Nerf and "Assault-Style Guns"

EDITOR'S NOTE: You should only hear or read "nerf blaster" or "foam blaster" from Click Click BAMF venues in most cases. Nerf and competitors don't make guns. It's true, you can't really get around grouping these into the "toy guns" category, but as children grow older parents and communities can educated them on the differences. Banning "assault-style" toys will not solve the problems our society faces.

Warriors, you may have already seen the news circling around about this letter that a New York consumer watchdog group, Empire State Consumer Project, Inc., sent to Hasbro at the beginning of the month. The authors ask the Hasbro board of directors to "remove assault-style toy weapons from [their] product offering."

You can see the entire letter for yourself at the end of this article. Within the first paragraph of the letter, the two authors call the products appearing in a tv spot "extreme Nerf machine guns" and later deem them "emblems of mass destruction". I am impressed that these folks have undercut their own credibility so quickly. It usually takes these kinds of groups at least a couple of paragraphs to stretch their hyperbole to insane levels. The letter cites blasters from a recent Christmas commercial, none of which are automatic or represent any weapons of mass destruction.

As several others in the community have also said, I thought it was a The Onion article or similar when I first saw some of the coverage on this. There are people with a bone to pick on either side of the debate here and there are varying levels of coverage. I encourage you to read the letter for yourself, because it's better to be informed before you form an opinion (see below).

Speaking of a bone to pick, I have my own. I will say that I appreciate some groups who take issue with some of the styles Nerf has picked for their blasters. Don't get me wrong, I love me some nerf and other blasters. However, somewhere along the way, some of these blaster got a lot closer to the real thing.

Some of the Fortnite blasters have taken things over the edge. You can do you best to tell me how they are based off of a game, but several of the current Nerf Fortnite blaster get too close to the real thing for kids. We've lost a degree of separation. Is it earth-shattering? No! Am I all anti-Hasbro over it? No! But I do think it could get them into trouble down the road. Also, I feel that they have eroded a bit of the argument against the anti-gun activists. Not these anti-gun activists, mind you. However, there are people with reasoned arguments out there you could have a real conversation with.

Regardless, we aren't bothered enough to stop covering blasters or the fun we have with them. So next time someone says, "it's blaster not gun", remember why we keep some separation. This is why we don't paint blasters black and it's why many people don't like going full MILSIM in the community.

Just my two cents...

They'll likely never read this, but I want to reply and I want to focus on one question these two raise in their letter:

"How does promoting play with huge automatic weapons create joy, creativity and connection around the world, and across generations, and make the world a better place for children?"

Answers:

1. There are no automatic weapons in the spot you refer to in your letter. It's hard to take you seriously when you cite evidence inaccurately.
2. If we fix your errors and reframe the question to begin "How does promoting play with Nerf blasters ...", now we can get somewhere. The first answer is simple. Ask the question without the Nerf blasters part. Now answer it. There is your answer.
3. Please feel free to peruse the many offerings of nerf groups, arenas, friendly neighborhood games and creative content available for kids of all ages across the fine invention called the internet. The evidence for creativity and connection, intergenerational play and better communities is evident.  

Empire State Consumer Project by News 8 WROC on Scribd

Please Stand By . . .

**test signal**
Systems restarting. Please do not adjust your monitors . . . .

But seriously, guys. We are really looking at jumping back in to the Nerf scene in a different way. Let's just say gameplay is and always will be the best part of the hobby. Looking to bring you some video that isn't just someone's GoPro footage of a war they went to or overdone beauty shots from a glidecam.

Expect a new Youtube video sometime this week about several things. Why CCB went dormant. Youtube Partnership and why folks should quit whining. More importantly; info will soon be coming about plans for a new pilot we're hoping to debut on the Click Click BAMF Youtube Channel some time this Spring.

In the mean time, check out Foam From Above gearing up for the Toy Fair 2018! As always, I am super-stoked to see what he finds out.

Thanks for your continued support over these last two years. It means more than you could ever know.

~CJ

NY Attorney General and Amazon Stifle AirForce Blowguns?

Updated June 6th:

Warriors, I just got a heads up on something sad. The NY Attorney General's crusade against toy guns has possbily killed a product of one of the companies we have proudly covered in the past. Air Force Blowguns is still selling on their own website here: http://airforceblowguns.com/.

According to the company, they were rocking 70 orders per day exclusively through Amazon up to December of last year. They were really rocking it and just about to make the next order to the factory when Amazon pulled the plug on their online sales. No explanation was given for days and then they finally cited a letter.

You see, in December 2014, the Attorney General's office of the state of New York sent cease and desist letters to major retailers they accused of selling realistic looking toy guns. Amazon's response was to arbitrarily pull certain toy guns and blasters off of their digital shelves.

Owners Zac & Becky Poulter say of Amazon: "They have some attorneys looking into the NY statute, but I don’t think it’s a real high priority for them. Just easier to pull us down. We realize we sell a really “politically incorrect” product…"

So, Amazon's excuse is that they apparently can't get their software to simply prevent sales to New York state. That sounds lame. I have contacted them to see if they have a clarification or response to this. So far, there has been no response to my contact.

I'm not sure how you can justify keeping this up on the site:

YK Night Hawk M16+

when you won't sell this:

Air Force Blowgun

Regardless, AirForce Blowguns is selling what they have left on their own website at airforceblowguns.com.

In their own words: "We’ve considered other options, but have decided to just sell through what is left.  When they’re gone, they’re gone for good," said the Poulters.

They are still running a special though, so maybe there is hope for a rebound!

"We’re also running a Father’s Day special - Get a free 50 pack of darts for every two guns purchased by June 20th. (If you’re trying to get them for Father’s day though, you need to allow a week for shipping.)"

~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

Rhino Fire, Part 2

Good news, warriors. NERF got back to us with the official release concerning the Rhino Fire we reported on earlier today. Some good things and possibly worrisome notes in the mix.

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.

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!

Brand New - AirForce BlowGuns

Warriors, have you heard of AirForce Blowguns? I started watching these guys develop a few months back after an article that popped up in a search. The article was out of the Daily Herald in Utah and was titled Family works together to create fun foam gun for all ages.

The writer gives a lot of the background of the family and the start of their endeavors. But, of course, you're going to want to get a lot more on the operation of the gun and how it works. Well, we'll get that covered!

Check out the unboxing and be assured that a review is in the works:

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?

Breaking News - BOOMCO - Here comes the Boom?

Check out the latest information moving around the Nerf internet community. Mattel is getting into the blaster game full-force with the release of their BOOMco line of blasters this Fall (2014)! Well, some material has said Fall, some has declared Summer. Either way, we're interested.

BOOMco released their promo videos a couple of weeks ago on Youtube -giving BOOMCco their own channel, but the news is really starting to circulate today thanks to MarcusH26051 on Reddit and other bloggers like blasterlabs and Adult Fans of NERF on the trail.

NEW! NERF Derringer? - Zombie Strike DoubleStrike

The next in the new NERF announcements has come out. This time, the folks at dartblaster.de got the scoop at the Nuremberg Toy Fair (Spielwarenmesse). Meet the latest Zombie Strike pistol to show up.

  

The similar look to a Remington-based derringer pistol is a fun novelty with this blaster. I am not sure yet whether this will fire darts out of two barrels at once or what. Maybe there's a chance that it will have a graduating trigger so that you can hold one shot? The original Remington Double Derringer (Model 95) had a bar that would alternate to act as a firing pin for the two separate chambers. I doubt that they have a moving AR system to launch the darts in the Doublestrike, but perhaps they do employ the "smart AR" system that we saw come out of the Rough Cut and the Triad.

(The official release about this blaster is at the bottom of the full article.)

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: