This thing is not perfect but it’s a serious step-up for any drum-lovers that have been limited to the Tomahawk 60 Flywheeler/Villainator Springer. The dart-bending issue is practically non-existent with an alternative loading method circulating the internet and YT now. Great review and great sense of humor. Never a dull moment!
@@johnshepherd6925 I think someone even mentioned it in this thread. You use a pin that fits the dart nicely (I personally use an eyeglass screwdriver). And you slot the lower deck dart into the upper deck. Do this for all lower deck darts and voila. Load the next 25 darts in the now empty lower deck ✨. I’m definitely going to talk about this in my MAX series review coming up soon.
Great points! Thanks for the info on extra drums. FYI - I found in the instructions a way to keep the posts out on the drum which made it easier to insert and remove.
A small tip for priming the Tomcat: it has Picatinny under the grip, just like the Nexus. Swap out that VFG and go for a shotgun grip or a Talon Claw-style AFG.
@leharviii better for quick cycling in short bursts or maintaining control in awkward scenarios. AFG and a finger stop is better for all day use and for keeping things pointed where you want them pointed
The biggest flaw in the blaster is the lack of an o ring in the barrel that pushes the dart into the front barrel. Without that the airseal is severely flawed. I think that's why the spring is so strong. It compensates for the flawed airseal. Also, the best way to quickly load the 2nd 25 darts is push them in head first, not tail first. This way you are compressing the darts and not bending them. They return to their original shape uniformly after being compressed compared to bent. I love the sight because it looks like you're starring through the mouth of a cat from the inside.
What I love about the Tomcat is the shell design and how they designed the sealed breech drum system. How you hold the foregrip is technically more correct (from the real steel world, I prefer a thumb forward at my target grip with the front hand that matches your pistol grip). I think they used the same rotational design as the Deuce Pro which is why it skips. The last bit of prime is what rotates the drum and if you aren't very deliberate about it, the drum will skip.
Hi Beret, it’s Paul from BOBO Innovation :) Beret tip to you too for such awesome videos, especially the Snek series, lol. It was a great surprise that I heard you mentioning my mag adapter mod while watching your review, and that just made my day! Thank you so much again and please, do keep making more fun videos for your big fan here ;)
IT'S THAT GUY! Our camping trip this past weekend in Canada led to two of us finally printing and using the mag adapters (in my case as part of the review process), and it really does show how the Tomcat is the best thing this year. And that adapter works and feels perfect, like it should have been included in the first place.
All I am going to say is Thank you for the advice for loading up the Tomcat using the drums as I prefer your way compared to what is in the instructions. No, I do not have a tomcat but I was seeking advice and your tips have helped massively - I would hate to be bending any darts, so I am extremely grateful for your words.
Two things for the priming. One, there's a kit that makes it way smoother. It looks like it has runners/wheels. Pretty sure it was made by Bobo Innovations. And two, I saw someone put Slug's stubby AFG on it and it looks super comfy. When I get my hands on this blaster I intend to do both to it and also install the Talon adapter kit.
I've said this before - with a downtuned spring (cut down 788 is exactly what you want) this is the perfect HvZ springer. Accurate, high capacity, on the fly top up so minimal tac gear needed. And can slamfire when things go a bit pear shaped...
The prime is so stiff you can see the blaster bending along its length under the strain. A reinforcing beam along the top rail would help, and put more of our muscle effort into priming the spring and less into bending the plastic. The sights are as usual on this sort of blaster just dressing, don't really help with aiming when you can just look along the top rail. I too would like a better loading system for the magazine top row. I put the back of the dart in and then just squish down with a thumb at the front and it goes in, but it does feel like dart damage is inevitable in the long run. All the same I haven't had any other store bought blaster that can hit my 3'x2' target reliably every time from 70' and above ranges, straight out of the box with nothing added. I like the ideas of the magazine adaptor; going to look into that more.
I’ve actually had a similar priming grip lockup on my nexus pro and rampage. After tinkering around a bit, I’ve found that the reason this happens is because the lock in the blaster that keeps the pump grip forward when you’re primed activates when it’s not supposed to. Removing this lock seems to have fixed my blasters, so I’m f you want, give it a try.
Love my tomcat. I have the mag conversion kit, a shotgun style pump grip, and folding worker stock. Feels a bit better less fatigue i believe (at least for me)
Honestly, just a bit of time on the mod bench would make this perfect! An angled foregrip, lock removal for a smoother prime, and actually a WEAKER spring with a spring spacer! I used that spring combo for my Aeon Pro, and now achieve the 150FPS mark with half the prime strength!
Fwiw, in American English, a cylinder is a clip and a drum is a magazine, the distinction being that a magazine advances ammunition to the firing/loading position automatically whenever room is made to advance, whereas a clip is advanced by the action of the weapon and will not advance to a loading/firing position on its own
They have to put "not safety equipment" on the eyepro because it's not power tool safe. They are unlikely to fully protect you from say, a broken Dremel wheel flying at your eye or sparks from using a belt sander. It will stop a dart though. If you want to have safety rated glasses, go to Home depot or similar. They're like 3 bucks for a cheap pair of clears.
For reloading I just push the dart heads directly through the teeth of the drum and it doesn't damage the dart. Also I noticed you didn't mention any issues with slam fire jamming the blaster and in my review that happened several times. Mine is also shooting way hotter than yours , as high as 190 fps. Strange.
Yep I love this blaster haha, honestly good point with the strength, I personally didn’t notice but I’ve run into that issue handing some of my custom blasters to my sister or nephew and they couldn’t prime them haha. I don’t have to bend my darts like you were showing nearly as much, barely at all but it took some practice to get it down. However as you pointed out..that may adapter is
Had my max stryker lock up unprimed with the priming handle all the way forward. The culprit was the slamfire mechanism locking up. Removed the slamfire mechanism, now its fine. Also made the stock trigger a hairtrigger by installing a tension spring to get rid of the slack.
I had the same issue when I first used it. It almost seemed to take super human strength to use. Then I added a bipod and when shouldered it was a lot easier and I was able to keep firing well after going through my second drum. Adding a real scope made it the perfect sniper rifle.
I assume the "This is not a protective device" is in reference to either it not being sunglasses, OR, "This will not protect your face from a bandsaw blade snapping." I'm leaning towards the latter
It's pricey but I think you get exactly what you pay for. At least Dart Zone delivers for the price. Meanwhile Nerf's "premium" Ultra nonsense was just a bunch of lies. Found an Aeon pro marked down at Walmart and am now in love with shorts darts and DZ/AF pro. When I get other financial obligations out of the way I'll get the Tomcat and Deuce.
Returning to this video for the drum speculation for the upcoming Stryker 2.0. Hopefully it's ergonomics doesn't have our forearms hitting against the drum again... lol
I just got this thing, and while I love the power and form factor and *would* love the drum if it worked properly, I am having serious issues with the drum not rotating at all when cocking sometimes, no matter how hard. It's happening multiple times in a row and making me dryfire repeatedly. And since I'm in Canada, I can't bother with the magazine adaptor because I don't have a 3d printer, and Foamdemic's pre-printed adaptor won't ship here for some reason. Plus, if I want to get more half darts without just making my own, I'm going to have to pay import fees. I really want to love the Tomcat because it's my first high-performance, short-dart firing blaster, and it's the first to be on sale for a semi-reasonable price on Amazon, but jeez am I disappointed by everything but the power.
I will say this on every video of the Tomcat : you do NOT have to bend darts to load the darts into the outer ring. Just use a pen or other small rod to push the loaded dart into the outer ring and you can load into the rear gate again.
The Lynx will always be the superior feline themed blaster, though I will admit I really like the look of the mag-fed tomcat. I can only assume the tomcat name is a nod to the tommy -gun- firearm and in that sense, converting to straight mags makes sense thematically.
I got this a couple of weeks ago, and while it is most excellent in many ways, I have found pretty much the same limitations. One more thing: The spring is no longer easily accessible from the rear for hot-swaps in the field, and that is a shame. I also tried it with Bamboos and got very mixed results. The barrel tolerances are much better suited to the Ruby darts. I will be changing that forward grip to a shotgun style or AFG and I think that will make the prime much easier to deal with.
The loading and bending darts is the most annoying part of it. Other than that? Nice blaster. As a non drum guy it will take more though to grow on me.
I was really looking forward to this one but after watching the reviews I don't think I'm going to pick it up. I have a bad elbow and stiff primes really tweak it. The dictator on the other hand I absolutely love and that prime is nice and light buttery smooth
i agree with the chicken wing prime thing. i had this happen with the villianator. swapped over to a standard pump grip and the issue went away. ironically with the nexus or stryker an AFG or vertical grip suits better. almost as if the angle of your wrist helps keep the elbow in, and with a drum in the way and a vertical grip your elbow just naturally wants to come out. anyone make a pump handle for this yet??
When I first started watching the review I was like is this person kidding! The negative, condescending tone just slapped me on to the UA-cam. Even when "complementing" a quick negative follow up ahh. Gotta stop watching ...
This thing is not perfect but it’s a serious step-up for any drum-lovers that have been limited to the Tomahawk 60 Flywheeler/Villainator Springer. The dart-bending issue is practically non-existent with an alternative loading method circulating the internet and YT now. Great review and great sense of humor. Never a dull moment!
What alternative loading method? I don't see anything on it...
@@johnshepherd6925 I think someone even mentioned it in this thread. You use a pin that fits the dart nicely (I personally use an eyeglass screwdriver). And you slot the lower deck dart into the upper deck. Do this for all lower deck darts and voila. Load the next 25 darts in the now empty lower deck ✨. I’m definitely going to talk about this in my MAX series review coming up soon.
Great points! Thanks for the info on extra drums. FYI - I found in the instructions a way to keep the posts out on the drum which made it easier to insert and remove.
A small tip for priming the Tomcat: it has Picatinny under the grip, just like the Nexus. Swap out that VFG and go for a shotgun grip or a Talon Claw-style AFG.
I am definitely considering that.
@leharviii better for quick cycling in short bursts or maintaining control in awkward scenarios. AFG and a finger stop is better for all day use and for keeping things pointed where you want them pointed
The biggest flaw in the blaster is the lack of an o ring in the barrel that pushes the dart into the front barrel. Without that the airseal is severely flawed. I think that's why the spring is so strong. It compensates for the flawed airseal.
Also, the best way to quickly load the 2nd 25 darts is push them in head first, not tail first. This way you are compressing the darts and not bending them. They return to their original shape uniformly after being compressed compared to bent.
I love the sight because it looks like you're starring through the mouth of a cat from the inside.
What I love about the Tomcat is the shell design and how they designed the sealed breech drum system.
How you hold the foregrip is technically more correct (from the real steel world, I prefer a thumb forward at my target grip with the front hand that matches your pistol grip).
I think they used the same rotational design as the Deuce Pro which is why it skips. The last bit of prime is what rotates the drum and if you aren't very deliberate about it, the drum will skip.
Hi Beret, it’s Paul from BOBO Innovation :) Beret tip to you too for such awesome videos, especially the Snek series, lol. It was a great surprise that I heard you mentioning my mag adapter mod while watching your review, and that just made my day! Thank you so much again and please, do keep making more fun videos for your big fan here ;)
IT'S THAT GUY!
Our camping trip this past weekend in Canada led to two of us finally printing and using the mag adapters (in my case as part of the review process), and it really does show how the Tomcat is the best thing this year. And that adapter works and feels perfect, like it should have been included in the first place.
@@Blasterhub Lol, thank you so much! Just so great and proud to know that you like it ;)
Testimonials? In my comment section?? That's awesome, I will definitely look into the kit.
I haven't used my in battle yet, but plinking around the house, I love it!
All I am going to say is Thank you for the advice for loading up the Tomcat using the drums as I prefer your way compared to what is in the instructions. No, I do not have a tomcat but I was seeking advice and your tips have helped massively - I would hate to be bending any darts, so I am extremely grateful for your words.
This blaster is my new favorite blaster. It used to be the EaglePoint8. But after firing this once I felt the power. Amazing blaster
Two things for the priming. One, there's a kit that makes it way smoother. It looks like it has runners/wheels. Pretty sure it was made by Bobo Innovations. And two, I saw someone put Slug's stubby AFG on it and it looks super comfy. When I get my hands on this blaster I intend to do both to it and also install the Talon adapter kit.
That was a great review Beret. Thanks 🤠
I've said this before - with a downtuned spring (cut down 788 is exactly what you want) this is the perfect HvZ springer. Accurate, high capacity, on the fly top up so minimal tac gear needed.
And can slamfire when things go a bit pear shaped...
Do you know how to get this blaster to 100 FPS? The tomcat I mean
This is a really good video, I bought this thanks, spot on. I also picked up the adapter for mags, nice tip, now I have both!
The prime is so stiff you can see the blaster bending along its length under the strain. A reinforcing beam along the top rail would help, and put more of our muscle effort into priming the spring and less into bending the plastic. The sights are as usual on this sort of blaster just dressing, don't really help with aiming when you can just look along the top rail.
I too would like a better loading system for the magazine top row. I put the back of the dart in and then just squish down with a thumb at the front and it goes in, but it does feel like dart damage is inevitable in the long run.
All the same I haven't had any other store bought blaster that can hit my 3'x2' target reliably every time from 70' and above ranges, straight out of the box with nothing added.
I like the ideas of the magazine adaptor; going to look into that more.
I’ve actually had a similar priming grip lockup on my nexus pro and rampage. After tinkering around a bit, I’ve found that the reason this happens is because the lock in the blaster that keeps the pump grip forward when you’re primed activates when it’s not supposed to. Removing this lock seems to have fixed my blasters, so I’m f you want, give it a try.
This is a very good comment. Almost all times that nexus pro’s and Max Strykers break a simple lock removal, clean up, and lubricate it.
Love my tomcat. I have the mag conversion kit, a shotgun style pump grip, and folding worker stock. Feels a bit better less fatigue i believe (at least for me)
Honestly, just a bit of time on the mod bench would make this perfect!
An angled foregrip, lock removal for a smoother prime, and actually a WEAKER spring with a spring spacer! I used that spring combo for my Aeon Pro, and now achieve the 150FPS mark with half the prime strength!
Glad to learn it has official spare cylindera
Fwiw, in American English, a cylinder is a clip and a drum is a magazine, the distinction being that a magazine advances ammunition to the firing/loading position automatically whenever room is made to advance, whereas a clip is advanced by the action of the weapon and will not advance to a loading/firing position on its own
Therefor technically this is a cylinder. But also it holds 50 rounds and I like my war drums, so I'd call it a drum
They have to put "not safety equipment" on the eyepro because it's not power tool safe.
They are unlikely to fully protect you from say, a broken Dremel wheel flying at your eye or sparks from using a belt sander.
It will stop a dart though. If you want to have safety rated glasses, go to Home depot or similar. They're like 3 bucks for a cheap pair of clears.
I figured as such, but of course it is funny when you stumble upon that text on eye protection.
I really hope dartzone figure out the double stacking without bending darts. I find the Buzzbee Auto 72's solution utilising gravity to be interesting
For reloading I just push the dart heads directly through the teeth of the drum and it doesn't damage the dart. Also I noticed you didn't mention any issues with slam fire jamming the blaster and in my review that happened several times. Mine is also shooting way hotter than yours , as high as 190 fps. Strange.
best video yet! great editing.
Yep I love this blaster haha, honestly good point with the strength, I personally didn’t notice but I’ve run into that issue handing some of my custom blasters to my sister or nephew and they couldn’t prime them haha. I don’t have to bend my darts like you were showing nearly as much, barely at all but it took some practice to get it down. However as you pointed out..that may adapter is
I don't have to bend any of my darts I just use a pair of tweezers to push the first dart out of the way so I can insert the second.
Had my max stryker lock up unprimed with the priming handle all the way forward. The culprit was the slamfire mechanism locking up. Removed the slamfire mechanism, now its fine. Also made the stock trigger a hairtrigger by installing a tension spring to get rid of the slack.
I had the same issue when I first used it. It almost seemed to take super human strength to use. Then I added a bipod and when shouldered it was a lot easier and I was able to keep firing well after going through my second drum. Adding a real scope made it the perfect sniper rifle.
Blaster of the year!
I assume the "This is not a protective device" is in reference to either it not being sunglasses, OR, "This will not protect your face from a bandsaw blade snapping." I'm leaning towards the latter
It's pricey but I think you get exactly what you pay for. At least Dart Zone delivers for the price. Meanwhile Nerf's "premium" Ultra nonsense was just a bunch of lies. Found an Aeon pro marked down at Walmart and am now in love with shorts darts and DZ/AF pro. When I get other financial obligations out of the way I'll get the Tomcat and Deuce.
Returning to this video for the drum speculation for the upcoming Stryker 2.0. Hopefully it's ergonomics doesn't have our forearms hitting against the drum again... lol
Is love to get my hands on the Tomcat.
Drum? Cylinder? How about "dart resevoir" :)
I just got this thing, and while I love the power and form factor and *would* love the drum if it worked properly, I am having serious issues with the drum not rotating at all when cocking sometimes, no matter how hard. It's happening multiple times in a row and making me dryfire repeatedly. And since I'm in Canada, I can't bother with the magazine adaptor because I don't have a 3d printer, and Foamdemic's pre-printed adaptor won't ship here for some reason. Plus, if I want to get more half darts without just making my own, I'm going to have to pay import fees. I really want to love the Tomcat because it's my first high-performance, short-dart firing blaster, and it's the first to be on sale for a semi-reasonable price on Amazon, but jeez am I disappointed by everything but the power.
The aesthetic of this blaster reminds me of the AA-12 because it's beeg, it's blocky, and it has beeg drum.
I will say this on every video of the Tomcat : you do NOT have to bend darts to load the darts into the outer ring. Just use a pen or other small rod to push the loaded dart into the outer ring and you can load into the rear gate again.
I show this method with my finger in the video as well.
Huh, I use a pair of tweezers to move the first dart out of the way, it works very well. I never load the magazine without tweezers.
More than a passing resemblance to a 'Tommy Gun' but calling it 'Tommy' would be weird so what kind of resembles that? Ah yes, Tomcat. Perfect.
that and there is a flywheeler that is pretty much a Tomson lol
Is this the twilight zone...? NO....it's the "BERT-ZONE"
Cool
The Lynx will always be the superior feline themed blaster, though I will admit I really like the look of the mag-fed tomcat. I can only assume the tomcat name is a nod to the tommy -gun- firearm and in that sense, converting to straight mags makes sense thematically.
I got this a couple of weeks ago, and while it is most excellent in many ways, I have found pretty much the same limitations. One more thing: The spring is no longer easily accessible from the rear for hot-swaps in the field, and that is a shame. I also tried it with Bamboos and got very mixed results. The barrel tolerances are much better suited to the Ruby darts. I will be changing that forward grip to a shotgun style or AFG and I think that will make the prime much easier to deal with.
Funny how fortunate we were to get easy spring swapping on other blasters and then when it isn't present in future blasters...we feel cheated haha
How does it feed in the darts from the top row to the bottom row? Is it just gravity?
The loading and bending darts is the most annoying part of it. Other than that? Nice blaster. As a non drum guy it will take more though to grow on me.
I had the same issue, I solved that by simply using tweezers to push the first dart out of the way without bending it and that works fine for me.
I really think if you swap the barrel out for some brass or a hobby grade barrel like Monkee mods barrel the fps will go to 180-200.
The way I prime it is I just hold it steady with my left hand, then push the entire blaster to pump
(It’s cause I don’t like the stock)
I definitely prefer the Stryker or the dictator. I am not a huge fan of drum blasters in the first place because they feel to cumbersome
Maybe they called it the Tomcat because it has a high capacity drum magazine like a Thompson?
I was really looking forward to this one but after watching the reviews I don't think I'm going to pick it up. I have a bad elbow and stiff primes really tweak it. The dictator on the other hand I absolutely love and that prime is nice and light buttery smooth
Yeah, I love this blaster but if you have a bad elbow, you do NOT want this thing.
The prime strength was definitely notable for me, glad I could convey that! And yes the Dictator is a much more friendly/smooth prime.
@@beretnarf other people mentioned it but yours really drove it home! Thanks!
I’ve had all the same problems. Still looking for solutions
Top gun reference
My Turbo Advance is looking nervous
14:27 😈😉 Tomcat is so noisy I can tag via echo location XD
The muzzle break is seriously the weirdest thing ever.
Guess I have to put it on other blasters now
i agree with the chicken wing prime thing. i had this happen with the villianator. swapped over to a standard pump grip and the issue went away. ironically with the nexus or stryker an AFG or vertical grip suits better. almost as if the angle of your wrist helps keep the elbow in, and with a drum in the way and a vertical grip your elbow just naturally wants to come out. anyone make a pump handle for this yet??
Yes, I made one with rollers on it to have smoother and wobble free prime and on top of that you can also put on your favorite foregrips ;)
I'm assuming the reason they called it a TOMcat is because it looks inspired by the TOMMYgun but who knows but them.
I got mine for 40 bucks on the target website
Just make an esper with 4 1/8 shot cords cut a little shorter and it'll hit 200
you should be using the stock, its a lot easier if you use the stock
Next from Dart Zone the "BOB-CAT" 🤓(me trying to be funny)
You sweatin bro?… 😅
When I first started watching the review I was like is this person kidding! The negative, condescending tone just slapped me on to the UA-cam. Even when "complementing" a quick negative follow up ahh. Gotta stop watching ...
Lol apologies for my observations. You should probably go watch a 100% positive review then.