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