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Cube Warfare: The Off-Brand Shell Game

No, this isn't a cautionary tale warning against buying non-Nerf products. On the contrary, this week we're highlighting a different brand of foam dart guns, which incorporates a really neat (albeit not particularly useful) feature into some of its guns.

Buzz Bee Toys makes an entire line of Nerf-like blasters, many of which are available at large retail chains like Target. Most are standard dart gun fare, but two rifles stand out for their sheer novelty. They use plastic shells to house the foam darts, and after firing, the guns can eject the shells like real rifles. The shells are universal, so you can use any brand of foam dart with them.

The Buzz Bee Double Shot is a breech-loading, double-barreled foam dart shotgun that ejects its shells after firing. I'll repeat: it is a breech-loading, double-barreled foam dart shotgun. It's awesome by its very concept.

Opening the breech and folding the barrel down automatically cocks the gun, so as soon as the darts are in it's ready to fire. A two-step trigger fires off each barrel individually, so you can get two shots with careful half-pulls, or a double-barreled blast with a full trigger pull. When you reload, the shells shoot out of the back of the gun, making room for new shells. You can keep a few extra loaded shells in the butt of the gun, under a flip-up door.

The Double Shot isn't the most powerful or fastest shooting dart gun available, but the sheer novelty value makes it a great buy. Spraypaint it like a twelve-gauge double-barreled Remington shotgun for your very own Army of Darkness LARPing/cosplay. Hang it above your cubicle to reassure everyone that you're ready for a foam-vulnerable zombie epidemic.

The second rifle isn't quite as cool as the Double Shot, but it fires faster and has even more of a western flair. The Buzz Bee Rapid Fire Western Rifle is a magazine-loaded lever-action rifle that uses the same plastic shells to hold its darts. Every time you cock the lever to load another shell, the previous one flies out of the side of the rifle.

It's time-consuming to load each plastic shell with a dart before loading the gun, but the effect of the shell popping out every time you fire and reload is fun enough to justify the inconvenience. There's a certain nerdy badass to feeling bright orange plastic fly from your gun when you open the breech or cock the lever. If you can find either of these rifles, pick them up.