Desert Eagle of NERF? MEGA Magnus Un-boxing

Hey Warriors! Here is yet another unboxing for you. The NERF N-Strike Elite MEGA Magnus has been showing up in stores like Target and Walmart. In fact, I saw Walmart with an entire shelf of them mixed with Strongarms at the front of the store last night. In the video, I said we picked this one up at Target, but it was actually Walmart too.

Like many of the new NERF sidearms, the MEGA Magus is suggested to retail at $14.99. Certainly a far cry from the $50 MSRP they want you to spend of the MEGA Centurion. Of course, several of the retailers dropped that to about $40 recently too.
(UPC Pic after the jump)

NERF in the News!

I just happened across two examples of NERF in pop culture and news last night and had to share. It's not uncommon to see these products show up in skits and sketches and the such, but it is fun to see!

First, I was in the newsroom at work and looked up to see a NERF Retaliator show up in one of the news stories. This one is about a town giving people licenses to shoot down government drones. Deer Trail, Colorado has been making the news a lot because of it. I'm not sure why he had a NERF blaster when there were plenty of real guns around, but it was cute and all. KDVR in Denver has a story about it. I'll let you make your own judgement on the actual story, but I thought it was funny that this guy was using a blaster to get his point across.

(More NERF in the news after the jump.)

Sidestrike is Here! Zombie Strike 2014 Coming Out NOW!

Not surprising that some of the Zombie Strike blasters that were announced for early 2014 have made it in time for Christmas. I saw the Sidestrike on Toys R Us shelves. Of course, they were charging $17.99 for the privilege of waiting for over an hour in line to purchase it. The MSRP is $14.99 and it is already listed on Amazon. Needless to say, I decided to wait on that one. . . but then I went back and got it when the lines subsided.

Vulcan is Back? Why?

Well Warriors, you may have seen from some of our fellow bloggers that Argos in the UK has listed a new NERF Elite Vulcan for upcoming sale. They actually call it the "NERF N-Strike Elite Havoc Vulcan". Though the color scheme that Argos pictures is much more akin to the Whiteout Series that NERF released ahead of the new Elite blasters. On second thought, the color looks almost exactly like those Max Force spit-wad blasters that came out a couple of seasons ago.

I really want to see how this Elite version of the Vulcan will behave when matched up against the N-Strike Elite Rapidstrike. One would have to assume that the speed and accuracy will be updated, but will even an updated Vulcan have a chance against the speed of the Rapidstrike? In an old head-to-head video, we actually awarded the win to the Vulcan over the Stampede because of weight and versatility among other things. I'm not so sure that the fight would come out the same way with these Elite blasters.

Now, I'm not saying that I have no interest in the new Vulcan. Come on now, the idea of a belt-fed blaster is just too cool to stay away from. Maybe we will finally have a realistic turret weapon to use if it's fast enough.

Also, NERF has done a fairly good job of getting the prices of even their premiere blasters to an acceptable level. So even the average player may be able to get in on this.

Thoughts? ~Chris

Christmas Deal Alert: Strongarms at Target!

Hey Warriors!


I just needed to give you a heads up about a NERF sale I happened upon. If you were watching twitter, you may have already seen this. Target's whole NERF stock was "Buy One, Get One 50% Off", but the Strongarms were even better. They dropped their Strongarms to eight (8) bucks and still let the BOGO at 1/2 price work. Picked me up another bunch of Strongarms for cheap!

A friend tells me that even though the sale was only listed through 12/14, some of the Targets are still doing it through the weekend! Worth a shot. This works out to getting two Strongarms for less than the price of one. I'm not usually a Target customer, but it was great to walk in see awesome deals. I am more and more impressed by them. Not to always harp on Toys R Us, but please check your other retailers before spending any money there. Deals like these are going on based on fair original prices. TRU had a sale too, but it was "Buy One, Get One 40% Off" on their blasters -most of which are marked up at least 10%.


What other good deals are you warriors seeing out there? ~Chris

Random note: Target still calls it the Strong Arm while nerf.com calls it the Strongarm. Interesting difference when you try web searches both ways.

Ultimate NERF Blaster Book - Unexpectedly Awesome Christmas Gift

You know what, Warriors? When I first saw the press release about a new NERF encyclopedia or dictionary, I wasn't sure what to think. I wasn't expecting much from the item. It seemed gimmicky to me.

My opinion about The Ultimate NERF Blaster Book changed from about 5 minutes after I picked it up and looked at the book in Walmart the other day. I realized that any NERF enthusiast could really enjoy having it on his or her shelf, desk, coffee table -or in their armory. There is a pretty good collection of information in there. It was compiled by Nathaniel Marunas. He really knew what to do here. It's like a cross between an actually interesting text book and a weapon recognition encyclopedia.

A couple of things made it into the book that may be considered errata in the long run. For example, the book has pictures of the "Javelin" with elite colors on its feature page about the development of the MEGA line. Of course, the same blaster was eventually released as the MEGA Centurion. I don't consider this a bad thing. In fact it will be neat to go back and read about this blaster and see that it was in development as something else.

Now, we can't avoid mentioning the exclusive N-Strike Elite darts that come with the book. Personally, I'm inclined to leave them in the book rather than to leave a hole in the front cover. The patch and chevron design would be nice to have in action though. Maybe they could release 30 rounds of special edition ammo in the same packaging they use for zombie strike darts?

Do you think you'll pick it up or stay focused more on collecting the blasters themselves? ~Chris

Product Placement As An Equality Argument? WTH?

Fair warning, Warriors: This is going to be a rant in response to a series of straw-man arguments that complain about gender inequality in the marketing of NERF products.

I just happened upon a tumblr blog from marzgurl about gender inequality in NERF. Actually I was directed there by the writer herself who promoted her argument on the NERF facebook page. Rather than being that increasingly stale argument about how girls don't need a new line and pink is a sexist color, this blog complains that Rebelle is a segregated line from everything else NERF and that the people marketing the product are to blame. People really should stop throwing words like equality around. Well, it worked. I linked to her blog too . . .

Did You Pick Up the Best New Sidearm Yet?

Hey Warriors! In case you missed it, there is a great new sidearm available. This is probably one of the best new releases I've seen in quite a while. The Hammershot has been taking the NERF community by storm recently and there are some good reasons why. Check out the double review of the NERF Zombie Strike Hammershot and NERF Rebelle Sweet Revenge.

This opens up a lot possibilities for one-handed nerfing or getting one shot off on the fly! Do you have another sidearm you like better? Why?

Feel free to comment! ~Chris

Fun Foam Moments - "Call me Katniss Everdeen!"

Sometimes you just get a chance to catch those really cute and fun moments in nerfdom. I have been taking foam weaponry into my place of work more and more often recently. One one recent trip (I think this one was Thanksgiving), one of my reporters got a hold of the Zing Zombie Slayerz bow and showed my friend, photographer Dennison Howard what it was like to get hit by one of these arrows.

I consistently watch these Zing bows impress the heck out of everyone I let pick them up. They are simple, fun and effective. If you don't have one, this should be on your Christmas list.

Zing was awesome enough to send us an Air Storm Z-Curve to try as well. I got a chance to try it out with some family members (also over the Thanksgiving holiday) and I have to say that each iteration of their box continues to impress me. As they keep coming out with versions, I want to pick on them for a repeat product, but honestly, I like them too much! Why not keep coming out with a great thing. If you buy several, there are more for your friends to join you!

A full review will be coming shortly. I've just been having way to much fun using these!!! ~Chris

Nerf Assault Blaster - The Elite Rapidstrike Review

Hey Warriors,

We recorded the NERF N-Strike Elite Rapidstrike review over the weekend. I'm pretty impressed with the output on this beast, but the accuracy left much to be desired. This is so close to one of the greatest blasters available but for that downfall in targetting.

I still really like this blaster and I feel that it does have application in a NERF war. As some other bloggers have pointed out, the semi-auto blasters like the Hail-fire or the Stryfe may still be better options for accurately raining darts on your enemies whereas the Rapidstrike could be a supressive fire hound.


~Chris

NERF Rebelle Stiletto - From the Rumor Mill

Did you know that the Sweet Revenge might have had a different name? I found a label on the Toys R Us shelf calling it the Rebelle Stiletto. It looks to be the right stock number and everything for the Sweet Revenge Kit. There are also some listings referring to it as the Stiletto on-line.

While NERF say they never named the blster that way, the idea sent me off on a whole tangent. So here it is:

It's probably a good thing that they changed the naming, for two reasons in my opinion.

If you thought the feminists and anti-pink movement were angry about Rebelle now, imagine what they would have to say about a blaster name that glorifies a woman's shoe as a power symbol. Do you know how angry some of them get if they imagine you only think of them as powerful when they wear shoes the accentuate their butt? That's really a weak argument, but it totally happens.

Sweet Revenge- Five bucks goes a long way...

I'm sure by now you've seen and heard all about the new NERF Zombie Strike Hammershot and the Rebelle Sweet Revenge, right? Yeah, me too. But that doesn't stop me from talking about them!

The Hammershot and Sweet Revenge are really just the same blaster in two comparable shells. The Sweet Revenge is smaller, possibly to specifically cater to the awesome holster they designed for it. Otherwise, these are pretty much the same blaster.

The joy of this system is that you can now fire a NERF sidearm completely one-handed. This is the first NERF pistol to mimic a single-action revolver like those made famous in the Wild West. The hammer can be cocked back with the thumb of the same hand you will fire with. This means a plethora of options has opened up. You don't necessarily need to drop your primary blaster to wield a sidearm anymore. You can dual-wield a blaster without the vacuum-like noise of a flywheel system. You can also make your weapon "safe" as a one-handed instead of firing it, should you change your mind.

Sadly the Sweet Revenge gets a much better set-up than the Hammershot. You can get the Hammershot exclusively at Target in the US for $14.99. You can get the Sweet Revenge Kit pretty much anywhere for $19.99. Why is it a better value to spend five more dollars? Stylin' eye protection and that holster. I personally think that the Hammershot by itself is worth the $14.99 price tag. You could look at it like Sweet Revenge accessories are just $2.50 a piece. Or you could break it down to about $6.67 a piece between the blaster, the eye-wear and the holster. It does make me wonder why the Hammershot hits that $14.99 mark, but I figure that they were making a break on the Sweet Revenge (since it's part of a new line) rather than marking up the Hammershot.

I'm still not sure which blaster I like better. I was getting used to the size of the Hammershot. Then I put the Sweet Revenge in my hands. I personally don't need to use the holster with my current load-out, but the grip may actually be better for comfort. I'll decide on that before the upcoming review.

The Mission at Murray Chapel

It's awesome when a fun opportunity just falls in your lap. A couple of weeks ago, we had some young men from church over for a meal. They happened to look upstairs from the table and saw the Lanard Huntsman 50 sitting up there. Turned out they were planning to have a NERF War of some kind the next day.

I was able to take a half day off work for a couple of errands and then supply these guys. We set up a Team Deathmatch and some Search and Retrieve missions for them. Check out the video below to see how things went. ~Chris

Price Drop on Rapidstrike - Get 'em while they're hot!

A quick heads up, Warriors! As I was looking for new product in local stores, I came upon a better price for the NERF Rapidstrike. The MSRP is at $39.99, but the price is currently lower than that!

 


Even those crooks at Toys R Us got in on the action, lowering their price to $34.99. But, of course, the best deal I found in the Colorado Springs are was at Wally World. $29.88 sings for this blaster. As promised, the Rapidstrike review is in our line-up for the near future. We aren't experiencing jamming or rate of fire issues that some of the other bloggers seem to be talking about. This should be a great assaulter or defender piece if you use it right. More to come on that.

So now you can go spend $30 instead of $40, or spend $40 to get even more NERF! ~Chris

Sighting Report - Sonic ICE Series

Vincent cook on youtube asked me the other day if I had seen the new Sonic ICE series from NERF on store shelves yet. I hadn't, but Toys'R'Us noted that the series was available for pick-up at the store in Colorado Springs. Sure enough, they've made it to shelves. I don't know what my local TRU guys are thinking because this new line is tucked on a bottom shelf under some of their Air Zone products. They're on the other end of the aisle from all the rest of the NERF!  These are a Toys'R'Us exclusive blasters, so you would think they'd be placed prominently on the shelves like their original Sonic Series blasters have been for the last couple of years.

Mini-rant: Personally I think that stores should be required to do a certain amount of featuring and promotion of their exclusive products. Why should they have exclusive contracts if they aren't going to show the product off?

Mini-Rant 2: Why are these called Sonic ICE? There is nothing Sonic about them. Of course, there was nothing sonic about the original Sonic Series either (the translucent green blasters, exclusive to Toys R Us), but we had come to accept the name in the Nerf Internet realms. Now they come out with these ICE blasters and I figure they should have just kept the name at ICE. LOL, oh well.

Anyway, you can see the Hail-Fire in the picture above. Personally, I find the ICE Rampage to be the most appealing. If I was going to go out and buy an Elite Rampage, I'd be really interested in getting one of these! But not at the $40 price tag. Oops, here's another mini-rant. TRU is lame for marking up their own exclusive blasters too. It's already bad enough they do it on those available everywhere. Note that you can get the ICE Rampage online at toysrus.com for 29.99 as I write this, but you'll get gouged if you walk into a store without looking first.

Lastly, there is the ICE Retaliator. I still think there are better single-action blasters out there. If it's your cup of tea, cool. Again, watch out. TRU is trying to yank $40 out of you for this on the shelves too.

Enjoy! ~Chris.

Buzz Bee - Extreme Ammo!

So Warriors; Some of you may remember when we did the review of the Range Master not too long ago. If you haven't had a chance to see it, you can take a look here:

It was exciting to note that an updated type of Buzz Bee ammunition came with the Range Master (originally known as Orion). I wasn't quite sure of what to call the new dart version at the time, but Buzz Bee solved that one for us. Meet the new Extreme Darts to go along with their new Extreme Air Blasters! Obviously this naming convention is built to compete with the N-Strike Elite series from NERF.

What we know is that these suction darts are more dense and seem to travel much more accurately and at a longer range than the original Buzz Bee suction darts. Those that came with the Range Master were the traditional yellow foam and purple rubber. These Extreme darts that you can buy separately come with black foam and yellow rubber. That's cool, because it will be easier to tell the ammo apart if you have a lot to sort after each war!

There are several new blaster in the Extreme line that came out on shelves this Summer. It would make sense that all the Extreme blasters come with the new version of the ammo as well, but I haven't confirmed that for myself yet. I'm really looking forward to trying out some of the new Buzz Bee blasters soon -especially the Side Winder and the Auto Tek 20. Interestingly, those don't carry the "Extreme" name on them. Not sure what gives yet!

Mega Centurion - Mega Sad?

Warriors!

Another review up for you. It's very rare that we have to give NERF bad marks on a blaster, but that time has come. This is a great show-off piece, but not really something to use effectively on the battlefield -at least not stock.

Plenty of modders have mentioned that they like the Centurion for the amount of space and possibilities, but are you really going to want to drop 50 bucks on this for just the shell? What other ideas do you have for this one?

Let me know what you think!
~Chris

New Sighting Reports - Walmart, Los Angeles Area

Coop has been busy perusing the shelves in Los Angeles, warriors! He turned up several sightings at a local Walmart there. Just some pic spam of the most notable:

The NERF Cyber Hoop has arrived in LA Walmarts. We're hearing a lot of good reports on this things from readers like you. Sounds like they are a hit at sleepovers and daytime get-togethers alike!

Another Xploders blaster on the shelves. This Xploderz Sneak Attack is designed to let you shoot around corners. It also lets you choose one, two or three rounds at a time. We haven't met an Xploderz blaster we like yet, so maybe this will break the mold?

It's the NERF Mission App Cradle. We'll be testing this thing out soon and looking at how it enhances your game play versus the Tek Recon app and on-line game.

In other news, our Tek Recon kickstarter reward just arrived at the office today. More to come on that! ~Chris

Rapidstrike Stands Still - Write-up On Flywheel Activator Problem

So I ran into a little problem the other day at work. I took the Rapidstrike, among other blasters, to our company picnic. A lot of the folks got a kick out of them, but somewhere along the line, the Rapidstrike quit working. Sad day!

Found a fix though: Turns out there's a little tab inside where the magazine (what NERF calls a clip) feeds in. That tab is meant to be depressed by the magazine when its inserted into the blaster so that the circuit is closed and the Rapidstrike flywheel activator will work. I'm sure that those of you who love to take the blasters apart will already know that part.

It took me a bit to figure this one out, mostly because I was busy with work, etc. First I just dumped in for more batteries, just to see. But that didn't get me anywhere except poorer. The jam access door was closed, the magazine was seated in the blaster and there were no darts stuck on the flywheel -check, check and check. This may not be a common problem, but it turns out that if you slam the magazine into my blaster, that tab I mentioned will get shoved behind its plastic housing and the blaster will not work.

I took the smallest precision flathead screwdriver I have and wedged the tab out from behind the housing again. Luckily, there is no damage from that operation. I was able to recreate the problem by slamming the magazine in or pushing the tab in manually. I also took a phillips-head precision driver and made sure all of the screws in that area of the housing were tight. They are.

NERF is awesome to send us these products to test out early. We'll probably be grabbing another one on our own to see if we can recreate some problems with it too. If this turns out to be a repeat problem, it may be one of the few downsides I have found for this particular model.

After this fix, there haven't been any other problems! ~Chris

Tek Recon Responds to Our Un-boxing

Hey Warriors!

We held off on this article for a bit to get some more perspective on the blaster and to watch Tek Recon's developing responses. We did the unboxing a couple of weeks back and found a few things we didn't like, but other things that grew on us. Can't wait to get the Kickstarter rewards so that we can give these blasters the tests they deserve!

Glad we waited because Tek Recon has thrown up a play-by-play response to the un-boxing. They popped up 5 organized comments to our points on to the video on Youtube. We're going to break it down.

"Part 1
As always TEK RECON Command is listening and learning from all of the feedback provide by the TRibe.
Please trust that we are working very hard to address all comments. While we are very proud of our overall performance of the product, we are committed to ongoing improvement and hearing back from the TRibe on challenges they have experienced, and even better yet suggestions on what our users believe can make the experience even better for all the fans for a truly great play experience."

From the close attention they are paying and the passion that has been demonstrated in their videos, it's easy to believe them. Sounds like they are here to stay. I think they do want to put a great product out there and Click Click BAMF is totally willing to keep trying these blasters out. We have a Battle Pack on the way from their kickstarter campaign and will get some good skirmishing going when those arrive! 

"Part 2

In regards to the amount of ammo included, we are surprised to hear that some in the community are unhappy about this. We over-designed the clips with a maximum capacity so that you the user could determine how much ammo you want to load into it.The Hammer Head & Havok include more rounds than any other at their respective prices.We have also made additional rounds affordable so that you can easily maximize the full capacity of the cartridges to whatever level you decide is right for you."

I am surprised that they are surprised. They've been pimping how great their ammo capacity is going to be. When you open the app and choose a profile with a Hammer Head blaster, it automatically assumes that you are loading 25 rounds. Why would the user decide to load a lower amount of ammo on a regular basis other than being short on ammo? I am sure there are some reasons, but I doubt that they'd be common enough to call giving you, the user, less than a full compliment of ammo a good thing! Would I want to buy more of their affordable ammo on top of this full compliment I expect? Yes, please!

"Part 3
As far as performance, we are very proud of our rapid fire and that is why we call it out right on front of package. We encourage users to get used to the firing mechanisms either using the trigger or the pump as having 2 unique ways to fire the blaster takes some practice to get use to how best to optimize this."

You could read this as "our blaster is complicated to use" or "you aren't doing it right". Interesting, . . . we didn't call them out on any problems with firing. Seems pretty straight-forward. You can dial up the intensity to fire farther, but that also makes the thing a little harder to fire. As alluded to in one of their videos, you are essentially negotiating between rate of fire and distance with this dial. We are still testing this feature out.

"The reason for the powder on the NRG Rounds is to ensure smooth loading and firing and as one of our fans pointed out that latex gloves have a similar coating on them."

The powder notation makes sense. I think it's rather effective, in fact. After firing the native rounds several times, I haven't notice a problem in loading the things. And yes, the magazine feels great when you seat it into the blaster.

"Part 4
The TEK RECON APP has received some great feedback and we are constantly thriving to improve the experience. The jumpiness you experienced could be for a variety of reasons that we are investigating , but obviously older devices may not be as smooth and all other applications should be closed. An update for iOS and a new Android version of the app within the next couple weeks based on feedback demonstrating our ongoing commitment to continually improve the play experience."

I'm glad their app has received some great feedback! For me, the jumpiness continues. I have an iPhone 4 which is noted as a compatible phone on their kickstarter FAQ, so it needs to work. If they need to retrograde the app for users like me, that's fine. I figure the update they promise will work it out.

"Part 5
The Smartphone mount is designed that, when properly used, will prevent smart devices from falling out. We would suggest that in the video it was not depressed fully to create a tight grip on the device and we are happy to show how that is possible. As such, we are creating a video that will demonstrate how to properly insert a device, and how to ensure that the activator is properly aligned to work as it is intended."

LOL. "You're too stupid to press down on the top." Not quite how they meant it, but  . . . yeah . . .

I'll look forward to seeing their video. Especially for their info on how to get their activator to work. You should see all of the stupid people who work with me at a news station (including the engineers) that can't get this to work right either.

Tek Recon hit a bad note with selling their blasters before supplying their backers, considering that their pitch was to use our money to get these things on the shelves in the first place. Props to Laser Gnomes on sticking to their guns. To be honest, I don't have too big of a problem with Tek Recon being distributed to retail stores at the same time their office was getting the rewards products to ship out to backers. Yes, I agree it lacked class, but it's something that just happens when working with retailers and distributors. You can't hold off launching the product to suck up to people on social media. If the product is good, the demand will remain regardless. 

The biggest problem I have is their original video on kickstarter. If you watch the launch of their campaign, Tek Recon comes off as having two fully developed blasters that they are showing off. They indicate the need for crowd-funding to get this developed product to the shelves. Graeme Bisset says they've been in development for two years. I am glad that they are continuing to develop and evolve, but I don't believe the product now is what I feel was advertised as ready for stores in the original video. Good thing or bad? I refuse to pass judgement yet! ~Chris

Office Wars

Hey Warriors!

I saw Bazookafied's entry about office wars on the Tactical Tag blog and it got me thinking about the people at my work. I started to bring some elite pistols to work a few months ago for the occasional co-worker that needed a dart. We've been so busy with fires, floods and other breaking news that we don't get a lot of good conflicts going. I am working to change that!

There's nothing like a little fun in the office to kill the stress of a hard day. Every one is usually a really good sport and people like to mess with foam blasters since they can't really hurt anybody. I usually wait to sneak them out until the other managers aren't looking though ;)

Check out the reaction to the MEGA Centurion when I put it out in the newsroom on July 4th weekend. I kind of got that hunter in the duck blind feel from shooting out of our radio studio.

Maybe we'll get a good war going at the office when the Tek Recon kickstarter package comes in. I got 4 Hammer Heads for Click Click BAMF so that we can test out the app and blasters against each other in two man teams! ~Chris

Sighting Report - Centurion, Rapidstrike Hit Store Shelves in Michigan

So Warriors, I didn't see any of the newer blasters hit store shelves in Colorado this past week, but I did make a sighting in Lansing, Michigan. The Meijer stores there beat any of my local stock in the Mountain Division of Click Click BAMF. Hopefully we'll see them on shelves closer to home soon.

Also, the price tag for the N-Strike Elite Rapidstrike was up. So, Michiganders will be seeing that beast soon too. The Rapidstrike is part of the recent package that NERF sent us, so that review will be on the way shortly as well! I must say that the blaster has impressed me greatly. This will be a game changer for some warriors. It cetainly is an improvement over the Stampede in many ways.

 

 

 

We've been getting a lot of your requests for specific reviews and we'll see about getting some of those done ASAP. I wish we could get to some of them sooner, but you know how the demands of life can be!

SledgeFire, Rapidstrike and Revonix in the House!

NERF was so kind as to send us most of their final releases of the 2013.  As you can see in the Vine post below, we now have the Vortex Revonix 360, N-Strike Elite Rapidstrike and the Zombie Stirke SledgeFire to check out! . . . I already broke the Revonix, so we'll see what to do about that one.



So we were able to do an unboxing of the NERF Zombie Strike SledgeFire. This has some potential in Humans versus Zombies. Some say they wish the grouping was a little more spread out on the blaster. As I've said before, it really depends on if you use an optional rule for what effect multiple darts have on a zombie in the game. Think about it for stopping power rather than for spread and perhaps it will appeal to you more. Or not :)

I'm still really looking forward to getting my hands on the Zombie Strike Hammershot as well, so we'll get a sighting report up on the new pistol as soon as we see it. August 1st is coming up in a couple of days, after all. ~Chris

Zombie Strike 2014! - A Whole Line of New Blasters!

Check it out, Warriors!

Not only did NERF officially announce the Zombie Strike line for August 2013, they now have revealed Zombie Strike releases for early 2014 too! While the 2013 blasters are exclusive to Target, these blasters will be available at most retailers and HabroToyShop.com.

Meet the Zombie Strike Crossfire bow. They say this bow is "boasting 75 foot ELITE distance and authentic pull-back firing action". It comes with four of the new Zombie Strike darts. You can see that it seems to have the fitting for a stock attachment on the back. But it looks like none of the new line comes with an actual attachment. We'll have to see if the current attachments look okay with this thing. I don't hold high hopes with the yellow, blue or mostly white blending with this crossbow to look good. The Crossfire has a suggested retail of $19.99. They say this will have the honors of being the first crossbow in the NERF line in almost 20 years. Which leaves me asking when we will see the NERF Rebelle crossbow.

The new NERF FuseFire hails from the Vortex line to join the Zombie Strike blasters. This looks a bit similar to the NERF Vortex Vigilon, but just different enough. A big thing is that this blaster will sport glowing discs. It seems like they must have added firefly technology into the blaster again, instead of a clip like the Rayven and Lumitron blasters. They've also added a storage option on the front of the blaster. Five discs will tuck into the front of the blaster. I'm wondering if they cut down the size of this blaster from the Vigilon enough to fit into a cargo pocket. The release says that this system will host a continuous loading system. From the pic, I'm assuming it will be something similar to the Proton's loading feature. This will also post at $19.99. Not sure I'd pay this much for a pistol, no matter how large.

At this point, I noticed that the blasters started having their names typeset on the side in a courier font. This is a win for me because I was a big fan of the typeset in the original Resident Evil on Playstation. That and X-files! It brings back memories and smiles. So there . . . moving on.

The next in the line of announcements is the NERF Zombie Strike SideStrike. This is a front-loading sidearm where you load one at a time, then prime and fire. It will also sport a holster that they say will be compatible with the NERF Elite Firestrike. That makes sense considering that they are similar blasters to begin with. This is also said to  boast the ELITE 75-foot ranges. The proclaimed retail price will list at $14.99. I'd complain about that except for the NERF-specific holster for sidearms. I'd rather they make a holster for the Hammershot, but maybe that would be too bulky.

They don't have much to say about the new NERF Zombie Strike Blade. In reality, it looks like a re-make of the NERF N-Force Vantage. Perhaps the most notable thing is that this means that they haven't given up on the N-Force products completely. It's going to sell at a suggested price of $12.99.

The NERF Zombie Strike RipShot will also sport an integrated disc storage. It will store 3 discs in the front. It's pretty straightforward other than that. They call it "stealthy" but I think they are just trying to say it is more easily concealed. It sports a suggested price tag of $9.99. I'm not sure I would feel the need to by it over the Proton if we weren't so interested in getting every blaster for testing!

The NERF Zombie Strike Ricochet. Another NERF Vortex pistol design sporting the Zombie Strike branding. I was about the razz NERF for making too many pistols for this line debut, but perhaps I should hold off. "Pocket-sized but powerful" makes this sound like the Vortex version of the Jolt. Worth checking out at $7.99? Yup.

There was not a picture, but NERF is also releasing a Zombie Strike target set next Spring. They say it will include "one small ZOMBIE STRIKE blaster, three ZOMBIE STRIKE darts and a ZOMBIE STRIKE target". They don't specify what the small blaster will be. Perhaps a zombified Reflex?

So, in all, I'd certainly looking forward to Spring of 2014 for the further Zombie Strike releases. Which of them are you most interested in? ~Chris

Zombie Strike 2013 Officially Revealed!

Good news, warriors!

Hasbro and NERF have seen fit to officially announce the new Zombie Strike line for 2013 and 2014! In the official release it is "Zombie Strike" rather than "ZombieStrike" like you might think from looking on the boxes.

If you've been paying attention, you've already seen some information on the 2013 blasters - Sledgefire and Hammershot. Both are supposed to be available August 1st exclusively from Target along with a 30-dart refill package we showed you before. Read on for some thoughts on those or click here for the newly announced Zombie Strike blasters of 2014.

With the Sledgefire they say: "A new triple dart shell-system allows for simultaneous multi-shot blasting and quick dart reloads on the run while extra storage space for darts keeps zombie invasions at bay." It's official retail is listed at $27.99, but whereas Toys'R'Us upcharges, Target seems to beat their own prices. So, we may see that price a couple of bucks lower.

The Hammershot is still the most interesting release in my book because of the "unique pull-back hammer mechanism". The chance of this blaster becoming a go-to sidearm for many warriors is high. Can't wait to get out hands on it for a good set of tests.

I'm still not so excited about the Zombie-specific line. The blasters, yes. However, Zombie Strike branding won't turn me off of the line either. I;m just saying it's not actually necessary when you already have great products. ~Chris

Rotator X-8 Revolver - Air Zone Answer to NERF Hammershot?

When I first walked up to this blaster in the local Toys 'R' Us, I thought I had found a promising answer to the "rumored" NERF ZombieStrike Hammershot we'd been reading and hearing about. Could it be that Air Zone had brought something that would compete?

If you look at the hammer on the upper left, you'll see that there is plastic molding covering it so that you can't cock the hammer back yourself. For just a moment, I wondered if this thing would have a double-action trigger (meaning you can just keep pulling the trigger to fire) and beat the Hammershot, but no. Even the marketing folks tried to hide the priming rod that is placed under the handle by placing their cardboard logo over it. For ten bucks, we decided to grab this and see how it would do.


At this point, I think the X-8 was almost a great blaster. That's not to say it isn't a good blaster. But I'd probably still recommend buying the Strongarm for a couple of bucks more. The X-8 uses unique ammo that doesn't even seem to work with other Air Zone blasters. The Strongarm will give you elite darts that work with many other blasters you are likely to encounter in a war. That means you can pick up other ammo for a return fire as well. A detailed review to come in the future. ~Chris

Target Denies Existence of Zombie Strike

Well I suppose target's web folks were too excited about the release. My Last Dart has a good write-up on what seems to have happened after work got out about the Zombie Strike line being posted on target.com. It's gone now and who knows when it will be up again.

Check out MLD's story.

Closer Look at Fall Releases

In case you missed our recent NERF videos, we have some closer looks at a couple of the Fall releases up now.

The Rapidstrike is certainly going to be the flagship blaster for this season of releases. It seems to take some of the best things from the Elite line and the N-Strike Stampede along with it's new qualities to make a formidable assault blaster.

The NERF Rebelle line actually holds a lot more promise than I expected. I am especially interested in the crossbow. We're not completely sure what to think of the drawstring on the Heartbreaker. It seems like that will be the easiest component to break that we've seen out of NERF in a while. But hey, it held up for dozens of people at the Summer Bash press party, so we'll hold off judgment for now.

 

So -Which fall blasters are you most excited for? ~Chris

Zombie Strike - Coming to a Target Near You!

Heads Up, Warriors!

It's now circulating around the internet that the new NERF ZombieStrike line is officially coming to Target stores (see some of our fellow bloggers for the first posts). Well, it certainly is as official as you can get without a full press release. The things are now listed at target.com. So, you may be able to find these before they officially hit shelves. HINT: The DCPI numbers (store stock numbers) are listed in the 'other information' section on the product pages.

So far, the Hammershot, Sledgefire and a ZombieStrike dart refill pack have been listed. All are marked with an 'only at Target' logo. Between the EAT (Elite Alpha Trooper) and this line, Target looks to be winning out in the exclusives war with other major stores.

Really, the newest thing about the ZombieStrike line in the NIC is the dart. I'm not so sure about the color of the darts. They come off to me as a puss-like green color -You may recall our complaints about the coloring on Vortex blasters being similar. But Urban Taggers is calling them yellow, so perhaps I am just not seeing them in the right light.  Other than that, these look to be the same as the elite darts - or at least the N-strike streamlines (clip system darts). 

My one other question is could these glow in the dark? Every time I see bright zombie projectiles like this, I just think they should glow. Granted, I'm sure there is no built-in mechanism to charge the things on the blasters. It just seems like the natural progression to have HvZ-specific merchandise glow for trackability. Just sayin'.

So, to the Hammershot. It's a 5-shot, single-action blaster. This means that you just cock the hammer back and you are primed to fire. Many other NERF pistols are single-action, but are designed so that you have to use your other hand, your toe or maybe your teeth to prime the thing. Thanks to the Hammershot design, you might happily replace side-arm choices if you currently use another single-action blaster like the Firestrike or Strongarm, etc.

Some complain about the five-shot capacity and it not being a six-shooter. I tend to agree on the surface. After all there are songs, stories and more about the famous six-guns in the Wild West. Yet, five will be fun too and shoult still be widely effective.

The next in line is the Sledgefire. Meet NERF's newest approach to a shotgun design. You probably could have guessed that would be the theme in a blaster with the word 'sledge' in the name. They seem to have incorporated a shotgun shell design for the ammo on this one. That's a bit of a surprise considering how much the community has disliked ammo shells in the past.

They look to load three at a time and may fire that way as well. They probably will work well with elite darts too if the Hammershot does as seen in a recent leak video. I'm holding out hope that this will be the first truly successful foam shotgun. With the attention to quality that Hasbro puts into these products, we may finally have a winner in this category. Granted, the Roughcut does a good job, but it is still an amped-up front-loader in the long run.

As you may have seen, the news on this blaster has been leaked out for a little while. It's not something we support at Click Click BAMF, because someone essentially stole Hasbro's property and then showed it off on the interwebs. If it gets into a store, great! For example, some folks got recent confirmation from Hasbro in other countries on the names and then these blasters popped up on target.com, so here we are! Now we're not condemning other blogs for covering this. After all, news is news. It's an editing choice here.

Keep an eye out. We'll have at least an initial write up on Air Zone's answer to the Hammershot a little later. ~Chris

NERF MEGA Party Pic Spam

Warriors!

As you may have seen trending under #nerfmega last night, The Summer Bash welcoming the NERF MEGA Centurion and the other coming star blasters happened! It was a pleasure to meet up with some of our counterparts from all over the US.

To tide you over, here is the consolidated pic spam from last night. More to come on the tidbits we learned about and some thoughts on the Rapidstrike, Rebelle line, Centurion et cetera! You'll see many people from the NERF blogging community.  It was great to meet the Basic Nerf and Shining Foam guys in person too. Look for much camera work on the Click Click BAMF Youtube channel from Shining Foam and Chris' cam work on Shining Foam. We were able to team up for some fun stuff!

Hanging out to get in the #NERFMEGA party! pic.twitter.com/1RE1R7ZYgL
— Click Click BAMF (@ClickClickBAMF) June 27, 2013

See Vas the Stampede from F2A (Foam From Above)?! He's one chill dude!

First look at the wall! #NerfMega pic.twitter.com/pMtnHpFKFG
— Click Click BAMF (@ClickClickBAMF) June 27, 2013

One of the stars at the show. Rapidstrike at the #nerfmega party!! pic.twitter.com/DaNA9Wh1r4
— Click Click BAMF (@ClickClickBAMF) June 27, 2013

Look for cameos in the above video from Adult Fans of Nerf and Basic Nerf. This party was quite the Summer Bash! All the different colors of head bands etc. are from an on-going contest during the night.

Team orange! Bring it! #nerfmega pic.twitter.com/7d1JVZLfPE
— Click Click BAMF (@ClickClickBAMF) June 27, 2013

Team Orange didn't win. They rejected my demand for a recount.

I demand a recount on the #nerfmega summer bash contest! #hangingdarts #teamorange
— Click Click BAMF (@ClickClickBAMF) June 28, 2013

I was pretty dang impressed by the style of this NERF Mega Summer Bash. They even had snow cones named after blasters. Going to have to try to recreate the mango, chili and lime one!

The #rebelle line from @NerfNation is way cooler than I thought! #NerfMega party showed up tonight! pic.twitter.com/P8yB5PacAe
— Click Click BAMF (@ClickClickBAMF) June 28, 2013

Tough guys wear pink (and orange), right @NerfNation ? #nerfmega #rebelle
— Click Click BAMF (@ClickClickBAMF) June 28, 2013

Having drinks in style! #nerfmega #RedSoloCup pic.twitter.com/tzFjPZ0AiD
— Click Click BAMF (@ClickClickBAMF) June 28, 2013