We mostly cover everything electronic here at Hypertext, but it’s nice to take a break every so often and look at something completely analogue, especially with the holidays coming up. That analogue toy today is the Nerf Elite 2.0 Flipshots Flip-16 which is an impressive feat of toy engineering… most of the time.

We’ve covered some unique Nerf blasters in the past, but the Flip-16 – which we’ll be calling it from now on for simplicity – may be the most out there.

There’s several unique elements of this toy blaster with the big one being in the name: its flipping mechanic. The Flip-16 holds 16 darts but you’re only really using eight at any one time. Once you fire off the first eight you use a pump-action mechanism to flip the entire front firing mechanism around revealing the remaining eight darts.

This is like a quick reload and it adds some tactile extra fun to the mix.

Other mechanical intrigue here includes a unique double-action trigger as one pump of the priming handle can shoot off two darts. You can do this one at a time by pressing the trigger half way and then completely, or go all the way at once and fire off two in succession.

The final piece of movement is in the shoulder stock. It can be kept folded up onto the top of the blaster where it also doubles as a vague iron sights, or unfolded to add extra stability.

With all of this in the hand it does take a while to learn the ins and outs of all the mechanisms, such as the fact that you can’t fire unless the pump to rotate the barrels is pushed all the way forward.

The weight of the Flip-16 is also unbalanced. With the stock folded up all the weight is at the barrel end, the furthest away from the handle which makes it difficult to use.

The stock doesn’t help much because it’s so long even adults will find it unusable when shouldered as intended.

I found the best was to use it was to tuck the stock into your arm. Some real world weapons also work like this so it’s not a stretch of the imagination, it’s just odd that it’s so unwieldy for a blaster that isn’t battery operated, with said batteries usually throwing off the balance in other toys.

Finally firing the Flip-16 and it’s a lot of fun. The flip mechanic is an obvious gimmick but the tactile feel of it is a blast.

I did experience some problems, however. When flipping over barrels they didn’t always line up and stop where they were supposed to. I’d say it was a 50-50 split as to whether the mechanism would work as intended. For a toy that’s a horrible outcome as you want something that performs as it should for the sake of play.

I’ve seen others complain about the same problem while other have had only success with it, so I’m  willing to put it down to variance between blasters and / or user error.

The Flip-16 just feels like a decent idea that’s a bit overdone and unbalanced. It’s enjoyable, but only for a while.

What do the kids think of the Flip-16?

Like LEGO, Nerf has a massive adult audience, but it’s always good to get the opinion of the real intended audience in the form of some kids.

For that I brought in my nephew (11) and my niece (9) for some testing and to get their opinions on it.

They loved the spinning barrels so that’s an immediate win for the toy when I demonstrated it for them. Unfortunately they had a bit of a difficult time actually operating the thing. The weight combined with several moving mechanisms proved it to be less than ideal just to shoot at some targets in the garden.

I’m sure that both of them could have gotten the hang of it if it was something they kept for a longer period of time, but I like to use an imaginary situation to gauge the friendliness of toys.

If someone owns a cool toy and brings it over to their friend’s or family’s house for a short visit a relatively young kid should be able to get the maximum experience with it during that time. I think the Flip-16 fails that thought exercise.

The RRP of the Flip-16 is R1 200 and is available from online stores like Takealot or your local toy shop.

For that price I am just left a bit let down by the blaster, but not the gimmick.

The whole flip idea is not unique to the Flip-16, as a smaller blaster exists called the Flip-8 which takes the idea and shrinks it down to a more manageable size and a pistol form factor.

It’s cheaper to buy and, from what I’ve read from buyers, is more reliable and generally better performing than the Flip-16.

While I haven’t had a chance to use the Flip-8, I think it should be considered over the Flip-16 this holiday season.

Also, when shopping for blasters, check out our quick guide on the different types you can find in South Africa.