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.

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)!!

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

Mega Centurion - Going the Distance?

Mega whistler darts that can go "up to" 100 feet when launched from the Centurion? You know that's likely going to mean 100 feet on an arc. Still, that also means it will go farther firing it straight than current stock blasters. After a years-long quest, will this be the first true sniper blaster?

Yes, there are already those in the mod community that out-range this stock blaster. Several people have mentioned to My Last Dart and on the NERF facebook that they are happy with their BBLS and blow guns. I assume that BBLS means brass-breached long shot in this case. But I'd say this will be a game changer for the weekend warriors who don't have the time to spend on mods!

From Wikipedia:

A centurion [...] was a professional officer of the Roman army after the Marian reforms of 107 B.C. Most centurions commanded 80 men but senior centurions commanded cohorts, or took senior staff roles in their legion. Centurions were also found in the Roman navy.

Centuries, or Centuriae, means tribe or company.^[2] Theoretically, this word traces its roots to centum which is Latin for one hundred,^[2] but that connection is widely disputed or disregarded.^[3][4][5]

I'm not sure the name communicates the range/snipe abilities of this blaster, but MAYBE they are using that one-hundred foot range for the inspiration? 

You've got to be looking forward to finding out how this performs. Have you seen the review for the Power 48 blaster from Air Zone? You can hear the NERF whistlers in the Range test as they hit an average of 97 feet. I imagine the mega whistlers will sound even better. Whistlers aren't an addition to shootouts like Popular Science says, but satisfying indeed!
 

 Since before we had confirmation on the Centurion in late May, folks have been lookign for every scrap of information. I can tell you we'll have a lot more later this month. Keep checking back! ~Chris

Diatron Review and Other Tidbits

Seen the latest from Coop on Click Click BAMF? Good stuff!

Also, after much pumping . . . shotgun reviews and a sniper rifle review on the way in the following weeks. Did you know that the Roughcut will advance to fire a dart in the next row if there aren't two darts on one row? Pretty awesome (see below).

More to come -obviously! ~Chris

Preview Toy Fair - 2013

Exciting news, Warriors! NERF just gave us the heads up on part of what they'll be talking about in the toy fair starting in a couple of days here.

As you know, many of the new Nerf N-Strike Elite releases have been trickling into the stores with an official release in Spring of 2013.

Two of the biggest things I'm excited about from the release we have are:

NERF's N-Strike Elite Stockade.
 

1) The N-Strike Elite Stockade WILL be released here in Fall of 2013. The average retail price is supposed to be $21.99. May will remember that this is a Barricade re-do. If they stay true to the Elite line, it will should farther than it's parent blaster. Can't wait to mess with that stock!


2) The NERF N-Strike Blazin' Bow is announced for Fall of 2013. Straight from the release:

" NERF N-STRIKE BLAZIN’ BOW Toy

(HASBRO/Ages 6 years & up/Approx. Retail Price: $19.99/Available: Fall 2013)

Who’s ready for more NERF action? Send NERF foam arrows soaring across the sky with the NERF N-STRIKE BLAZIN’ BOW toy. The BLAZIN’ BOW toy features an authentic pull-back bow design that you simply pull back, aim, and release to fire the NERF foam arrows. The BLAZIN’ BOW toy can hit targets from up to an impressive 40 feet away, and comes complete with integrated storage for two additional foam NERF arrows. Includes three NERF foam arrows. Available at most major toy retailers nationwide and HasbroToyShop.com."  

 

Previously we've enjoyed the NERF Big Bad Bow that has been around in various forms since 1998 -in the NERF Hypersight brading. Many people have shortened the name to just "BBB". It's latest version and color scheme came out in 2011, released under the N-Strike brand. Over a decade later, I'm personally excited to see what may be new in the Blazin' Bow design!

 

 

   

Looking forward to the care package NERF is sending us ahead of this weekend's New York Toy Fair 2013.

 

By the way; Here are the two lates episode from the channel. Feel free to subscribe so that you can keep up with us!

 

 

 

 

 

Stryfing for Victory?

What's up, Warriors? Coop got his hands on a NERF Elite Stryfe thanks to our friend Jason at BasicNerf. So here goes the unboxing:

"Quoth the Rayven . . ."

This blaster may indeed be one of the best I've seen yet. I wouldn't be surprised to see this one become a favorite among many NERF players. Enjoy the review and be sure to let us know your thoughts on the blaster too! ~Chris


Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore; -
'Tis the wind and nothing more!' ~Edgar Allen Poe

The Hollow-Point Dart

It's been a fast-held industry standard to shy away from comparing foam dart guns to actual firearms. Though companies such as NERF edge excitingly close to replica possibilities at times, they never call their toys "guns". It's always blasters.

The Hollow-Point dart shell, and clip.

We decided to pick up the Air Zone Shoot 'N Shatter system at Toys'R'Us in our ever-continuing quest to find effective targeting systems to test our blasters on. The Shoot 'N Shatter includes an electronic target set and a Shell Shock X-6 blaster with the darts, shells and a clip. Imagine our surprise, excitement and awe when we discovered what we can only call the Air Zone Hollow-Point Dart! When we un-boxed it, we weren't expecting what looked like a bullet and cartridge. We thought we had found the coolest dart ever to add to the arsenal we use for range tests. The down side is that these darts will barely fire out of anything other than their native blaster. Rest assured these darts will make appearances on our Youtube channel where possible.

The Hollow-Point tip.

The Air Zone Shoot 'N Shatter System.

The Shell Shock X-6 was previously available by itself, but I hadn't seen or heard enough of it to be interested. Chatter on the web suggests it was available back in 2009. The ranges are nothing to write home about, but the ejecting action along with the more realistic bullet casing are a plus for foam movie enthusiasts. We really like the feel of the blaster in our hands as well. It retails for around twenty dollars, now that it includes the Shoot 'N Shatter target system. It seems a little steep for the items that you get in the box, but electronics always give them an excuse.

The un-boxing of the Shoot N Shatter.

Though we aren't a mod-promoting channel or blog; Due to its poor range performance, the Shell Shock may be one of the most forward candidates for modification. The look and feel of the blaster is great and should have more power to come with it. The Nerf or Nothing Blogspot notes that NERF streamline darts will fire when the post is removed from the shells and the dart is cut down. Yet I'd like to see something heavier, like a whistler dart, be able to fire from the Shell Shock.

In all, the focus probably rests on the darts themselves. They are unique and provide a more realistic look. However, they could become the fodder of the news media next time someone chooses to blame toy guns for violence and such. I know I still want them. What about you? ~ Chris Jacobs