SHADOW ICS-6

MODULUS (GHOST OPS)

So it turns out I’m not dead and I’m still on this site. Sorry. But speaking of dead things, ghosts, like the Modulus Ghost Ops line of blasters, and yes it is a line now.  You only need 2 points to make a line and we now have the second point. Also apparently not dead is the old style of giving Nerf blasters alphanumeric designations along with their name, so today I’ll be looking at the Shadow ICS-6. 

THE BLASTER ITSELF

The Shadow was released in 2019 as the second only blaster entry into the Ghost Ops subset of the Modulus line. It uses the internal magazine system we’ve seen on blasters like the Magnus and Rey/Han blasters. Functionally, however, it has a slightly different loading system which allows the magazine to be loaded when the blaster is unprimed. Additionally, other external features like copious accessory rails, a barrel attachment point and stock attachment point separate the Shadow from other internal magazine type blasters. Perhaps most notable about the Shadow, somewhat counterintuitively, is its light up feature, much like the Evader that came before it.  The secondary trigger on the grip activates the lights, which create a pretty cool effect especially in low light. I don’t know if it’s just my blaster, but one of the lights is placed in just the right position to shine right into my face when I try to aim the blaster with the lights on, so that’s a little irksome but by no means a deal breaker. Like the Evader, the Shadow has a tiny little switch on the front end that activates one more light inside the barrel when an extension is put on. This won’t affect 95% of barrels out there, but any of the Ghost Ops barrels light up like fiber optics. Performance-wise, the Shadow does more or less how you’d expect a modern Nerf blaster. Shots fly reasonably far and hit equally as hard, maybe not as much as a full-sized blaster, but it is a pistol, kind of. Now we come to my main complaint about the Shadow. When you take into account that it is a 6 shot pistol, it’s huge, a detail not helped by the entirely clear body. This means you can see all of the dead space inside the blaster, which makes the size all the more baffling. I guess it’s not a huge issue, but it bugs me. I guess the extra size does make it just that little bit more intimidating when you bust into your younger sibling’s room and double tap them in the head like a Nerf hitman. The Shadow ICS-6 comes packaged with a barrel attachment and 6 Modulus Elite darts. The light up feature requires 3 AAA batteries but is not needed to operate the blaster otherwise. 

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION 

I want to be clear on one thing, no pun intended. I really like the Shadow as a blaster. That being said, my knack for picking out blasters that not many other people like seems to be in effect again. From what I’ve been able to find, not many people are really thrilled with the Shadow and I can’t quite understand why. It’s a decent blaster with just a few things that are less than optimal.