Nerf Vortex Nitron. Boom baby!

Every now and then we get lucky- really lucky with our intel. We spend a whole lot of time scouring the world for any intel we can get on new blasters... but sometimes.. intel comes to us. Courtesy of a loyal reader who chooses to remain known merely as "Macross" and who says they are "very well connected in the toy world" and "a big fan of Urban Taggers", we have been very lucky to have the opportunity to get our hands on the brand new Nerf Vortex Nitron.. even if it was only for under an hour:) Here's what we can tell you..

Our first birthday!! Urban Taggers

I just found this pic on the net. cool eh?

Happy Birthday to us! or.. to UT!:P A year ago from today, we decided we'd create a humble lil' blog on our love of out-of-the-box toy blasters. We weren't modders, we weren't into wars; we were just "grown ups" who were sick the day they taught "stop playing with toys" at grown up school:) We never would have expected our blog would have extended into a community, and we'd be so well read not just locally, but around the world. I'm humbled by it all and really do say a warmfelt THANKS to all of you who've taken the time to visit and read our ramblings! We've made many friends along the way-props to my man Neil from the Canberra + Southern NSW Dart Tag crew- we've become good friends through all of this  and while we have a different ethos on blasters we're proud to have put Canberra, Australia on the map for something other than politicians and porn:)

Urban Taggers: Apartment Warfare is the product of almost every friend I had coming over to my lil' inner city apartment, and would say "what is THAT?" to the Vulcan EBF I had on display in my living area. They may have been teachers, lawyers, IT professionals, whatever; the moment they saw that blaster their eyes lit up and they were back in roleplay imagination mode:) 

Anyway, there's not much else to this post other than thanks again for reading and look forward to the next 12 months ahead! After the jump we've just compiled from the net a quick pic spam of.. Nerf birthday cakes. Just because:P

Light Strike: it's coming..

We had a look at the latest Target catalogue for their upcoming toy sale at the end of July and we're pretty excited about one thing; the release of Wow Wee's laser tag line Light Strike in Australia. Although the prices are a tad on the exi side, they're not really any surprise to us and it's good that the attachments are also coming out too that were showcased in the promo material.

Since the first press releases and promo vids, we've had mixed feelings about Light Strike- on one hand we're hell keen on them, mainly because it's good to finally see higher end home laser tag finally making it back to our toy store shelves (the Hasbro/Tiger Electronics Lazer Tag Team Ops and Phoenix LTX's officially never made it to Australia and Laser Challenge just never made it off the ground) but on the other hand the jury's still out on whether this new system will be any good compared to our trusty (imported) LTX's.

Light Strike boasts many features that they claim are "firsts" (some of them aren't entirely accurate, such as health meters) and they've definitely put in a lot of work in their design as far as functionality is concerned, so we're looking forward to picking up a few in a few weeks time and really giving them a solid workout.

As Nirvana says: "when the light's out, it's less dangerous, here we are now, entertain us" :P

Max Force Shadowhawk

The Shadow Hawk is the bees knees of the Max Force line up, boasting impressive 100 feet distances in a very schmick looking package. They've become quite readily available in Australian toy stores nationwide- we take one out for some testing and I can safely say you've never seen a spit wad go so far..

Tactical Tag: LTX with Spectre folding stock. Nice.

My favourite stock with a Lazer Tag Phoenix LTX. Nice mod:) Courtesy of Bazookafied:)

LTX Folding Stock Mod via Tactical Tag

Nerf Vortex: A look at the ammo

We've managed to get our hands on a sample of the new Nerf Vortex ammo. It's a very light weight foam ring that surrounds an equally lightweight plastic cap. I'd say they're much the muchness weightwise to a foam dart.

Gear Up Maverick REV-6: Another Mav..

For those who just love Maverick's... interesting how they don't come with sucker darts anymore but the whistlers:)

X-Shot: Turbofire

We got ourselves the much anticipated X-Shot Turbofire; this is a blaster from the second release of blasters from relatively unknown toy manufacturer Zuru. They seem to have ditched the dual ammo of foam and water and just concentrated on releasing a blaster that shoots just foam darts. 20 of them, to be exact, with a pump action cocking mechanism under the muzzle, and an inbuilt  ammo drum. X-Shot blasters have been touch and go- we had the surprisingly awesome Stealth, followed by the absolute rubbish that was the Thundershot. So how does this one go? More pics and info after the jump.

Max Force: Terrornator 85

We've been showcasing the Max Force range from Jakks Pacific for a few weeks now; for those of you who're new to the game, Max Force is a line of toy blasters that shoot a disposable, biodegradable paper pellet that you soak with water before firing. For those of you who've said "spit wads", I guess you're not that far off the truth. Still, this is a far cry from the old biro pen casings of primary school- recently the Shadow Hawk, Maximizer and the Blow gun have made it to Australian store shelves but we've been lucky to acquire the much coveted Terrornator; a belt fed rapid fire unit.

Toy blasters to rival Nerf have come and gone, so how good are these glorified spit wad shooters, really?

Kotaku:Can Two Dudes Really Survive Against a Horde of Zombies?

Thanks to Jason for showing us this: 2 guys, 3000 Nerf rounds vs a zombie horde of 400..vid courtesy of Rooster Teeth

Can Two Dudes Really Survive Against a Horde of Zombies via Kotaku

Big W Toy Sale: That's some serious kit.. (AUS)

A mid year toy sale definitely worth mentioning for Aussies; as spotted in the Big W catalogue, for the upcoming sale is some seriously good prices for toy blasters, and even better, some new stuff yet to be seen in Australia till now.

Firstly, the cheapest prices I've seen for Stampedes at 48.87 and Longshots for 34.83, new 100 pack darts for under 20 bucks and Barricades, Recons and Deploys for 23.66.  Finally we see the release of the tactical vest in Australia for under 25 bucks..but check out the new Whiteout series Nitefinder, AND it's under 8 dollars! They're also sporting a clear Vulcan for 50 bucks.

Finally we've got the new Max Force gear- 68.84 is the cheapest you'll see a Shadow Hawk, Maximizer for under 30 bucks is a bargain and that's the first time I've seen a Max Force ammo belt..

Props to OzNerf and the boys from the Canberra + Southern NSW Dart Tag crew for the heads up:)

"Arsenal Toys"- not just a Nerf knock off

This Machine Pistol takes it's cues from the Barricade- and then.. mashes them up:)

I stumbled across this interesting (albeit rather ugly) line of blasters while taking Jerm from Nerf Mods + Reviews's lead and had a browse on the internet for some alternative toy blasters perhaps not seen in the western world:) Now, it's pretty common to see a knock of Nitefinder or Maverick, but I have to admit these pieces from "Arsenal Toys" were unique enough to catch my eye. 

They seem to be using originally designed shells and a more innovative thought process in the design than the standard knock off. Have a look at the images after the jump.

Nerf Vortex Box Art revealed

Proposed box art for the upcoming Nerf Vortex line; as posted on the Canberra + Southern NSW Dart Tag crew's Facebook page.

Whiteout Deploy CS-6: Up Close + Personal PIC SPAM

Continuing with our "coming soon" pics, we've gotten a hold of some more, this time of the Whiteout series N-Strike Deploy CS-6. I've never been a fan of this blaster in the past, but it looks trick in white- definitely gives it an extra certain something. Obviously it's just an aesthetic release so there's not much else I can really say about it other than.. priddy:)  More images after the jump.

Gear Up Raider CS-35 images: up close and personal PIC SPAM

We've been lucky to get some pretty nice up close and personal pics of the upcoming Nerf N-Strike Gear Up colour scheme Raider CS-35. It's a nice looking piece of kit- the orange is the same colour as the standard streamline ammo clips and with the black stripe and light grey accents, the Raider admittedly does look very schmick indeed. 

Personally, this is the only blaster in the Gear Up line I'm interested in. More pics after the jump.

Max Force: Official Site

Jakks Pacific's Max Force line of blasters has started to make it into the hands of fellow blaster affectionatos- they've finally  made live their official website with all the info of the new range. I found a few broken links, but on the whole it's got all the info you need about them.

From what I can tell, the Crossbow and Maximizer are very much identical other than the extra tension in the crossbow string which apparently gives it the extra 5ft kick.

Max Force Toys official website

YouTube - More Nerf spotted in music videos

In a "blink-and-you'll-miss-it" moment, check this music clip at 2:57 from the movie "Take Me Home Tonight" with Topher Grace and the ever lovely Teresa Palmer (whom I plug cos she's Australian). Ooh. Vulcan..

Admittedly it's a lil' quiet on the blaster scene this week:)

SGNerf: Singapore Nerf Dart Tag Tournament 2011

One of our favourite Nerf blogs, SGNerf have covered the Singapore Nerf Dart Tag Tournament over this weekend; it's nice to see all the new Dart Tag range in action. I really think it's a shame they haven't elected to do this in Australia (although admittedly by the rules I'm too old to play anyway!) as i'm sure it'd be quite popular.

Check out more pics on their blog.

I was especially liking these promo images of the new Vortex line:

Singapore Nerf Dart Tag Tournament 2011 - Event Overview via SGNerf
Official Dart Tag National Tournament Singapore page

Max Force Shadowhawk: OzNerf Forums

Featured on the Oz Nerf Forums, "Oxymoron" picked himself up a Max Force Shadow Hawk and has given a pretty indepth review of the blaster, right down to the internals. He's given it a pretty decent rap- check out all the images and his thoughts after the jump.

YouTube - More random vids

Ahh so much crazy stuff on youTube. Cardboard warfare? Or perhaps..

Light Warefare:)

YouTube: Nerf + Super Soaker Modern Warfare

I'm not one to advocate violence- but this video I guess could be considered kinda cool. Still, it's great commentary on that argument of the effects of playing with toy guns and the media have on our young impressionable children:P Drug deals, terrorists and meth labs? Sheesh.

Nerf + Super Soaker Modern Warfare via youTube

Max Force: hits Australian stores

Max Force Soft Splat Ammo packs

We're starting to see Jakks Pacific's Max Force line of blasters make it into our stores here in Australia- first spotted in Toyworld's then Target's and now almost the full lineup has made it to large department store chain Myer. As always, Myer tends to jack their prices up to higher than normal, but the big thing is if a product makes it to Myer.. its mainstream.

What's good to see is the fact they're stocking ammo refills.. which is kind of important given the nature of the Max Force disposable 'spit wad' projectiles:)

Max Force Maximizer

Max Force Shadow Hawk

Nerf Vortex: UK Pricing

One of our readers, Mr Raccoon has found some interesting UK prices for the upcoming Nerf Vortex series of blasters.

The Proton will be £13.00 and it will include 3 discs (http://www.thetoyshop.com/ActionToysAndFigures/NerfDartTag/Nerf-Vortex-Proton/EPN462697)

The Vigilon has a built-in capacity of 5 discs and it will retail for £18.00 (http://www.thetoyshop.com/ActionToysAndFigures/NerfDartTag/Nerf-Vortex-Vigilon/EPN462705)

The Praxis will include a ten disc clip and will retail for £25.00 (http://www.thetoyshop.com/ActionToysAndFigures/NerfDartTag/Nerf-Vortex-Praxis/EPN462713)

The Nitron will retail for £44.99
(http://www.thetoyshop.com/ActionToysAndFigures/NerfDartTag/Nerf-Vortex-Nitron/EPN462721)

eBay: Nerf Vortex preorders

As brought to our attention from Samza, one of our readers, there are pre-orders for the upcoming Nerf Vortex line available on eBay Australia. On closer inspection the seller is the  e-tailer General's Toyporium, so you could probably just hit their website up too, but if eBay's more your thing, get your orders in early:)

Max Force Blaster Manuals

The Max Force Shadowhawk manual

We got our hands on some scans of the official manuals of the new Jakks Pacific Max Force blasters. They do a pretty good job with their art departments; packaging looks sweet and the artwork of their manuals are pretty schmick. Reports so far are these blasters definitely hit their distances, if not sometimes prone to misfires (mainly due to lacking in soaking the pellets first). More manuals after the jump.

Max Force: Official Commercial

Check out the latest Max Force official commercial...lookin' pretty sweet.

YouTube - Nerf Office Warfare

Guess they're not using streamlines... :P

Office Warfare via youTube

Gear Up Raider CS-35 images: The real stuff

Oooooh...

Whiteout Deploy CS-6.. priddy

Whiteout Deploy CS-6. Awesome.

Spotted on the Canberra and Southern NSW Dart Tag Facebook page. Possibly via Taobao.com Whiteout just looks awesome. Thanks Neil for the heads up!

Review: Max Force Blowgun 35

 

 We've been watching the Jakks Pacific Max Force line quite eagerly- I know the concept of "spitwads" seems a little odd to some, but the design of these blasters do look sweet and I admit I'm actually quite intrigued with the ammo. We're still waiting on a shipment to arrive, but curiosity got the better of me and I picked up the "Blowgun 35" today from Toyworld for just under 18 bucks. If you're going to be talking spitwads, might as well compare apples with apples, so I thought I'd give it a go...

Super Soaker Quick Blast Fail..

This was originally posted on our wall from one of our readers (Thanks Stephen).. An image from 'M' Magazine, check out fabulous Kim Kardashian, armed with her hot bikini bod and Super Soaker Quickblast..

Sometimes.. fame just gets to you... :P