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April 24, 2014

Cited for Nerf Wars?

I spotted this article on Reddit, under r/nottheonion. Just another case of people overreacting to blasters in public.
Clearly a deadly weapon. Well, at least in JCVD's hands.

Per the article:
One parent who saw the Nerf gun battle, Scott Hansen, said police went too far in issuing disorderly conduct citations. Wausau West High School officials have also placed some students on athletic probation. School spokesman Jeff Lindell said the Nerf gun game comes up from time to time and keeps evolving.
 One of those things these days, with all the concern about guns. If anything, don't go to wars and use blasters with realistic paintjobs.

April 21, 2014

Popular Science Shows DIY Sentry Gun in May 2014 Issue

In the May edition of Popular Science, there are several interesting articles, as always. For the NIC, there's a relatively easy method of setting up a sentry using a Stryfe and a passive infrared sensor. Full instructions are here, for those interested.

There are other blasters you could use, but the Stryfe is easy and inexpensive for experimentation. Not to mention compact. Mounting a Rapidstrike might lead to some space and balance issues.

April 19, 2014

Lanard Total Crush - More Repaints Spotted!

Thanks to the Smyths Toys website from over in the UK, we have more pictures of upcoming blasters from Lanard. We have the Banshee Beat, a sister to the Speedloader, and the Siren Strike, a new version of the Blast Bow.
 
We can't really give Lanard points for creativity, since there is nothing new to these blasters aside from the paint job. No word yet on whether we might see a pink Triple Shot.
One last thing: when you ask to check whether any Smyths stores have them in stock, the website says that they won't be in stock until May 23rd. So we at least have an arrival date for the UK!

April 17, 2014

Dollar General Dot Sales!

Now that spring is in full swing, keep an eye out at your local Dollar General! The various stores are running through their old inventory, with blue and yellow dots on the price tags (or gold stars...). Some weeks are for clothes, others for seasonal. If you pay attention, you can make a killing during your store's toy sale. Namely, half off the sticker price.

That's $2.50 for a Panther. I'm happy :)

In my case, I was lucky enough to spot some Buzz Bee Panthers in the back of the store, on the high shelves reserved for old toys. Obviously those are in short supply, so I'll run through some of the blasters I spotted with dots on the tags. Inventory will vary by location, and in some cases stores will have the same blaster marked differently, with one store adding the dot and the other not doing so.

  • Buzz Bee Air Max 1 (be sure it's LAST year's inventory, with the larger packaging. The new stock with the smaller piece of cardboard isn't marked)
  • Buzz Bee Air Max 6 (the original white version, not the newer, green model)
  • Lanard Huntsman Boomstick
  • Lanard Clear-X Ball Blaster II
  • Nerf Maverick (seriously, though, why are you looking for one?)
  • Zuru Xshot Vigilante
  • Zuru Xshot Dual Double Pack


To be clear, I found 6 Panthers today. It was a good day, getting all these for $20 plus tax.
Good luck finding things in the coming weeks - even if the Air Max 1 has a smaller tank than the Panther, $2.50 for one is nothing to sneeze at for a good sidearm.

April 16, 2014

Lanard Total Crush and Zuru X-Shot Update!

Sorry about the recent lack of posts - when finals roll around, you have to study. However, you need a break at some point. Or in my case, a few hours searching on Google. In any case, I found some great stuff!

Lanard appears to be doing repaints of existing blasters for their upcoming "Total Crush" line. In this case, the X.O. Xbow is another version of the Swiftstrike. 


We've already seen the Sugar Shot, the sister to the Huntsman Tracker.


Finally, we have the Sweet N' Sour, which is a feminine version of The Scout. I actually like the color scheme for this blaster. Bright and colorful, but still with a serious shape.

I only have the Retail Selling Price in South African rand (R) - it turns out Pick n Pay has a portal for franchise owners to order goods, and while you can't buy anything without the prerequisite account, you can Google around the Sign-In, so to speak, to look at items.

X.O. Xbow - R 129,99 (current exchange rate as of 16/04/14 = $12.32)
Sugar Shot - R 129,99 ($12.32)
Sweet N' Sour - R 69,99 ($6.63)

Keep in mind these are normal retail prices we're talking about - as of late, the prices of Lanard blasters on store websites like Walmart and Kmart have been inflated, and in some cases by 100%. I see the Huntsman Tracker and Boomstick each going for $20 online, but when actually found on store shelves, they're only priced for $10. So the above retail prices should be relatively accurate for when they do appear on shelves.

Now for the Xshot Blasters! Thanks to store sites in Australia and Hungary, we've actually spotted the X-shot Zombie Scope in the wild!
On both websites, many of the Zombie-series blasters (in their new packaging - the old packaging wasn't nearly as open to the air) are listed as being available in April 2014 - in a few cases, April 24th in particular. That's next week, after all the Easter goods clear out, in case you didn't know. I'll be keeping an eye on the Family Dollar and Dollar General stores stateside, and see if this pops up.

April 2, 2014

Mattel BOOMco. Video - Fast Company

Thanks to Reddit user teejaykay0 for this find - I've seen videos on Nerf stuff from Fast Company before, but apparently this video just got posted today, for the interwebs to discuss and debate.



It's always interesting learning how things are made, and even more interesting to actually see them being made. Mad props to Mattel for doing something new, even if it differs from the standard blasters and darts we're used to using.