Lightning Storm and Microburst In hand!

Hey Warriors! I had the chance to pick up the Lightning Storm and the Microburst both at Wal-Mart. I guess I didn't realize they'd both be out so soon after the official NERF announcement last week! As I mentioned in a previous blog, I am completely stoked about the new stock with the Lightning Storm. Man, we've got a lot of reviews to rock out on!

One extra note -dude looks pretty freakin' excited about being blasted with water, don't you think?

~Chris

Speedswarm: What the Swarmfire meant to be?

As some of you may have seen on our Youtube channel already, we have the un-boxing up for the NEW NERF Dart Tag Speedswarm. It's weight is definitely more comfortable than the Swarmfire in pistol form, but you are also dealing with 10 less darts. I may be wrong, but perhaps the Swarmfire has a bit faster rate of fire too. The review will be coming soon! ~Chris

NERF Rayven Swoops In

Thanks so much to NERF for sending us one of their new NERF Rayvens! After the initial test in the dark, I am pretty dang excited about trying out a night battle with this "Light It Up" Series! Check out the unboxing below:

New Additions to the Super Soaker Line

As Winter is in full swing in the Northern hemisphere, NERF announces it's 2012 additions to their Super Soaker line. Remember that there are several NERF and Super Soaker fans where it's nice and warm out, too! Over the past week, they've been trickling pictures of the water blasters out through their facebook page.

NERF announced the first new member of the Super Soaker line as the Electrostorm. The water clip is built in to this blaster with a 2.6oz capacity. This seems to be screaming "side arm" to most of us. It is a battery powered pistol, so no pumping required. I'm not sure you can call it a Super Soaker at this size, but we'll look at that later. This little guy claims a range of 25ft. Probably easier with batteries. As you can see, the new releases carry on the blue, white and orange color  scheme introduced last year. All the new release so far use names referring to some type of meteorological event -mostly to do with water, but not always.

I've got to pick on NERF a little bit with their description of the new Microburst blaster. They say, "it holds two ounces of water with which to soak your opponents."

I don't really think that will count as soaking. They could probably say that it will annoy your opponent, or maybe even make them shriek like a girl (if you use really cold water). But I don't really think the has the capacity to soak. Still, it will be in my collection proudly. It's noteworthy that they've added a blaster small enough to pocket to their water blaster line, but I wonder if it will hold it's water well enough to be pocketed for good use?

Perhaps the most exciting part of the line for me personally is the new stock attachment that comes with the Lightning Storm. It looks much more like a tactical rifle stock than anything else that has been released and would fit very nicely with several of the N-Strike blasters -color notwithstanding. C'mon NERF, let's see those N-Strike color schemes!! The new blast shield looks like it should work comfortably with several NERF tactical rails also. In addition to the new stock, we see that this one has a drum water clip that boasts a 35-ounce capacity. That the biggest capacity in the current line. It looks like this clip will be compatible with the other clip-fed Super Soakers too! Let's see if they sell it separately.  As other blogs have pointed out, this blaster sure looks reminiscent of last year's Thunderstorm release. (A little lightning? A little thunder? Movie reference anyone?)~Chris

"Light It Up" Series Is Official

Hello Warriors!! We hope you've had an amazing holiday season and are ready to get back in the swings of things with us! We've got a lot on our plates this days, though we can't help but keep this digital rag going. Thanks for your support on Youtube, twitter and facebook! And now on to exciting news:

Yesterday, NERF made the official announcement for their March 3rd release on their facebook page. They confirmed that the Lumitron will join the Rayven as a member of the "Light It Up" Series of blasters. Some blogs and users have been talking about this release since December. Notice anything familiar about the new Lumitron?

When we heard of a new blaster called the Lumitron, I was stoked for about a second. If you follow Urban Taggers at all, you'll already know that the Lumitron is a Vortex Praxis re-paint. This was disappointing for me as Praxis was the only Vortex blaster I took real issue with. I doubt that the jam issues have been fixed with the re-release.  Yet as details continued to unfold, we learned that the new four-blaster Light It Up release will likely have "firefly tech" included in each clip. We know that the Rayven has that tech included, which was a cool carry-over from the original N-Strike Firefly. (Props to them for respecting their heritage.) Now websites like walmart.com have the Vortex disc refills with "Firefly Tech" included. Apparently the renamed Praxis (Lumitron) will get the same tech in a Vortex clip! Dang, NERF; you stoked me again when I wasn't looking!

With the cross-branding, perhaps one of the other two releases for Light It Up will be from the NDTL line? Anyone thinking that they'll honor the parent of this line with a N-Strike Firefly re-paint? ~Chris

Air Zone is Keeping Up

Coop took the opportunity in the past few weeks to review some other brands of  foam weaponry that caught our eyes. Air Zone is a brand exclusive to Toys'R'Us in the United States. We've heard chatter from some users recently that several of the same designs show up elsewhere under the name Lanard. We've seen some Lanard products, but hadn't equated the two ourselves.

So here is the review of the Air Zone Turbo Fire:

It's definitely a turbo fire but like several blasters out there, it can be a bit of a drag to load. It's not quite as diverse in the types of ammunition it will actually fire, but it is Air Zone after all. Overall we may have found a good competitor in this "off-brand" machine.

Nitron Wraps it Up

Oops! Forgot to post this blog when I wrote it! Well, we did finish up with the NERF Vortex Nitron Review to round out our Vortex line reviews for now. Overall, it's been fun to test out the new tech including the XLR Disc technology. It was an interesting study. I mean, we had a new series in the NERF Dart Tag League series as well, but that wasn't really new tech, just new packaging. With the Vortex line there were new things to get adjusted to, including new ammo altogether. Speaking of which we still wonder if there will be any new types of ammo for the

The Nitron caused me to pause and pose a question about terminal range for the XLR discs in these blasters. All the ranges don't differ TOO greatly between the four blasters I tested here in Colorado Springs. So either NERF didn't vary the springs that much or the discs even out the differences.

The Value category naturally opened itself up for debate. I just couldn't endorse dropping $44.99 on the Nitron as is. Several fans on the Youtube page have brought up the availability of a special value pack at Wal-mart that adds a second clip and 20 more discs. This might pull it into the realm of acceptable cost!