Jakks Pacific Max Force: A new player

Shadowhawk 100: image courtesy of Jakks Pacific

Jakks Pacific had modest success with their various Laser Challenge branded laser tag systems and in my opinion were very much responsible for keeping home laser tag alive over the past decade; they have to date been pretty quiet in the actual projectile shooter style of blasters..until now. Their upcoming 'Max Force' line of shooters due to be released real soon are a very modern take on a classic projectile- the spitwad:) Throw away those pen biros.. pea shootin' never looked so good:)


We first got word of these from the TIA toyfair 2011 where those wacky peeps from Time to Play posted a video featured the Max Force line. Nerf Mods + Reviews had some intel on them, as did MTV Geek, 16bit and even CNN Money.

So what do we know about them? From their press release:

The oddly named 'Maximiser"- image courtesy of Jakks Pacific

Max Force™ from JAKKS Pacific is the newest line of specialized high performance, toy shooters that deliver maximum distance, maximum accuracy and maximum tagging - for both indoor and outdoor play! Max Force delivers innovation in the toy shooter aisle – it fires special patent pending paper pellets that can accurately reach targets up to 100 feet away! The extreme accuracy of the Max Force line allows you to tag your target with a variety of items specially designed for any combat scenario. As a BONUS - Ammo wipes off easily and is even biodegradable!

The pellets.. image courtesy of 16bit.com

Remember shooting spitballs as a kid? What would YOU have done with a toy shooter that blasts out paper spitballs with high accuracy?! The possibilities are endless, the distance is unrivaled, and the fact that you can actually SEE the precision of your shot is amazing.

From what I can gather from the videos, these shooters are designed in such a way that they can only shoot the paper pellets designed for the Max Force line. Jakks Pacific have promoted three blasters in their line up, with an entry level blowpipe, a short range pistol and a long range sniper rifle; apparently these shooters do actually improve in performance with ranges of 35, 60 and 100 feet respective.

I've noticed from the vids that there are also two other pieces that don't get as much attention, with a rapid fire model that does 85 feet and a stealth crossbow at 65 feet. Not sure if they're going to be released or if they were just prototypes but they do look very cool.

screen grab from the CNN Money vid.

The Max Force line all come with safety eyewear, Cartridge/clips and a whole lot of pellets. One would assume these pellets are NOT reusable, but you do get a fair amount of them in a pack and apparently they'll be going for around 5 bucks US for a refill.

The lineup. Image courtesy of 16bit.com

Personally their biggest selling point for us is their aesthetics- the design team appear to have done a very good job in producing some very cool looking pieces. Lovin' that colour scheme too:) The big win for most others will be whether the Max Force can genuinely make those performance distances and whether toy blaster consumers are ready to consider alternative projectiles.  

We ourselves are very interested in this new line... watch this space!