Drone Squad RC Car - The next Foam Drone Review

If you've been following, warriors, you know that I've been testing out different "foam drones" ahead of the Toy Fair this year. This was in anticipation of what you may have heard about: The NERF Combat Creature Attacknid. You can check out the small blog about that here and soon I'll get to an Attacknid write-up and review too. For now, check out the New Bright RC Drone Squad car that I grabbed from Amazon:

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

Cannon Commando - Foam Dart Drone

The time has come for part two of our tests for remote-controlled dart "drones". If you haven't checked out our write-up of the Badger, you may want to do that first so you're up to speed. We took that dart tank (really more of an APC) from Ignite Radio Control back to the store because there were just too many downsides to have it deploy in the field.

At the same time I found the Badger, the gents over at Bay Area Nerf got their hands on a VMD Cannon Commando. Well, of course I had to check it out for myself. Up front . . . I plan to keep this one, even if it IS 20 bucks more than the Badger was.
The variable heights give you a wide range of angles to use. You have to set it manually, so that can be a drag in a moving situation. The fact that you can change the setting at all is nice though. It does give you some situational adaptability with how you can deploy it.

The Badger - A Foam Missile Launcher

I know how much some of you warriors like Call of Duty. Many more of you at least like other toy concepts besides just blasters. Well, the discovery I made at the store this week will combine those likes. Meet The Badger:

Tek Recon Power-Ups: Foam/Rubber Drone Attack?

At last check, the Tek Recon kickstarter was funded up to around 27% - make that 28% and still has 25 days to go!

Tek Recon got back to us today regarding that hanging question about their apps. Doesn't sound like they are expecting contributors right now, but we did learn more about the power ups! Foam/rubber drone attack anyone? Not really, but on the screen! LOL!

Q: They talked about power-ups in the video. Will those be something you can program and print for scanning or that they want you to buy? Will they allow other developers to design and contribute scannable QR codes et cetera?

"A:POWERUPS WILL BE INCLUDED WITHIN OUR "ARMORY".  HERE YOU CAN SELECT WHICH BLASTER YOU'RE USING (WHICH ALTERS THE AMMO COUNTER), SCOPE, BLASTER SOUND EFFECT FOR FIRING, AND POWERUP.  YOU CAN USE 1 POWERUP PER GAME AND THERE WILL BE MANY POWERUPS AVAILABLE!  HERE'S Are A FEW…..BUT I CAN'T REVEAL THEM ALL :)

–Invisibility: Turn this on and you won’t show up on radar for 45 seconds

–Drone Attack: While an opponent shows up on radar, if you enable this powerup and click on their blip before it disappears it sends a drone attack and removes them from the game.  Click too late and the drone misses.

–Wire Tap: Enable this powerup and open up communication with the opposing team.  Can talk to them and hear their messages for 1 minute.

                   -Disable Flag: disables anyone from scanning your flag for 20 seconds"

A few people have already been asking if I think this will mimic COD: Black Ops perks. I don't think you'll be seeing things like "flak jacket" and "hardened" manifest in the game. "Ghost" (or Invisibility) is doable because you could just be taken off the HUD -in this case for 45 seconds.

Here is some of the earlier information we learned about the app. Be sure to visit the Tek Recon kickstarter to learn more and to contribute!

• Create your own Profile by selecting a Username and Avatar. 
• Armory to control and create game loadouts, including your blaster, scope, sound effect, and in-game powerups. 
• Familiar multiplayer game modes including Isolation (every man for himself), Team Supremacy (team battle), and Capture the Flag (with flags you scan when captured). 
• Radar which reveals teammates, as well as opponents.
• In game features such as live chat, on screen ammo counter, simple swipe vision modes (Classic, Night Vision, Heat Seeker, X Ray), quick tap zoom + many more. 

A couple of more new tidbits on the way today! Check in later. ~Chris