NEW NERF Rhino Fire Charges onto the Scene

Check it out, Warriors! Looks like the big bad blaster for the season may have already leaked out! Check out what showed up on the Spanish Amazon site. The box art calls it the Rhino Fire while the site calls it the Rhino Strike.

Now, it doesn't show in stock yet, but that's only a matter of time. At first glance, this looks like the new answer to the Vulcan/Havok of old. With the large bipod and high dual output, this looks to be the new "turret" weapon for the market.

Just from looking at the artwork, you can see that this will be drum-fed (likely flywheel-fired). It looks like the back has a similar trigger system to the Vulcan. There looks to be a tactical rail -at least on the right front and the top.

BREAKING! - NERF TekStrike, New Tech for Nerf Blasters!

Exciting tech news from the Toy Fair floor, warriors! EyeSpy Toys just gave us a direct heads up on a new product line called Nerf TekStrike. Programmable Smart Darts, hit recognition tech and Bluetooth connectivity. Well, it looks like NERF is taking the next step in wireless play!

This is the "TekStrike Storm Shield" which attaches as an accessory to any NERF tactical rail. With the use of Bluetooth and RFID tech, the Smart Darts are tracked all across the field. Apparently we will be able to assign HIT points to a shooter/player and then the Shield will track hits and damage.

I am interested to see if this technology will be as easy to use as they say. Apparently you mark darts as yours by just swiping them against your own Storm Shield and start firing. You also can use your smartphone to keep track of stats and do upgrades as you earn them. They say all of this will be free (instead of purchasing upgrades like with Tek Recon).

NEW NERF Attacknid VS Stealth Stryder

It's interesting to see Combat Creatures and Nerf come together like this. Foam From Above and others saw a NERF version of the Attacknid at the NERF booth at the New York Toy Fair. Thanks to Foam From Above for the coverage!

You can see that this version of the Attacknid has no armor to shoot off and you can't really see a head like on the original creations. I like what the original Attacknids have with the armor etc. I hope that NERF goes back in that direction as they develop their version for release.

Vas the Stampede from Foam From Above was told that everything is rather preliminary on the product, so we'll probably still be seeing some changes as they go. Even the box art was a concept that they put out to tease us. A $79.99 price was being quoted by some reps to bloggers. We should be seeing these in the Fall.

Unless NERF convinces Combat Creatures to disappear from Target and Amazon.com, I'm afraid they'll have a hard run for their money at that $79.99 price. The Attacknid Doom Razor with Snypa dart launcher is down to 50 dollars in local Target stores and the version with a disc blaster is 50 bucks on Amazon.

Even better, Combat Creatures just announced the release of their newest Attacknid, the Stealth Stryder. This one can be operated by an app on your smart phone! It started out on Amazon for 70 bucks.

With these options available, I don't think I'd be inclined to drop more money just for the NERF name on the product. Again, they said things would be changing, so perhaps we'll see something even better by this Fall.

So we have foam drones with tracks, wheels and legs -even some that fire from the air (though not foam). We'll have to pull off some head-to-head reviews as we go to see how these will stand up against each other. So far, it looks like it will be a Combat Creatures Attacknid versus the VMD Cannon Commando! ~Chris

NERF Successes Shared at Hasbro Investor Meeting

Hey warriors, I was able to take a few minutes this morning to look over the information from Hasbro's Investor Update they publicized ahead of the New York Toy Fair. Again, anyone claiming exclusive on this is being dishonest or is very misinformed. Our take on this may be exclusive, but the information is and has been readily available online!

Unfortunately, There are no new goodies that we can share with you after perusing the material. It seems that all of the blasters for the fair have been "leaked" by the company itself ahead of the big day(s). 

Yes, there is another angle on the previously revealed Demolisher. You can see the vent on the front of the launching post for the missile. Strangely, Brian Chapman (Senior Vice President over Global Design & Development) called this projectile, what he calls "the Thumper", the largest one done in Nerf. I really don't think it's any bigger -or even quite as large as the Titan rocket. Maybe they forgot about that one.

(More on new Rebelle products and Nerf's success after the jump)

Crossfire wins Best New Toy at UK fair

One of the things they do annually at the UK Toy Fair is to award the Best New Toys of the year. In the words of the fair organizers: "The Toy Fair Best New Toy Awards are voted for by a panel of independent toy retailers as the 2014 Toy Fair products with the most potential to make a mark on retail throughout the year and beyond." The Toy Fair there is put on by the British Toy and Hobby Association.

The NERF Zombie Strike Crossfire is one of 39 toys to win the honors. I would suppose that it's due to the iconic reenactments that it will enable kids to do. After all, crossbows were a favorite for many now-teenagers as they cut their teeth on COD: Black Ops and perhaps are watching Walking Dead.

From the initial tests we've done, this won't be the best performing blaster of 2014. However, as they note above, this award is about making a mark on retail throughout the year. The Crossfire is a likely blaster to do that for the general population.

Can you think of any other new or newly announced blasters you would have awarded Best New Toy to?

Shot of the Week Winner - Jan 16

Alright, warriors. After a couple of dim-witted errors on my end, the Shot of the Week is up and running! I got word late last night that some of you were submitting your entries and tagging us on facebook, but they weren't showing up. Well now that I figured out how to allow you to share your pics directly on the page, that shouldn't be a problem any more. Please feel free to re-enter and of your great foam warrior pics directly on our facebook page or by tagging us on Instagram and we'll get them in the running for next week!

Congrats to TJ Gerzina for his creative Shot of the Week entry! The caption that came with it was "New line of expanding ammo!!" Now we're going to have to ask him if he bough that car simply because of the color resemblance to a NERF dart! LOL, I 'd love to be able to shoot out a sweet ride when I needed to get somewhere.

Remember, warriors, we'll pick a new Shot of the Week winner every Thursday. Your entries count for next week starting now! ~Chris

Zombie Strike Slingfire - 2014 New Blaster Reveal!

Alright, Warriors! We've been waiting all weekend and it's finally here. The newly announced NERF blaster is: The NERF Zombie Strike Slingfire!

2014 Super Soaker Update

I have to admit something, warriors. I got a little worried when I saw those couple of early Super Soaker releases the other day. I actually really liked the 2013 releases and was look forward to more of that line. When I swung by to toy section at another Walmart this week, I happened to see a Flash Blast with updated coloring and went back to look at NERF's Super Soaker section on their website.

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