After first receving a dud on my initial order, Amazon sent me a good one on the second go.  I have to hand it to them -- they take care of business like no one else. ***** to Amazon for being so customer-centric.

This blaster obviously looks kind of cheap and silly as it is -- all white and orange.  But the mold does show a lot of nice detail that with some simple modifications can be made to look like $100 replica.  It's a fun and fairly easy project to get it there, too.

To make mine look and feel more authentic, I first opened it up and loaded the handle with plumber's putty.  It adds some much needed heft to the blaster, giving it a more authentic feel in hand.  I then primed and painted the gun in flat black, and then added some metallic accents here and there, using silver/gold acrylic paints and graphite for color and sheen.  Finally, a very light rubbing with black to give it some weathering.  I then popped out the end of the muzzle and drilled out the little pockmarks along it, touching up the color as I went.  From any kind of a distance, you could easily mistake this blaster for the "real" thing.  Even up close, it looks pretty damn good.  Not bad for a cheap toy and a couple hours of fiddling!  Get one of these and have some fun!