Ordered these from Puredarts.co.uk on Sundays night and was delighted to receive them Tuesday morning, once again 1st class service from, in my opinion, the best online retailer.
So, the packaging. Another sturdy cardboard box with plastic front to allow you to see the darts (well the middle one anyway). Eye catching in gold with a couple of pictures of the 2 X PDC World Champion Adrian Lewis, the Lifetime barrel guarantee logo, 23g sticker plus information to state that these are 90% tungsten and the +/- 0.05g matched weight symbol, all quality stuff.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]So once opened here's what is inside the box. The usual Target foam insert containing the 3 made-up darts, 3 Zirconium and stone Barrels, 3 black (Laro on this occasion) shafts and 3 standard black Lewis flights, hole punched with Target slot rings inserted (note; these darts come with standard steel points).
On each dart is printed the Target logo as well as Adrian Lewis' name:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]OK, so I repointed the darts with Target Storm points and added my own stems and flights. First things I noticed is that the points went in very nicely, I have had problems in the past inserting Storm points and them being really tight including Target darts, however I had no such problem with these which was a relief. The darts are very nice looking, a pale gold colour with the rings buffed in silver, the stone grip between the rings is coloured gold too, very nice.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]A closer look at the grip. Nice buffed silver rings with the gold stone between the grooves. I would rate the grip at a level 3 personally as the stone is very subtle at this point and the grooves are quite shallow, others may disagree but I have had much, much more grippier darts than these. Also these have a nice taper that runs onto the Storm points and some nice (level 4) micro grip at the back end of the barrel (if thats where you hold the dart).
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Finally a comparison with my previous match darts, the Target Lewis Silica's, another very well made dart.
The Stone grips seem to have slightly more taper on the front end that meets with the Storm points better than the Silica's, other than that, the colour , and the stone grip, the darts are identical:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]So overall a very nice, well balanced dart, 50.5mm long, 6.4mm wide and 90% tungsten content with a stone grip.
Upside, the Zirconium coating looks stunning and the stone grip is very subtle.
Downside, once again no case or bar wallet, just the foam insert. As I have mentioned before this is not a massive issue as most people have their own case and the foam does a good job as far as packaging is concerned however if this was your first set of darts, at around £35-£40 to then have to spend another £5-£10 on a wallet or case may be a bit much for some.
All in all a very well made, hard wearing, well balanced dart from Target, who for me are making the best quality darts on the market.