Water blasters: our personal favs

CPS 1200.. Find one and get a happy:)

We don't REALLY like reviewing old blasters, mainly because it's a bit of a tease really; it's like promoting something that's awesome but then going "sorry, you can't have one" given they're actually pretty difficult for anyone to acquire. When it comes to water warfare though, it's a doozy because most current day blasters are of the equivalent of spitting on someone as far as drenching is concerned, and yet we personally prefer water fights to any other type of blaster battle so we feel our lack of reviews for water based artillery is detrimental to the waterfight cause:)

So this will be one of the rare occasions where we'll go into a bit more depth on the older gear; our personal arsenal of choice does on the whole disregard current day stuff and we went back into time and acquired some of the more formidable water blasters of old for our skirmishes. If you can find any of these, do pick them up; if you're a water fight fan then you won't be sorry!

Water fights vs Foam wars

We at Urban Taggers do tend to consider ourselves pretty "casual" when it comes to battles. We generally don't get bogged down with anything that involves rules or planning (and therefore anything that actually requires skill whatsoever!)  but regardless of how disorganised we are, we've still noticed that when playing with foam everyone will still somehow resort to some form of strategy and tactics. Whether you plant yourself on the floor, behind the couch, dual wield two blasters or use your gf as a human shield, you're still going to hide a lot, look for cover and basically attempt to not get hit. I've rarely ever seen a nerf battle where people just stand there and fire at each other without ever trying to find cover. You're trying to get the ideal shot- it's more on accuracy, less on just showering your opponent with darts.

Water fights however.. seem to be a different kettle of fish. I have no doubt there are those out there who DO organise structured, moderated wars and operate similar to Nerf battles, but as far as the casual users are concerned, I've honestly never really seen anything other than the tried and true "run and gun" tactic of shoot, run, stand around laughing until you get close enough to repeat:) One lil squirt to the head isn't going to be satisfying enough for most people; nope the idea is really to get your opponent as thoroughly drenched as possible:) This is the reason why from our perspective, screw the side arms and hand helds.. when it comes to water fighting, bigger is better. A LOT better.

Rant: Nerf War Organisation 101

(aka Everything you wanted to know about organising a Nerf War but were too afraid to ask)

I use the term ‘Nerf War’ to cover most of the types of events/games you can play with your foam blaster of choice e.g. large or small events, Dart Tag, a single game of Capture the Flag (CTF), the ‘Paranoia’ or ‘Assassin’ style of game etc. I’m not going to be talking about Humans Vs Zombies for the simple fact that there are people out there who know a lot more about it than me. If you’re Australian, you can’t really go past the good people of Humans Vs Zombies @ANU. There are other groups in Australia but the peeps at ANU got the ball rolling in this country and you can guarantee they’ve already answered just about every question you could come up with. And if you’re American (sucks to be you!), or a citizen of the world you really need to check the Humans Vs Zombies.org website.

I'm also not talking about the use of melee weapons at your event. I've played a couple of games with melee weapons and I'm still unsure as to the best application of them, and whether they work best in HvZ or Nerf Wars.

So, you woke up one morning and decided you want to organise a Nerf War. Firstly – congratulations. Secondly – you’re an idiot. You have no idea what you’ve just let yourself in for. But Uncle Neil is here to help, so let’s get this party started.

Rant: The issue with 'Vintage'

Vintage gear: it's awesome.. but somewhat.. TOO precious.

Yesterday I had the best time, hitting two pool party/BBQ's for Australia day; as part of the fun we had some pretty crazy water fights with several water blasters that definitely were a huge hit at both parties. Now, naturally I couldn't expect anyone else to bring water blasters (mainly because most of my friends who are my age just don't spend their money on that sorta thing) so of course they all had to use mine. The thing is, just because they ARE grown ups doesn't mean they necessarily know how to treat toys any better than kids- in fact they're more likely to mishandle them and/or gawk at the prices of them if they had to replace them on the event of damage.

Sure enough, every water fight results in gear damage- In the past few years I've watched my Water Warriors Pulse Strike's nozzle come off, the pump neck pop out, my Pulse Blaster's neck get jammed; my Super Soaker Triple Shot lose air pressure and my beloved Flashflood's trigger spring finally snap. Every blaster gains a few more scuff marks on the plastic and are subjected to newbies looking for the "best gun" but not knowing how to use them properly. But that's ok if they're current ones that can be replaced... which leads me to the topic of the rant for today; what if they CAN'T be replaced? Yup, I'm talking about those ever awesome vintage blasters we all go after...what really IS the point if you can't play with them?

Happy Australia Day!

She wears the flag and brandishes the green and gold. So proud:)

Happy Australia Day peeps from us here at Urban Taggers. Looks like it's gonna be a hot one (we're even talking 37 degrees here in Canberra) , so we're thinking it is PERFECT weather for some crazy outdoors water fight action. Let us know what you get up to today- a barbie with friends and family? Triple J hottest 100? More importantly.. will you be packing water blasters and if so, what's your blaster of choice? (Today I reckon it shall be a Super Soaker CPS 1200 and a Water Warriors Pulse Strike)

Have a fun and safe day and above all.. time to get drenched!

Super Soaker Hydro Cannon: iSoaker.com gets it!

Super Soaker Hydro Cannon | image courtesy of iSoaker.com

Dem good peeps at iSoaker.com have gotten their hands on the much anticipated Super Soaker Hydro Cannon. Reviews thus far sound pretty decent; they've reported that it's like a Super Soaker Flash Flood permanently on the Flash Flood mode (hence the recoil). Trigger is reportedly very large and smooth and they're already talking about what they can do to it to turn it into a beast:)

For Nerf fans, the goods and the bads is the shield attachment DOES reportedly attach to the side via compatible tactical rails, however it mounts to the side:

Super Soaker Hydro Cannon shield | image courtesy of iSoaker.com

Anyway, you can read more on the the iSoaker forums or have a look at more detailed photos of the Hydron Cannon. We at UT are hoping to get ours real soon.. but we're at the mercy of our suppliers!

Hands On: Super Soaker Hydro Cannon via iSoaker.net
Super Soaker Hydro Cannon images via iSoaker.com

New 2011 Nerf Dart Tag Vision Gear

the 2011 range of Dart Tag 'Vision Gear'. Shhwanky.

As many of you probably already saw,the new 2011 Dart Tag vision gear were officially released on the US Nerf.com website yesterday. The new design looks great, comes in three different colour schemes and will be sold for $4.99US (rrp) which is considerably cheaper than the previous Vision Gear packs that sold for around 10 bucks (although the previous packs did include 16 Dart Tag darts whereas these don't). 

Official Release: 2011 Dart Tag is fo' real y'all!

The official Nerf website..as of today.

Well, it doesn't get more official than this. On the official US Nerf website from Hasbro, descriptions of the Quick 16, Speedload 6, Dart Tag Jerseys and new optical wear are released.

Official wording for the Quick 16(which is only gonna be $19.99 US):

Official imagery of the Quick 16 from the Nerf.com

Product Description:
Take your DART TAG game to the next level! This air-powered blaster lets you unleash a rapid-fire stream of 16 darts at your opponents to give you high-scoring performance. The integrated clip holds all 16 darts for super-fast loading and the pump-action handle lets you control the rate of fire. When your opponent is in sight, grab your QUICK 16 blaster and send your DART TAG darts flying — they’ll even whistle as they fly. Blast your way to victory! Blaster comes with 16 DART TAG darts and instructions.


More on the Official Nerf website

Speedload 6 box: Nice shades dude.

It's real! Speedload 6

This is already on the official Nerf page, but in case you're too lazy to check for yourself- official box artwork for the Speedload 6. Nice eh?

Video: Updated Maverick REV-6 colour scheme.

Just a quick vid on the new Maverick REV-6 with updated colour scheme. It's not that exciting, but some readers prefer video.

(yes, I did intend to miss Mickey; i'm using sucker darts so I did want them to stick)

Random: Ruff Stuff Electronic M16

kid seems really happy about launching his two balls:P

Stumbled across this while browsing the Buzz Bee toys website. Their "Ruff Stuff Electronic" line is just toy blasters with 'realistic' light and sounds, but this particular piece comes with 2 "Grenade balls" for projectile firing fun. Reminds me of all those guys who've attached Nerf Reactors to their Longshots:)

Ruff Stuff Electronic Combat M16 Rifle with Grenade Launcher via Buzz Bee Toys

Rant: Nerf- Just a 'game'?

Was a particularly 'emo' meet that day:)

Now as you probably already know Urban Taggers isn't really about outdoor wars, but there's a significant proportion of our readership who do like to do more with their blasters than fire at our partners and commando roll over a couch. Sooo, in what we hope will be a regular thing is we've asked our good friend Neil, from the Canberra + Southern NSW Dart Tag crew to occasionally contribute to UT his thoughts and opinions from the world of Nerf-OUTSIDE the apartment:)

Today's post is about the interesting perspective of Nerf wars being more than just "dudes playing with toys" (a perspective no doubt we all share). Interesting reading after the jump.

Nerf box 'models'- they're growing up?

Billy + Johnny were the youngest models to ever have a 10 year contract..:P

After posting about the packaging of the new Dart Tag blasters yesterday, a friend of mine made the observation that the guys on the boxes are looking a fair bit older than they used to. It is true that the new lads on the upcoming 2011 Dart Tag blasters look like they're probably 17 or older, in contrast to their counterparts on the Hyperfire boxes a few years ago (where they looked closer to 13-14). 

You've got to wonder if this is saying something about Nerf redefining their target audience and realising it's no longer just the under 12's that want this stuff..

Random: Iron Man NRF 425- Errr.. but there's two.

Of all the movie tie ins with Nerf, the Iron Man franchise probably comes out with the most repaints. Have a look at the above pic for a second: we have an Iron Man painted Firefly AND Magstrike; only both are officially called the "NRF 425". It's even got the same kid on the front, just holding a different blaster.

Weird huh?

Rumours: 100 pack Darts. Lots of them.

Whistlers + Streamlines in 100 packs. Awesome!

You can never have enough darts. Sure there are those cool ammo boxes, but sometimes.. you just want to keep it simple.. forget the plastic box, you just want a no nonsense, to the point, pack of foam darts that'll last you an entire war. And while you're at it..

Embroidered logo patch. Stylin'

How about a patch thrown in to stick to your jersey or Tac Vest?!! (Thanks again to AJ for the pics!)

Rumours: Dart Tag "Single" shot- oh yes.. there is a fourth...

I dunno if i'd wanna be the poor guy with only a single single shot compared to the rest of my team,
but pose away buddy:)

We're starting to get more intel in on a FOURTH Dart Tag blaster; after the Swarmfire, Quick 16 and Speedload 6, I guess a single shot had to exist.

Unidentified single shot blaster. Thanks to AJ for the intel

I am guessing it IS a single shot (and the other two darts are there for storage). But that's all we know for now. Other than it's out there.. and it's coming:)

Swarmfire + Quick 16 Packaging: first look

The Swarmfire Box. "Nerf's Newest Action Sport!"

Just goes to show we're not ALWAYS the first- if you want something, you can always find it without help:) We got some pretty decent intel (thanks AJ!) on the packaging for the upcoming Dart Tag blasters. Packaging means final release time so they should be on shelves REAL soon.. more importantly though, the boxes DO give away some stuff on what's in store..(ironic that I only JUST said "we don't know what the boxes look like" this morning)

Dart Tag Jersey: And we got an Orange one too.. in a large!

And it comes in Orange! Or..Gold. Or.. is it called Burnt Terracotta? :P

We managed to also pick up an Official Orange/Gold Dart Tag Jersey today; more importantly, it came in an adult size L. Ok, so it was a bit of a smallish adult size L, but it was definitely too big for the girlfriend to don.. (and she's not exactly keen for an encore performance..:P) sooo.. here it is on me:) Again.. there's not much to say about a jersey that hasn't already been said.. so just some pics of the garment in question..

Arts + Crafts: Home made Nerf blaster

Looks like this is the hot news on geek blogs: so much that the blog of the guy who opted to make a home made Nerf blaster went down:) Anyway, here's a youTube video of the process:)

Building a Better Nerf Gun via Makezine

Preview: A new 2011 paintjob for the Maverick REV-6.. we got one!

District 9 eat your heart out: Nerf Maverick in new colours

We updated you a few weeks ago on a rumoured new 2011 paint scheme for the tried and true N-Strike iconic Maverick REV-6. Well, we got one today, and I have to admit, while I feel the Maverick is getting on a lil', it's still a pretty decent looking blaster.. ESPECIALLY in these colours. Big fan. Not much else I can really say about it as other than the aesthetics it's pretty much another Maverick for you to add to your Blue, Yellow, Clear and Sonic series arsenal...so we'll just pump out some photos for you:)

Outside fun: Swarmfire + Speedload 6 battle tests

Our man in the field, Neil from the Canberra + Southern NSW Dart Tag crew, Photo courtesy of A.G

It's all very well that we're showing you the latest new and upcoming blasters, but how do they perform in "real" world situations? If you're wanting more than just info on what goes on in my apartment, you'll be happy to know that today's post is brought to you by the friendly folks at the Canberra and Southern NSW Dart Tag crew; Neil's very much the man in the know when it comes to organising outdoor wars and has graciously taken the time to write up his experiences with the upcoming Nerf Dart Tag Swarmfire and the Speedload 6. How does he fare? Check it after the jump.

Rant: Buzz Bee's Water Warriors- It's what's inside that counts

Water Warriors: It's what's inside that counts..

When it comes to foam, I've made it pretty clear we're prominently a Nerf only camp; we have never been a fan of Buzz Bee's Air Blaster line and in general find them to be ugly and tacky looking. I have never even owned a Buzz Bee Air Blaster toy so I can't even compare them for performance; yes I admit, foam blaster prejudice does reign in this apartment and it's what looks cool that makes the grade.

A different thing would be said for water blasters, simply because we can't play with water blasters IN our apartment (without a certain someone getting extremely mad at you and rendering you the invisible man for a few days) and regardless of how cool a water blaster can look, if it doesn't perform well in a water fight, then you might as well just throw them out and go back to the empty Moove milk cartons and a hose. Bottom line- It doesn't matter what's on the outside; it's how it performs and how far it will go that matters.

So..I can't believe I'm going to say this, but by current day water blaster standards.. Buzz Bee's Water Warriors totally OWNS Super Soaker.

Dart Tag Swarmfire: Official Manual

Pages 1 + 2 of the official Swarmfire manual

When our bud Neil from the Canberra and Southern NSW Dart Tag Crew (Gawd someone come up with a better..or at least..shorter name! Clear Deploy up for grabs.. come on.. dowit!) picked up his own Swarmfire, he was presented with not just the blaster (like when I acquired mine) but also with the new dart tag darts and an actual official manual. Sooo.. in keeping with the whole "sharing is caring", he's shared it with me, and in turn, i share it with you all.

There's not much here that you wouldn't already know from our previous posts, but at least now.. it's from the official manual which gives it more cred. Especially those who are still doubtful on whether or not these blasters are actually Nerf. Retards.

Arts + Crafts: quick on the fly mods:)

Are u farkin' serious?:)

A quick venture out to my first Nerf war yesterday (which I DO have to admit, was a lot of fun- thanks Neil from the Canberra and Southern NSW Dart Tag Crew for organising it!)  had me see one of the combatants with this innovative beast of a rig:) He's taped down the triggers in his Alpha Trooper + Raider, and then attached them to his Stampede. Firepower plus. And then some:) A few more pics after the jump.

Random: Amouron gear from Bandai.. WTF?

If Optimus Prime had kids..

So my search for blaster info from the HK Toy Fair came up with zip intel, but I did find THIS "innovative" new product from awesome crazy Japanese toy manufacturer Bandai. 


"Designed to be ultra-strong yet super light-weight, each set of Armouron armour comes with shiny little widgets called ‘snapperons’ which join the armour pieces together, so you can create your very own style of combat gear armour. You can also get your hands on accessory sets in three different metallic shades packed full of all kinds of cool bits and pieces to play with, swap or add to your Armouron suit"


There's no way this would fit ANYONE over 12.. but there's something about wanting to look like a Transformer that kinda appeals to me:P (I know it's not Nerf but come on..:P)

Amouron official site

Nerf Mods + Reviews: Modified XBlaster 200

Jermaine from Nerf Mods + Reviews got his hands on a X-Ploderz XBlaster 200. Naturally, he's done away with the spongey wet ballz and modded it to shoot Nerf darts with pretty positive results. Unfortunately, it's the firing mechanism that's the issue- it's still sorta dorky and affects the accuracy. Triggers, oh toy manufacturers, is what the fans want!

X-ploderz official page

Nerf Mods + Reviews post

X-Ploderz Blasters: we're not convinced:(

We'd been talking up these new X-Ploderz line of blasters for a while, but the big issue for us at Urban Taggers is they're not being released down under here in Australia for the time being. Anyway, their official site went live recently and we were pretty interested in learning more about them. To be honest from the videos,I gotta say I'm a little disappointed with how these blasters work. Reports from some of our readers suggest these blasters aren't as awesome as they might claim.. and watching the actual firing mechanism of any of the three blasters leaves much to be desired( that spring loaded pull back thingy is ridiculous) 

Reports of ranges are mixed; I'm hearing everything from "they're AWESOME" to "they're abysmal!" and everything in between. I'm interested to see what Jermaine over at Nerf Mods and Reviews thinks, especially if he's going to crack one open.. If any of you out there have one, drop us a post and give us your feedback:)

Review: Dart Tag Jersey- (pic spam)

Ready to rock, bichas! Dart Tag Jersey..size S:)

With the new Dart Tag blasters just around the corner (ok it could be a really BIG corner) there's quite firm intel to suggest these units will not be coming with the traditional vests and safety glasses. There's also a suggestion that the NDTL (Nerf Dart Tag League) shirts worn during tournaments might be commercially available.. mainly because we here at Urban Taggers ended up with one:) 

It was however a size S.. and that means none of us could fit it.. yay for girlfriends:) There's actually not a whole lot one can really say about a shirt.. so it'll be mostly pics:)

N-Strike Logo Old vs New

New..and yet retro:)

It was brought to my attention today that the proposed new repaint for the Nerf Maverick REV-6 features the OLD N-Strike logo, not the new updated one featured on the 2010 blasters. The simple answer to this is the N-Strike logo is moulded into the plastic; Nerf probably don't bother updating their blaster plastic moulds and just use the Maverick template as per the original blue and yellow edition from years back.

Old vs New Blasters: What's worth it?

The holy grail of Nerf: Crossbow, from the mid 90's

Today a vintage Nerf Crossbow NIB (new in box) went for 320 bucks US on eBay. Now, I'll be the first to admit it's easy to pay somewhat over the top prices for toys you want but 320 bucks? WOW.

That being said, if it had been a vintage NIB Super Soaker Constant Pressure System (CPS) 2000 I probably would have snapped it up for that EASY.

Why? Probably because I had one as a teenager and know from personal experience that the CPS 2000 is LEGEN-DARY; classic memories of shooting it out of the backseat of my friend's car at pedestrians (I said, I had it as a teen-like you never did anything stupid when you were a teenager!) or engaging in a mad crazy water fight with it that impressed a girl I met on my first day at Uni have me longing to get my hands on one of those again (the blaster, not the girl) whereas I never owned or experienced a Nerf Crossbow and can't associate it with mad memories that would be worth that much.

Memories aside though, sometimes older toys ARE actually better than the new ones. Aesthetics is definitely a personal preference thing but on pure performance, there are blasters that are 10-15 years old that will still outperform their current line newer siblings. You'd think technology advancements would mean blasters of today should offer considerable improvement over their vintage counterparts, but this is not always the case.

Toy blaster blog roundup: Who's out there?

Doogie Howser was a blogging pioneer:P

Almost daily we get requests to link and promote various blaster related blogs and sites; there seems to have been a mad explosion of Nerf blogs appearing in the past 6 months since we have been up and running. The list of blogs that makes the list on the right hand side are normally blogs and sites we believe offer unique information to our readers that we ourselves can't always accommodate. Maintaining a page or blog is hard work and we all do it with no payment or renumeration so hats off to those of you who are willing to take the time to bring this sort of news to our fellow Nerfers.

We believe everyone's gotta start somewhere, and we wished we had been given the leg up when we were starting up, so we've updated our list of "Other Tagger" sites to help out our fellow bloggers. Do check them out if you get a chance and be nice; it's easy to criticise when it's not you spending the time doing the hard work.

Two points though for page web masters and blog authors; please keep your page/blog up to date with quality posts and try to come up with original content yourselves, (or at least credit your sources). We do check on them regularly, and if we're finding your pages are not being updated regularly and/or your content is outdated, we'll take the link down. We're not meaning to be nasty, we'd just assume you've decided to abandon your blog; and if we wanted to learn more about the upcoming 9-9-09 Nerf Raider CS-35, we'd go to the official Australian Hasbro/Nerf website:P

Non Nerf: Marshmallow Executive Elite Blaster

The Marshmallow Executive Elite Blaster. 

A bit of random diversity today- IF you were to go to our "About UT" page (that's the one next to "Home" at the top of the page under the title banner) you'd see we said our blog:

"..is dedicated to all things to do with toy blasters, be it foam, water, infra-red.. and maybe the odd spitball or marshmallow launcher" 

X-ploderz ALMOST counts as a spitball blaster:) Soo..that leaves the marshmallow blaster..and we decided it was high time to rectify this:) So look what arrived in the mail today: the primo mother of all marshmallow blasters.. say hello to.. the Marshmallow Fun Company Marshmallow Executive Elite blaster..

Up close and personal: Speedload 6 pics

Dart Tag Speedload 6 vs N-Strike Recon CS-6

 It's been a while since I've done one of these, so here's a bit more detail on the much anticipated Nerf Dart Tag Speedload 6. As we mentioned previously, although the Speedload is a Dart Tag 'pistol', it's not really very small. It's quite solid, weighty and for a hand blaster, really quite big. First up, you can see it's bigger than a naked N-Strike Recon CS-6.

Uber Mavericks (courtesy of Dim Daemond)

Not one.. not two, but three, three barrels to count..ahh- ha ha ha ha

Back in August, 2010 we did a post on some pretty impressive Maverick REV-6 mods, courtesy of Dim Daemond from Nerf Haven. Sure, this may be old news, but we were so impressed, we just had to follow it up and feature a pic or two of the triple barrel Maverick he did.

They're Mavericks Jim, but not as we know it..

Pretty cool. (Pics courtesy of Dim Daemond via Nerf Haven)

Super Soaker Hydro Cannon 'Officially' Announced..

Super Soaker Hydro Cannon. Yup. It's "official" if it's on Facebook:)

Hasbro officially announced their Nerf Super Soaker Hydro Cannon on Facebook today. If you haven't been keeping up to date (we've mentioned it previously) it's a air pressure water blaster that boasts up to 35feet (around 10 metres). We're all hoping it'll be similar to the big bad Super Soaker CPS2000 of the late 90's which was so powerful it shot a pint of water per second and had a kick/recoil to it.

Most e-tailers in the US have them for around 26-28 bucks so hopefully it'll be a similar price here. It's also Summer here atm, so here's hoping the pop up REAL soon:)

If you're not into water blasters.. I'm sure you've disregarded this post already:)

Rumours: Maverick in UT colours?! (and we didn't even commission it!)

First...Blue. Then..Yellow. Clear. Green. White? I can see a rainbow..see a rainbow..see a rainbow tooooo...

Our special UTX project for some customised blasters is chugging away nicely, but ironically after we'd decided on blaster repaints in our Urban Taggers colours (white,black, orange and grey).. it looks like Nerf may have beaten us to it! I know, serious?!:)

Our latest intel has a photo of a new 2011 Maverick, suspiciously in the SAME colours that we were discussing.. (only I have no doubt our man's gonna do a better job). With so many fan paintjobs out there, I wouldn't blame you to cry..um.. "fan paintjob!" but apparently this may well be an actual official Nerf release .
ANOTHER Maverick. I know, serious?!

It's confirmed: Say hello to the "Speedload 6"

Speedload 6. I wanted it to be fly. Like a G6. :P

Well, it's confirmed ladies and gents; our unnamed Dart Tag '6' is officially going to be called the "Speedload 6". I know.. takes some getting used to.  But.. least we can all sleep at night:P

Preorder Bulletstorm- get yourself a free water gun:)

Ok, it's probably a cheap knock-off, but it's still a water gun!

EBGames Australia has a pre-order deal for the much anticipated game Bulletstorm; order the game on PS3 and XBox 360 and get yourself a free air pressure super soaker style water gun! (apparently it's 43cm!)

I've actually never even heard of the game. But hey, I got into COD because of the radio controlled car..

More on the Dart Tag '6' vs the Quick 16- more oomph?

Yes, this man knows Nerf wars. Nice hat dude. :P

I invited Neil from the Canberra + Southern NSW Dart Tag crew (they really need a shorter name!) to Urban Taggers headquarters (ie my apartment) to test out the new Dart Tag Quick 16 and the '6'.  I'd already reported that we found the '6' to be more powerful than the Quick 16 but being mechanically a goober I had no real idea WHY this was so. Neil however managed to shed some light on this:

"Having tested both the blasters I noticed straight away the Quick6 had more 'punch'. On closer examination I found it was purely due to the fact the 'guts' (i.e. the working parts) of the gun are in the front third of the blaster, and when cocked the dart is chambered right in the front of the blaster, thus cutting down the distance it travels internally. 
"The Quick 16 chambers the dart in approximately the middle of the blaster where the magazine is. So whilst the Quick6 might look like a Recon, the layout of the internals is completely different."

Yes. What he said:)

Update: The Quick 16 AND the '6' are a 16 round and 6 round blaster respectively; PLUS one in the chamber. Useful to know, but the fact you can quickly reload on the fly does mean you don't have to worry about running out easily.

In case you forgot: Nerf Swarmfire!

It was only a few months ago we brought you news of the Nerf Dart Tag Swarmfire, but with all the hype over the past week with the Quick 16 and 6 round pistol, you'd think the Swarmfire was old forgotten news:)

Sooo.. here's a quick reminder:P

Test: Nerf Dart Tag 6 shot test fire

Another unreleased Dart Tag blaster vid; this time of the new '6' : a blaster with an inbuilt 'clip'
with a 6 round capacity. It's bigger than a Recon; has a fair weight to it and packs quite the punch. (Again, our firing 'model' for this video is our man Neil from the Canberra + Southern NSW Dart Tag crew)

Random: Nerf Warthog spotted on eBay

Since the very beginning of Urban Taggers, the one blaster we can't help but pay out repeatedly has to be the Nerf Warthog. As part of the "Max Force" range, it was a single shot blaster that boasted amazing out of the box ranges, could fire two darts simultaneously and.. happened to look like a big brown pig.

Cos..that was one of the less awesome ideas from the R+D fellas at Nerf...

Anyway, it's available on eBay:) You know you want it.

Nerf Warthog Gun via eBay

Nerf Max Force Range via Orange's Nerf page

Test: Nerf Dart Tag Quick 16 test fire

Neil from the Canberra + Southern NSW Dart Tag crew popped in today to give the new to be released Nerf Dart Tag Quick 16 a run. Here's a quick vid showing you how it in action.

Dual wielding: Nerf Barrel Break IX-2 rig

Our main man Neil from the Canberra and Southern NSW Dart Tag crew came up with a pretty cool rig to carry two Barrel Break IX-2's on his back. A back pack and some car bins, a bit of innovation and creativity accompanied by a whole bunch of 'man-sewing' and this is the result. Sorta depends on how flexible you are though:)

Confirmed Intel on the X-Ploderz range

X-Stormerz. "What is this stuff i'm shooting?"

More confirmed information about the X-Ploderz line of projectile blasters. Target, Toys R Us and Amazon will be the lead US retailers; Argos, Tescos and Toys R Us will be the main UK retailers, and Walmart and Toys R Us will be for Canada. They are becoming more and more available, and will be officially launched/marketed in early Feb. Their official website should be up in the next week or so.

The RRP prices for the blasters: the smallest XBlaster will be 12.99 USD  and shoot 50ft, mid sized XStormer will be 24.99 USD and shoot 75ft, and the largest XRanger at almost 3ft in length will be $39.99  which hits a very decent 85ft. I'm told these quoted ranges are VERY real, which is pretty cool..

But!..I'm told the big tech win is all about the ammo; an organic compound developed for this purpose which is safe, clean and non-toxic. It has "some magical qualities, despite being more than 99 percent water in core structure". The ammo is provided in different formats between EU and USA to meet the different toy regs of each market; which PROBABLY means it'll not pass Australian standards in any case:(

Havok Fire vs Vulcan: you say potato..

Havok Fire EBF-25. I kinda like that.

I had comments around the Quick 16 in that perhaps the name had been lost in translation; that perhaps that was the proposed name of the blaster only in non-english speaking countries like in Taiwan. Well, it's confirmed it's Quick 16 in English so that blew that out of the water.

That being said, here's a Vulcan EBF-25 box from the UK (arguably.. the BIRTHPLACE of the English language) and check out the name of it there? Funny thing is even on the official Hasbro Great Britain site, the image of the blaster still says "Vulcan" :)

Official Hasbro GB site listing for Nerf Havok Fire

Lazer Tag: Harry Potter Battling Wands

Soo.. you're a big fan of Lazer Tag, you've seen the vids, the uber cool blasters and you really wanna try your hand out at close quarters infra red lazer combat right? Only.. Your folks misinterpret this desire as a glorification of war and killing and have banned anything resembling a gun (including a Dyson hand vac and your Dad's power drill) in your peace loving household. What to do?!

I found these at my local Big W for 19 bucks a pop. From the ever popular Harry Potter movie series, it's replica wands from either Harry, Hermione, Ron or Voldermort(gasp!) but the twist is they utilise similar infrared technology as Lazer tag blasters so you can "battle" one another.. in an ever non confrontational non violent manner...

X-ploderz Blasters: shoots wet ballz.. really far

The X-ploderz X-ranger 1075. Love the token asian kid:)

Now we normally don't make a habit of featuring or promote things we've not actually confirmed as being good or not, but this definitely has our interest. We first heard of these a month ago; they're called "X-ploderz" (distributed by 'Hobeezone' in the US) and they apparently shoot a very interesting 'hydro-rounds' type of water infused ammo.

Xploderz are launching officially this month in the USA, Canada and UK. We've learnt that the line is "an innovative ammunition system tied to a unique line of projectile blasterz - creating an entirely new weapon system for play indoors or outside." with full marketing and publicity will begin in February as store distribution increases.  A press release at Toy Shop UK says they are "Designed for kids from age 8 and upwards, they fire soft ammunition shells that are infused with water! Not only that, they fire them farther and faster than any other toy gun on the market."  Apparently up to 85 feet out of the box? niiice..

Happy New Year! Bring on 2011!

Happy 2011 folks! Bring on the new year!

On behalf of us at Urban Taggers, we're wishing you a happy and safe 2011! Whatever toy blaster news is in store for the new year, we'll be doing our utmost to bring it to you first:)

Take care folks. Again, thanks so much for reading and being a part of the Urban Taggers community. Spread the word, tell your friends and above all, share the love for foam, water and..er... lasers:)