NEW Tek Recon - The Predator Unleashed for 2014

It's here, warriors! Tech4Kids has announced a new Tek Recon blaster that will be seen at the Toy Fair in New York. Meet The Tek Recon Predator. It was announced on facebook at 9 eastern today. Make sure not to get fooled by anyone claiming to have an exclusive on this! Tek Recon put it out there directly for YOU to see. Props to them for that!

The Predator boasts 100'+ ranges. This is cool. They are certainly working to stay in competition with other re-usable blaster makers (such as Nerf and Zing). The 100-round magazine is the largest capacity that I know of right now. I am hoping they include a full set of ammo in the box this year!

Another new touch is their specialty ammo they've been talking about. They say that there will be other colors of NRG rounds that are for things like Long shots and Soft shots.

All the accessories do make one drool a little bit too. Instead of announcing a bunch of blasters at once, they are focusing on one product with an awesome amount of bells and whistles! They are definitely in the running for one of the most tacticool blasters we've seen this year!



The Predator is slated for a Fall of 2014 release.

Now, let's talk about costs for a second. Sadly, the release leaves out this part, leaving us to do some calculation. The Havok came out of the gate at $40 for retail last year. Places like Toys R Us still sell it for that. I think Walmart had cut it back to $30. If Tech4Kids is watching Nerf, they may try to keep the price tag for the Predator at $40 to compete with some of the new releases, but one could forgive them for $50 considering all those attachments!

I am wondering about ammo cost. If they leave you 100 rounds for the initial purchase, awesome! Remember that extra NRG rounds cost at least 5 dollars per 25 rounds at the store. If they don't fill the magazine like last year, you are probably looking for at least another 15 bucks to be ready. I also don't know if the special ammo will cost any more. Also, the small ammo is easily lost in comparison to darts, discs or arrows. It's not just a walk in the park to find many types of reusable ammo after play. However, the smaller it is, the harder it is to find and re-use!

Doing a little math, it still costs less for more NRG ammo than for more NERF Ammo. So you might break even between the two with the differing attrition rate on the ammo.

Looking forward to checking the Predator out and will keep looking at Tek Recon for that specialty ammo and any other developments! As always, we'll wait to make a judgement call until we try it out for ourselves!! ~Chris