Happy Chinese New Year 2026! Thanks to the two-days Holidays, I managed to get the Blaster taken apart.
Unlike the normal 2-piece construction, the Toy Blaster uses an ingenious technique where each individual assembly such as the Grip ‘protects’ the main Blaster. However, the same cannot be said about the top slider. I am happy the manufacturer designed the Toy in such a way. Also, to take the whole toy apart, it must be dissembled in sequence; starting with the Grip, then the Slider before ending with the Blaster body.
There are eight screws holding the Grip. The anodised plastic is quite good and can withstand a nice firm grip. One consideration about this design is that the manufacturer can create an alternative design such as a sawn-off shotgun design. However, if you look at the grip design, the thick trigger guard at B can be replaced with a bent and shaped metal strip but that would be a lot of work. The screw’s pillar (A) would be strong enough for the metal strip to wrap around. The Blaster’s stronger Body would be held with 5 (Blue) screws but with one hidden in the slider. The plastic is also anodised, maybe I am going to leave it alone.
With the Grip done, next thing is the Slider. At first I thought it was 2 pieces glued together since there are no screws. But after removing the two soft, clear orange strips, I realised it is a single part. The middle line (smaller yellow arrows) came from the molding process. Anyway, you can see the LED and also, the round gear that is used to move the slide back and fro; there is no spring.
Since this is a single piece, the slide can be pried open. Starting with the rear, you just need a prying tool to release the plastic sliding tab (arrow) and then insert a smaller diameter tool wedge it open while you repeat on the other side.
There is another set if sliding tab at the front, near the muzzle. So, you need to repeat the trying steps like what was done on the image above.
With both the Grip and Slider done, you are presented with the Blaster Body. Dismount the two wires carefully (if you intend to re-use them one day). Do note that you need to take photos in every step because the wiring colour codes are a little ‘different’.
I was thinking of mounting my own lighting Kit in there (for now, it is great for AndersFP 3D PKD Blaster). Out of the four LEDs, there is two which would be affected by the screw pillar.
As for the width of the Board, it is possible. Still, I think removing and rewiring the 5 LEDs & switch and then remounting them would be the best solution. Moreover, I have designed the Board to be able to provide 3.7v power to an ‘outsider’ solution so, when I push the switch to the ON position, everything should work.
I took this picture before I removed the slider. Anyway, the Blast body is now ready to be taken apart. With all five screws removed, the only thing keeping both sides together are the alignment pins and this orange muzzle piece.At first, I was thinking that the internal snap clips needs to be removed but the plastic did not give even when I was using flat prying tools. Finally, I just pulled the two body halves apart and the orange part came off together with it.
This is a very interesting photo. You can see how the water atomiser work.
Before I go any further, I need to remove all the water in the tank or else it will wet my Works Table.
I have no idea on how to deal with this orange muzzle cap. If this was smoked or clear, it would be ideal, Anyway, I’ll come to it when the time is right.
Exploring the Toy Blaster
This photo shows all the working parts of the Toy Blaster and for them to put it together, the Labour is quite significant, I suppose, due to the wiring jobs. So, yes, the motion of the Slider and the rotating Bullet chamber came from one single motor.
Using the multi-meter, the speaker has an impedance of 8 Ohms and on a typical Chinese B2C Platform, the same design is mostly a 0.5W type. Nevertheless, it is still quite loud, thanks to the echo chamber built within the toy. Nevertheless, all I need now is a 9mm tall 28mm speaker.
The Heart of the Toy Blaster is this small PCB which controls the LEDs, Motor and amplifies the Sound sample using just a 4.5v DC power source.
This FR4 PCB measures 36.5mm (Wide) x 25mm (Tall). Although both ICs have deleted markings, one of them is a microcontroller (upper middle) and the other would be the voice playback (top left). As for the inductor on the top right, I have no idea unless it is to boost power to say, 5v which could be for the sound chips. Do come back to check this spot because I will map out the wiring to the PCB later.
One motor controls it all. The dial at the top is to move the slider, while the gears on the left is to rotate the bullet chamber. Note that this segment of the Toy Blaster is full of grease so you need to either wear some gloves or, have a paper towel ready.
The 104 ceramic bypass (or snubber) capacitor on the motor is to suppress the EMI noise generated. It is also used to make sure the EMI does not affect the rest of the components in the PCB.
The water atomiser unit/ disk is secured on top of the water tank via a clip system.
Ideas for modification
Once the internals has been removed, I am left with the 4-piece shell. The original plan is to convert the toy into another blaster which, I hope would look cool. Since there is nothing done yet, it would be a waste of time to announce the places prematurely.
Without cutting any plastics in the grip, it is possible to insert a 30mm x 40mm (to 50mm?) x 5mm LiPo battery in there.
These are the measurement of the empty space left by the bullet chamber. The scratchbuild replacement would need to cover the whole cavity. If I turn this into a big echo chamber, the size of the speaker can also be increased. I’ll decide once the speaker and the voice playback chip is done. No hurry here on this part.
I used IPA to wipe off the grease splash which affected the area.
If I wanted to put LEDs at the muzzle, all I need to do is just replace the original LEDs with white or maybe even warm-white but effectively, you’d only notice two white dots.
I thought that by cutting off about 3mm plastic (left), I can pull the trigger back. However, I would need to use a different 6mm x 6mm tactile switch which has a shorter plunger. Instead of the 7.5mm, I would have to use a 5mm. Cutting the plastic away (yellow square) would also mean needing to install a spring to ‘pull’ the trigger to the middle and not let it wiggle about between the trigger guard and the grip.
Summary
So, with the teardown done, the only thing left would be:
source for some 8Ohm 2W or 3W speakers,
sample the blaster sound and put it into a voice playback chip,
a nice good spring,
scratchbuild the missing bullet chamber,
design a new LED holder for the muzzle,
mount my PKD lighitng circuit in there, and
find someone to 3D print some parts which can withstand rough handling.
Until the next time… see you at the Tannhäuser Gate
