10/21/12

Buzz Bee Ultimate Missile Blast Mod and Review

     The successor to the Big Blast, the Ultimate Missile Blast had a lot to live up to.  Unfortunately, this blaster has really been largely ignored on the whole and can be made into a fantastic, powerful blaster.  Read on to find out how.





     The BBUMB (quite an acronym) is similar to the Big Blast, Mega Missile, Titan, or central part of the Berserker in that it is a single shot blaster with a large air tank and a whole lot of power.  While it has a smaller tank than a Big Blast or Titan, the two most iconic air tank blasters, it has a superior trigger system that releases air faster.  In short, it can stand up to these legends in power, only being superficially less powerful.

     Stock the UMB fires Buzz Bee rockets around 35'.  Not practical but kinda fun.  The included rockets are actually special light up rockets that flash red when they hit something.  So pointless.

     Modded the UMB is an absolute monster.  All I did was cut off the barrel, wrap the 1/2" barrel stub in duct tape and Gorilla Glue a coupler on.  The only other mod I did was putting a rubber band around the pump to keep it from falling open.  The mods took less than ten minutes and it can get ranges in the triple digits.

     Actual ranges are all dependent on the barrel and dart of course.  With heavily weighted Stefans and a very long brass barrel ranges could most likely near 130-150', an absurd and fairly useless amount of power.  Personally, I like to use stock darts that can be front-loaded, ensuring full dart compatibility and a much faster reload than with a barrel that must be taken off for every shot.

     The barrel that I typically use has 3 inches of CPVC nested in 5 inches of PVC.  The CPVC works like any normal barrel and the PVC seals with the tip like a blowgun would, resulting in unusually high ranges and accuracy with stock darts.  It can shoot Buzz Bee darts around 80'.  Any more than that (with any Nerf blaster) would have very little real chance of hitting someone anyway.

Pros:
     Great power
     Awesome adaptability
     Cheap
     Faster reload/less pumping than similar blasters
Cons:
     Slow reload compared to different types of blasters
     Single shot (unless it has a hopper, RSCB, tri-shot, absolved, whatever)

     All in all, this blaster is pretty much as simple as they come.  But there is beauty in simplicity, right?  This is in essence, a slightly weaker Big Blast in a much cooler looking shell.  Big Blasts are hard to come by though, and this really is a more practical alternative on the whole.  I couldn't really recommend anything over this if you are looking for a simple high power air tank blaster with a lot of bang for your buck.

3 comments:

  1. Thanks. I got one from Goodwill for 1.99 with no idea of how I could mod it to shoot regular darts.

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  2. i pulled mine out after a few years similar to the other guy. got it from a goodwill for like a dollar and i just switched it to mega darts now people want to commision me to make one for them its ranging about 120-145 effectivly

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  3. Nice :) Since posting this, I made mine a little better by adding a PVC suppressor and using custom darts.

    Fun fact - squeezing a copper BB into the head of a Nerf Elite dart will make it far more accurate and longer ranged for very high power blasters. Also, unlike some solutions, the darts aren't significantly more dangerous either. Have fun!

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