Equipment Choose Your Weapons Performance

Choose Your Weapons: The Mission Paradox

By Joe Reid 29/07/2021

Since their creation over two years ago, Mission Darts have quickly become one of the fastest-growing darts brands, With a wide array of products designed to suit just about every type of player, I received a set of Mission Paradox M1 21g darts to review for Darts World, in my preferred weight and style. A simple, straight barrel design, but with an intricate style of grip - these fantastic darts truly have the potential to go down as an instant classic!

General

As a fan of darts utilising a full-length grip, I was pleased to discover the central grip spanned 47mm, of the 55mm total barrel length, with a 3mm taper at the front, and a 5mm gap at the rear, to allow the barrel to taper back into the stem. This seems a recurring theme for many of the darts Mission has to offer, with the Komodo, Nero, and Rebus all following the same base design, but with varying lengths and grip styles.

As far as I can remember, I've never reviewed a set of darts I'd feel comfortable taking into a league match - until now! As a reviewer, it's so important to enjoy using the equipment you're working on, and for me, that was exactly the case in this review. The darts, from a personal standpoint, seem to match what I'd need if I was to invest in a custom-made set (bar from a few tweaks, of course).

Breakdown and Specifications*:

Steel Tip - M1 21g
Coating: Red and Black Electroplating
Length: 55mm
Width: 6.15mm
Tungsten Percentage: 90%
Points: Mission Glide Black 32mm
Stems: Mission Grip-Lock Short Black
Flights: Mission Solo No. 2 Paradox
Price: £49.95
Steel Tip - M1 23g
Coating: Red and Black Electroplating
Length: 55mm
Width: 6.35mm
Tungsten Percentage: 90%
Points: Mission Glide Black 32mm
Stems: Mission Grip-Lock Short Black
Flights: Mission Solo No. 2 Paradox
Price: £49.95

(More variations and specs at the foot of this piece)

Testers Views:

As a fan of longer, full-length grip darts, I was excited to get to grips with the Mission Paradox. As an avid darts collector, I've tried and tested well over 150 sets of darts, yet the Paradox are the first I've used from the Mission brand - safe to say, they will not be the last! The darts feature a contoured radial grooves, complete with horizontal milled cuts inside the coated grooves. The result is a sharp, aggressive feel, offering a level of grip comparable to that of James Wade's Unicorn darts.

This combination of contrasting grip styles creates a rough, coarse feel to the player, similar to that of an aggressive knurled grip. One thing I picked up on quite quickly was the subtle scalloped grooves running along the length of the barrel. The micro scallops lock your fingers in place from first contact to release, ensuring the dart stays secure and comfortable up until it's time to let the dart fly. The scallops also help with positioning the dart, with the seven scalloped sections enabling you to instinctively position your fingers in the exact same place, time after time, throw after throw. With a consistent grip throughout the entirety of the barrel, as well as a relatively short taper, the darts will suit all types of player - whether you throw from the front, centre or rear.

Despite, as Mission themselves have stated, the coating creating a 'simply stunning' aesthetic appeal, I found a few issues with the coating I felt let the darts down slightly. Towards the rear of the dart is a black coated section, featuring the Mission logo. While, when new, a visually pleasing addition - when used, I found the rear section to stand out due to the damage it sustained. While the central coating remained in-tact after the hours of use I had put into the darts, the rear coating took a battering, with the smart, black electroplating chipping away with ease to reveal the silver tungsten below. While an easy fix if you have a black Sharpie or permanent marker on hand, I feel the inclusion of coating at the rear to be unnecessary, due to the fact it is a high impact area.

I also had an issue with the supplied setup. While the Mission Glide points and Mission Grip-Lock stems were up to standard, I expected more from the Mission Solo flights. A very thick, metallic flight - the flights seemed susceptible to damage even before use, with simply opening them appearing to create a split in the material. This proved difficult when inserting the flights onto the stem, in the rare instance they came off upon impact with the board.

With the supplied setup being foreign to what I'm used to, I decided to purchase some medium Mission Grip-Lock stems and 36mm Mission Probe V1 points (I usually use 41mm, but wanted to stick to the 'Mission' theme). I found repointing the dart to be a mixed bag. Two of the three points were replaced with ease, yet the third I struggled to fit into the barrel - whether an issue with the thread of the darts, or the thickness of the points, I am unsure. Eventually, I prevailed, with the points sitting secure and level in the barrels.

With a natural setup, closer to that of my match-darts, I was able to truly test these fantastic darts out from a personal standpoint. The grip offered me complete control, which is key with such a long barrel. The central balance allowed the darts to fly smoothly through the air, sitting upright in the board at around a 40° angle - I will add I am a rear-gripper, so this angle will be affected by the setup and grip position you use.

Independent Thoughts:

As usual, I asked on social media what people thought of the Mission Paradox darts, and received some very interesting comments in reply. Having posted on both Twitter and Facebook, I only managed to obtain a response from one person.

Over on Twitter, Rory, from the Mental Health in Darts awareness group (@MentalDarts) believed they were a "lovely dart", stating that they are "very grippy, but don't look it". He suggested the images used by Mission to promote the darts "puts people off", as they "don't look too grippy [in the promotional pictures]". He reiterated that the darts are indeed "stunning", but stated the "silver grooves don't really show on [the] photos".

Concluding Thoughts:

So, in conclusion, if you like a long, parallel dart with a high level of grip, I suggest you make the Mission Paradox your number one priority - it's as simple as that. Sure, they have their flaws, but as far as the practicality is concerned, the darts are faultless. With an impressive range of products on offer, you can kit out the barrels with a never-ending range of accessories, just like I did with the Mission Probe V1 points, and longer Mission Grip-Lock stems.

Available at most good darts retailers, the darts are typically priced at just £49.95. The Paradox are a mid-range priced dart, keeping in theme with many of the barrels Mission have to offer the darts community.

https://www.dartscorner.co.uk/search/paradox

It always makes for a great review, from my perspective, when I'm working with products I enjoy using, and these epitomise that fact. Keep an eye out over the coming weeks for more reviews, including a few more featuring Mission Darts products!

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Additional editions and specs: