Rumours: N-strike Elite Firestrike- Eyecandy

Oh wow, more images of the proposed upcoming Nerf N-Strike Elite Firestrike spotted on da interwebs, though I'd suggest Baidu is the source. I don't really get that excited over the pistol/handgun style blasters, especially single shot ones, but hey, it looks trick:) More pics after the jump. Cheers Jason for the lead!

Rumours: Elite Jolt-probably.

We had more photos of the alleged Nerf Elite Jolt arrive today, and I really do have to say this is looking like the real deal. The extra muzzle attachment, the blue plastic (vs an orange regular jolt painted) and the orange priming arm and trigger for me looks pretty authentic. The original N-Strike logo is of course been the main hot issue behind whether this IS 'Elite' or just a regular Jolt factory repaint, but the owner of these has suggested it's hitting harder than a regular Jolt but that's to be confirmed at a later stage. 

Maybe it's an upgraded spring? Or maybe it's just because of the darts/in our heads? We'll see eventually. More pics after the jump. Thanks AC for the intel!

N-Strike Elite Stockade: Orange vs Grey trigger

The N-Strike Elite Stockade is now available on Australian shelves (well Toys R Us shelves for now) sporting the grey trigger meaning it has been slightly detuned for our stricter safety laws. Soo, in the name of research, I picked up an orange trigger unit from the UK to test out the differences between the two. We've already discussed the differences with the Retaliator and Hailfire, but I figured this one might be a lil' different, given it's come from the UK and not the US.

Bottom line, yes, head to head you can hear the motors of the UK model sound a lil' more powerful and in turn, I'd suggest it's the same as the Hailfire comparison we did last week- the orange trigger unit is going to be a lil more consistent with hitting the further ranges out of the box.

That being said, 1) indoor battle in my apartment, the difference is negligible at best, 2) if you're a voltage modder that'll just negate any difference right there. I can't see it being worth it to import one and pay the ridiculous shipping costs just to have that extra lil bit of kick. Up to you of course:D

SG Nerf: Nerf Pinpoint Sight in Singapore

Featured on SGNerf and courtesy of a gentleman named Bryan Ong is a look at a boxed new released Pinpoint sight. It's the new blue, orange and white colour scheme to match the new Elite blasters, but as SG Nerf points out in their post,there is no mention of 'Elite' anywhere.

We've been discussing the new release Jolt- maybe that's what's happened there- it's being re painted but doesn't necessarily feature the Elite branding. In any case.. there we have it. Rumour finally officially confirmed. 

Rumours: More on the Elite Firefly Clip

Following on from the reports of a new Nerf N-Strike Elite Firefly clip in bright green, check out these images; apparently found on Baidu, someone's comparison between a new N-Strike Elite Firefly clip and a regular Firefly clip.

Having the light come through does suggest.. that's green plastic:) More images after the jump.

Rumours: N-Strike Elite Firestrike.. Nitefinder grows up

From Baidu, and the same dude with the interesting table cloth/bed spread comes a decent image of the upcoming proposed N-Strike Elite Firestrike. From what I can tell, it's a single shot evolution of a Nite Finder; the secondary switch/trigger on the grip activates the red light under the barrel.

Feel free to speculate and discuss- I just bring you the news:D

Koosh Galaxy Space Agent: Bolt Action Ballz

Early this year, several reports from the NY Toy Fair came out of the new 'Koosh Galaxy' blaster line from Hasbro; a series of ball shooting gear from the makers of Nerf that are aimed at a much younger market. (Hasbro have also reimagined the Koosh brand from the weird tentacley looking soft 'ball' thingy to now helm this 'Galaxy' line)

Of the Koosh Galaxy lineup, the one blaster that had an actual trigger was the "Space Agent", but I hadn't been able to find out a whole lot about it so in the end, I just went ahead and got one myself from Amazon and thought I'd give it a go...

Rumours: more on the N-Strike Elite Jolt

There has been much discussion and speculation of a Nerf N-Strike Elite Jolt going around lately, but this was brought to my attention this morning on Tao Bao- and it looks pretty much the real deal. 

I'm still thinking it may be just a Jolt repaint only accompanied by an Elite dart rather than anything new internally- for one there's no official release to say "All N-Strike products are now discontinued and anything painted blue and white in our line will now be more powerful" and it still sports the original N-Strike logo. 

Looks priddy though:) More pics after the jump (Thanks Andrew for the lead!)

Launch N Attack: From Concept to Prod..

Here's something interesting; we found these videos several months back and didn't realise until now that they ACTUALLY look like the original concept to the Launch N Attack blasters now available in stores. You can see from them that the blasters have been altered slightly (Eradicator was supposed to originally be a 12 shot it seems) and they've changed the branding and repositioned the line from it being "shoot down UFOs" to "technical training".  A few more vids after the jump:)

Launch N Attack Eradicator Rapid Attack Set: Lets get bizaaay!

One of the really cool things I'm liking about the toy blaster market atm is the way manufacturers are really in-tune with what the fans like and want. I've noticed this year a significant reduction in gaudy colours, with an increase in cool looking gun design. I'm also seeing new players in the market which is always pretty exciting to see what innovative new gear toy companies have come up with. 

Launch N Attack is a whole new line from a group called "Eyespy Toys". The blasters shoot foam darts, but the innovative angle behind these puppies is a secondary projectile system that shoots helicopter blade-like Discs high in the air; the idea is offering the user a sort of 'skeet shooter' like experience which the line calls a 'Technical Training System'. We got our hands on the impressive looking 'Rapid Attack' kit that comes with an Eradicator blaster, remote control and seperate RC Launcher that shoots the Heli-Discs. Worth checking out or just a gimmick? Our thoughts after the jump.

N-Strike Elite Hailfire- orange vs grey trigger

Following the previous post about the differences with the orange trigger and the grey trigger Retaliator, just a quick word that the difference between the orange trigger and grey trigger Hailfires is looking like the amount of juice powering the motors in the grey triggers- almost like some sort of limiter (I'm no electrical whiz here so apologies for the stupid speak!) stopping the motors from getting too excited. As one of the fellas said "it(the grey trigger Hailfire) just sounds sad". That being said, it was still consistent in accurately hitting the 10-12m ranges flat.

When Neil did do a voltage mod to the grey trigger Hailfire with some Trustfire batteries, everything got a whole lot more lively and exciting again. Difference between the orange and grey trigger Hailfires became rather negligible.

So, if you are a voltage modder, it's much the muchness really. And that's good news:)

N-Strike Elite Retaliator: orange vs grey trigger

A few months ago, we got the official word from Nerf that the new N-Strike Elite blaster line would have to be "detuned" for domestic distribution in accordance to several countries around the world's strict safety laws; "yay" for us, Australia being one of them.  Naturally, much speculation occurred within our community down under, as we pondered WHAT sort of modifications would be made to the line to reduce the power and distances of these new blasters given so much of the hype around the Elite line was ironically about it's improved power and distances!

We were lucky to be in the unique position to be able to compare an original US imported Retaliator (traditional orange trigger) with a to-be-released domestic model (grey trigger) and while I rarely crack open my blasters, I figured it was the question everyone was asking, so in the name of research, Neil from the Canberra + Southern NSW Dart Tag crew and I handed them over to the mad scientist fellas at "Make Hack Void" to pop 'em open and have a look see. Findings after the jump. 

Rumours: N-Strike Elite Firefly clip

We saw the pics on the back of the packaging- spotted on Baidu.com is what looks to be the upcoming N-Strike Elite Firefly clip. I'm not sure about the fluoro green colour of it as it kinda clashes with the blue and orange of the Elite schemes, but hey, I'm sure some people will think it looks fine:) Ironically the original Rayven looks a similar colour to this, but the new Elite Rayven will be.. the blue.

Not much else we can really say about it other than "it's coming" :) Cheers to Jason again for the tip!

Rumours: Another look at the Super Soaker Arctic Shock

Spotted on a German website 'Tamayk' is the upcoming Super Soaker 'Arctic Shock'.  For those of you who don't follow water guns, the original Arctic Shock came out the early part of the decade and was basically an air pressure water gun that had an ice core functionality that allowed you to.. well shoot freezing cold water at your targets. It looked like this:

The new version looks like it's got a large drum that presumably pays homage to this by also having some freezable compartment. While the new Arctic Shock LOOKS cool, it's not looking like it features a trigger, thereby condemning it to piston based water gun woefulness. And that's just not cool. 

Thanks to Lamlamo for the lead!

N-Strike Elite: Grey Triggers

Here's something interesting that I can't believe I missed. Checking both my Australian release Retaliator and Stockade, the triggers are grey, and not orange as per my US purchased N-Strike Elite Kit...

Meandmunch:Fall blowout sale

Aesthetic mods veterans Me and Munch are up there as one of my favourite props designers and we've gotten word that they've got some pretty mad decent deals on some of their one off blasters in time for Halloween.. or just because they look nice and you should buy them:D

Take a look over at their Deviant Art page or find them on eBay.

Rumours: Super Soaker X-Treme Hydro Pack

Our man Chenanio spotted some more intel on upcoming Super Soaker gear from Tao Bao; back in the day there were various backpack influenced water guns so it's great to see Hasbro bring back the Hydro pack.

As always, the product is often overshadowed by the back of the box.. check out some of the new kit!! 

Aesthetically they are looking tough, but hard to see if other than the Thunderstorm if they have triggers or not...

Nerf N-Strike Elite Stockade: Refined yet angry

With so much buzz for Nerf's new N-Strike Elite line going on, we were all so focused on the Retaliator, Rampage and Hailfire that out of nowhere another blaster in the Elite stable snuck in to the mix (to the point it hasn't even made it to the US yet). In a similar fashion to the Barricade RV-10 (it's original N-Strike counterpart)  the new Stockade sort of just..showed up. 

Flywheel fans who were a little underwhelmed by the Hailfire have been waiting for this to arrive; good news is it's confirmed the Stockade is going to be an Australian release this year. We're happy to say we got one- our thoughts after the jump.

Rumours: Vortex Diatron?

While we're at it, spotted by one of our readers Sean; also listed on the AB Gee website- A "Vortex Diatron(Multishot)" for 19.99 GB pounds. Interesting...

Rumours: N-Strike Elite Incinerator

Our man Jason did some more research into some of the new rumoured N-Strike Elite gear and came across AB Gee, a UK toy distributor site with some interesting finds.. We're going to speculate here and suggest the 'Incinerator' is the new Elite Nite Finder given it's name... but your guess is as good as ours. RRP of some of the new blasters as per the AB Gee site:

Triad (listed as Elite Jolt)- £3.99
Incinerator- £8.99
Strongarm- £ 10.99
Stryfe- £19.99

Rumours: Elite Firefly darts

Well, we all knew it was bound to happen. The Rayven was the surprise BIG hit last year in 2011 so it would make sense we'd be seeing it again in Elite colour scheme- interestingly it's still kept it's original name, unlike the Rampage and Retaliator.

Oh and.. check it out.. there just happens to be other nice finds to see on the back of the packaging:D

We received this intel multiple times throughout the night, but I'll give it to Chenanio for doing the TaoBao (naturally) trawl and for getting in first:) Thanks!

Blaster Pro Pump Action S2500: Up close and personal

When something new and/or different hits the market, we here at UT like to really give it the full work over to see how it stacks up to its own hype, so I was naturally pretty intrigued to hear of the all new 'Blaster Pro' line from the Maya Group. These blasters are an all new line deliberately aimed at an older (14+) market, with a more realistic look and feel, using a smaller but still similar water ball ammo to it's X-ploderz cousins (from the same company) .

What's really the game changer is these new guns are now sporting the all important triggers (complete with 'safety's') while still boasting some serious performances out of the box. We were pretty stoked to get our hands on the 'Pump Action S2500' model to have a play; it talks a big game but we put it to the test- our very detailed review after the jump.