Foam Weapon League Rises Again

Warriors! We're learning more about the plans of the up and coming internet broadcasters All Things Geek Radio to bring back foam "underground" fighting. You may remember an interview we did years ago about a group in Los Angeles area called the Foam Weapon League. If not, check them out in the video. This is part three of a 3-part interview with the original commissioner of the now defunct Foam Weapon League. Parts one and two are also available on our Youtube page.

Super Soaker 2014 Already Coming Out!

Warriors, It was less than 16 degrees in Colorado Springs when I walked into the NERF section at one of the local Walmarts and made a discovery. They already have a couple of the new Super Soaker blasters on the shelves from the 2014 line! At first, I was thinking that they must be crazy. However, it is nice to get an early look at these blasters to see what I want to use for the next season of water wars! Strange to see the Super Soaker clip system going away, though.

The Hydrostorm is an electronic water blaster that holds 25 ounces in an internal tank. You can see where the batteries will go in the front of the blaster. I know that some of the younger warriors in out last water war were having issue with anything that carried more than 25 ounces, so this may be a good thing for them. You can hit your target up to 30-feet away with this one. I wonder if the stream is any larger than electronic water blasters in recent years? After last year's tacticool releases, this design seems a little clunky to me. That doesn't necessarily matter too much when it comes to effectiveness of the blaster, though.  You can grab this at Walmart for about 20 dollars.

New Sighting Reports - Walmart, Los Angeles Area

Coop has been busy perusing the shelves in Los Angeles, warriors! He turned up several sightings at a local Walmart there. Just some pic spam of the most notable:

The NERF Cyber Hoop has arrived in LA Walmarts. We're hearing a lot of good reports on this things from readers like you. Sounds like they are a hit at sleepovers and daytime get-togethers alike!

Another Xploders blaster on the shelves. This Xploderz Sneak Attack is designed to let you shoot around corners. It also lets you choose one, two or three rounds at a time. We haven't met an Xploderz blaster we like yet, so maybe this will break the mold?

It's the NERF Mission App Cradle. We'll be testing this thing out soon and looking at how it enhances your game play versus the Tek Recon app and on-line game.

In other news, our Tek Recon kickstarter reward just arrived at the office today. More to come on that! ~Chris

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

Zombie Strike - Coming to a Target Near You!

Heads Up, Warriors!

It's now circulating around the internet that the new NERF ZombieStrike line is officially coming to Target stores (see some of our fellow bloggers for the first posts). Well, it certainly is as official as you can get without a full press release. The things are now listed at target.com. So, you may be able to find these before they officially hit shelves. HINT: The DCPI numbers (store stock numbers) are listed in the 'other information' section on the product pages.

So far, the Hammershot, Sledgefire and a ZombieStrike dart refill pack have been listed. All are marked with an 'only at Target' logo. Between the EAT (Elite Alpha Trooper) and this line, Target looks to be winning out in the exclusives war with other major stores.

Really, the newest thing about the ZombieStrike line in the NIC is the dart. I'm not so sure about the color of the darts. They come off to me as a puss-like green color -You may recall our complaints about the coloring on Vortex blasters being similar. But Urban Taggers is calling them yellow, so perhaps I am just not seeing them in the right light.  Other than that, these look to be the same as the elite darts - or at least the N-strike streamlines (clip system darts). 

My one other question is could these glow in the dark? Every time I see bright zombie projectiles like this, I just think they should glow. Granted, I'm sure there is no built-in mechanism to charge the things on the blasters. It just seems like the natural progression to have HvZ-specific merchandise glow for trackability. Just sayin'.

So, to the Hammershot. It's a 5-shot, single-action blaster. This means that you just cock the hammer back and you are primed to fire. Many other NERF pistols are single-action, but are designed so that you have to use your other hand, your toe or maybe your teeth to prime the thing. Thanks to the Hammershot design, you might happily replace side-arm choices if you currently use another single-action blaster like the Firestrike or Strongarm, etc.

Some complain about the five-shot capacity and it not being a six-shooter. I tend to agree on the surface. After all there are songs, stories and more about the famous six-guns in the Wild West. Yet, five will be fun too and shoult still be widely effective.

The next in line is the Sledgefire. Meet NERF's newest approach to a shotgun design. You probably could have guessed that would be the theme in a blaster with the word 'sledge' in the name. They seem to have incorporated a shotgun shell design for the ammo on this one. That's a bit of a surprise considering how much the community has disliked ammo shells in the past.

They look to load three at a time and may fire that way as well. They probably will work well with elite darts too if the Hammershot does as seen in a recent leak video. I'm holding out hope that this will be the first truly successful foam shotgun. With the attention to quality that Hasbro puts into these products, we may finally have a winner in this category. Granted, the Roughcut does a good job, but it is still an amped-up front-loader in the long run.

As you may have seen, the news on this blaster has been leaked out for a little while. It's not something we support at Click Click BAMF, because someone essentially stole Hasbro's property and then showed it off on the interwebs. If it gets into a store, great! For example, some folks got recent confirmation from Hasbro in other countries on the names and then these blasters popped up on target.com, so here we are! Now we're not condemning other blogs for covering this. After all, news is news. It's an editing choice here.

Keep an eye out. We'll have at least an initial write up on Air Zone's answer to the Hammershot a little later. ~Chris

Super Soaker Un-boxings

So warriors,

Just ahead of our water fight on Saturday, I did some Vine videos when un-boxing the new Super Soaker blasters for this season. Figured I might as well spam them on the blog.

NERF sent us the Switch Shot, Arctic Shock and Flash Blast Super Soakers to test out with our warriors. I actually picked up a Shot Wave as well, but that was at the store one the way, so no un-boxing on camera.

 The Switch Shot actually steals its name from another blaster. have you ever played the N-Strike Elite game on Wii? That game has an accessory that is both a Wii controller and dart blaster called the Switch Shot EX-3. I was never completely sure why it had that name.             The new Super Soaker Switch Shot makes a lot more sense. You can switch between a normal stream, Triple Shot, Atomizer or Scattershot. Our warriors felt that the Atomizer (mist setting) wasn't really helpful for anything. Personally my favorite settings where the scatter blast and the normal stream. It was nice to have the option to switch between them. Granted, it's a price of $30 for the option. But the interchangeable stock and the banana clip (20 ounces) help satisfy the cost.

 

Oh, the Flash Blast. Check out our earlier blog for more info on this blaster. It certainly doesn't drench your opponents like their website description. But it is a good sneak attack weapon, as advertised. I imagine a couple of scenarios out of the Die Hard franchise of movies with this thing. Still, if you are looking for a reliable fall-back as a sidearm, this isn't it. Don't get sold on the idea that it can slam-fire either. It technically can slam fire, but that's not a feasible way to use the thing to be honest. It's a way to get yourself or your kid into the game for $9, buy I'd spend the extra buck and buy batteries for an Electrostorm.

The Arctic Shock is just that -a blast of cold water. I don't know about you, but growing up I learned that trick about sticking ice into my blaster reservoirs to give my enemies that little surprise. The problem with modern water blasters is that most of them don't have wide enough inputs to fit ice easily. Well, as you can see in the Vine video, this blaster has an "Ice Drum" that solves that problem.  The one thing I would want to go with it is, of course, a stock! I love putting that stock from the Lightning Storm and now the Switch Shot on all the blaster that can take it. It provides stability and an awesome look. But without the stock, the price point might work for more folks at $20. More to come from the Click Click SOAK event soon! ~Chris

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

A Real World Video Game? Tek Recon

This past week brought the launch of an innovative kickstarter listing. Tek Recon has launched a 31-day bid to get $50,000 in crowd-funding from users of the famed kickstarter website. As I write this, they have 30 days left and are just over $6,100 on their way -a little over 12 percent.

President and CEO Brad Pederson says that this move is their most ambitious in company history. That makes sense, considering that it's time to put these things on the shelves.


"Two years ago we set out on a mission to bring video games, online connectivity and social interactive play together through innovation and great product design", says Pederson. "The outcome, TEK RECON has come to life and created a phenomenal play experience that has exceeded our expectations.”

I, for one, am very excited to see where this effort goes. Will this be that successful way that so many health professionals have been looking for to get kids off the couch? Campaigns have worked mildly recently, but there is not a massive appeal for those who would rather play Black Ops. Some folks will still not be happy because the game will still involve computer screens in the form of smart phones and other devices.

Is this the next step in gaming? Google glasses came out recently. I dreamed of a foam blaster or airsoft game where you could use those glasses for objectives and power-ups. Perhaps this is the step just ahead of that. A geek can dream!

At this time, the app is free that they offer to integrate a real-world blaster with online gaming. If they keep the prices for Hammerhead and Havok blasters at 25 and 40 dollars after the kickstarter promotion, I won't accuse them of overcharging to make the app "free" either. The app is exciting because of their promise of the use of GPS and the heads-up display. If you can set objectives for the app to help you track, perhaps it can include both game objectives and physical activity goals?

There are a lot of positive notes for this launch. Ultimately, I am all for it and will back the project too assuming I have the funds. Yet there are several questions left to answer as we move forward.

If you take a look at the video on kickstarter, there seems to be damage occurring to the NRG rounds as they build their "kinetic stretch energy" to fire. If you look closely at this shot in the video, particles of  . .  something are falling from the blaster after the round launches. Tek Recon says on kickstarter that the rounds are reusable, does that hold true and for how long? Also, how much will the refills actually cost? Keep in mind, this shot is from a demo of the long range setting. They've indicated that you can modify the range with a setting. Perhaps sacrificing distance will preserve your ammo?

Back to the app questions: Is this app meant to track if you get hits? I (and other journalists I showed the video to) skeptical of the usefulness of the app for tracking hits. I personally came away with the impression that it could be meant to function that way from the cup shooting demo in the video. Perhaps it was a misconception. Either way I am geeking out to give it a try!

I am also super-curious about further app development. 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 QR codes et cetera?

Obviously these questions should be asked to them and we will direct them there! Are there any other questions you are thinking of while we are asking? You can check out their kickstarter campaign for yourself here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/graemebissett/tek-recon-the-first-real-life-video-game

Until then, warriors . . . Game on! ~Chris

Foam Shotguns. Who wins?

Hey Warriors! Just posting up the last couple of reviews. Been meaning to keep up on that! Just below is the most recent review from Coop in the West Coast division. I love the title -Double Barrels of FAIL! Take heed to his warning about the quality.

Here is a better shotgun attempt. Of course, this one would be from the folks at NERF.

Let us know what you think! Have you tried these blasters? Will you be getting them? ~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: