The Nerf Elite 2.0 Motoblitz is a unique blaster as it’s essentially two blasters in one: a motorised, automatic blaster fed by a ten-dart magazine, and an air-powered pump action “shotgun” that sends off six darts in a single burst.

Nerf parent company Hasbro has sent over the Motoblitz for us to look at as part of our continued Nerf coverage which you can follow along with here, but how does it compare to past blasters?

Unboxing the Motoblitz reveals 22 darts and there are extras in the box. Even with a full magazine of 10 and the underslung launcher packed with six, you have six in reserve. This is of course very welcome.

The blaster itself is rather large and feels weighty but not overly heavy like it will survive a drop or two. The quality of the plastic is pretty good with no obvious flaws or problems we can see.

We had a unique cross-generational test for the Motoblitz as its maiden outing was a family event. There it was played with by kids as young as two and as old as twelve. Adults in their early 20s all the way up to late 60s also had a go and everyone enjoyed their time with the blaster.

Everyone seemed to enjoy playing around with the blaster and it proved especially popular with the kids with some arguing breaking out over who gets to shoot next.

The biggest problem with the Motoblitz’s design was found to be the included scope. This hollow tube with a plastic reticule on the top of the blaster is intended to be looked through and used, but it’s so low that it becomes useless.

Even the youngest kids would need to press their faces right into the side of the blaster to see through the tube. The scope needed to be much higher and separated from the top railing to be useful.

While not exactly a problem, we also discovered an easy way that Hasbro could have instantly made this toy better. The two blaster elements of this toy should have been able to separate as, right now, they’re moulded together into a single plastic body.

This is a real shame as the two don’t share any internal firing components so we don’t see why it couldn’t have been done. This would have allowed two kids to play with the same purchased toy at once, or one single kid to have a better overall experience.

Hasbro has made Nerf blasters that split apart and combined in the past so this wouldn’t even have been a new idea.

We also would have really loved for a bigger magazine on offer here because, even though the Motoblitz doesn’t have the fastest automatic fire, it still gets through the ten dart magazine rather fast.

Picking up darts is always a chore and, again going back to the play experience for kids, it can lead to frustration when they are waiting for their turn to play, only for them to get a few seconds of firing. A 15-dart magazine would be our recommendation.

Despite these problems and recommendations for a better product, this is still a fun blaster that feels like you get more value thanks to the two firing options and the extra smattering of darts. People of all ages can have fun with it and it seems like a solid choice for a gift this holiday season.

As always we need to talk about value and what you’ll be paying for this toy if you decide to pick it up. The South African RRP of the Nerf Elite 2.0 Motoblitz is R1499 but we should note that it can be regularly seen discounted to around R1 000 on places like Toy Kingdom, Takealot and Toys r Us.

It seems like this discounted option is the “real” price of this toy considering how often we have seen it on sale.

We also believe this given the US MSRP of $44.99 which, at the time of writing, is around R795. Even if you factor in that that the US price doesn’t include tax, and you use South Africa’s high VAT of 15 percent, that should still price the blaster at around R915.

Then again maybe all the sales were to coincide with holiday shopping, but this is all to say that for what you’re getting we really do believe that the sale price hovering around R1 000 is what you should pay for this one.

Also, set some money aside for the four not-included AA batteries needed to use the main motorised portion.