Mayday: Maverick Range Marred by Tek Six

Beauty vs. Beast: Fight for the Fists of Foam Firers

Six-shot capacity on the left, six-shot capacity on the right. Both are single-action (cock and fire). Both are sidearms, both are under US$10. How do they compare?

When the Nerf Maverick Rev-6 came out in 2004, it surprised the Nerfing community with its rugged looks. One hobbyist painted it metallic silver and black, accenting it’s sci-fi appearance and creating an instant hit among foam fans. Part revolver, part semi-auto.

For indoor use, I made it our office’s standard. Who would blame me? Other Nerf brands (certain Airtech models) had 4-round capacities. Six is a healthy number. Range is approx. 20 feet indoors (and I’d like to emphasize that I’m talking about a practical indoor use where you’d angle the gun up about 20-35 degrees. Some angle it 45 degrees and fire outdoors and may claim 30-40+ foot ranges. Yes, that may be an ideal range but what’s not ideal is that it takes time for a dart to reach 30-40+ and nobody’s going to stand still to get hit. The quickest path between two points is always a straight line, and that would be considered a foam gun's effective range.)

And did I say it looked cool? For home, office or indoor Nerfing, the Maverick just can’t be beat.

Buzz Bee’s Tek Six’s previous iteration was gloopy and ugly. It looked like the abdomen of a bee (get it? Buzz Bee?) While Buzz Bee Toy’s 2006 iteration of the Tek Six has not reached stores at the time of this writing (and in this writer’s locale) the 2005 has appeared in some toy stores. And while not as attractive as the Maverick, it looks better than it did last year. It’s improved significantly in finish; the black paint job requires scrutiny to distinguish it from its base plastic color (the gray and orange parts were cast in their own natural color).

What’s interesting is that the Tek Six is becoming a contender in range. Angling it with and holding it parallel to the Maverick, I fired both using their default suction-cup tipped darts…

… and the Tek Six beat the Maverick by 3 to 5 feet.

However, the Tek Six is still constructed to fire its own darts. It’s air restrictors (stems within the chamber for each round that goes into the hollow of each foam dart) are generally too wide for most Hasbro Nerf darts to fit on without a little coercing. Without modification, the Tek Six cannot reliably fire Nerf darts, and this should be a point of consideration if you’re entering into a foam war with everyone armed with Nerf-compatible darts. They can fire your darts at you, but their darts will be mostly useless. You can still force them into your Tek Six’s chambers but cramming a dart will impair the foam’s natural rigidity. You will also experience loss of range.

Despite the facelift, the grip remains uncomfortable. If you’re a small kid, the grip may be sufficient, but adults will find their pinking gripping air as the grip is too short.

The Tek Six feels more front-heavy than the Maverick. While the Maverick does have a pronounced front, its large grip and the wide end may be helping its handling. The Tek Six’s trigger is nearly half the width of a Maverick making it less comfortable in prolonged Nerf wars as it will feel like it is digging into your index finger.

In conclusion, if range is purely the deciding factor, the Tek Six wins. In terms of availability of ammo refill packs, I have not found any in stores, though I have heard that they can be ordered by mail directly from Buzz Bee. It is inconvenient to modify the Maverick and to remove its orange-colored air restrictor stems in each chamber due to the engineering complexity of the cylinder.

However the ergonomics, aesthetics, handling and availability of ammo (and convenience of firing friends’ ammo back at them) the Maverick has the advantage. In this comparison review, Beauty vs. Beast, the Maverick still has the lead. Hasbo beware, however. Buzz Bee may have been cheap and cheap-looking in the past but they are slowly gaining. Whether they are simply naturally evolving their product each year or intending on becoming the dominant player in the world of foam dart firearms remains to be seen. It will be an interesting foam firefight.