When it comes to the Nerf modding community, the people involved tend to draw out all the potential in a blaster. But what happens when people from the community decide to make their own performance-oriented blasters from scratch? Well, you wind up with crazy things like the Rainbow-pump, Caliburn, and the subject of this post.

The Jupiter is a machine pistol styled blaster (for lack of a better term) made by Luke from Out of Darts. Out of Darts is a company that specializes in aftermarket blaster parts, and the Jupiter is their in-house answer to sidearms.

Functionally you could think of the Jupiter as the Mac-11 of Nerf. It is a compact, full auto pistol, that is capable of emptying a magazine in under a second. The available fire rates from the store range from 3 rounds per second to 12 per second. That is not the max potential of the blaster though, I’ve heard of Jupiters firing as fast as 18 rounds per second. Though, almost regardless of fire rate, its infamously difficult to keep extra ammo in the magazine.

The Jupiter uses High Impact Rounds, and the largest standard magazine currently available only holds 12 rounds. There are rumors of a high-capacity drum magazine to be released in the near future. But there are other unusual options currently available if you are willing to strip the Jupiter of its sidearm status.

The Proton Pack effectively turns the Jupiter into an ammo hose. It is a large wearable pack that connects to the magazine well of the Jupiter. With this equipped you have access to 270 rounds without ever reloading. This is achieved with a hopper (its actually a cheese ball container) equipped with a blower that acts in place of a magazine spring. There was a prototype for a 1000+ round unit that seems to have never hit production, at least not yet. The “beta” model is currently out of stock.

This is where I have a problem with the Jupiter. The base model is $99, not including shipping, assembly, batteries, charger, magazines, or ammo. Granted, it has high quality parts. But the rate of fire is so high that this is almost unusable with normal magazines. Remember that Mac-11 comparison? That has a similar problem. Unlike the Mac-11, the Jupiter has a $99 pack that upgrades the capacity. That is just for the current 270 round beta version that is no longer available, not whatever might replace it. Compared to other blasters, you would have to be mad to buy the Jupiter as it stands!

For the same price from Nerf you can buy a Nemesis for $99, or cheaper of you bother looking around. But that includes assembly, ammo, and a battery tray (D cells with the option of rechargeable). With a quick rewire and Li-Po battery conversion the Nemesis can just about match the Jupiter’s performance and fire rate. The nemesis even has a stock advantage on capacity with a 100 round hopper. This can be upgraded cheaply and easily to hold tons of ammo. You don’t have to be an Adam Savage to pull off that kind of upgrade.

Overall the Jupiter is a bit misguided. Every time I try to write positive things about this blaster I just can’t get away from its flaws. It sits in a very small niche as a machine pistol, and an even smaller niche as a pack-fed heavy blaster. I love what the creator tried to do, but the Jupiter gets way out-performed by modified blasters for the price. There are other performance oriented blasters out there, but those are a blog for another time.

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