The New Nerf Stormcharge looks like a minimized Rapidstrike Pistol
Stryfe Re-Shell or Mini-Rapidstrike?

So I was lurking on the Nerf Reddit the other day, as I often do, and I saw something very interesting. A post for an upcoming Nerf blaster caught my attention and I was mesmerized. This new blaster was called the Nerf Stormcharge and its looks were… oddly familiar.

The New New Nerf Stryfe

This is the new Nerf Stormcharge, the latest blaster out of the Hasbro stables up there in Rhode Island. The Stormcharge is in the Nerf Elite 2.0 series of blasters and the “Wild Edition” subseries. It is a mag fed, semi-auto, flywheel powered foam flinger. At face value, the Nerf Elite 2.0 Stormcharge is just another Nerf Stryfe re-shell, but if you dive in a little deeper, it’s so much more. But first, let’s address the elephant in the room.

The Nerf Stormcharge is a Semi-Rapid Pistol

Apologies to any elephant enthusiasts, but we need to discuss this. The Nerf Stormcharge is an officially released Rapidpistol. The Rapidpistol, a Minimized Rapidstrike, was a Nerf mod from years ago. Nerf modders would take the Nerf Elite Rapidstrike and cut off the barrel, just after the flywheels, and they’d chop off the shoulder stock. They’d slap an N-Strike barrel lug and a stock attachment point on and there you’d have it: a Rapidpistol.

If you go back and search through the YouTubes, you’ll find countless minimized Rapidstrikes under names ranging from Rapidpistol to Rapidstrike Uzi to Nerf KG-9. The Nerf Elite Rapidstrike was already a great Nerf blaster to begin with and this extreme minification mod was just the sweet, sweet icing on the red velvet cake.

Nerf clearly noticed the attention the Rapidstrike was getting in the Nerf Internet Community and they took note. Then, they hatched an evil plan to steal the design of the Rapidpistol and release it a decade later when not many people would notice. Those absolute A-class villains! HASBROOOOOOOOOOO!!

Just kidding. Probably. But honestly, I’m glad they let the modding world influence their design. The Nerf Stormcharge seems to be a very cool little blaster and I’m glad it’s here.

What’s In The Box?

In the box, you’ll find the Nerf Stormcharge blaster and a bunch of Nerf Elite 2.0 darts. The 10-dart magazine is already inserted in the blaster and the barrel and stock attachments are also already in place. The instruction booklet is there, too, but who in the blue really cares about that? Huh?

External Features of the Nerf Stormcharge

Going over the Stormcharge, starting at the front as usual, we can see that it comes with the old Nerf Modulus Proximity Barrel. This barrel is already attached to the barrel lug when you get the blaster. It also comes with the baby stock from the Nerf Modulus Recon MK2. The stock is also attached to the stock attachment point of the Stormcharge. Finally, it comes with a unusually reddish-orange 10 round mag and the best mag release that Nerf has ever made.

The grip is nice and comfortable and the hand-rest area under the barrel? DIVINE. It’s amazing and I absolutely love it. Back to the grip, it has an annoying feature that will definitely serve to annoy any Nerf modders anxious to get inside the shell. It has two clipped on panels that hide several screws underneath. You’ll have to pry them off. At least it isn’t solvent welded, eh?

The rev trigger is standard and the firing trigger is a little thing and will probably annoy Nerfers with more sensitive fingers. I wear gloves, so it doesn’t bother me, but a flat trigger face would have been nice here. At least the mag release is heavenly. The mag-well features a nice semi-skeletal slit in the bottom that looks cool, but the included mag is kind of flimsy, to be honest.

There’s a tacti-cool rail on the side of the Nerf blaster that would be absolutely perfect for the Nerf Modulus Tactical Light. I swear the Nerf Stormcharge should have been a part of the Modulus line of blasters.

On the flip side, you can find the jam door in case you need to clear any jammed darts from the fly-wheels. But as a Stryfe re-shell, you really shouldn’t encounter any jams. On top of the blaster, you have the top tactical rail/carry handle. This is highly reminiscent of the Rapidstrike as well.

On the back, you’ll find the stock attachment point with the ridiculous Recon MK2 baby stock already attached. This stock is way too short for any one above the age of maybe 10. It fits my seven year old daughter pretty well, but Nerf is supposed to be for 8 and up, so I don’t know who they’re making these stocks for!

Rounding off the features are a couple of sling mounts, one at the bottom of the pistol grip and another just behind the hand-rest. The last notable thing is a tiny sight in the carry handle but I’m not sure if it’s even worth mentioning. It is so ridiculously tiny that it looks like it was made for ants. Every time they put a sight in the tac rail carry handle, it gets smaller and smaller.

Charged Up Aesthetics for the Stormcharge

The Nerf Stormcharge looks really great and is definitely aesthetically pleasing. I love the way this thing looks. The Stryfe is one of my favorite Nerf blasters of all time, so anything even remotely Stryfe is already making me happy. Then they had to go and make it look like the epic Nerf Rapidpistol mod from the good old days of janky Nerf modding. Love it! Small details like the slit in the mag-well and the “vents” in the side of the blaster near the muzzle are fantastic.

Elite Ergonomics

A lot of blasters in the Elite 2.0 stable of Nerf blasters are hit or miss. The Nerf Stormcharge is hitting on multiple levels, though! The pistol grip is nice and comfortable, but the angled hand-rest at the front of the blaster is so good that I never want to put the blaster down! Yes, it’s THAT good! Once you throw on a decent N-Strike compatible stock, you are in ergonomic heaven with this thing.

How-To Weather the Storm

Remember, the Nerf Stormcharge is just a Nerf Stryfe in a new shell. They operate the exact same way. To operate the Stormcharge, first make sure it’s loaded up with 4x AA batteries. It is a battery operated blaster and those fly-wheels are not going to spin up without a few coppertops in the battery tray. Load up the mag with 10 Nerf elite darts and insert the magazine into the mag-well until it clicks into place.

Now you’re ready to fling foam. Hold down the rev trigger until you hear the unmistakable sound of fly-wheel motors revving up and then pull the trigger. A single dart should fly out of the muzzle of your blaster. Pull the trigger again! Another dart. Again! Dart! AGAIN! AAGGGAAAAAIINNNN!!!!!

That’s the beauty of it; the Nerf Stormcharge, much like the Stryfe, will fire off a dart every single time you pull the trigger. So the faster your trigger finger, the faster your rate of fire. Practice, practice, practice….

Charge Me UP! (Stormcharge Performance)

Let’s see what it’s made of… Nerf Stormcharge firing test, GO!

I shot soooo many darts out of the Stormcharge using all kinds of different magazines and the results were pretty good. The speed was great, the reliability was there, but the actual power? It’s quite lacking. The Stormcharge was shooting at an average of 65 feet per second or probably a little less. This is below the average 70 FPS that most Elite blasters fire at.

The low power of the Stormcharge isn’t that concerning to me. When I buy a Stryfe (or any of the re-shells) I go into that purchase knowing that I’m going to mod it out and increase the power across the board. Same thing with the Nerf Stormcharge.

Final Thoughts and Opinions

The Nerf Stormcharge is honestly a blast to use. The compact SMG-like form factor, the comfortable grip and uber comfortable hand rest area, the quick firing and reliability, the aesthetic– I could go on and on, everything here is great. The Stormcharge just looks good and feels great.

This thing checks all of the boxes except performance and it’s really not that far behind in that area, either. If you’re just shooting around the house, plinking or engaging in casual Nerf skirmishes, the Nerf Stormcharge will be fine.

If you’re planning on taking this to an organized Nerf War, though, you’ll most likely be in trouble. But, hey, modding can be fun! If you put in the work, the Stormcharge will show out for you, guaranteed.

The Competition

Nowadays, Nerf has it rough. And I mean ROUGH! There is SO much competition out there these days, on all levels. Nerf’s even competing with themselves on this one, because the Nerf Stryfe is STILL available for purchase!

But then you’ve got companies like Dart Zone, coming out with blasters like the Spectrum and the Dart Zone Pro Series MK3. Those blasters are like pre-modded Stryfe’s and the MK3, especially, is a whole other beast.

Finally, there are things like the Worker Phoenix 2.0, which is basically a “Nerf” blaster version of the MP7 submachine gun. That thing is b-a-n-a-n-a-s!

Should I Buy?

It depends. If you’re one of those people that still believes it’s “Nerf or nothin’,” then yes you should absolutely buy this. It’s a great little blaster…. for Nerf. BUT, if you want higher performance or the support of the superior half-length darts, you might have to look elsewhere.

Aaaand that’s where the article ends. Make sure to drop a comment down below telling me your experience with the Nerf Stormcharge. Do you own one? Do you want to own one? If you have one, do you like it? Do you think Nerf is still a viable option for a performance Nerf blasters in 2023? Let me know, down in the comments section below!