Razorbeast

The Razorbeast is a Nerf blaster that was released in fall of 1994 under the Max Force series.

It comes packaged with a fifteen dart chain and fifteen Mega Darts.

Details
The Razorbeast is a rather large blaster and features an unique firing mechanism. Instead of a trigger, it has a hand crank on the right side of this blaster. As the blaster is designed to resemble a boar, fitting in with the Max Force line's animal theme, the Razorbeast has several animal-like parts to it. There are teeth at the front end of the blaster's shell and eyes on the chain cover. Another notable styling choice is the abundance of gears seen on the blaster, primarily in the center of the shell.

There is a target, which can be cut out on the back of the Razorbeast's packaging. It has a flame pattern that is also seen on the top of the blaster itself. A large handle can be seen in the center of the Razorbeast to help guide the darts while cranking the blaster. Although it comes with a fifteen dart chain, it is cross-compatible with both the eight dart and twelve dart chains.

History
The Razorbeast was created by David Griffin. This blaster was initially called the Razorback. However, the University of Arkansas' sports team is called the Razorbacks; their legal representatives requested that Kenner change the name. Despite this, some early blasters were produced with the word "Razorback" inscribed into their handles due to the production mold at the time; these blasters are considered even rarer than the standard model of the blaster. Performance is said to be the same, however.

At the time of its release, it was the largest Max Force blaster and one of the largest Nerf blasters ever released. Both the Razorbeast and the Nerf Action Chainblazer were the first blasters to use ammo chains. The Chainblazer, however, is the true first chain-fed blaster, as it was released one season before the Razorbeast.

It was succeeded by the 1997 RotoTrack, released in the Cyber Stryke Gear line. The RotoTrack was a large improvement for the Razorbeast; it included a twelve dart chain and was also much more reliable and durable than the Razorbeast was. Along with that, it was more compact and featured a different firing method, as well as fixing accuracy issues seen in the Razorbeast.

Modification
The difficulty of firing it left-handed is easily remedied by removing the two screws from the rotating drum behind the crank handle, swapping the drum halves, and reassembling with the crank handle on the other side of the blaster.

But beyond that, the Razorbeast is very difficult to modify. The modding community, while appreciating many older blasters, abandoned the Razorbeast very early on. While it can be singled, the Razorbeast's shell requires major dremeling in order to be able to modify to the full extent. There is a way to improve the seal involving the use of e-tape, however this does not have a major effect on ranges.

It is generally recommended not to modify the Razorbeast unless one has a large amount of modification experience and is willing to deal with the challenges this blaster comes with, the main issue being the fact that the internals do not like to stay in place and will pop out with ease, making closing the Razorbeast rather difficult.

Trivia

 * The term "razorback" is an Americanism applied to any species of feral pig or wild boar.
 * The Razorbeast would have also appeared as a playable weapon in the cancelled video game Nerf Max Force.
 * The method of cranking the blaster to fire has only been used on one other and later Nerf blaster, the 2003 Cyclotron.