Board Thread:Questions and answers/@comment-3362895-20150822201455/@comment-3362895-20150823032253

My NSE Raider was bought used in a bundle with other heavily used Nerf blaster stuff including peach-colored Streamline darts. However, I concentrated on a new pack of Elite darts (both standard and suction-cup head) because I figured they were a newer and more reliable design.

I did notice during limited testing that the blue Raider's priming action was quite gritty at the end of each cycle. That suggested some undue friction. Then my sons got a hold of the lot and started using the blasters quite frequently. Within only a week, most of my elite darts were getting torn up to various degrees. So I decided to hit eBay and buy a lot of 200 cheap, yellow Koosh darts from China at a cost of $26. My plan is to allocate only a certain number of darts to each of my blasters - marking them in the process - so that I can better determine which device is mangling the darts and which is not.

But of course I didn't realize that to allocate two mags' worth of darts to each blaster, I would need over 500 darts!

BTW, I had no idea that the orange Raider is rare. (Should I try to trade for another Rayven?...) You're right: the Gear Up version is apparently two years younger and that could explain the difference. My main appreciation is that it seems to be smoother and gentler.