Indigo Studios: Packaging Portfolio gives me a happy

As we featured in a below post, Indigo Studios are Hasbro/Nerf's choice for package design. I had a look at their design portfolio online and I think I nearly pee'd myself in excitement; check these out! 

That being said, chances are these ARE just design concepts, but HO-LY crap this would be some exciting stuff if these made it into production. The Spectre looks amazing in Whiteout colours..

 

Sonic series is cool and all, but I have to admit that any blaster that's released in the new Whiteout series is going to be on my Santa list this year..

Update: Unfortunately, the portfolio has been taken down. I'm not sure why this has occurred, but it reiterates that it's most likely these images in their portfolio are just demonstrative of what they can do, rather than it actually making official release. Please don't hound them for info- they're designers, not manufacturers.

All Brands Catalogue : reveals upcoming Nerf Vortex

We've speculated on Nerf's upcoming Vortex blasters and now, courtesy of some awesome intel from one of our readers Joshrox123, we've got the official names matched to the blasters (as well as some first look images of the official blasters) , courtesy of "All Brands Toys" online industry catalogue. 

The other official news we can tell you is the ammo refills are coming in packs of eight. Nifty:)

 

Thanks Joshrox123!

All Brands Catalogue :: Nerf Vortex Praxis
All Brands Catalogue- Nerf Vortex Nitro
All Brands Catalogue- Nerf Vortex Vigilon
All Brands Catalogue-Nerf Vortex Proton

Rumours: More on the white N-Strike variants..

 

Interesting news from one of our readers regarding these mysterious white variant N-Strike blasters:


"Once again Germany's blasted.de got more information- http://www.blasted.de/t1106/ while only your blog entrys are linked there on the first view, there is also a screenshot available of Muller's (large German drug store) internal order system spotting "exclusive NERF N-Strike White Blasters". Deploy, Nitefinder and Maverick."

Update 5-5-11 : A reader from our Facebook page has posted the screenshot of the Muellers internal ordering system- see below:



It's a shame though that it's the same lineup of Maverick, Nite Finder and Deploy as with the Sonic and Clear series. History would suggest that the Recon CS-6will be in there too, but it'd be very nice if it was something else. What do you reckon folks, do you think there WILL be a fourth blaster in the white variant? And while it probably WILL be a Recon, if you had your way, what blaster would you like to see have this white treatment?

Nerf Intel: who do you listen to? Longshot CS-6

From the Australian Toy Hobby and Nursery Fair 2011: Pic courtesy of Mousedroid.com

Over the past year or so, we've heard the well publicised news that the mighty Nerf N-Strike Longshot CS-6 has been discontinued; "get them while you can" was the reaction from our US friends. At the time, they were pretty hard to come by in Australia, so when they did show up occasionally, because of this rumour, we'd snap them up straight away regardless of their cost (around 80 bucks at times!) in fear of never getting one ever again. Whenever someone would say "ooh we have Longshots in Australia!" the doubters would still scoff and suggest they were just old stock from around the world that ended up on our shores. We of course, were not complaining:)

Flash forward several months, and consistently since November last year, we've seen Longshots EVERYWHERE. Almost any toy store that carries Nerf in Australia will at sometime carry the Longshot (including a pokey little toystore I stumbled across in Moss Vale, NSW and also in Kiama.. not the biggest places in the world btw) and the price of them is lower than they've ever been. Which ALSO suggests the stores are constantly getting in new stock, not just old ones that were discovered under behind a water cooler or something.

Now.. here at the Australian Toy Hobby and Nursery Fair 2011; the event to showcase upcoming releases..  the Longshot is clearly considered to be a part of the line up. Notice there's no Alpha Troopers, Spectres or Barrel Breaks visible, in which case, if we were to listen to "official" Australian sources, those blasters don't exist:) The Longshot definitely does though. It's no longer just a "I saw one at Kmart"- it's an official trade show display for the 2011 line up from Hasbro.

When it comes to Nerf Intel, we do our best to be as accurate and factual as possible, but even we can be mislead and make mistakes. Ultimately we think our readers are a smart lot (mostly! :P..) but suggest you'll just have to decide for yourself. As Buddha said:

“Believe nothing.
No matter where you read it,
Or who said it,
Even if I have said it,
Unless it agrees with your own reason
And your own common sense.”

Swarmfire + Quick 16 Packaging: first look

The Swarmfire Box. "Nerf's Newest Action Sport!"

Just goes to show we're not ALWAYS the first- if you want something, you can always find it without help:) We got some pretty decent intel (thanks AJ!) on the packaging for the upcoming Dart Tag blasters. Packaging means final release time so they should be on shelves REAL soon.. more importantly though, the boxes DO give away some stuff on what's in store..(ironic that I only JUST said "we don't know what the boxes look like" this morning)

Rumours: Maverick in UT colours?! (and we didn't even commission it!)

First...Blue. Then..Yellow. Clear. Green. White? I can see a rainbow..see a rainbow..see a rainbow tooooo...

Our special UTX project for some customised blasters is chugging away nicely, but ironically after we'd decided on blaster repaints in our Urban Taggers colours (white,black, orange and grey).. it looks like Nerf may have beaten us to it! I know, serious?!:)

Our latest intel has a photo of a new 2011 Maverick, suspiciously in the SAME colours that we were discussing.. (only I have no doubt our man's gonna do a better job). With so many fan paintjobs out there, I wouldn't blame you to cry..um.. "fan paintjob!" but apparently this may well be an actual official Nerf release .
ANOTHER Maverick. I know, serious?!

Rumours: Streamline Darts a no go for the Quick 16

Very scientific of us:)

Just in: our intel confirms the Quick 16, the latest of the new Dart Tag blasters is not compatible with Clip System streamline darts. Apparently if your lucky, the dart will dribble out of your Quick 16.. and if not, it'll just get stuck in the chamber.

I have no doubt all you modders out there can work something out in future; you're a smart lot:)

Rumours: Quick 16 Intel: The official.. manual! :)

Pages 1 + 2 of the Quick 16 manual. All you need to know. Sort of.

Well, you asked for it and we at Urban Taggers deliver! Ok.. so we got more intel on the new 'Quick 16' Dart Tag blaster in the shape of the official.. blaster manual:) Eric has managed to send thru scans which shows how the Quick 16 works. More importantly, the manual confirms 1) It's definitely called the "Quick 16"..in ENGLISH. 2) The darts load into the top slot as we've all speculated, and 3) Dart Tag shirts! More pages after the jump:)

Rumours: New Dart Tag darts.. swanky!

New Dart Tag darts. blue and white tips: priddy:)

We're getting more intel on the new Dart Tag gear coming out soon. First of all, we've got good word that Nerf will be bringing out new Dart Tag JERSEYS; yup instead of the naff vests of old, be on the look out for high tech looking tee-shirts... that I guess will be..furry:P

Finally.. check out the new darts. velcro tipped like any ordinary dart tag dart.. but pretty new blue and white? Niiice...

Rumours: Stampede ECS... 50?

50 round drum? Gives your Stampede real balls! :)

Throughout the night it seems someone out there sent this link to several of us Nerf bloggers; it looks like a 50 round drum to accompany the Stampede. 50 rounds?! It does sorta hang there like a...hmm. :P

I'd be more excited if I could see a better image or had more reliable intel on it. Albeit it IS hosted on the hasbro website, so that suggests it's the real deal; however from looking at the box art it looks like they've brought in the guy who empties their bins to take a crack at the Photoshopping cos it's kinda poorly done. The layout is amateurish and the perspective of the way the drum sits in the Stampede looks wrong; it also doesn't match the image of the drum in the right hand side.

What's your opinion folks? The real deal? Or dodgy brothers?:)

The link sent by "Anonymous"

Rumours: 'Quick 16' is apparently the official name for the Dart Tag '16'

Our man in the know, 'Eric' has confirmed that the official name for the new 16 round Dart Tag blaster will indeed be the "Quick 16". 

Wow. And I thought "Swarmfire" was bad. You'd have to think that at Nerf headquarters the guy who designs the blasters must be feeling a  lil' let down by the guy who designs the names.  Again, I'd be happy to be wrong on this one, but to date my intel has been pretty solid.

Either way, YES it's definitely the blaster that was first rumoured on the brochure/manual we featured last week. 

Rumours: Hot new 2011 Dart Tag blasters (SCOOP!)

First images of the new Dart Tag blasters. Seems Taiwanese love hard floors:)

Hot on the heels of the new Nerf Swarmfire are some first hand images of two more blasters in the new Dart Tag line from our contacts in Taiwan (who as suggested, will now be called 'Eric' :P  ). Now Dart tag blasters traditionally are sans clip, mainly because they use the velcro tipped darts that wouldn't fit and the games do not require huge amounts of ammo/reloading due to the limited duration of the matches. While the new blasters continue to adhere to the 'no clips' rule, it looks like the new Dart Tag line are definitely boasting a higher internal ammo capacity; our original Swarmfire maxed out at 20 automatic rounds and now we're happy to present to you a new 16 round assault blaster and a 6 round side arm.

The larger "Dart Tag 16" (still don't know the official name just yet);  holds sixteen dart tag velcro darts and is very similar to the Raider, both aesthetically and functionally as it too boasts slam fire ability. You can see it looks like it will support a stock, but the butt looks different to the Raider's. All that talk about banana clips? Guess it can be done..

The smaller "Dart Tag 6" still holds a decent 6 darts, and looks like it has a similar priming method as to either the Spectre (if it's spring loaded) or the Recon (if it's not),

Neither appear to be battery powered to the relief of more traditional Nerfers, however it appears tactical rails are well and truly out for the new Dart Tag blasters. Both sport the new "Bumblebee" inspired colour schemes which look pretty schmick in my opinion.

We'll let you know more as we know about it..but I admit we're pretty damn excited:)

Rumours: Super Soaker Tornado Strike- more pics

I'm in two minds on this one: aesthetically I LOVE it, it looks soooo tough and uses the new refillable water clips. However, being a glorified Super Soaker Helix, it IS a piston/syringe style blaster with no trigger, and does a stupid spinning barrel thing. Comes with a Raider/Shotblast style stock.

Rumours: Super Soaker Point Break- more pics

Super Soaker Point Break. Super Soakers are lookin' pretty sweet y'all!

The Super Soaker Point Break is an upcoming pistol/side arm style blaster that appears to adopt a genuine trigger/pressurised water tank mechanism.. which we at Urban Taggers really like:) It looks like the pump is under the muzzle of the blaster, water is stored in an internal tank at the rear of the Point Break, and the orange 'barrel' is.. cosmetic:) Features the all important tactical rail too. Looks schmick.

Rumours: More on the Super Soaker Hydro Cannon

Hydro Cannon. Boom baby!

A few more images and some info on what the upcoming new Super Soaker Hydro Cannon will look like. I know i've said it before but I'm really impressed with the designers on the new Super Soaker range; it just looks AWESOME.

Interestingly enough the Hydro Cannon doesn't seem to take the new water clips and it looks like it will store the water in the rear of the blaster. I'll also take a punt and suggest the hand grip at the front of the blaster will serve as the pump (like the way the N-Strike Raider cocks) to pressurise the air. Looks like there are three tactical rails on top of the blaster too. Comes with what looks like a detachable transparent shield with cross hairs printed on it:)

More info on the 2011 Dart Tag series

Swarmfire in full graphic designed font! Official:)

Swarmfire and a new looking blaster. Sorta raider-ish.. but not..

Our man in Taiwan (I'm gonna have to give him a name soon!) has sent through some pretty interesting information on the upcoming Dart Tag series. First up, for the doubters, you can clearly see "SWARMFIRE" in the corner, so that's about as official as we can get for now.

Secondly, check out the blaster wielded by our dude in the barrel.. Looks like that's a new blaster right there waiting to happen...

"Dart Tag line is going to be very different than the N-strike line. When N-stirke went for military and modular and standard clip fed, dart tag thrives on making the most different blasters. Therefore the new dart tag blasters look like clip-fed, but the clip is built-in, so no fast reload, but firing mechanism actually works like clip system."


More to come as we find out more!

Rumours: Super Soaker Clip refills confirmed

Water Clip Refills. Apologies for the crap quality images

Well as hoped, there will be replacement clips available for the new Super Soaker range next year. Apparently they have a 10oz capacity (about a 3rd of a litre)

Rumours: Super Soaker Scatter Blast + Point Break

Scatterblast "shot gun" and the Point Break "side arm"

More new releases for 2011- we've confirmed the new Super Soaker line up will also include the Super Soaker Scatter Blast and the Super Soaker Point Break. Sorry for the low quality pics, but I'm sure when they become more official (or I get my hands on them!) we'll offer you better images. Once again they're in the new white/blue/orange colour schemes.

From what we know, the Scatterblast is a pump action "shotgun" piston style blaster that is unique from other piston style blasters in that it has five nozzles, hence releasing five streams at once. It also sports the N-Strike compatible tactical rails.

The Point Break is a handheld pressurised water blaster, with the air pump under the muzzle. It too looks like it features tactical rails.

Neither of these new blasters feature the 'clips' as per the Tornado Strike and the Thunderstorm though.

Rumours: Super Soaker Hydro Cannon

OMG. I want.

Check this out; it looks like there's been some serious R+D on Super Soakers this season; this one looks AWESOME.  It's the Super Soaker Hydro Cannon: from what we know, It will be similar to the Super Soaker glory days with a pump/pressurised water mechanism- pull the trigger to shoot what hopefully looks like a high powered water stream. Super Soakers for the new season look to all be sporting the white/blue/orange colour schemes which I quite like.

It looks like it'll use the N-Strike compatible tactical rail accessories and seems to come with a detachable shield / sight accessory. Apparently it will also boast recoil action (maybe like the awesome CPS 2000) and should fire up to 35 feet! It's scheduled for a January 2011 release (US I assume) and will be around $26.95 US. Can't wait:)

Rumours: 'Swarmfire' is apparently the official name for the Dart Tag '20'

The Dart Tag "Swarmfire"

More intel on the unreleased 'Dart Tag 20'- yes it is a Nerf Dart Tag blaster, but my sources have confirmed the official name of this blaster will be the "Swarm Fire". Not sure how I feel about this, but it does keep with the "x-fire" naming convention as with the other Dart Tag blasters. So far, every rumour I've heard on the Nerf grapevine is true, but this is one I'd probably be happy to be wrong about:)

There's also another one due to follow this one.. the moment I find out more, I'll let you know.