New Nerf Group in Des Moines!

This past weekend, I was excited to finally get out and play some nerf with others again.

Nerf DMI is a group that plays in Des Moines. They've been working on getting monthly or bi-monthly games going with some growing success. It's been put on by this cool dude in the picture to the left.

Check out the video below. It's just one round of fun where I pulled out a Dart Zone Powerball ball blaster from Prime Toys. I swear that thing can still keep up. Biggest problem I ran into was finding the bright orange ammo in the grass. You wouldn't think it would be the issue that it was! I only occasionally met a jam and that was easily remedied with their jam release. In a different round I ended up kind of baiting a player because I was jammed, but cleared so easily that I hit him with both rounds that came out after I fixed it. What do you think I should run in the next war?

Upcoming Nerf Wars in Iowa

What's up Warriors?!

I guess you could call this more of a public service announcement. There are several place to find these details, but I figured I'd consolidate some of them here too. More and More Nerf Wars are being announced in Iowa! See a list/calendar at the end of this article.

I just got a chance to play with a new group in Des Moines last weekend and it was a blast ... pun absolutely intended. Nerf Des Moines Iowa or NerfDMI for short is playing in a pretty nice park near the state capitol. It's totally worth coming by if you're in the area or within traveling distance. They might have to shutdown for winter after November, but are looking for some options to continue playing indoors.


I regularly do searches for foam wars in Iowa and I am pleased to say that there is a chance to fill up your calendar with Nerf engagements if you are willing to travel a little bit. This list is by no means, exhaustive and I'd love to add to it (just send me an e-mail!).

OFFICIAL Touring Nerf Arena Warfare?

Some great news for any warriors that have been following Nerf's foray into formalized arena combat. They are making their US debut this December (2019) to kick off a 2020 tour across the US and Canada. Tickets go on sale on October 28th! The LA Event starts December 7th with future dates still to be announced. Check out the link at the end of this article for more!

Now, this isn't to be confused with the Nerf Xperience Arena that was launched in Singapore earlier this month and is said to be coming to the US in late 2020. That's apparently a whole different thing. Those will be permanent "Family Entertainment Centers".

As for this touring experience, a release from the PR folks says there will be a huge stage inside a 50,000 square foot pop-up. "Surrounding the stage will be three themed arenas: Urban Playground, Strange Cargo, and Blast Man Standing, where visitors team up and compete in various challenges powered by various NERF-centric equipment."

Nanofire in the Wild

The wifey found the two colors of Nanofire out in the wild at ALDI here in Iowa just after Easter.

The Nerf N-Strike Nanofire is a new release this year. They've got it in blue and green. There are two holes on the top for horizontal ammo storage.

The official description: 

This compact Nerf blaster lets kids take it almost anywhere to start blasting almost anytime! Load 1 dart into the barrel, pull down the priming handle, and pull the trigger to fire. Reload and fire again! Storage for 2 darts on the handle. Comes with 3 Elite darts. Available in 2 colors: blue and red (each sold separately).

Yeah, you read that right. It says the two colors are blue and red. So the question is, will we see a red one, too?

Many will just write these off as Jolt repacking, and that's not totally untrue. To be exact, this is a repackage of an older repackage of the Jolt. The blaster was called the Dart Tag Stinger that came out in 2013. The biggest draw I see is that you're getting good, usable blasters for family wars or single-shot-only games for 4 bucks if you get them at ALDI.

If you're not lucky enough to have an ALDI nearby, they're going for 10.99 on Amazon.com at this writing. Better yet,  go to www.hasbrotoyshop.com and get it for the MSRP of $4.99.

Sorry for the short blurb. Today, we're heading out for an anniversary game at Carnegie Stout Public Library in Dubuque, Iowa. We'll be recording a review on the road, finalizing interviews for our new series we've been promising and playing in two hours of non-stop Nerf action among the stacks in an actual Carnegie library!

I love this job! ~CJ

New Click Click BAMF T-Shirts for Nerf and Foam Warfare Fans!

What's up, Warriors!? I'll tell you what's up; new t-shirt designs!

We got approved for our Amazon Merch account over the weekend and started submitting the work. You've got to be careful with the way their shop works though. You can't say things like Youtube and Nerf in the description because they (Amazon) view it as a copyright infringement. That's unfortunate for people searching for things like "Nerf" on Amazon, because they won't find our designs as easily as you.

R U Nerfous? - $25.00
It's a word. Well, at least it's a word now. Check out the listing for the new dictionary definition we put on the back.

It's just kind of a different way to celebrate your Nerf fandom.

Official Fan Shirt - $35.00
This one costs a little more, for a couple of reasons.
As you know, we've been working hard on a pilot for our new reality series, "Nerfing in Unconventional Place (Working Title)".  Your purchase of this shirt will allow us to expand the budget on this and other projects!
In addition to supporting the brand, you'll also get special access to any events that Click Click BAMF puts on this year. Your ticket will automatically be upgraded to VIP if you wear the shirt!

"What's up, Warriors?" -$19.99
Well, the name says it all. You know we start almost every video with that phrase. Not everybody has expendable income, so we wanted to make a less expensive shirt to rock your fandom right away!

An Affordable Nerf Chronograph?

Since a couple of years after we began the channel, we've been wanting to buy a chronograph to test our fps on the nerf blaster we have. I wasn't really interested in spending too much on it considering all the other costs we have.

A second criterion I didn't mention in the video was size. While the size of some of the chronographs allows for the measurement of larger ammunition, You need to consider more space when setting them up. You will need more space to transport. You also will need a little more setup time when using them in the field.

I recently did a search and found a couple of airsoft chronographs that looked like they'd possibly fit the bill. Acetech was nice enough to send us some to review. Check it out:

Something else I didn't get to in the video was the quick fulfillment. Sometime folks worry about ordering from overseas because shipping can be quite a harrowing ordeal and/or very costly. Well Acetech has their products distributed to fulfillment centers in the US, so I only waiting a few days for the package to arrive after they decided to send it. So there's no concern on that end of things!

As mentioned in the video, there does seem to be some inconsistency due to things like big ammo through an airsoft chronograph. There's also a chance to hit the sides of the chamber due to the size of the rounds versus the size of the testing chamber.

If you're considering getting an Acetech Chronograph. You can check them out through my affiliate links here; AC5000 and AC6000.

LATEST Blasters Announced

Well Warriors. We've got quite the smorgasbord to choose from when it comes to Nerf blasters in the Fall 2018 lineup. Here are two of the latest blasters to be announced when video of my thoughts on the issues:

Please look out for Foam From Above's posts from Toy Fair 2018. He's got the first appointment for Hasbro and NERF and I'll be really excited to see what he tries out with some of these blasters.

As for the rest of the 2018 Fall lineup, I split the video into a second part and you can find the rest of it here:

I definitely want to get in on that Infinus action, but I am unsure about the rest for me personally. I'm still thinking about the Nemesis when it comes to Rival power and mag/hopper size!

Let me know what you think about the latest announcement. Please also consider subscribing to the Youtube channel. We've preserved partner status so far, but I would love to solidify that going into our new series this Spring!

Thanks for all you do,
CJ

Click Click BAMF Rises Again!

Hey Warriors!

That new video is up that I promised. It's kind of long for a straight talking piece, so there are timecodes in the description for where I talk about what.

As you see, we just had to talk a little bit about the Youtube Partnership complaints. We appreciate all the support that fans are showing the community. It's just time to realize that Google isn't going to hand out prizes for existing. That's over and it's okay!

Looking ahead:
I don't know if you've seen the new press releases for the latest two Nerf announcements, but they're not bad! Foam From Above posted them and I haven't been thinking about the Infinus' dart loading system. I want to see this "motorized Quick-Load Technology; as kids feed darts into the blaster, the darts are automatically loaded into the 30-dart removable drum." My main worry is the potential for movable parts to get broken by human error or normal use. But I just have to check it out as soon as we can!

Oh, and that reality project we mentioned? More is definitely coming. I might be able to get a teaser trailer up by the end of February depending on what we shoot when. Feel free to comment or drop us a line over e-mail. Contact links above! ~CJ

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

Behind the Zombie Strike Crosscut

So, warriors, the N-Strike Elite Dual-Strike was not the only Spring 2016 release we got the heads up about. You may have see the first peek at the Nerf Zombie Strike Crosscut on our youtube channel from a couple days ago. It's a single-shot blaster (two-barreled) that incorporated a rubber-foam blade that actually spins. The blaster will help us ring in the new year at $14.99.

The video is below again in case you are curious.

Nerf N-Strike Elite Dual-Strike Revealed!

Oh, warriors! Meet one of the newest blasters revealed from Nerf. It's the NERF N-Strike Elite Dual-Strike. Heck. YES. 

You can see here that the product is ready for merchandising and yes, it will be released for the Spring 2016 season. What that translates to is that you will possibly see them on shelves ahead of Christmas 2015 as some stores work to get their product out early. BTW, it's set for a suggested retail price of $19.99.

NERF HQ Visit Tomorrow!

Warriors! We are on the eve of a really cool thing. Right now, I am on the way to Rhode Island to visit with the Nerf HQ team and several community contributors.

It's one of the few times that Nerf has brought in just fans off the street to view their facilities and we get to be a part of it! Granted, we aren't quite just "off the street". Several bloggers, youtubers and forum contributors were specially invited by the team to meet up at HQ to see and discuss the up and coming directions that Nerf is headed in.

There is a pesky little NDA (non-disclosure agreement) that stops us from leaking some stuff, but the PR team tells us that there will be plenty of tidbits that we will be released to share.

You may have seen some of the discussion in from our recent hangout with the Nerf HQ team the brought of some SUPER interesting possibilities for what we might see at tomorrow. Are there any burning questions that you are hoping to get the answer too?

Hit us up! ~Chris

NERF Doomlands 2169 Officially Confirmed!

Official word came down, warriors. The future is now: NERF DOOMLANDS 2169, FALL 2015.

They describe this line as having sci-fi steam-punk designs with visible firing mechanisms. From everything in the product descriptions, it seems that they are actually intending this to be more of a cyberpunk affiliation with a wild west flair. In fact, the folks over at gizmodo call this a mix of Mad Max, Star Wars, and Firefly. Firefly has been in my head, but Borderlands comes up on its heals too. 

I also find it interesting that Nerf's second theme-based line is placed in a post-apocalyptic setting line like Zombie Strike is. They describe the Doomlands this way: "The post-apocalyptic wasteland once known as earth is filled with bands of marauding thieves and all manners of creatures."

It's a Target exclusive to start with. You may remember that Zombie Strike Started out the same way with the first few in their line too.  It makes sense that the Walmart exclusive Split Strike will come out about the same time. I wonder what else Toys R Us will get? I imagine that we'll see the Doomlands line expand to other stores by at least Spring 2016.

Here's the word-for-word details with high-resolution images on the two new blaster that have been leaking out and appearing.

Questions Answered During Nerf HQ Hangout 2015

The season is upon us, Warriors -The smell of new blasters is in the air! That and we had another chance to sit down with NERF HQ to ask some burning questions about their products. We asked some pressing questions that have developed on the community and got to watch fellow bloggers and enthusiasts in action as well. You'll be seeing their coverage pop up as well, I'm sure. Blasterlabs, Foam From Above, Lord Draconical, Nerd Drop, Nerf Haven and Shining Foam all had good questions to throw out there during this exclusive Google Hangout with design, brand and marketing team members.

Every time we get together with the team at Nerf HQ, whether it's on Hangouts, in person at release parties, or just trading e-mails - you can tell that they all have an actual passion for what they do. There is a lot of fun in playing with these toys, but a lot of fun in making them too! We aren't allowed to share visuals and audio from the event, but if I could, I guarantee that I could pick out dozens of smiles for you from the entire panel (both HQ team members and NIC members).

SplitStrike Officially Confirmed for Fall 2015

Our contacts at Nerf will officially note that the blaster leaked in these images is called the SplitStrike. It's set up to be a Walmart exclusive and to be sold starting August 1 of this year. The suggested retail price is supposed to be $19.99 which is a bit steep-sounding for what it can do.

They didn't call it an Elite blaster, but the writing is on the wall . . . of the blaster if you look closely in a shot.

They don't have any official images yet, but are working on getting us some beauty shots and a little more info.

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

The Thunderdome

Warriors, if you haven't heard of the Thunderdome, you should check out the concept.

It takes the idea of a Nerf Arena and puts that right in its creator's back yard. Literally. It's a Nerf arena in a guy's back yard of his house. But that's just what physically exists in Springfield, Missouri. The concept is what creator Rob Lehr does with his love of Nerf and his unique space. Unlike other, commercial arenas, Thunderdome is meant to be free to those who participate in it. Lehr says he wants to spread the concept around to other communities by helping people to start their own clubs too. It's more than just a Nerf Arena. Lehr explains loads more about it with me in the interview we sat down to do this yesterday morning. Check it out:

More info after the jump!

My First HvZ Experience - Meet Game of Foams

I know, warriors. I still didn't get our next review up. Forgive me. We've had more fires ignite in Colorado and I was a little tied up in my day job with some repercussions of that. No worries though, the firefighters got them out fairly quickly and no one in our region has lost homes to wildfire this year so far.

In good news, I do have a new video for you! We had a great time with a company called Game of Foams that is putting on short-form HvZ-styled events they call Survivors versus Zombie. They let us come up to Longmont and play with them, getting this footage to boot. It was a great opportunity to see how the ECS Cam Blaster would actually behave in a dusk setting outdoors. So I ran that with a dual banana "clip" I taped together after ganking them from a couple of our Demolishers.. Check out the results (below the jump)!!

New Logo?

What's up, warriors? I'll tell you what's up: a new logo. We've been wanting to get a badge design going for a while now and to update our current logo a bit. So we finally pulled the trigger. Our designer came back to me with a few designs. We've narrowed it down between a few and will likely make a decision soon! What do you think? ~Chris