Released in 2023, the Adventure Force Water Strike: Aqua Bullet is a novel water blaster sold at Walmart designed by Buzz Bee Toys Inc. While it is operated in the same manner as other pump-action water blasters, the internal mechanism creates a pulsed "aqua bullet"-type streams.

The Packaging .:

The Adventure Force Water Strike: Aqua Bullet comes minimally packaged in a stand/based box to allow the water blaster to stand upright on a shelf with a cardboard wrap that loops over the top of the body. Plastic fastener ties are positioned at key points on the handle, body, and pump that keep the water blaster attached to the box. Thanks to the design, the Adventure Force Water Strike: Aqua Bullet's grip region is open and can be felt without needing to remove the packaging.

The front of the packaging (on the water blaster's right side) notes that the Adventure Force Water Strike: Aqua Bullet "Launches 5 water bullets with every pump". The advertised range on the packaging is 32'. There are panels on the back of the packagng explaining operation of its pump-action blasting. The box, itself, feels sufficiently sturdy.

Design .:
The Adventure Force Water Strike: Aqua Bullet contains a number of nice design features with multiple color breaks, a clear window showcasing the internal "aqua bullet" mechanism,, and sculpted trigger/grip region. The Adventure Force Water Strike: Aqua Bullet's reservoir does extend into the blue housing region with only the upper-green near the back visible. There is also a sliding, removable, folding blue sight at the top of the forward section of the water blaster. Given this water blaster's limited range and stream dynamics, it is unclear how useful a sight truly is on this blaster.

Build and Ergonomics .:
Like most current water blasters made by Buzz Bee Toys Inc., the Adventure Force Water Strike: Aqua Bullet appears sturdy and well-built. Its forward-mounted pump moves well, but feels somewhat stiff and its functional volume is on the lower side (a result from parts of the stream being deflected to create the "aqua bullets"). Its trigger-grip area is open and able to accommodate virtually any hand size comfortably. However, the texturing on both the pump grip as well as the trigger-grip area feels a little sharp (pointy texture). Because of combination of higher-resistance pumping together with sharper texture makes pumping somewhat less comfortable than typical pump-action water blasters.

Overall Performance .:

There are many mechanisms used by various water blaster to produce pulsing streams from the early days of motorized water blasters like the Entertech Waterhawk to the reciprocating nozzle as found on the Super Soaker XP 90: Pulse Fire to reciprocating nozzles as found on the more recent Water Warriors Pulsar. However, none of these previous water blasters employed the mechanism found in the Adventure Force Water Strike: Aqua Bullet. As can be seen in the middle image above, within the clear chamber by the front of the water blaster, there appears to be a nozzle, a white plastic divider, and a funnel-like gate. At rest, the white plastic divider blocks the path from the inner nozzle to the opening in the funnel-shaped restrictor. As the pump is moved back-and-forth, the plastic divider moves slightly to one side, opening a clear path from the nozzle through the front opening. During most of the pump stroke, the plastic divider leans to one side allowing the stream to flow unimpeded, but at 4 points during the cycle, the divider slices briefly into the stream, more-or-less literally "cutting" the stream, yielding the pulsed "aqua bullet" behavior of the stream, hence the name of this water blaster. During the stream slicing, water from the stream is deflected into the clear forward chamber. Thus, as one continues to blast forth more "aqua bullets", the clear chamber begins accumulating water. Interestingly, there is actually a check-valve that connects the clear chamber to the reservoir. As water is pulled by the pump from the reservoir, presuming that the cap is fastened properly, the reduced pressure in the reservoir will result in some of the trapped water in the clear chamber to be pulled in. Oddly, there's also a clear wall at the base of the forward chamber that makes it more difficult to get the trapped water to be available to the check valvue opening. In short, unlike other methods of water stream pulse generation, this particular "aqua bullet" mechanism appears more complex and more wasteful in terms of water given that a decent amount ends up trapped in the forward chamber, unable to be easily used against one's opponents.

Overall .:

In the end, the Adventure Force Water Strike: Aqua Bullet is a fun, pump-action water blaster that is easy to use and its pulsing blasts adds some variety to the field. However, there is no way to simply allow normal pump-action stream generation and the utility of this pulsed stream is questionable, particularly given that water is being deflected (i.e. wasted) during pulse creation. Comfort of use could be improved by fixing the texture of pump and trigger-grip areas. Nevertheless, the Adventure Force Water Strike: Aqua Bullet makes for a fun-to-use water blaster in most casual small to medium-sized battles and also would be a great introductory water blaster for younger water warriors.

Pros

Easy to use; fun pulsed "bullet" stream

Cons

Water gets trapped in forward chamber; difficult to empty; not possible to generate a solid stream; pulse does not improve (and likely decreases) stream performance; pump-grip and trigger-grip textures somewhat sharp and uncomfortable when using

Images

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Related Content .:

 Product Listing Page | Predicting Pump-Action Performance

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