The New Nerf Fortnite AR 15 Blasters Have Been Unvaulted
Like it or not, new Fortnite blasters are here

Alright, guys, this is the new Nerf Fortnite Insightful Blaster. Now I don’t know how “insightful” it really is but hey, that’s what they call it! There’s also a Nerf Fortnite Blue Shock Blaster and it’s designed just like the Insightful blaster, except, shocker, it’s blue! I don’t know how shocking that really was, but they’re both based on the classic Fortnite AR from the video game of the same name. Foam Heads? Meet the Nerf Fortnite AR, baby!

The NERF Fortnite AR 15

NERF M4A1? Yup! Now, look, I’m normally more of a Call of Duty player. Don’t get me wrong, I do like Fortnite. That’s why whenever one of these Nerf Fortnite blasters come out, it always piques my interest and this one is no different. Based off of the classic AR from Fortnite, these blasters (the Insightful and Blue Shock blasters) are basically NERF M4A1 carbines. Now we have the M4 in Call of Duty, too, but be real — Nerf is never going to do a COD collab, so this is as good as it’s going to get!

The Nerf Fortnite AR’s consist of two blasters this time around. Or maybe I should say the same blaster with two different “wraps.” Fortnite calls the gun camo’s “wraps” like it’s for a car or something. So these two Nerf Fortnite AR’s are the same blaster, but with different wraps. The Nerf Fortnite Insightful Blaster is what you want if you’re Team Red, but the Nerf Fortnite Blue Shock Blaster is also very striking.

They’re both the same blaster at heart and that is basically Stryfe re-shells. They are both mag fed, semi-automatic, flywheel blasters, powered by 4x AA batteries, just like the glorious old Nerf Stryfe.

What’s in the Box?

In the box, you’ll find the Nerf Fortnite AR blaster itself (either the red Nerf Fortnite Insightful blaster or the blue Nerf Fortnite Blue Shock blaster, depending on which one you chose). You’ll also find the ten round banana style magazine (already inserted into the blaster), 10 Nerf Fortnite Elite darts, and the instructions.

Nerf Fortnite AR Blasters Overview

Starting at the front, as always, there is no N-Strike barrel lug, but there is a grossly exaggerated M4 style barrel, complete with the triangle forward sight post (without the cutout for an actual iron ABS sight of course 🙄). See, these Nerf Fortnite AR blasters have no actual ABS sights at all. The front sight is just the triangle and the carry handle is supposed to have grooves in it and an actual sight, but it’s smoother than a baby’s bottom!

Moving back from the “front sight,” we find ourselves at the M4 style handguard, except it’s super flat, like your girlfriend. It looks like it was runover by a road roller. Now the mag well here is standard, nothing fancy. It’s keeping with the M4/M16 aesthetic. There’s a jam access door at the top, just under the carry handle. It’s cute and auto closes when you insert a magazine, which is neat, but I don’t know how effective it will be at letting you actually clear jams. I don’t know how many fingers you could fit in there…

Anyway, The Nerf Fortnite AR comes with a standard 10 round banana style magazine. The magazine will be white, no matter which color blaster you pick. There’s a paddle style magazine release right behind where you put the mag in. It’s comfortable and textured, to add some grip to it in case you have sweaty hands. The grip here is actually very comfortable and has a size that will accommodate Nerfers of all ages, which is great. It also has a textured panel that feels nice and adds some more grip to the, uh, grip.

The rev trigger is oversized as well and I have no complaints there. The actual firing trigger is basic AF and the trigger pull doesn’t feel too smooth or too clunky, it’s just somewhere in the middle. Everything here was going pretty good; the trigger assembly is all good, the trigger guard is nice and roomy, rev trigger’s large, pistol grip is big and comfy and then we have… the shoulder stock.

About the Shoulder Stock

The Nerf Fortnite AR suffers from B.S.S.S. or “Baby Shoulder Stock Syndrome.” It’s quite ridiculous, really, but Nerf will never change this. It would be so easy to just throw a Raider stock on everything or just throw a stock attachment point on there at least. But no, they force these little baby stocks upon us every chance they get. And they won’t stop and I’ve had enough!

Alright, so I’m back and I’ve calmed down a little bit. So, uh, so the stock is actually where you load the batteries. The Nerf Fortnite AR blasters are, at their core, just some more Stryfe re-shells, so like the Stryfe, they take 4x AA size batteries. Unscrew the battery cover and load them into your Nerf Fortnite AR.

How To Operate

Next, load up the magazine with the included darts, which I’ve apparently lost by now, so any standard Elite size darts will work. Load the magazine with 10 darts and then slam her home. To fire the Nerf Fortnite AR blaster, hold the rev trigger and let it purr for a second or two and then pull the trigger. Yep, it’s that easy! Every trigger pull will fire another dart. Semi-auto.

Let’s Shoot This Thing! (Nerf Fortnite AR Firing Test)

All right, so no jams or malfunctions. Everything’s pretty basic. It’s a Stryfe so I wouldn’t really expect too many problems there. I ran it across my ballistic chronograph to compare it to other blasters and, using the included darts, I got an average velocity of 69 (giggity) feet per second, which is just in line with other stock Nerf flywheel blasters like the original Nerf Stryfe.

Final Thoughts and Opinions

As far as my opinion on these blasters… Well, me personally, I don’t particularly love these blasters. Let’s just say I had more fun shooting that silly skit in the intro of my video review than I do actually shooting these blasters. Sure, it has the general outline of an M4 or AR-15, but some of the proportions are way off and this leaves the blaster looking more than a little wonky.

The 3 Biggest Flaws

Aesthetically, my main three gripes are, in order: One, the baby stock. This thing is tiny and ridiculous and actually borderline offensive. “What is this, a stock for ants?!” Two, the carry handle. It should have had a tactical rail on it and an actual cut out for a functional ABS sight. This blaster really has no sights at all and it’s weird. Three, the hand guard. The barrel shroud here is flat as hell and looks like a fat guy sat on it. Also, the fact that the mag release is just low enough to prevent me from hitting it with my firing hand is actually annoying.

Functionally

Functionally, there’s not too much to dislike here. Like I’ve said before, it’s a basic semi-auto flywheeler very similar to the Nerf Stryfe. It shoots at a velocity similar to other stock flywheel Nerf blasters and depending on how or where you’re going to use this blaster, that could work for you very well.

If you’re planning on modding and you actually like the shell, this could be a very good choice. If you’re not planning on modding the blaster and you want to take it to a Nerf war, you’ll more than likely be outclassed. People there will probably be running blasters that are way more powerful. Other than that, it’s got a comfortable grip and a kind of cool, if not wonky, silhouette. If you’re a modder like I am, then you know you can tune the performance to whatever you want it to be.

Modding Potential?

So tell me, should I mod this blaster? And if so, which one should I mod? I know I’m Team Red, but I’m leaning towards modding the Insightful blaster here. The Blue Shock just looks better in my opinion, so I really don’t want to chop it up and paint it. But let me know what you think I should do down in the comment section below. If this article gets over 100 comments, I’ll definitely be back with a full mod guide for this blaster.

And that is where the review ends. If you made it to this point, let me know your thoughts on the Nerf Fortnite AR, both the Insightful and Blue Shock blaster variants. Do you like them or should these blasters be vaulted forever like the actual Nerf Fortnite AR?

If you enjoyed this review, let me know! It seems like Nerf hobby blog websites aren’t as popular as they used to be so make sure and leave a comment if you’re reading this to let me know this is still worth it!

If you don’t like these Nerf Fortnite AR blasters, but you’re still looking for a semi-auto flywheel Nerf blaster, check out my review of the Nerf Elite Stormcharge. It’s a lot more compact and much more tacti-cool than these blasters. With that said, my name’s Blee, you’ve just been tagged out, I love you Foam Heads and I’ll see you in the next one!

Last update on 2025-01-17 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API