, retain that dear perfection which it owes without that title. Or in other words: no matter what they call it, it’s still a Stryfe. No matter how it looks on the outside, it’s still a Stryfe underneath. So is that a good thing for the Nerf Rebelle Rapid Red? You bet your bottom dollar it is. Having the performance of the Nerf Stryfe is always a good thing. The Nerf Rebelle Rapid Red has a fitting name, too. It lets you know that this thing is pretty much rapid-fire. It’s a purple blaster, so I can only assume the “Red” refers to that transparent red “decoder” clip that it comes with.

How The Nerf Rebelle Rapid Red Works.:

How does it work? Exactly like the Nerf Elite Stryfe does, that’s how. As you can see above, the internals are nearly identical. The Nerf Rebelle Rapid Red is a semi-automatic motorised blaster. It is powered by two flywheels that sit just behind the barrel. In turn, the flywheels are powered by 4 AA batteries, inserted right under the barrel. To fire the Rapid Red, first load the clip with those confetti-like Rebelle darts. Insert the clip. Hold down the acceleration trigger. The acceleration is the small blue trigger on the handle. Holding down this trigger revs the flywheels up and gets them spinning. Finally, pull the trigger. When you pull the trigger, it activates the dart pusher. The dart pusher does exactly what it sounds like. It pushes a dart from out of the top of the clip and directly into the spinning flywheels. The flywheels grab the dart and send it rapidly firing out of the barrel and into your target. Simple. And highly effective.

Nerf Rebelle Rapid Red Aesthetics.

If you ask me, the Nerf Rebelle Rapid Red looks absolutely fantastic. Really, I think it looks great. It’s not overly “girly” with pink everywhere. In fact, the only pink is on the trigger, the jam door, and unfortunately, the backside of the clip. The rest is all purple and blue, with a little red. All unisex colors. So I applaud Nerf for going down that route with the color scheme. That makes this a blaster that pretty much anyone can use. The Rapid Red is basically the same size of the Nerf Stryfe. Where it differs is that while the Stryfe is very square and angular, the Rapid Red is more sleek and curvy. The front handguard area is of particular note. Since there is no tactical rail attachment there (bummer) they have a pretty much angled hand-rest/grip area. And let me tell you, it feels great to hold it there. Since they moved the battery compartment up front, it is pretty much necessary to hold it there to support the added weight of the batteries. Moving the battery compartment to the front obviously makes it front heavy, but it also allows the Nerf Rebelle Rapid Red to be more slim and refined.  Overall, it is just a very nice looking and well designed blaster. Well, except for one thing… The handle is way too small and uncomfortable, even for actually girls. Especially with the front heavy nature of the Nerf Rebelle Rapid Red, this can quickly become a big problem.

Nerf Rebelle Rapid Red Performance.

This thing shoots just like a Stryfe. No kidding. I’m getting the same performance out of this blaster as I do with the Stryfe. And that is great. Shooting just as far at about 55 feet. Shooting just as hard to get dirty looks from family members who I tested it on. And it shoots just as fast. That would be as fast as you can pull the trigger. In the initial run of Nerf Rebelle Rapid Red blasters, they had a problem with the jam door staying shut. This would halt the blaster dead in its tracks, as it has that jam door lock which cuts power to the blaster if the jam door isn’t closed all the way. On the first Rapid Red’s this door would pop open frequently. Not all the way, but just enough to make the blaster seem like it was broken. This has led to some very poor reviews for this blaster at Amazon.com. You can witness this happen in both Lord Drac and even more so in Coop’s early model Rapid Red review videos. You can tell the difference between the early model and late model versions by looking at the jam door. On the first run, they had red access doors, the newer models have pink access doors. Other issues with the performance of the blaster include that small handle again. On a front heavy blaster like this, the small handle is really detrimental. It actually feels like you need to support the front of the blaster with your other hand to avoid cramps or fatigue in the hand holding the handle. This highly much reduces the effectiveness of dual-wielding this blaster. Lastly, there is only one tactical rail mount and no stock attachment or extended barrel attachment points.

The Sum Of All Fears.

The Nerf Rebelle Rapid Red is a good blaster. It is very, very nice looking. I love that 12-dart clip that it comes with, well, the red side anyway. I also especially like the forward hand grip area. It is very comfortable to hold there. Being modeled after the Stryfe, it also shoots very well. (Unless you have the early model version). So I love that Stryfe-esque performance. If you have smaller hands and don’t mind not dual-wielding, you will love this blaster. Period. And that’s all I have to say about that. Peace!

Featured MOD.

Nerf Rebelle Rapid Red Blaster