Riddle Me This: Light Cannons round-up

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cantab
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Riddle Me This: Light Cannons round-up

Post by cantab » Wed Jun 23, 2010 8:14 pm

Riddle Me This: Light Cannons round-up

This review is dual licensed under:
The GNU Free Documentation License, version 1.3 or any later version as published by the Free Software Foundation, with no front-cover texts, back-cover texts, or invariant sections.
The Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 2.0 England and Wales

Five blasters were tested and compared. They are

Super Soaker CPS 1200
Super Soaker CPS 2100
Water Warriors Tiger Shark
Water Warriors Pulse Master
Water Warriors Sphinx

All are considered to be in the "light cannon" or "small CPS" class. The emphasis is on the Sphinx, as it is the new blaster, but this review covers all five.

Bear in mind that several of my models have known faults. It is unknown whether these affect performance.
CPS 1200: Has suffered a stuck-closed trigger
Tiger Shark: Leaks when pumping. Firing valve fully open when trigger only half pulled. Has suffered a stuck-open trigger.

Note that there is no marks out of ten, star rating, percentages, anything like that. Because frankly they'd just be arbitrary. Nor is there a ranking - I considered that, but could not decide upon the order.

Not just a resprayed Lightning

The Water Warriors Sphinx is a semi-new blaster from Buzz Bee Toys. As I mentioned here, it looks like the much older Lightning. However, there are some differences. Most importantly, the Sphinx has a big nozzle - pretty much the same diameter as the largest nozzles on the other four blasters. This gives it a nice fat stream, as I'd expect of a light cannon. On the negative, the electronic pressure guage is gone, replaced by a dummy. There may well be other differences in performance and reliability, but these are unknown.

Build and ergonomics

All blasters were fully loaded, using the fill-pump-fill method to fill the pressure chambers as well as the reservoirs, with the reservoirs brimmed the second time. They were then judged on ergonomics - primarily 'balance' when held one-handed and comfort of the handle.

CPS 1200: This still sets the bar. Balance is excellent making one-handed wielding easy. The strap is standard in the class but still a good thing, and the top carry handle is useful for filling,

CPS 2100: Generally good. However, it's strapless - the only one of the blasters tested to lack a strap - which is a negative if you plan on carrying multiple blasters. It's decently balanced when full but can get front-heavy when the reservoir empties. Like the 1200, it has a carry handle that helps filling.

Pulse Master: Feels a bit plasticky. Even with the reservoir full, it's terribly front heavy. The handle is too small, which makes dealing with the weight imbalance that bit harder. The pump is much stiffer than on the other four blasters, though of course you only need to pump 5 strokes at a time.

Tiger Shark: The closed grip area is too small. The rear 'stock' is annoying, blocking the most natural wrist and forearm position while there's not much point actually using it as a stock for an adult. One-handed wielding this thing I found actually painful.

Sphinx: The first thing I noticed is this blaster is slim. That's not a bad thing though it does mean less water capacity. The closed grip area doesn't feel as bad as the Tiger Shark's but is still a bit cramped. (Actually the Sphinx's is smaller, but it feels better, perhaps because of the slight shape differences.) Like the Tiger Shark it has the rear stock. It feels somewhat front-heavy.

General power and performance

This is all subjective. I shot them at a wall and judged how forceful the streams seemed. I also made observations when doing the range testing.

CPS 1200: Great power.

CPS 2100: Even better, which surprised me somewhat - I thought normally the 1200 was more powerful.

Pulse Master: Top-notch, a devastating, albeit short, blast from the big nozzle. The smaller two nozzles are also good.

Tiger Shark: The big nozzle's stream is less forceful than the previous three, but it still seems to deliver plenty of whater. The medium nozzle is nice, but the small one seems a bit thin.

Sphinx: The big nozzle's stream is noticeably incoherent, spreading out a lot more than the others. The spread isn't ridiculous though, you can still expect most of the water to hit a man-sized target. Like the Tiger Shark's, it lacks the raw force of the CPS blasters, but that doesn't stop it delivering plenty of water. The medium nozzle is excellent, and the small good too.
On the medium nozzle, the Sphinx can sustain continuous firing at max range if you pump with the trigger held down. The Tiger Shark can do this too, and doubtless many other blasters, but the Pulse Master and the CPSes cannot.

Range

Only angled ranges are given, measured to the bulk of the puddle and taken to the nearest half metre. Not all nozzles were measured, but the best range is always given.
All blasters were fired with the nozzle at about shoulder-height. Ground was reasonably level.
Angle was chosen for best range - usually about 30 degrees.
There was some wind, blowing towards 8 o-clock as seen from the firing position (so some crosswind and some headwind).
Figures should be considered indicative - other tests may produce different results.

Update: I've added the measurements from isoaker for comparison. Intruigingly, despite the headwind I get better ranges for everything but the Pulse Master.

CPS 1200: 10.5m. isoaker 8.0m.
CPS 2100: 11.5m. isoaker 11.0m.
Pulse Master: Big nozzle: 11.0m. isoaker 12.0m
Tiger Shark: Big nozzle: 10.0m. isoaker 9.0m
Tiger Shark: Medium nozzle: 9.5m isoaker 8.0m
Sphinx: Big nozzle: 10.5m
Sphinx: Medium nozzle: 10.0m

Should I buy one?

CPS 1200, CPS 2100: If you feel you can afford it. These blasters aren't made any more so you're gonna have to look on eBay. They tend to be some of the cheaper CPS blasters, which is good. You'll probably have an edge on most modern blasters, but if you want to really trounce the new stuff you would need something bigger.

Pulse Master: Maybe. It's got power, no doubt about it. But that short shot time is a nagging worry when it comes to battling. I've never used mine much in battles - the last big war when it was used I lent it to someone else.

Tiger Shark: Again a maybe. Power might not be the best but it's still decent. To me the ergonomics are the bigger issue. You don't want to finish a water fight with aching hands. This test has no clear winner, but it does have a clear loser, and that's the Tiger Shark.

Sphinx: Maybe. Again :-P The Sphinx packs good power in a lightweight and compact package. However, you may prefer to get something bigger if it's available.
For the UK market, The Entertainer sells the Sphinx for £10, while the larger Expedition is £20. There, the Sphinx is a great budget buy. On the other hand, Tesco Direct is selling the Rip Tide for £15, plus the shipping mind.

Roles for the Sphinx

The Sphinx should be entirely usable as a primary in the majority of wars. Only if there's a lot of people running around with stuff like CPS 1500s and 2500s are you likely to be badly outgunned with it.

The Sphinx's light weight and slim design, while still maintaining good power, means it could work well as a secondary too. In this role, there's a strong case for saying it's the best of the five

In one-hit-kills games you may want to primarily use the medium nozzle to last longer, although giving away half a metre of range might make the difference between victory and defeat.

Though I classed it as a light cannon, based on its physical size and the output from the largest nozzle, you might be better off thinking of the Sphinx more like a large XP. If you compared to the old small CPSes (1000, 1200, 2100) the Sphinx is not as good, but compare it instead to the likes of the XP 105, 310, and so on, and the Sphinx is excellent.
Last edited by cantab on Wed Jun 23, 2010 9:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I work on Windows. My toolbox is Linux.
Arsenal:
Super Soaker: XP215, 2xXP220, Liquidator, Aquashock Secret Strike M(odded), Arctic Blast M, CPS1200, CPS2100, SC Power Pak, 3l aquapack, 1.5l aquapack
Water Warriors: Jet, Sting Ray M, Shark, Argon M, Tiger Shark, PulseMaster
Others: Waterbolt, The Blaster, Storm 500, Shield Blaster 2000, generic PR gun, generic backpack piston pumper (broken), 3l garden sprayer M, 10l water carrier:

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C-A_99
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Re: Riddle Me This: Light Cannons round-up

Post by C-A_99 » Wed Jun 23, 2010 8:45 pm

Try lubricating the problematic valves. You may be able to fix the Tiger Shark that way. I'm not as sure on the 1200 but you may have to adjust the trigger pull to be more aggressive. If it happens only rarely, then it shoudln't be a problem.

If the Sphinx is really up to performance on the larger nozzle, I'd be pretty surprised. I couldn't care less about the electronic pressure gauge, but I don't see much improvement they could make to the performance on the Lightning/Piranha which has very disappointing performance on their largest nozzles.

IMO, the old CPS's can't be compared well to the newest larger guns. The new ones just don't perform too well and their maximum range nozzles are always the ones smaller than the largest. Even on the Vindicator, whose largest nozzle is considerably smaller than previous BBT large nozzles, it's still not the highest-range one. Overall the performance is not so great compared to the CPS's.

The 1200 is by far my favorite. It has the least sensitive PRV making for the most effective K-mod, and its handling is pretty nice too. The 1000 and 2100 are still excellent blasters however, and I'd take them over BBT's best blasters any day.

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cantab
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Re: Riddle Me This: Light Cannons round-up

Post by cantab » Wed Jun 23, 2010 9:10 pm

The review is now complete, apart from typo and error fixes and maybe photos.

As you see, my range measurements disagree with the contention that "their maximum range nozzles are always the ones smaller than the largest". Although that is in wind conditions that favour the bigger stream - but then again, real battles happen in various conditions. As I mentioned, the big nozzles do feel subjectively less forceful, but they still chuck the water decently far.
Last edited by cantab on Wed Jun 23, 2010 9:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I work on Windows. My toolbox is Linux.
Arsenal:
Super Soaker: XP215, 2xXP220, Liquidator, Aquashock Secret Strike M(odded), Arctic Blast M, CPS1200, CPS2100, SC Power Pak, 3l aquapack, 1.5l aquapack
Water Warriors: Jet, Sting Ray M, Shark, Argon M, Tiger Shark, PulseMaster
Others: Waterbolt, The Blaster, Storm 500, Shield Blaster 2000, generic PR gun, generic backpack piston pumper (broken), 3l garden sprayer M, 10l water carrier:

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C-A_99
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Re: Riddle Me This: Light Cannons round-up

Post by C-A_99 » Wed Jun 23, 2010 9:47 pm

Well that's odd because the range on my Piranha's largest nozzle is pretty pathetic and my Tiger Shark doesn't much it much farther either. I haven't taken specific measurements on them except for the Tiger Shark, whose second nozzle performs substaintially better than the largest. On the Piranha, the range differences between its largest nozzle and its other nozzles, along with other blasters are very obvious.

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cantab
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Re: Riddle Me This: Light Cannons round-up

Post by cantab » Wed Mar 09, 2011 3:42 am

It has recently come to my attention that some models of the "Sphinx" may be air pressure, not Hydro Power. I am reasonably confident that mine is Hydro Power, and my review should be considered of such and may not be representative of performance of the air pressure version.
I work on Windows. My toolbox is Linux.
Arsenal:
Super Soaker: XP215, 2xXP220, Liquidator, Aquashock Secret Strike M(odded), Arctic Blast M, CPS1200, CPS2100, SC Power Pak, 3l aquapack, 1.5l aquapack
Water Warriors: Jet, Sting Ray M, Shark, Argon M, Tiger Shark, PulseMaster
Others: Waterbolt, The Blaster, Storm 500, Shield Blaster 2000, generic PR gun, generic backpack piston pumper (broken), 3l garden sprayer M, 10l water carrier:

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isoaker_com
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Re: Riddle Me This: Light Cannons round-up

Post by isoaker_com » Wed Mar 09, 2011 4:13 pm

cantab wrote:It has recently come to my attention that some models of the "Sphinx" may be air pressure, not Hydro Power. I am reasonably confident that mine is Hydro Power, and my review should be considered of such and may not be representative of performance of the air pressure version.
The irony is that, thanks to you, I am reminded that the Sphynx and Gorgon were actually available last year in the UK as Hydro Power! :p There will be undoubtedly some performance differences between the Hydro Power and air pressure versions, but this will be an interesting testing ground to really see how Hydro Power stacks up against air pressure in the same body mold.

:cool:
:: Leave NO one dry! :: iSoaker.com / iSoaker.net ::

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Re: Riddle Me This: Light Cannons round-up

Post by C-A_99 » Wed Mar 09, 2011 8:13 pm

I'm curious to how the PRV's are set between the two versions. Perhaps they've kept them at the same power level, which would provide a fair match between HP and AP.

The changes should be somewhat predictable, based on what happened when I converted my Piranha to AP. The stream should be pushed better by the PC, providing better range. Dropoff should be significantly reduced, given proper pre-pressurization (which I consider to be a pre-requisite for using any seperate chamber AP in a water war), while shot time should be considerably lower due to less water volume and the higher output.

Of course, we'll know in time. However, I don't plan on picking up new stock blasters this year; if I spend any money on blasters, they will be from the CPS collection as that's what would help me the most.

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soakernerd
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Re: Riddle Me This: Light Cannons round-up

Post by soakernerd » Wed Mar 09, 2011 8:41 pm

Cantab, is yours spelled "Sphinx" or "Sphynx"?
The AP version is Sphynx, so that could be an easy way to tell them apart. Unless one of us has been misspelling it for the past few months. ;)
Edit: In some pictures from google images, the sphinx/Sphynx apears to still have the button for the power gauge. Does it? If so, that would suck to have the ergonomic phail without even the slight usefulness of a power gauge.
Pessimist: These blasters hold no water
Optimist: But their small output means they last just as long
Marketing: Huge blasts of water!
user: I shot it at an angle and it went a whole ten feet!

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isoaker_com
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Re: Riddle Me This: Light Cannons round-up

Post by isoaker_com » Wed Mar 09, 2011 9:05 pm

soakernerd wrote:Cantab, is yours spelled "Sphinx" or "Sphynx"?
The AP version is Sphynx, so that could be an easy way to tell them apart. Unless one of us has been misspelling it for the past few months. ;)
Edit: In some pictures from google images, the sphinx/Sphynx apears to still have the button for the power gauge. Does it? If so, that would suck to have the ergonomic phail without even the slight usefulness of a power gauge.
The "Sphinx" I have has a fake power gauge trigger. That was BBT's choice as a hole-stuffer. ...and, after learning to read mo' better, I currently have a "Sphinx", not a "Sphynx", which explains a lot.

Of course, chances are, if the UK gets more Sphinxs this year, they will most likely be air-pressure so differentiating based on name probably won't last long. Gotta look for holes on the top of the PC.

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:: Leave NO one dry! :: iSoaker.com / iSoaker.net ::

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cantab
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Re: Riddle Me This: Light Cannons round-up

Post by cantab » Wed Mar 09, 2011 10:19 pm

Mine is spelled with an i.
I work on Windows. My toolbox is Linux.
Arsenal:
Super Soaker: XP215, 2xXP220, Liquidator, Aquashock Secret Strike M(odded), Arctic Blast M, CPS1200, CPS2100, SC Power Pak, 3l aquapack, 1.5l aquapack
Water Warriors: Jet, Sting Ray M, Shark, Argon M, Tiger Shark, PulseMaster
Others: Waterbolt, The Blaster, Storm 500, Shield Blaster 2000, generic PR gun, generic backpack piston pumper (broken), 3l garden sprayer M, 10l water carrier:

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Re: Riddle Me This: Light Cannons round-up

Post by C-A_99 » Wed Mar 09, 2011 11:27 pm

isoaker_com wrote:The "Sphinx" I have has a fake power gauge trigger. That was BBT's choice as a hole-stuffer.
That's quite awful; they couldn't make that little change to the mold to fill it in? (It would seem to cost less to not have to manufacture all those hole-stuffers.)

HP and AP distinctions are quite simple. Remember how we distinguished CPS's by marks? Well, "Sphinx MK I" and "Sphinx MK II" would do well to separate the AP from the HP. One may argue that the change to AP is too big to merely distinguish that way, but I could not disagree more, as changing a CPS so that its trigger breaks with a few pulls (i.e. MK II of 2100 and 4100) is just as significant of a change as transitioning to different PC's.

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