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?

Sighting Reports - Newest Zombie Strike on Store Shelves

Well, it took a while, but we finally see the Crossfire and Fusefire in stock at Walmarts in both Los Angeles and Colorado Springs. So, if you haven't seen these in you're area yet, they're probably close. We've been waiting to get our hands on both of these NERF Zombie Strike blasters. You're looking at about 20 bucks for each of these systems. Not too bad.

You may recall that the Fusefire is a Vortex inspired Zombie Strike Blaster. It incorporates firefly technology for glow-in-the-dark discs. This blaster also seems to have a similar loading mechanism to the NERF Vortex Proton. The extra storage space on the front can't hurt either. I am looking forward to trying this one out.

Now the Crossfire crossbow is a bit of an interesting one. NERF claimed that it was the first crossbow for NERF. Rebelle already came out with their crossbow, but Hasbro has separated NERF Rebelle from the rest of the NERF lines. They choose to market the lines uniquely, so they still feel that this can be called the first crossbow. I excited to throw on my favorite stock attachment to the back of this blaster and get to work. Maybe a little Van Helsing action to come? ~Chris