Adam Savage's Modification of the Rival Nerf Blaster

The Rival Nerf Blaster is a super cool NERF blaster that has a hopper on the top, which holds and fires the foam balls. The balls are put into the hopper that can fire up to 100 rounds, one after another.

However, Adam Savage, host of the popular TV show MythBusters, thought that maybe the Rival Nerf Blaster could fire 1,000 rounds. See this video below.

So, it's time for some modifications. Get ready to enjoy a bigger and better Rival NERF Blaster! The people of NERF are geniuses when it comes to NERF blasters as well as with their choices of ammo that allows people to shoot these blasters safely. Safe projectiles do not diminish the fun but adds to it superbly.

So How Is It done?

The balls are loaded into the hopper and flown down with gravity from the bottom. This is where you will find a small conveyor belt that feeds the balls into the spinning paddles.

Oh, by the way, there are spinning paddles at the end that forcefully push the balls out of the gun with great speed. These small paddles swing around to hit one of the balls and propel it out of the machine. The paddles are similar to a pitching machine. To start these paddles, you need to use the lower trigger. You will hear the sounds as they are being fired.

This is why these remarkable NERF Blasters can shoot out balls pretty fast. Pretty cool, aye?

Transforming the Rival Nerf Blaster into the Ultimate Machine

The Rival NERF Gun has a hopper built into its mechanism that can hold 100 balls. Yet, that is not enough if you want it to shoot more than that number. So, Adam modifies this hopper to hold 1,000 balls. He also adds other modifications to the outside to make the gun look “cooler.”

By using foam, he is able to determine the volume of what 1,000 balls actually look like in order to know what size of hopper is needed. It is not an exact science but you get the idea. This foam mock-up helps him understand what he needs to do before he can cut the more expensive material, acrylic. Then, he goes and starts to make the modifications in acrylic. This part of the modification will take many large tools to complete including saws, lab ovens, and grinders.

The activity is super fun and involves the use of math skills as well as design skills.

By gluing down one of the safety mechanisms, you can run the spinning paddles without the hopper being closed. He did cut up the amazing Rival's hopper, but the new hopper will fit all 1,000 balls and it actually looks pretty good and useful.

Final Steps

For the finishing touches, he adds some "aesthetics" basically to make it have a super cool look. Adam loves “kitbashing,” which is the method of using model parts for things they were not originally made to be used for.

The new look gives the gun a great battle type design – and that’s nice because, well, it isn’t cool for a gun to contain and shoot 1,000 balls without looking battle ready. Don’t you think?

There are also additional kit parts and paint to make the new hopper look amazing and ready for combat.

Do you have some ideas that can improve your NERF blaster and make it more awesome? Adam Savage and the engineers at NERF don't have the monopoly on ingenuity. There have been many modifications on Australian NERF blasters. Get blasting with NERF now!