Nerf gun mods are nothing new. People have been stretching springs, replacing barrels, and removing air restrictors for almost as long as Nerf guns have been around. However, they’ve always involved off-the-shelf parts and a lot of creative gluing, bending, and cutting to get things to work. Now Orange Mod Works has taken the guesswork out of replacing and improving parts of your Nerf gun.

Orange Mod Works is a small company that sells mod kits for Nerf guns. Instead of just offering the tools (though there is a very large tool kit you can buy from them to be prepared for complex and extreme mods), they offers measured springs and all-metal replacement parts you can just drop into your Nerf guns to both make them more powerful and reinforce them. They sent me their Alpha Trooper Stage 1 modification kit, and I was surprised by just how well-made the entire kit is.

The packaging alone is gorgeous, like a video game power-up. I usually don’t gush about packaging, but such a small, niche product usually doesn’t get such an elaborate box. Besides the replacement parts, the box also comes with an opaque Orange Works sticker and a transparent Orange Works applique. They’re nice touches.

The kit itself consists of a 6-kilogram spring, a metal trigger catch, a trigger catch spring, and a metal backplate. The spring itself makes the Alpha Trooper more powerful, but the metal trigger catch and backplate keep the gun’s plastic components from breaking with the extra force.

Taking apart the Alpha Trooper is easy. Remove the screws holding the handle and the end cap from the gun and put them to the side. Remove the other screws and carefully take the two halves of the gun apart, keeping the right side of the gun on a flat surface so all the internal mechanisms will stay in place.

Installing the mod kit is similarly easy. Pull the spring out. Lift out the trigger catch (the big orange plastic piece that slides over the plunger). Fit the new spring over the plunger and carefully slide the trigger catch over the spring and plunger until it first in its track. Put the trigger catch spring over the nub on the top of the trigger catch and press it down until it fits in the body. Push the main spring down and put the gun back together, except the end cap. Slide the backplate into the end cap and screw it into the back of the gun. Now your Alpha Trooper is modified.

This isn’t all you can do with the Nerf Gun, and Orange Works recommends removing the air restrictor from the gun as well. Unfortunately, this is a more involved process that involves removing the bolt and either drilling or melting out the center post and the small parts inside the bolt without cutting through it or making the hole too big for darts to stay there. Orange Works offers a free guide to other mods you can do besides its own kit, including air restrictor removal and barrel replacement.

And how well does it work? Um… little hitch on that. As easy as the Alpha Trooper is to take apart, it’s surprisingly tricky to put back together. Unfortunately, while putting it back together, a small piece of plastic has gotten lost. As soon as I find it and figure out how to replace it, I’ll be able to provide a report on how much the spring improves performance. This problem has nothing to do with the Orange Works kit, which is extremely well-made and, in the hands of a more talented modder, should improve performance significantly. And if I ever figure out how to fix the gun, I’ll come back to it!