Are you ready to see what the new mature branded line of Nerf blasters can do with a pair of flywheels?? Check it out!

Meet the new Nerf RIVAL Zeus MXV-1200!

When the Nerf Rival blasters first came out, I was beyond excited. I had been excited since they were first announced. With a target market of teenagers instead of young children, with a new focus on firing velocities and accuracy, with a brand new ammo type? With all of these new features and factors, I was beyond overjoyed. Nerf had finally started to grow up. While, I got the Nerf Rival Apollo first, the Nerf Rival Zeus MXV-1200 followed closely behind. Let’s jump right into this review and see if Father Zeus, King of the Gods, can hold up to the legacy its son Apollo has created.

Nerf Rival Zeus – King of the Gods

That’s a pretty cocky move to name your blaster after the Greek God Zeus, isn’t it? Either that or Nerf is just very confident.  They might just be on to something, too. The Nerf Rival Zeus is a mighty blaster, capable of all sorts of “Godly” feats. More on that later. For now, let’s get on with the rest of the review…

Harnessing a Lightning Bolt or: How I Learned To Work the Nerf Rival Zeus.

Don’t let the aggressive design or the roaring power of the mighty flywheels frighten you — the Nerf Rival Zeus is a blast to use. And, although its performance might seem pretty godly, the internals were made right here on Planet Earth. Inside the Zeus, it might seem pretty familiar. This is a standard flywheel blaster. So, if you’ve seen the inside of a Nerf Stryfe or a Rayven, Demolisher, Modulus, etc., things are going to look similar. No, this doesn’t mean the Nerf Rival Zeus is secretly another Stryfe re-shell, it just means they use similar components. There is the  acceleration trigger, the main firing trigger and pusher mechanism, a set of flywheels with motors, and a couple of safety locks, too. They aren’t designed the same way, or the same shape or size, so no they are not cross compatible with N-Strike Elite series blasters. Anyways, I’ll tell you how to fire the Zeus. First, make sure to load up the included clear Nerf Rival 12-Round Magazine that comes with the Zeus. Just push the little Rival balls into the top of the mag until you’ve inserted all 12. Next, on an angle, slide the magazine into the magazine port on the Nerf Rival Zeus. It should click right into place. To shoot the Zeus, first you must hold down the acceleration (or rev) trigger. You should hear the flywheels spinning up. Unless you’ve been around a lot of modded flywheel blasters, this sound will be the loudest sound you’ve ever heard coming from a Nerf gun. Next, pull the main firing trigger and the Zeus will fire a single high impact round. Still holding down the acceleration trigger, pull the firing trigger again to fire another round. Repeat this last step until the magazine is empty. The Nerf Rival Zeus is a semi-automatic flywheel blaster, not full-auto like the Rapidstrike.

Pro Tip: If you’re indoors, you might want to be prepared to duck — these Nerf Rival blasters shoot at very high velocities and the Nerf Rival High Impact Rounds love to ricochet off of every possible surface. Several times.

The Nerf Rival Zeus: A Gift from the Gods?

These Nerf Rival blasters really are something, aren’t they? I love the designs of these guns. The Nerf Rival Zeus sports another striking design, in bullpup configuration nonetheless. Let’s go over all of the external features of this beautiful design, front to back. Starting at the front we see the standard orange muzzle. No attachment possibilities for extended barrels or anything here. Just a cool looking muzzle with vent holes in the sides. Moving straight back from the muzzle, we find the jam access door. Open this door and you’ll be staring directly at the flywheels themselves. Directly above this, on either side of the blaster, you’ll find a set of tactical attachment rails. They look like real-steel weaver rails, but they’re actually a new proprietary type of rail. N-Strike attachments will fit on the rail, but you can’t slide them on. You have to kind of click them on at an angle. Down below, at the bottom of the blaster, is the hand rest/ grip area. This is a perfect place to hold the Zeus with your off hand and it’s actually very comfortable, too. Coming back from this is the pistol grip handle and the triggers. Everything is pretty standard here, the rev trigger and main firing trigger are both very comfortable and offer up satisfying trigger pulls. On the other side of the blaster is the safety lock switch, which prevents you from firing or revving the flywheels when it’s engaged. Back to The actual handle is on a slant and is actually very nice to hold. Although, coming back from the Apollo, it’s back to a more standard size. This of course is because you don’t need to insert a magazine into the handle on this blaster. Instead, you insert the mag right above the pistol grip. There is a wide gap that goes straight through to the other side. You hold the mag on an angle and insert it straight into the Zeus until it clicks into place. Right under where the end of the magazine is, is a small orange button. You can find it on either side of the Nerf Rival Zeus. This is the mag release button. Slide it down and then push the mag out with your other hand. Voila. Under the mag release button is a pretty large sling point for your ultra tacticool adjustable bungee rifle slings. This leads us to the back of the Zeus, which also happens to be an integrated shoulder stock. It’s a pretty great length and is also very comfortable. It feels good to shoulder the Zeus, no doubt. At the top of the butt of the stock, you’ll see 2 screws and a panel that appears to be able to be removed. This is actually the battery compartment. Inside, you’ll find a super long tray that goes into the Zeus all the way down to about where the mag ends. This is where you’ll insert your 6 C-Sized batteries. On top of the Zeus, you won’t find much until you get back towards the front of the blaster again. Here you’ll find another tactical rail and my favorite part of the top of the Zeus: the two flip up iron sights. These things are awesome and look very cool. It’s bad because I’ll never attach anything to that top rail because the iron sights are just too cool. I love them. Anyway, that’s all for the external features of the Nerf Rival Zeus.

Nerf Rival Zeus Performance.:

From the time you first hold down that acceleration trigger, you know the Zeus means business. It releases a might roar that will instantly silence any other blasters in the room. I skipped the indoor firing test and went straight outside to the range test this time. Firing the Zeus was fast, fluid, and flawless. It shoots the high impact rounds straight down range reliably time and time again, without fail. I was seeing consistent ranges of about 65+ feet, fired flat. This was actually a little less than the Apollo for some reason, but it was windy outside and the batteries weren’t completely brand new. They weren’t old, but I had used 2 of them in my Rapidstrike for a little while a few days before. Either way, though, the Nerf Rival Zeus is an extremely solid performer and it didn’t disappoint me in the least. Sixty-five feet flat and with above average accuracy? Very nice. I’m still giggling like a little school girl. Check my YouTube video to see the quick firing range test for yourself.

Thoughts and Opinions on the Nerf Rival Zeus.

The Nerf Rival Zeus is a new blaster in a new series of Nerf blasters. The line has a new focus (extreme velocity, accuracy, etc.) and a new target demographic. And, I’ve got to say, so far they’ve really hit it out of the park. The Apollo was pretty great (review here) and now this. The Zeus is an amazing blaster in every sense of the word. For cons, we can go over the usual “there are no stock or barrel attachments,” and we can also talk about how there aren’t any official accessories for attaching to all of those tactical rails. Well, besides the clip holder. That’s cool, but it’s not enough. The line is brand new, though, so we’ll give them passes on most of that. This is just picking nits anyway, as none of these cons really take away from the actual function or performance of the blaster. The heft that all of those C size batteries adds on may be the only legitimate complaint one can have against the Nerf Rival Zeus. But, I guess it needs all of that power to completely destroy every flywheel blasters on the rest of Nerfs lineup. (And it does.) But yeah, I dunno, couldn’t they use Lipo’s or something? Let me know how you really feel, down below in the comments section. And, Nerf Nation, as always, thanks for reading!

P.S. – Don’t forget to watch my video review of the Nerf Rival Zeus on YouTube so I can say “thanks for watching,” too.