Friday, September 23, 2011

Nerf Barricade RV 10: New York Comic-Con Blaster

In perhaps one of the more anti-climatic announcements of the year, Nerf have officially released a Bumblebee repaint of the Barricade RV-10 to coincide with the New York Comic-Con (October 13-16 2011) in similar fashion to the Optimus Prime repaint for the San-Diego Comic-Con earlier this year. 

Nerf released news of a" new exclusive Nerf blaster" yesterday on their Facebook page which although came out of nowhere, had us all speculating over what it could be over the past day; it's always ballsy to deliberately generate hype in this space, as more often than not fans expectations are VERY high. 

Unfortunately, a repaint of a blaster that to be honest isn't a fan favourite was never going to really meet that said 24hr hype and so far responses haven't been fantastic. Personally, I admit I like it due to the fact the artwork is from IDW publishing who do some very sweet Transformers comic work and it still keeps with Nerf's colours while bringing in Bumblebee to the mix. Still.. How much would a Swarmfire work in this space?:P

From our take though, it's interesting times ahead. What I personally find cool about it all is it's the attempt to generate a whole new market for Nerf- the comic collector. Using the a Nerf blaster as a canvas for art and making them 'exclusive' (or at least limited runs) means it's less about using them in wars and more about collecting and storing them with comic collectibles; we're talking about marketing to a different breed of toy collector. The choice of using the Barricade again makes you wonder if they'll keep using it as a canvas for future limited Comic-Con releases, or if the Decepticons/other franchises will have a different blaster etc etc.

As with the Optimus Prime repaint, it's initially only available at the New York Comic-Con- and then a limited run on Hasbro's online store. (US)
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6 comments:

  1. Stealth.ElfSeptember 23, 2011 at 9:40 AM

    I think they are using Barricades for these repaints because the standard ones don't sell too well.

    At least in Australia I see heaps of shelf stock just sitting there, when the other stuff sells out. It is also not hard to find one on sale at any time.

    So from my point of view, they are just trying to move more stock. However, I hope its just the beginning as I'd like to see repaints of other Nerf.

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  2. CheynerSeptember 23, 2011 at 9:45 AM

    Vortex for Decepticons? I will buy 15 Vigilons painted in a Starscream theme, old Starsceam, not that Michael Bay hunk of ass.

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  3. AnonymousSeptember 23, 2011 at 9:58 AM

    This is disappointing.

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  4. AnonymousSeptember 23, 2011 at 10:41 AM

    For a person who is only interested in modding and painting his own blasters, this is an EPIC FAIL announcement Hasbro. Big thumb down.

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  5. ThornSeptember 23, 2011 at 10:54 AM

    Kinda surprised it's not the 10-shot mini Swarmfire. Because that would have made it one of the least-leaked new designs in recent years.

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  6. AnonymousAugust 15, 2012 at 9:00 AM

    the barricade really isn't that bad, it gets good ranges stock, but it is kinda noisy. I got the blue version of the transformer barricade and its pretty sick lookin

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