If I'm honest, I'm not a fan of Harry using guns, but since that is what a lot of his friends at school are into, his dad and I decided to buy him one for his birthday. We chose a Nerf gun as it looked a bit fun, and luckily Harry absolutely loved it. We then went away for Easter to my parents, and he was given some pocket money, and decided to up his Nerf range to include this gun, the Nerf N-Strike Maverick which is a vast improvement on his original one bullet at a time Nerf gun! He found it for a reasonable price in a shop, so who am I to say no?!

I'm not overly familiar with the Nerf brand of toy guns, but apparently they are very popular amongst children aged 6 and over! They're made by Hasbro, and come in different groups. This particular gun, the Maverick, is part of the N-Strike range which means you can use the N-Strike foam darts in any of the range without problem. Since Harry already had darts with his other gun, plus an extra pack we purchased, we had plenty of darts, especially since 6 darts are included with this gun, although they are the reverse colours of the other, mainly black with an orange tip which look great!

The gun itself is nice looking, very colourful and bright. The whole gun is just made of plastic, with the main frame being bright yeloow, the barrel is black and orange, and the handle and top both grey and black. It's a nice unisex looking gun, although I have to confess I don't think any girls in Harry's class are at all interested in them! It has the Nerf logo on both sides of the main frame, and I have to say it's a pretty cool looking gun, being plastic it isn't heavy despite being chunky and is a great size for a six year old boy to use easily and independently.

The gun is fairly easy to use too, although takes a little while to get used to, particularly for younger users. In order to put the darts into the barrel, you need to press the square black button on the left side of the gun, and gently pop the barrel out - it doesn't fully come out, but pops out enough for you to insert the darts, just turn it to make sure all 6 holes are filled. You do need to make sure the darts are fully pushed in, not peeking out over the edge or it won't work. Next, just push the barrel back in and push it slightly forwards to lock it into place. You then pull back the grey and black slider to prepare the gun to fire, making sure it makes an audible click noise. It can be quite stiff to pull back fully for younger children, Harry did struggle at first but seems to have gotten the hang of it now.

When you pull the trigger, it rotates the barrel and releases the dart from the front. To shoot the next dart, you need to repull the slider and pull the trigger again. To do 6 in quick succession is a bit too difficult to little arms, although my 24 year old brother seemingly had no problems lol. However, Harry likes that it holds multiple bullets and he doesn't need to stop to reload it too much. One issue is that if the darts aren't pushed in, the barrel doesn't fully rotate and shoot a dart, so you can be sat there ready to shoot and nothing happens which is frustrating, but just make sure the darts are all in when you load it up.

Overall, Harry really loves this gun and has played with it loads in the few weeks that he has had it! It's a chunky, good looking toy gun and looks like it is going to wear well too. He's dropped it a good few times, and it's had no adverse effects on the gun at all, either functionally or aesthetically, so I think it's pretty sturdy and robust. For the money Harry paid which was £8.96 and included 6 darts, I'd say it's very good money, especially if you have other N-Strike guns as you can combine bullets. For boys who love to play with guns, I'd definitely recommend Nerf guns as the foam bullets don't hurt when they hit you, they're great value for money, and are pretty fun too!

RRP: £9.99 - can be bought cheaper if you shop around online or instore though!

Thank you for reading.