Friday, June 14, 2013

Rant: Tek Recon- best foot forward


Following on from my earlier post about the dominance of Nerf and its foam dart stranglehold, imagine what it'd be like to make the gutsy move of developing your own brand of blasters in an already saturated market. What would you do? How would you go about it? It got me thinking as it's often a point of conversation regarding "what would I do if I wanted to design the ideal blaster?" and while most of us just talk about it, sometimes some people are awesome or crazy enough to actually do it. While I was writing the previous post, one line kept ringing in my head- an alternative to Nerf that may just have the goods to be a game changer in the toy blaster market.

Tek Recon is the new kid on the block; well they haven't even moved in yet but the anticipation and buzz behind this new line is pretty positive thus far and better than anything I've seen in the time I've been blogging for an alternative blaster. Considering all the blaster lines in the past that have come and gone, how successful do you think Tek Recon will be?
As a new player, I have to say Tek Recon have done a pretty good impressive job generating positive hype to date with minimal marketing budget. So what have they done right so far that has inspired such interest?


Firstly- form factor- they look INCREDIBLE. Non Nerf blasters are notorious for being poorly made- cheap plastics, rattly casings and gaudy paint schemes. The Tek Recon Hammerhead and Havok (in fact ESPECIALLY the Havok) are good looking blasters and from the images and my experiences with them in hand they look pretty solid and well built. There's a lot of detail and personality to them and they have enough aesthetic win here to keep our interest with semi realism in their designs but also with a modern futuristic feel to them. The design is a winner.

Performance- Tek Recon ranges boast over 75 ft which is about where fans have now set their expectations as what is considered a "reasonable" distance. They shoot pretty quickly with clip fed ammo- and fans like using clips:)  While this is a bare minimum to survive in the current blaster climate, it's desirable to achieve greater distances but given the likes of Max Force and Xploderz surpass this and still don't get fan love, I personally don't think this is a big deal.



Innovation- Here's where it gets a lil dicey- Tek Recon are using the much overused "real life video game" tilt- We've heard it from Laser tag lines like Battle Tag and Light Strike and watched them.. well kinda fail miserably. We've seen just how underused and disregarded Hasbro's augmented reality cradles for their new Lazer Tag lines are and how they're chalked up as a failed gimmick. AND we've seen other Kickstarter funded gear like App Tag (and I REALLY wanted to like these) have struggled to get kudos. Tek Recon have said they're looking to use the apps to be more inline with actual game play rather than just shooting imaginary cartoon bugs. Even with fan scepticism that bringing in online features is just a big fat gimmick, Hasbro haven't given up on it either and are adding these features to their upcoming Nerf blaster lines.SO not only are Tek Recon banking on a feature that's already a lil "how you going" for the community, they're also directly competing with a similar product released by the market leader! risky? Probably.

The way I see these apps effectively working is to make them a part of the blaster experience; using them for targeting, providing genuine environmental data such as when you're closing in on opponents/targets or when they're closing in on you, camera, gps maps and genuine communication between team mates. Sure it's no doubt fiddly but these are features that would enhance the blaster experience. Shooting cartoon bugs kinda doesn't. And.. Tek Recon delivers- all of the above is what the app is about. They're the closest I've come to thinking "hmm, I want this app" yet:)

The blasters themselves are pretty innovative in themselves. Semi auto fire, dual mechanisms to shoot with large capacity clips and no need to prime? Ability to alter the tension to allow for faster firing vs longer distances? Awesome.


Ammo: Where everyone falls:( Like I've said earlier, everyone's a foam addict. Why foam darts are so much more appealing than anything else, I do not know. Even Nerf's Vortex series that resulted in faster further, more accurate firing capabilities with well made XLR discs have still be considered to be the N-Strike Elite series' awkward brother and that's coming from the Nerf stable- how do we feel the fans will take to "rubber band" ammo? Disposable ammo such as gel balls or spit wads haven't been readily adopted, but will we see brightly coloured loops lying around all the house and yard? The main thing is they hit the distances, they seem pretty accurate, and they're brightly coloured and can be found and reused. They should work equally as well both inside and out which gives versatility.

Marketing:  Massive kudos here. If you're a small up and coming company looking to break into an already saturated market with a clear leader, you HAVE to be think differently to the rest. Tek Recon have been a poster child on how to use social media effectively- from engaging with community bloggers such as ourselves, to being as transparent and open about their kit and genuinely listening to their followers in the actual product design, you've got an already established and growing community WANTING to see them succeed.  They update their social media regularly and respond to readers and actually learn from the community rather than just assume they know and tell the community how it's going to be. They've brought fans along for the ride from the very beginning and been very humble and friendly in the process (maybe its because they're Canadian!)

That all being said- retail's a fickle thing- we're only speculating, and there's no real way we can really know how successful Tek Recon is going to be. But at this stage, all I can say is everything they're doing seems to be working. We're not easily won over on new products and pride ourselves on being impartial- I'm still sceptical of the whole smart phone app integration but despite that I am genuinely excited about getting my hands on the Havok and Hammerhead as soon as possible. I think Tek Recon have a lot of things going for it- fingers crossed!

22 comments:

  1. One problem these blasters cannot be modified to be more powerful because the power source comes from the ammo its self not the blaster

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    1. I'm sure it's possible for those who are a little more adventurous on the mod scene. I'd personally look into extending the draw of the hook mech so that it pulls the ammo back further. There's probably also similar sized o-rings that exist that have some different kinetic properties that allow for further ranges, so I'd wait for blasters to get into the community before shooting it down

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    2. Look on the bright side: you can stuff 25 rounds of ammo that goes the same range as nerf into an 6-inch long magazine, and yet the 18 round magazine from Nerf is like a foot long!

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    3. ... only bad blasters should be modded

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  2. Excellent write up- I always like how UT is quite subjective about what it writes and isn't biased for the sake of being biased. I can really get a good understanding of the pro's and con's of this. While I was also skeptical myself about non dart ammunition and didn't participate in the crowd sourcing, I am very interested in getting these blasters!

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  3. Those rings, being (presumably)rubber, they aren't going to condense and become useless overtime like NERF darts will.

    I'm hoping that these come to retail over at BC.

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  4. Good point on durability, how often do you get jams on clip fed blasters simply because your dart was squashed or bent? The firing mechanism on the Tek Recon stuff will also hopefully be reliable as it is pretty simple, there are no sliding and interlocking parts like on a plunger mechanism, or sliding breech components.

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  5. Tek Recon has smaller ammo, this causes greater capacity in a small space. Tek Recon looks cool and has greater capacity, however so far they don't have any automatics and the Havok is no more powerful then the Hammerhead. All what I see as modding potential is alternative ammo and bigger clips.

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  6. What's that black part on the bottom of the Hammerhead barrel? Is it a laser pointer? Can it be taken off?

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    1. It is the Hammerhead's pump action trigger.

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  7. The big question in my mind is; What is the plastic like? Is it cheap? Does it feel ridiculously light (considering it is almost completely hollow) and how durable will their products be?

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    1. The Blaster is very high quality. I don't think I've ever felt this from any Nerf blaster I have. the weight is very off-guard catching. You don't expect it! There are basically no faux bolts or screws, it has real allen key, and screws. Very satisfying to know you have a quality, beefy blaster.

      The rounds have a durability of several thousand shots per NRG round. Nerf darts I don't believe come any where near that.

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  8. my one thought is this, not everyone has a iphone or smart phone which is prolly why ltar got screwed, If they release a tiny little smart device (just enough to use the app) sell it for 50-60 then its payable, because you then for 100 can play by yourself or with a team and fans would switch easier.

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    1. I agree on the idea of a $50-$60 dumbed down smartphone. I for one am not keen on attaching my smartphone onto something that is going to get knocked around &/or dropped & don't have the money laying around to replace my phone if it gets destroyed during a NERF/Temp Recon game. Plus though there are not many in this comunity, a non tech savey person would certianly appreciate not having to figure out how to download the app if these dumbed down phones came preloaded.

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    2. He told us what happened when it dropped: the blaster weighted itself downward and the iphone was takes out unharmed.

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  9. Excellent write up! I think if you are a fan you have to support something that has tried to change the game, even if its just buying a blaster. I think Hasbro could survive entirely without the NIC, it's core market is really 8-12yr olds and it does very well out of them. TekRecon have recognised what the NIC is well aware of, namely that older kids and adults love an "excuse" to play with Nerf. Tek Recon is clearly aiming at the 13-19 bracket, where app gaming is most popular and smartphone ownership is pretty high. Adult players are an added bonus not the core market. Fans and bloggers have been given a chance to develop aspects of the project, this is clearly a good thing and shows hope for future development.
    I think the onus is now on us to put our money where our mouth is and buy the blasters, test them, try the app then see how the company responds to this "testing!"

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  10. Retail (like space) is a cold, hard bitch.
    Best of luck to the Tek Recon team.

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  11. To be perfectly honest, I could care less about the virtual aspects of this thing.

    -This isn't really a solution for hit-tracking (the only thing really missing from most nerf battles) or a cost-effective solution to voice communication (unless every single one of your friends just so happen to have smart phones, in which case there are likely already better apps out there for that sort of thing).
    -The sound effects are also completely cheesy and un-needed, and it sounds like in order to disable them, you have to completely disable sound.
    -You need everyone to have a smartphone/ipod in a decently-sized area, very solid cell phone or wifi signal, and a large group of people to really take advantage of the features. I don't know many people with access to every single one of those things.
    -The crosshair doesn't sound all that useful since it seems like it's either impossible or simply impractical to center it properly.
    -Vision modes seem either pointless or imbalanced (X-ray? Really?), and we haven't seen anything on whether or not game options allow people to disable them.
    -The ammo counter is probably the only seemingly-useful thing out of the features, but it's hardly essential.

    I really think everyone's much more excited about the blasters than the software, and unless they really bring out something truly revolutionary tech-wise, it's going to stay that way.

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    1. Hey there - those are some interesting opinions on the app. We want to create a completely innovative game play incorporating technology. We're always open to ideas on how to continuously improve our product/app. We welcome your ideas on what you think would be helpful in the app or what you think we currently have that isn't helpful. Feel free to send us a message on facebook with any ideas! www.facebook.com/tekrecon

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  12. There is a part of me that just wants the pistol one BECAUSE it is loaded like a pistol inside the grip. I'm hoping to get hold of one of these if I can - if they're not UK-bound by Xmas my birthday's in April. Need to check out more on these, great post! :D

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  13. i do my nerf wars INSIDE, so to me 45 ft. is a reasonable range. The 75 feet feature is unused for me... Tek Recon looks really revolutionary, and i would like to get a hold of the pistol at least, because to me the pistol is AWESOME.
    nice post. ill be looking out for these.

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