Elite Dart

An Elite Dart is a type of Nerf dart that was released in 2012 under the N-Strike Elite series.

Details

Like Streamline Darts, Elite Darts are compatible with standard N-Strike clips and drums.

Despite their ability to be used in Streamline Dart clips and drums, Elite Darts have differences from their predecessor dart type. The color scheme is different, as well as having a shorter tip plug than Streamline Darts for better compatibility with more blasters. The weight of Elite Darts are also slightly different when compared to Streamline Darts (approximately 1 gram for Elite Darts and 1.3 grams for Streamline Darts).

Official description

Performance

It has been demonstrated that Elite Darts shoot farther than Streamline Darts, most likely due to the aforementioned changes. Commercials claim that these darts go seventy-five feet when fired from an N-Strike Elite blaster, but like Streamline Darts, they vary in range and accuracy. These darts are more accurate than regular Streamline Darts.

In a test done between Streamline Darts and Elite Darts, blasters used were granted anywhere from a 10% to a 20% increase in overall range boost with the Elite Darts. Blasters with higher stock ranges were also found to yield the highest advantage from the use of Elite Darts. Another discovered edge was that Elite Darts are much more aerodynamically stable than Streamline Darts. At higher dart speed, Elite Darts were less prone to unintended trajectory disruption by "fishtailing"; Elite Darts essentially outperform Streamline Darts in all favorable ways.

Elite Darts still suffer from horrible aerodynamics, like Streamline Darts, despite their improvements. This is all due to the tiny hole in the head of each dart. When an Elite Dart is fired from a blaster, there is considerable force (from air resistance) pushing against the head of the dart. Because of the hole in the rubber tip, the oncoming drag forces the air inside of the tip out through the hole. The dart head compresses, deforming the dart's shape and unbalancing it. And since darts lack sufficient weight to stabilize midair, they cannot recover or fix their trajectory. No longer able to fly properly in this condition, the dart will fishtail, spiral, swerve, etc. The spread and inaccuracy of Elites are easily attributed to this inherent design flaw. Hasbro likely continues to manufacture Elite Darts with the hole in order to meet safety regulations; however, the new (and hole-less) design of the Suction Dart improves upon standard Elite Darts greatly as does the spiral-headed AccuStrike Dart.

Backwards compatibility

Blasters that are able to fire Streamline Darts or Micro Darts are able to fire Elite Darts as well. This includes all clip system blasters. They have also been shown to work very well in the clip-fed Dart Tag blasters.

The original Longshot CS-6 has a reputation for unreliability when fed with Elite Darts.^[1]

The Quick 16 has a slight unreliability to feed Elite Darts, due to its curved internal clip.

Variants

The Elite Dart has one variant within the series:

• Suction Dart (blue body with orange suction cup dart head)

Outside of N-Strike Elite, the Elite Dart has been re-released with alternate color schemes to match their patron series. These include:

Color schemes

The Elite Dart has been released in the following color schemes:

Refill sizes

Elite Dart refill packs come in the following sizes:

		Price
	5 (Special Edition)	?
	10	3.99 USD
	10 (Special Edition)	5.99 USD
	12	5.99 USD
	12 (Special Edition)	6.99 USD
	12 (Special Edition)	6.99 USD
	25 (includes 25 AccuStrike Darts)	9.99 USD
	30	9.99 USD
	30 ("Deco" version)	9.99 USD
	30 (includes 45 BattleCamo Darts)	11.99 USD
	50	12.99 USD
	75	17.99 USD
	75 ("Deco" version)	17.99 USD
	75 ("Personalize Your Darts!" version)	19.99 USD
	80	17.99 USD
	84	?
	100	19.99 USD
	250	49.99 USD

Trivia

• It was originally rumored that Elite Darts would have been able to whistle and stick to walls. A concept mock-up claimed that it would have been like a combination of a Whistler Dart, a Micro Dart, and a Streamline Dart. This concept was later partially realized with the Elite Suction Darts and Mega Darts.
• Originally, some packaging for Elite Darts warned that the darts are not compatible with the Maverick and Nite Finder EX-3. However, the dart is compatible with both blasters.^[3]
• There are, so far, nine dart letter types: "A", "K", "W", "J", "T", "Y", "E", "K.P.", and "M". Each letter type has a different size hole in the head, being that the ones with a smaller hole are more accurate.
• The blue Special Edition Elite Darts originally came with gray and black camo instead of white and black camo.
• In some Double Your Darts value packs, Hasbro included the "Deco" Elite Darts. However, instead of "ELITE" written on them, there was simply the N-Strike Elite logo, and they had silver deco instead of white deco.
• The third variant of the Special Edition darts version also had a re-release (silver body with engraved "ELITE" logo with multiple arrows and orange head), but these versions haven't been confirmed by Hasbro and never appeared on their website.^{[citation needed]}
• The Sonic FIRE variant of the Elite Dart is packaged with most Sonic FIRE blasters and shares the same color scheme as the Mega Dart.

Gallery

References

1. ↑  TheWiredDJ (2012-12-28). Fix for Elite dart jams in Longshots (Forum thread). NerfHaven. Archived from the original on 2018-10-01. Retrieved on 219-09-18.
2. ↑  Jared_Guynes (2019-03-07). 2,500 Nerf “50th Anniversary” Golden Darts. Until now only seen at New York Toy Fair. 1969-2019 printed on each dart.. Reddit.com/r/Nerf. Retrieved on 2019-03-22.
3. ↑ P13c30fch33s3 (2012-10-04). Nerf Elite Dart Review/Test Results. Outback Nerf. Retrieved on 2019-07-13.

External links

• 12-count Elite Dart Refill Pack on the Nerf website (archived link)
• 12-count Special Edition Elite Dart Refill Pack on the Nerf website (archived link)
• 75-count Personalize Your Darts! Elite Dart Refill Pack on the Target website