Shield Blaster 5000 review

General water gun discussion.
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ZOCCOZ
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Shield Blaster 5000 review

Post by ZOCCOZ » Wed Aug 09, 2006 6:16 pm

Zellers having 40% of all beach toys, I went and bought the ShieldBlaster Cruncher 5000. Everyone seems to hate it, yet no one actualy used it. So I might aswell get actual performance experience with it.

Stats=

Output per shot: 1.3X/39 ml
Shot time: 1 second per shot
Pumps: 0
Tank size 1500 ml
Shot Distance: 35-37 feet


Build
The Durability is medium-good in quality. What most people don't like about the Blaster is something that I do like about it, which is the shape. Yes, it doesn't look like a gun. Then again, so don't the Blazer and Flash Flood or 98% of all other soaker out there. Exept that the Shieldblaster 5000 introduces a more original and also inovative design. And I like that. I either like very realistic looking toy guns, or creative looking ones. No in between stuff.
But back to practical inovation. The tanks double as grips, while what connects the two handles is a piston chamber. As I thought, this is a cleverly disguised version of a pump cannon. The design uses leverage to get added sqeezing power.

Performance
Again, what most complained about by jumping conclusions is the performance. The suprise is, compared to other competitors in contemporary retail including SS and WW, the ShieldBlaster 5000 does fairly well keeping up. Output is similar to medium sized XPs, while I got a distance of 35-37 feet out of it. 37 if you give it a realy good squeeze. The intersting thing is, that the impact power from a closer distance is far greater than from my XP 105, which already has a fairly good pressure compared to todays soakers. Very likely after the Blastermaster 660, the ShieldBlaster 5000 has the highest stream force in contemporray retail if your arms are strong enough. On the other hand, the stream breaks up relatively early do to not so good lamination resulting in the 35 feet distance. The SB 5000 is in many ways the oposite of the Blazer.
Blaser: weak stream+good lamination=40 feet
SB 5000: strong stream+bad lamination =35 feet

Aim whise, since you aim with your hips(which you should do technicaly with all soakers) you can hit what you point at. So aiming is no problem

Shield
Another jump to a conclusion complaint was the usefullness of the shield. That is partialy justified. The green shild parts themselves won't stop a stream over 2X. However I noticed that those shilde parts are not meant to block, but to redirect. The actual blocking is done with the centre of the shield where the nozzle is. That way even larger streams like a 5x can be blocked with the centre and redirected with the sides. It will use a good nad eye coordination, but that should not be to difficult.

Conclusion
I have to hand it to the Mattel design team. They found a way to improve the ShieldBlaster line in a huge way. They actualy have a Blaster now that can easyly keep up with the competition. An XP output type blaster with satisfactory distance, very good impact power and no pumping. Its odd that the most powerfull Blasters(impact power) this year are Pistons(Blastmaster 660+ ShieldBlaster 5000). Well, not that odd if you look what retail is selling. The only major downside with the ShieldBlaster 5000 is the price which is $34.99CAN+Tax. Thats way to high, and it should cost more around $20 CAN. I payed $17CAn+Tax due to the 40% reduction clearance sale.

If mattel would next year increase the tanks size and piston size, resulting in a larger output, ShieldBlaster might would actualy have a chance to dominate the market. Now is the right moment since the bar is set incredibly low in retail.

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Last edited by ZOCCOZ on Wed Aug 09, 2006 6:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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C-A_99
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Post by C-A_99 » Thu Aug 10, 2006 2:09 am

I remember seeing this on the shelves, passing it, and not giving a second thought to it.

Striker
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Post by Striker » Thu Aug 24, 2006 1:24 pm

Is it hard to use? From that, I mean, is there any resistance when you "crunch'' the gun? My friend wants to purchase one, and I just want to know.

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ZOCCOZ
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Post by ZOCCOZ » Fri Aug 25, 2006 4:17 am

I would say using it is fairly easy when it comes to press resistance. Theoreticaly even the more physicaly weaker people should at least get 35 feet if they press as hard as they can. If Lamination would have been better on it, some of the more stronger users could have gotten 40-45 feet. But that might get fixed in the next series.

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