Equipment: Nerf Rayven CS-18

Back in October I saw the first photos of the new Nerf Rayven CS-18 on the website Urban Taggers and I fell in love immediately. The second I found out that my local Target had a very small quantity, three to be exact; I raced there and picked one up. I am glad that I made the trip.

 
The design of the Nerf Rayven is a cross between a P-90 and a Nerf Firefly blaster. The gun has two tactical rails (on top and one on the right side) for attaching scopes and lights. Speaking of attachments, the front part of the barrel allows you to attach barrel extensions. This means that you can connect the barrels from the Spectre Rev 5, the Longshot CS-6 and the Recon CS-6. You can also attach the barrel from the Longstrike but it doesn’t add anything to the looks if the gun. Being able to add barrel attachments really changes the look of the gun so that is a bonus. (See the gallery below)

 
One of the unique features of the Rayven is the light up clip. The clip uses 3 “AA” batteries to “charge” the glow in the dark darts that come with the gun and this clip can be used in other clip style Nerf guns. Though it says on the box “Note: Not for play in complete darkness” I think it would be cool to fire the gun in complete darkness to get a tracer effect. I actually tested it outside in the dark and the darts are very easy to find in dark. The darts do hold the glow for a fair amount of time. The clip also has a stylized Firefly emblem that unfortunately doesn’t glow when the clip is turned on. It would have been cool if it did.

The Nerf Rayven CS-18 is a nice little gun. The Rayven uses “flywheel” technology to fire the darts. The hum of the motor isn’t that loud. Much like other battery powered blasters from Nerf, you can’t just sneak up on someone. One important thing is how the blaster shoots. The distance I received from test firing the gun ranged approximately 24 feet to approximately 27 feet. In order to fire the gun you have to hold down the secondary trigger to “rev” up the gun; then just pull the trigger. The Nerf Rayven CS-18 has a clip with an 18 dart capacity and also “charges” the glow effect.

 
This gun is a great addition to your Nerf arsenal for looks alone. There are some things I do not like about the gun but they are too unimportant to steer you away from purchasing. First off the color of the gun is the worst. I thought you couldn’t do worse than the yellow and oranges guns but this neon green is even uglier. The good thing is that I am handy with a can of black spray paint. The color really should be a non-issue.

 
The second thing that I don’t like is that the gun is a bit short for adults. The Nerf Rayven CS-18 is too big to be a pistol and just about 4 inches too short to make a perfect rifle. Again this is something that isn’t that much of an issue. As was pointed out to me by my editor is that these are made for children. My retort was that I know more adults with Nerf than kids.

 
The Nerf Rayven CS-18 is a nice addition to your Nerf collection on looks alone but fortunately there is some substance to this gun. The accuracy is a bit off but you can learn to compensate for the “hook” the darts were getting as they left the barrel.

 
The Rayven CS-18 retails for 29.99 and though a bit pricey it is going to look good in your collection. Lock and load!