NOT SOLD OUT? - Dart Zone Pro MK 1.1

First concerns first: As we broke to you last night on Instagram, top leadership at Prime Toys assures us that the Dart Zone Pro Mk1.1 IS NOT sold out at the time of this writing. There have been several factors that may have affected logistics on one end or another, but we're told issues will work out in less than a couple of weeks and to stay on their social media for updates.

LATEST UPDATE: Dart Zone did end up posting their own video update confirming details of how to secured your own Dart Zone Pro Mk1.1 here:





PREVIOUS UPDATE:

We're now told that the issue is online inventory. It's a SNAFU with the target.com listing not recognizing what they actually have in inventory. Something that never popped up when Dart Zone supported their own sales of the Mk1.

ACTION ITEM: Per Bryan Sturtevant of Prime Time Toys, Email coupondartzone@primetimetoys.com to hold your place in line and get an alert when target get the inventory problem figured out! I would also recommend clicking the notification button on the target.com listing to get alert when their system get it listed as in stock.

Several users across different platforms have reported back that they got a "canned" or generic e-mail back that confirmed they were in line for a coupon for the darts, but the e-mail also confirms that the blasters are not sold out and that target.com is working on things. I'm hoping to see a video from Prime Time Toys they mentioned to confirm what we learned on the show floor today.

Original Article:

As I got my hands on the Dart Zone Pro for the first time, it immediately began to break down my wall of "it costs too much". The thing is high-end. It feels high-end and fires high-end. Listen to Creative Director Bryan Sturtevant talk about where they are going now:

Have you seen these things in action? Check out what was possibly one of the first ever real booth battles on the main showroom floor at a New York Toy Fair! Dart Zone Pro Mk1.1 in action via a 2v2 grudge match:

No, Nerf ULTRA isn't "just a cash grab".

EDIT; Important note: a big thanks to Foam From Above for providing the sample for me to use in Colorado!!

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I'm using the #nerf #ultra one and there's nothing you sissies can do about it! Thanks to @foamfromabove for the hookup at CU HVZ! #hvz

A post shared by Click Click BAMF (@clickclickbamf) on Nov 22, 2019 at 10:58pm PST

Yes, that's right. I ran the new Nerf Ultra One in an HvZ lock-in scenario and I couldn't have been more pleased for the first time out. The ultra darts hit nice and hard and the distance was super-consistent, just not 120-feet consistent. Please realize that the claims made on the box are generally pulled from the most "favorable" conditions. This has been true since before N-Strike was even a thing. Don't buy the rhetoric from those that would have you believe there is something new or nefarious about the marketing tactics.

A friend should be hooking me up with some secondary footage soon and I hope to bring you a little video of the HvZ experience we had. Before then, I had some thoughts on the reaction to the Nerf Ultra One and some of the misplaced vitriol running around online.

Warriors, don't be misled. Ultra is not the evil thing that some Youtubers and loudmouths in the nerf "community" would have you think. Nerf has been and will continue to be putting out new lines of blasters and attempt to move the market in their favor. This means trying new things, building in new proprietary tech, ammo and accessories, as well as marketing the most extreme claims they can on performance.

Also, Hasbro will pass on some costs for development in their initial designs. It's always a question of what price the market will bear. Yes, the ultra on should cost the same amount at a Rapidstrike did. Hmmm, The Nerf N-Strike Elite Rapidstrike MSRP was $39.99 a few years ago. Let's start there, adjust for inflation and a trade war, then add in costs for proprietary development. Seems like that gets us to at least; FIFTY BUCKS!?

Loads of opinions are out there, but a lot of them are really just echoes. You might expect a "thought leaders" or influencers in the community to take more responsibility and do actual testing before panning any product, but such is our day and age. My advice to any nerfer is to get your hands on this before making a decision.  Maybe go in with friends or buddies to grab one or find an arena that might grab one for their stock.

Game On!

The Nerf Neophyte

Hmm. Maybe this on never technically posted. Welcome Corbin Millard to the Click Click BAMF team. Corbin is just getting into Nerf for the first time as a "kiddult". He told me that he was really tempted by the ammo and the sleekness of the new blaster designs. So here we unboxed and reviewed the Nerf Rival Hera.

We talked about terminology in the video a little bit. As you may know, we say things like rounds, dart and ammo instead of bullets. We also refer to the toys overall as blasters. While these are reminiscent of guns, they are toys. We want to separate them for those who need to know the differences!

You can check out the Hera and the Hera Battle Gear Bundle through our affiliate links here.

TOY FAIR REPORT: Even More New Blasters Announced

This post will update with images and thoughts throughout the week.

Now for a couple of Nerf things we didn't really hear about during the Toy Fair 2018 coverage and a few things we just have more on.

The one I didn't hear a peep on or see anything on for sure was the Nerf Doomlands Holdout. The pic comes from our friends at Nerf and the description comes from their Hasbro Product Page.

NERF DOOMLANDS HOLDOUTIn a post-apocalyptic future, the Earth is left a barren, lawless wasteland. Out of the ashes, a lone hero emerges to bring justice to a doomed land. This is the world of Doomlands! Scope out some action with the Holdout blaster, which has a removable targeting scope that slides onto a tactical rail. Load a dart into this single-shot blaster, pull back the handle, and pull the trigger to fire. Includes 2 Elite darts that can be stored on the scope.• Includes 2 blasters and 2 darts.• Single-shot blaster• Detachable scope• Includes 2 Elite Doomlands darts• Transparent area reveals inner firing mechanism• Ages 8 and up

An Affordable Nerf Chronograph?

Since a couple of years after we began the channel, we've been wanting to buy a chronograph to test our fps on the nerf blaster we have. I wasn't really interested in spending too much on it considering all the other costs we have.

A second criterion I didn't mention in the video was size. While the size of some of the chronographs allows for the measurement of larger ammunition, You need to consider more space when setting them up. You will need more space to transport. You also will need a little more setup time when using them in the field.

I recently did a search and found a couple of airsoft chronographs that looked like they'd possibly fit the bill. Acetech was nice enough to send us some to review. Check it out:

Something else I didn't get to in the video was the quick fulfillment. Sometime folks worry about ordering from overseas because shipping can be quite a harrowing ordeal and/or very costly. Well Acetech has their products distributed to fulfillment centers in the US, so I only waiting a few days for the package to arrive after they decided to send it. So there's no concern on that end of things!

As mentioned in the video, there does seem to be some inconsistency due to things like big ammo through an airsoft chronograph. There's also a chance to hit the sides of the chamber due to the size of the rounds versus the size of the testing chamber.

If you're considering getting an Acetech Chronograph. You can check them out through my affiliate links here; AC5000 and AC6000.

LATEST Blasters Announced

Well Warriors. We've got quite the smorgasbord to choose from when it comes to Nerf blasters in the Fall 2018 lineup. Here are two of the latest blasters to be announced when video of my thoughts on the issues:

Please look out for Foam From Above's posts from Toy Fair 2018. He's got the first appointment for Hasbro and NERF and I'll be really excited to see what he tries out with some of these blasters.

As for the rest of the 2018 Fall lineup, I split the video into a second part and you can find the rest of it here:

I definitely want to get in on that Infinus action, but I am unsure about the rest for me personally. I'm still thinking about the Nemesis when it comes to Rival power and mag/hopper size!

Let me know what you think about the latest announcement. Please also consider subscribing to the Youtube channel. We've preserved partner status so far, but I would love to solidify that going into our new series this Spring!

Thanks for all you do,
CJ

Behind the Zombie Strike Crosscut

So, warriors, the N-Strike Elite Dual-Strike was not the only Spring 2016 release we got the heads up about. You may have see the first peek at the Nerf Zombie Strike Crosscut on our youtube channel from a couple days ago. It's a single-shot blaster (two-barreled) that incorporated a rubber-foam blade that actually spins. The blaster will help us ring in the new year at $14.99.

The video is below again in case you are curious.

Nerf N-Strike Elite Dual-Strike Revealed!

Oh, warriors! Meet one of the newest blasters revealed from Nerf. It's the NERF N-Strike Elite Dual-Strike. Heck. YES. 

You can see here that the product is ready for merchandising and yes, it will be released for the Spring 2016 season. What that translates to is that you will possibly see them on shelves ahead of Christmas 2015 as some stores work to get their product out early. BTW, it's set for a suggested retail price of $19.99.

NERF HQ Visit Tomorrow!

Warriors! We are on the eve of a really cool thing. Right now, I am on the way to Rhode Island to visit with the Nerf HQ team and several community contributors.

It's one of the few times that Nerf has brought in just fans off the street to view their facilities and we get to be a part of it! Granted, we aren't quite just "off the street". Several bloggers, youtubers and forum contributors were specially invited by the team to meet up at HQ to see and discuss the up and coming directions that Nerf is headed in.

There is a pesky little NDA (non-disclosure agreement) that stops us from leaking some stuff, but the PR team tells us that there will be plenty of tidbits that we will be released to share.

You may have seen some of the discussion in from our recent hangout with the Nerf HQ team the brought of some SUPER interesting possibilities for what we might see at tomorrow. Are there any burning questions that you are hoping to get the answer too?

Hit us up! ~Chris

Rotofury on Store Shelves?

Reddit has it boys and girls. User, _Emotionless, posted a find from a store in Hong Kong in the Nerf subreddit.

_Emotionless found it listed at 298 Hong Kong dollars which translates to $38.44 in US dollars. That's not bad considering the MSRP below.

The Rotofury is something we've been hearing about officially since January. NERF sent our the press release with these details back then.

***NERF MEGA RotoFury Blaster***Image and Information Under Embargo until 1/19/15

(Ages 8 years & up/Approx. Retail Price: $34.99/Available: Fall 2015)

Supersize your NERF battles and dominate the field with the highest capacity MEGA blaster ever! The MEGA RotoFury blaster gives you the option of firing one MEGA Whistler Dart at a time, or slam firing a steady stream of ten darts in a row. Hear the darts whistle as they fly through the air and hit targets up to 90 feet away.  Includes 10 MEGA Whistler Darts. Available at most major retailers nationwide and HasbroToyShop.com.

Good images of the blaster have been coming out since Vas from Foam From Above was blasting out images from his annual visit to the Toy Fair! I am excited to see which other blasters from the fair will come out soon. Look over at F2A for images of the other cool blasters such as the Thunderblast which I am totally excited for!!

I want to get hands on this blaster. The assumed mechanics in this one remind me a lot of what I expected the NERF Vortex Revonix to be. Pump-action blasters please me when they are fed by a magazine. Generally the ammo feed works out pretty well in that case. I haven't had as much luck with the turret/barrel situation on pump-action. Really want to try it out, though! ~Chris

My First HvZ Experience - Meet Game of Foams

I know, warriors. I still didn't get our next review up. Forgive me. We've had more fires ignite in Colorado and I was a little tied up in my day job with some repercussions of that. No worries though, the firefighters got them out fairly quickly and no one in our region has lost homes to wildfire this year so far.

In good news, I do have a new video for you! We had a great time with a company called Game of Foams that is putting on short-form HvZ-styled events they call Survivors versus Zombie. They let us come up to Longmont and play with them, getting this footage to boot. It was a great opportunity to see how the ECS Cam Blaster would actually behave in a dusk setting outdoors. So I ran that with a dual banana "clip" I taped together after ganking them from a couple of our Demolishers.. Check out the results (below the jump)!!

New NERF Teaser video

Just doing some catching up here, warriors. It was a busy week in news locally in Colorado Springs. Unfortunately, that leaves me catching up on several things -even further behind than before.

This isn't really new news, but it does show a few things possibly in store for Nerf. Check out the video below and then we'll talk about it.

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.

Sighting Report - NERF Rebelle Secrets and Spies

The products that we've been awaiting from the Rebelle Secrets and Spies line have hit the shelves! No sign of the Rapid Red, but everything else seems to be there -at least at the Toys R Us in Colorado Springs.

Of the most interest may be the Agent Bow. It's NERF's first real foray into the world of actual bow-fired arrows. Sure, they've had things with the word "bow" in the name. However, this one seems to be the first direct competition to the Zing bows from NERF.

It claims 85 feet for the Range. That's shy of the 100 foot MEGA distances. I wonder how they will fair with this completely new-to-Nerf projectile! BTW, you'll drop 30-bucks plus tax on it.

Strangely, it is not on ToysRUs.com or the Rebelle website. Well . . . none of the new Secrets and Spies blasters have popped up on the official website.

The Spylight does look like a Strongarm with a flashlight attachment as expected. I left this one on the shelf, but I can see the appeal for some. I think I may stick with the Firestike if I want a light and the Hammershot if I want a revolver.

It lists at $19.99 - so you're spending another 7 bucks over the Strongarm for the flashlight and the Messenger darts.

I'm not quite sure what to make of the Diamondista. It's modeled after a crossbow like blasters across the NERF branding.

At $9.99, this is the most basic blaster in price and size in the Secrets and Spies releases. The original description NERF sent describes this as a blaster for missions that require elegance.

We did grab one of these too, so some more info will be on the way.

I don't know what happened to my picture of the Messenger blaster, but you can see it to the left in this shot of the Knock Out Gallery. All of the Secrets and Spies blasters come with the tech to "decode" messages from this one. It's S14.99 for this one. Obviously, you seem to be paying for the new "secret messaging" tech here.

As for the Knock Out Gallery, it's a basic target-shooting blaster. Meet the Jolt, Rebelle version. When I was in store, they had a deal running where you could buy the Knock Out Gallery and get a 12-pack refill of Rebelle darts for free.  Turns out they are running a promotion online where you can get the free 12-pack with ANY Rebelle blaster that costs $9.99 or more. Note that its the regular dart refill pack and not the Secrets and Spies version.

Target was running a similar deal today in Colorado Springs where you could get a free 12-pack of elite darts with any qualifying N-Strike, MEGA or Vortex purchase.

Demolisher and Others Available Online

Check out Amazon.com, warriors. It holds all of the blasters we just saw at the Nerf All Access event last night! You need to see #nerfallaccess on social media for other little tidbits. Don't worry, we're working on more video too!

The Nerf Elite 2-in-1 Demolisher is listed at it's MSRP of $39.99. It comes with 10 Elite darts for the banana clip and two missiles -one for the chamber and one for the storage.

The missile launcher definitely brings the intimidation factor back like the Titan used to show off. If you want an updated Stryfe with the added joy of a launcher, this is your new main.

The Nerf MEGA Thunderbow is listed at $39.99 too. To be clear, when Amazon says the blaster fires 5 darts at a time, they mean in a row -not at once.

I really look forward to getting the Thunderbow. Along with the bow from the Rebelle line, I think it this will be the first time NERF has given us a completely new option. The Zing bows really do get some competition with this one.

The NERF Cam ECS 12 also showed up on Amazon. It lists as The Nerf Pro-Cam. The folks at NERF HQ told us that this will remain as an online-only blaster for now, so don't bother waiting for it to show up in stores.

The price-point is still really high on this one. You're looking at dropping $70 on it. The performance was really good at the All Access event. 70 bucks good? I'm still not sure.

The Slingfire was also listed on Amazon, but it went back to "currently unavailable" at the moment. The Slingfire is back up on Amazon too! This one seems like a lot of fun. Using it, you get a great feel like you are in a cross between the wild west and post apocalyptica. And have you seen the trick shots that Vas the Stampede and F2A was pulling off?

The NERF Attacknid was at the event too, but was still a prototype. For now I still have my eyes set on the Stealth Stryder from Combat Creatures. A designer with the NERF Attacknid told me that they worked to simplify the NERF version. It won't have all the bells and whistles, but should function well for everybody.

Any specific one of these you're going after? ~Chris

Zed Squad

Warriors! By now you may have heard about the new "Zed Squad" blasters that NERF is putting out.  In the past week, Target has listed the new products and apparently they will get the new stuff as exclusive through at least this year.

Warriors have been asking for a new Longshot for years and hearing rumors of the Zombie Strike Longshot for weeks. Now it's listed at Target! As you'll see in a blog later today, the design team tells us that the ranges really will not have changed much for the blaster, but it will be using the Zombie Strike/Elite darts. Plus, accessories aren't completely dead with the return and repaint of the Longshot scope!

Soakage

Warriors! Want to check out an experiment with me? We decided to pull out some food coloring with some of the new blasters that NERF hooked us up with. Food coloring, white t-shirt . . . You can see where this is going.

More videos will come. This season is a busy time in my day-job life, but we should be finding time to get tests on all these great blasters in the near future! ~Chris

Super Soaker Reviews Begin

Well -after a brief hiatus, we begin the Super Soaker review process! First up is the un-boxing of the Super Soaker Tri-Strike Crossbow. NERF and the community both seem to have fallen in love with crossbows as of late.

The MSRP is $24.99. It might be a little steep for what this is, but we'll get into that in the review shortly. ~Chris

NERF Sent Us Super Soakers!

The time has come! Spring Break was this past week (or the one before that) for most kids in my area. It's a time that signals warmer weather and Summer fun being just around the corner. For some of you, warmer weather may already be a constant, but around Colorado, the weather stays bi-polar. So, we'll hope for the best.

To gear up for Spring/Summer 2014, our friends at NERF sent us the package seen in this video so that we can bring you info on some of the best toys to get!

(Click through for more news on our upcoming Super Soaker reviews)

BOOMco Part 2

Well warriors, there was a lot of initial excitement with Mattel's new line of blasters. BOOMco just started getting more widespread coverage in the community. Then UK Nerf got us a reality check. These are not another entry into the the foam warriors' arena like we first thought.

I'm still interested in trying these new blasters out, but they aren't foam launchers. They launch what essentially comes down to straws with sticky tips on the end. Also, as expected, the sticky tips are the kind that can become dirty somewhat easily when they hit the ground. Apparently these darts will only stick to BOOMco targets so you're more sure of when you score a hit -if the darts are mucked up with crud from the floor etc.

The other sad part is the size that UK Nerf discovered when researching the Farshot. It is far smaller than it looks in the graphics from the Argos website. I was hoping for a full-sized sidearm.

One of the cool things confirmed though, are the side panels that sit alongside a couple of the blasters. They are made of the same material as the Smart Stick targets so you can catch the darts fired at you to fire back. It's a cool, yet strange tech. I mean, many wars will count blaster hits as regular hits or at least ask that you treat your blaster as non-functional for the rest of the round. I'm looking forward to seeing how this would work out for a war. I guess you could treat it as a shield.

Pictures of even more BOOMco blaster concepts are out there now. It looks like Mattel is ready to bring these blasters out in force. I am looking forward to when we can bring you a comprehensive review on this line.

What do you think warriors -are you willing to try out any blaster from the new Mattel BOOMco line?