Water Warriors Blazer 2006 Review - Here it is!

[Hannibal]

Well, this is my Blazer review. I hope you like it!

_

The Blazer is a small-medium-sized gun. It is only one inch longer than the Piranha, and just a little bit taller. But it packs a lot more in it.

Nozzles
The Blazer has five nozzles. The nozzle assembly spins smoothly, but each nozzle snaps into place very nicely. There are five nozzles; four stream nozzles and one spray. They are as follows:

Smallest stream: I estimate this nozzle to be 1x or less. It is very small. I doubt it has much use, at least for me. But the shot time on this is amazing. This nozzle gets about 30-35 feet, which is considerable for such a small nozzle.

Second-smallest stream: This nozzle is somewhere in the 1x-2x size, and it gets about 40 feet, which is very good range. This nozzle has a small amount of use in battle. I might find myself using it fairly often.

Second-largest stream: This nozzle is about 2x-4x. It also gets about 40 feet. This nozzle, in my opinion, is the most useful nozzle, and is also my favorite. It has considerable output. It shoots for about 8 seconds. The stream is very constant. This nozzle also has that gushing-like sound that the Piranha’s largest nozzle also has. However, unlike the Piranha’s largest nozzle, this nozzle has nice range and stream consistency.

Largest stream: This is the real drenching nozzle. I estimate it to be 5x-8x. It also has that gushing sound. However, it only gets a disappointing 25 feet of range. But I can see it being very useful in hit-and run attacks, where you run up, unload, and then run off. The stream is also not very consistent, experiencing considerable breakup.

Spray nozzle: This is a fan-spray nozzle. It sends out a fan spray, much like that of the Monster series, but it is one big spray, rather than one of little holes. It has reasonable output, but not huge. But it covers the area very well. However, it does not shoot very far at all (maybe 10-15 feet). As well, on a windy day (like it was when I first used it) when shooting into the wind, you will find the water coming back on you.

Pump
The pump is a thing I love about the Blazer. It is the best pump I have ever used, in my opinion. It is semi-tracked, making it very durable, but it pumps like a non-tracked pump, in fact easier than one. It takes around 20-30 pumps to fill, which is very reasonable.

Pressure Chamber
The Blazer uses Buzz Bee’s Toy’s Hydro Power, which is similar to CPS. This allows for very good stream power. The Blazer pressure chamber (PC) is VERY large. It is almost as large as the PC on my 1700. The PC on the Blazer is bigger than the CPS 1200 (and 1000), CPS 2000 Mk. 2, CPS 2500, Monster 2001 (and CPS 4100), Monster X, and many other large Super Soaker. The large PC allows for extended shot times. But this also means you will get fewer shots per tank (about 2&½).

Water Tank
The Blazer’s water tank holds a reasonable amount of water, about 2L. This is slightly smaller than the CPS 1200, and about the same as the Monster (2001) and the CPS 4100. Since the PC is so huge, I find myself wanting more water. But it is fine. However, the curved upper-shape of the tank makes it difficult to fill all the way. I find myself having to tilt the tank up in the air to fill it completely. The other problem is the color of the tank. While the blue tank looks (in my opinion) pretty good, the darkness of the tank makes it difficult to see the level of the water inside. So when I fill the tank, I often find the water overflowing and dripping down the body, causing me to have a poor grip due to the wetness.

Trigger
The trigger does its job, and smoothly at that. It feels durable, but only time will tell. Even though the shot times are often long, I do not find myself being annoyed at holding the trigger for so long.

Pressure Gauge
The Blazer employs use of an electronic pressure gauge. It takes 2AA batteries. The gauge is reasonably useful, but I do wish they had used a non-electronic gauge instead. Not only does the electronic gauge take up space in the body and increase weight, it also means that, eventually, you will have to replace the batteries, or get rechargeable ones.

But I have not gotten to the most annoying part yet. The position of the button to activate the gauge is right behind the handle that houses the trigger to shoot. So this means whenever you are pumping, you will be activating the gauge, wasting batteries. The gauge button doesn’t feel too good on your hand, either. I believe I would prefer the Blazer to have no pressure gauge (I can handle having no gauge on my CPS 1700), and therefore no gauge button, than to have the gauge. Of course, I would prefer most of all to have a non-electronic gauge, such as that which is used on some Super Soakers.

Handle/body
The Blazer has a handle on which you hold to pull the trigger, which also houses the pressure gauge. It also has a handle further back, which I assume is what you can hold when you are carrying the gun. But I use this handle further back to hold when I am pumping, as I do not want to activate the electronic pressure gauge, or be bugged by the button by which you activate it. But, when I am holding that handle, it gets slippery, making it harder to maintain a good grip. Remember, the tank overflowing caused this slipperiness, which was caused by the non-see-through tank. So I would suggest that the tank be a little more clear, and some gripping be added to the handle.

The Blazer is very easy to hold. It weighs and holds like a much smaller gun, but performs like a lighter CPS. I would not hesitate to say that the Blazer can easily face a light CPS (such as the 1200, 2100, and 1000), and an experienced user can even face the CPS 1500/ 1700. This thing packs a lot for its size.


Pros:
Large PC gives you long shot times. Nice-sized water tank, on par with the CPS 4100. Five nozzle settings give you a lot of choices to choose from. Forty feet of range on the two middle stream nozzles is also very nice. The Blazer has the best pump I have ever used, being tracked, and yet at the same time smoother than any non-tracked pump. It is very light and small, and yet packs a large amount of power inside. Quite comfortable to hold, other than the pressure gauge button.

Cons:
Position of electronic pressure gauge means you will be constantly activating it, and irritating your hand. The gauge also uses batteries, an obvious downside. Dark tank means you can’t tell what level of water your tank is at while you are filling, causing the gun to become wet from overflowing as well giving poorer grip. Smallest nozzle too small, largest nozzle gets poor (25 foot) range. Fan spray nozzle doesn’t go far at all.
Link to primary Water Warriors Blazer (2006) discussion thread

[ZOCCOZ]

Good review. Would that be the black-red Blazer or the newer blue-white one?

[Crashdummy]

The blue and white, he said it had a spray nozzle. Thanks a lot for the review, it was really good. Now I just have to wait until mine arrives. I've got a few things in store for mine. :blues:

[isoaker]

Great review! Very thorough, too. Spray nozzles usually only shoot half the distance or less compared to solid streams, so that's never quite been a 'con' to me, just a fact. Otherwise, a nice read!

@ Hannibal: May I repost your review on the Blazer review page on iSoaker.com?

[Hannibal]

Good review. Would that be the black-red Blazer or the newer blue-white one?

Hey thanks! It's the 2006 one I got from Amazon. I believe they didn't change the Blazer from 2005 to 2006.

The blue and white, he said it had a spray nozzle. Thanks a lot for the review, it was really good. Now I just have to wait until mine arrives. I've got a few things in store for mine. :blues:

Yeah, it's a pretty good gun. Thanks!

Great review! Very thorough, too. Spray nozzles usually only shoot half the distance or less compared to solid streams, so that's never quite been a 'con' to me, just a fact. Otherwise, a nice read!

@ Hannibal: May I repost your review on the Blazer review page on iSoaker.com?

Yeah, you're right that spray nozzles never get much range.

Sure, go ahead and post it!

[scorpion]

Cool. I got a blazer yesterday and already taken apart and done an internal back pack mod and have a picture of the internals and will figure out how to post them soon.

[Crashdummy]

More good info guys!

Scorpion: You going to do any other mods? I know one more I'm going to do, I'm going to strip mine of it's electrical parts and take off that backwards trigger. I'm thinking about trying to melt the plastic from the trigger to seal the hole it will make by me taking it out. Then I will melt more plastic to cover the spot where the meter was. When I'm done and have painted it, you wouldn't even know it used batteries.

[scorpion]

What I did to mine was ad a three gallon backpack and I just took the connector that connects the tank of the gun to the rest of the internals and glued my tube in there so it does not get air from the tank. its a very easy mod.

[Hannibal]

Yeah, I really like the idea of the Max Infusion system, which interchangeable backpacks, though the actual guns aren't great. What I think would be good is to see BB adopt it too, on their superior blasters.

Scorpion: You going to do any other mods? I know one more I'm going to do, I'm going to strip mine of it's electrical parts and take off that backwards trigger. I'm thinking about trying to melt the plastic from the trigger to seal the hole it will make by me taking it out. Then I will melt more plastic to cover the spot where the meter was. When I'm done and have painted it, you wouldn't even know it used batteries.

Wow, that sounds good. While I certainly wouldn't dare do it myself, it would get rid of the less "nice" parts of the blaster. :;):



Edited By Hannibal on 1144431386

[LtDan64]

Wow, great review! Honest, bias-free, tells exactly what I would want to know, with just the right amount of detail (not too long and boring). Great job, hope you feel like doing more reviews, I liked this one.

[Crashdummy]

Mine came yesterday, but I was too tired to go outside, and it was pouring rain so I shot it out of my bedroom window. It rocks, and is everything I expected it to be. Now all I need to do is get that sheet of rubber.

[Hannibal]

Wow, great review! Honest, bias-free, tells exactly what I would want to know, with just the right amount of detail (not too long and boring). Great job, hope you feel like doing more reviews, I liked this one.

Hey, sure! Not so sure about bias-free though. I am kind of biased toward BB current guns and against the current Super Soakers. But I can't really help it, nor do I think anyone here can.

Mine came yesterday, but I was too tired to go outside, and it was pouring rain so I shot it out of my bedroom window. It rocks, and is everything I expected it to be. Now all I need to do is get that sheet of rubber.

Heh. Did you get 40 feet of range? I guess it would be hard to tell in that kind of weather. Kind of like I'm getting here. We've had almost nonstop rain for more than a month, and it's Silicon Valley. Not the kind of weather I'm used to.

And tell me how that mod goes. I wonder how much the power would be improved. And you might want to drill out some bigger nozzles while you're at it. That small one is useless, and the second-smallest is near-useless.

[Crashdummy]

I planned on drilling out the fan blast (a little too weak for me, picture a Secret Strike blast, but twice as powerful) and the next to smallest one. I will drill out the smallest one if it starts acting funny after the mod, spraying like my CPS 1000 after it's k-mod. i already opened it, and am going to strip out the electronics once I find my snippers. I'm ordering my rubber some time today, so after that, we will just have to wait on shipping (priority mail isn't worth it IMO).

One thing I don't understand is why everyone hates the resivoir. All you have to do is lean the soaker back a little when you are almost out of water (literally when you are down to those last few drops) and the water goes right on in. Also, it doesn't need to be see-through. If you have a brain, then you can tell when you are low on water (or listen for the dry sucking of the pump), and don't need a see-through resivoir. :p

[Hannibal]

One thing I don't understand is why everyone hates the resivoir. All you have to do is lean the soaker back a little when you are almost out of water (literally when you are down to those last few drops) and the water goes right on in. Also, it doesn't need to be see-through. If you have a brain, then you can tell when you are low on water (or listen for the dry sucking of the pump), and don't need a see-through resivoir. :p

I don't have a problem with that. I have a problem with when I am filling, I can't see how much water I still need to put in the tank. When I don't expect it, it suddenly overflows, creating a mess. A see-through reservoir would solve this problem.



Edited By Hannibal on 1144538554

[Crashdummy]

Alright, I'm ordering the rubber as we speak, and already took out the electronics. I took out the rear trigger (ready to melt, to fill the hole it left) but I left the clear parts from the power meter, because I decided it would be easier to just paint them flat black to go with the look of the soaker (black and deep deep blue).

34 screws later (yes, 34 of them) and I was in the PC. The bladder is a single rather squishy piece of rubber in the shape of an 8, that 1/8" thick with a lip going all of the way around the edge to keep it from popping out. I probably won't be able to add a piece of rubber directly onto the bladder because of this lip, so I'm going to completely remove the stock bladder, and replace it with the rubber I'm getting from McMaster. This should work because although the rubber I will be putting in won't have lips, since it is thicker, I should be able to clamp it down tighter because it is thicker (1/8" stock, 1"4" McMaster rubber) so it still won't pop out of it's spot.

I'm going to freeze the check valve as soon as I get out to the hardware store and get some epoxy. since I removed the electronics and all of the doodads it had connected to it, I need epoxy anyway because removing those parts left a hole where the pressure meter was attatched to the internals.

I really like the trigger valve in the Blazer, because it uses a tiny ball valve instead of a plunger style valve.The only problem with mine is it only opens about 85% to 90% of the way, ever so slightly restricting performance. Other than that mine works perfectly.

All I have to do now is cvf it, epoxy a few things, melt the back trigger to fill the hole it made, put in the rubber, drill the nozzles, and paint it. Not much left until I'm done, so expect me to be here to post about it in about next friday.

Major EDIT: I don't have the money for the 1/4" 1' by 1' piece of rubber, so I'm going to get the 1/8" piece instead, and do two layers. All I need to do now is make $24 for the piece (product 86085K102) and have it shipped. Now, compensating for me being lazy (one day) and waiting until I get some money, you guys should expect my finished product on the 22nd. :bm1000:



Edited By Crashdummy on 1144553604

[m15399]

My advice is don't be cheap. If there's something better, work a few more hours to buy it. It will pay off in the long run. I'm not sure how well two layers would work, but I'd go with the single 1/4".

I would put some electrical tape, or even better grip tape, around the edges of your new bladder so that the screws won't cut into the rubber.


...That's exactly the type of thing someone would put in their sig at NerfHaven.

[Crashdummy]

I would, but I'm not about to pay $40 for one mod. Check out the price on 1/4" 12" by 12" ultra elastic natural latex rubber, and that is about how much it is. On top of that, I'm not even 100% sure this mod will be successful. Using two 1/8" pieces won't effect performance in any way.

About the electrical tape: I was going to use something like that, but they have a piece of plastic in between the pieces that clamp down that is really smooth, so I don't have to worry. Nothing is sharp inside the PC either, so it can't get cut inside there. The screws don't actually touch the bladder. Have you opened the PC up on a spherical PC soaker? It is like that, where nothing can hurt the bladder.

[kylemw9]

I think once I get mine I'll add some sort of water proof grip if anyone has any ideas I'd love to here them