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?

Rant: Is it REALLY "Nerf or nothin'?"

There's only one choice...?

Over the last few years, new blaster lines have come and gone; they've all at the time emerged as an innovative new product hoping to claim their stake in the competitive toy blaster market and to make more than just a tiny dent in Hasbro's considerable presence. It's been a tough run though; even when good gear is released from a Non Nerf manufacturer and fans praise it, it serves as more of a novelty or "something different" for a short time before fans run back to Nerf and the gear is no longer of use.

With Nerf being not only the dominant brand, but also the default name for any type of blaster these days (Parents especially are schooled pretty darn quickly when they dare to get their kid something that's NOT Nerf- Cosmic Thruster aside!) there's not really a whole lot of reason for a fan to get anything else. So what is it that makes fans so loyal? Is it based on solid arguments or are we all just sheep? Let's explore this...

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.

And now for some lighter subject matter: Max Force Shadowhawk

You're either SWAT.. or you're not. (you're a babe with no pants on)

Ok, soo.. now we're currently back up, I might as well take advantage of it all and get some of the posts I was wanting to publish a month ago:) And what better way to kick it all off than to do the OTHER thing Urban Taggers is known for.. pics of girls with blasters. :D We thought we'd go back and show case some of the mad innovative blasters from last year- so here's the Max Force Shadowhawk- perhaps one of the longest blasters ever made. Max Force made news by making the humble spitwad cool again. (I still have the dried remains all over my apartment ceiling and cupboard doors).

More pics after the jump:)

Rant: 'Official' Rayven madness

Rayven assault! Pic courtesy of Canberra and Southern NSW Dart Tag 

The question we at UT get more than anything is "when will *insert blaster here* be available in *insert place here*. We for the life of us can never predict- and a classic example of this is the last 48 hrs, which were pretty crazy for Australian Nerf fans and the much anticipated Rayven CS-18...

The 2011 Urban Taggers Christmas Giveaway!

UT Santa keeps the AT on him at all times. He's not giving THAT away:D

Jingle Jingle, Christmas is coming- 12 days to go exactly, so what better time to throw ourselves in to the Christmas cheer and start giving away some pretty mad stuff?  More after the jump- and you're not gonna wanna miss this..Yup, to our international friends, this goes to you too:)

Max Force: Shadow Hawk 100 Trigger Mod.. Ubercool!

Max Force is awesome; we at UT love the gear. It just lacks.. a trigger. So check this out from one of our readers..a vid on a very cool trigger mod, right down to specs on how he did it. I'm suitably impressed:)

Max Force Crossbow 65: Packs a punch..if you can hit them:P

We picked up a Max Force Crossbow 65 during the Target big toy sale; I've been toying (haha) with the idea for a while, and the savings were worth the purchase. the Crossbow basically looks like a beefed up version of the Max Force Maximizer; basically the same other than the crossbow bar attachment which gives it more stretch at thus gives it the proposed 65feet distances (vs the Maximizer's 60). I don't actually own a Maximizer, but from using a friend's, I'd suggest the main unit is pretty much identical.  (I never was a fan of the name 'Maximizer'.. it makes me think of weird pumping devices..!!!) 

It's got some serious punch on it, and I'm loving the ranges.. I just have trouble actually HITTING my target..

Rant: X-Ploderz in Australia: Have they missed the boat?

The new Xploderz XGround Poun...meh who cares?!

A friend of mine finally got his hands on one of the "new" X-ploderz blasters for me to look at; we've been getting various reports over the last month that the line of wet ball projectile blasters from the Maya group have been finally making their way to Australian shelves.

While this is good and well, I really wonder if there are that many people in Australia that actually really care. To be honest, I can't help think that the Maya Group may have missed the boat in bringing them here to a market that may have already moved on.

Max Force Shadowhawk: But does it go with my heels?

As posted on our Facebook page. I'm thinkin' pretty schmick.... This would have been a pain to do given they're rather.. not fun to pull apart:)

Max Force Vigilante justice?:)

We've been receiving quite a number of emails lately from parents; thank you so much to our readers for taking the time to let us know your thoughts on the toy blaster world and how much you're liking our blog. A few days ago we received one that had me very very amused and I just had to share it with you; this one came from a mother who from our review had bought the Max Force Shadow Hawk for her son...

Dear Pocket and the Urban Taggers clan,

I wanted to write you letting you know I have been a very big fan of your blog for many months, and have taken much of your recommendations and advice on new "blasters" on the market for my kids. They are religious fans of Nerf, while my husband the big kid himself is always going on about the old super soakers he had as a teenager so it is a topic that brings us all together.

Something that I thought was very amusing happened to us last week and I thought I would share it with you even though I normally would not condone this type of behaviour! Suffice to say we've had no retaliation or repeat offences thus far so fingers crossed!

For months, our street has been experiencing considerable amounts of vandalism and graffiti between the walkway outside our house from neighbour hood drunk teen pranksters. It has been difficult to catch them in the act, but the other night we were so lucky as to spot two teenaged boys sitting by the side fence breaking glass bottles and "tagging" the electrical box. Joshua, my 13 year old son was the first to spot them and alerted my other boy Nick who is 16, and my husband Dan.

Now...Dan and I had just given Joshua a new Max Force Shadow Hawk based on your Urban Taggers review, for having fantastic grades at school.

Of course boys being boys Joshua originally went about using it to deal with our pigeon problem in our upstairs balcony but this time around, he decided with his brother and my husband that he would use it for something else. Apparently the vandal and his friend were making quite the ruckus and had been there for a good 5 minutes. Nick and my husband went on to lean out Joshua's bedroom window balcony and under the cover of darkness, proceeded to shoot the vandals (and the fence) with quite a degree of accuracy with the spitwad gun!!

My husband pointed out that due to the Max Force's high velocity firing functionality, the spit wads would just explode on impact but it made it very difficult for the vandals to know where the shots were coming from, let alone in the dark. Unlike Nerf darts, the ammunition was wet and could not be easily identified especially under darkness, and because the bullets were completely disposable so there was no need to retrieve anything afterwards. While it was completely harmless, there was enough of splat on impact to scare the bajeezus out of those ratbags.

My husband and boys came back down stairs quite satisfied with themselves and could not stop talking about it to me all evening. They have gone on to buy more clips and another Shadow Hawk and are interested in other guns in the Max Force line too. As long as it's not in the house, I don't mind!

Sincerely

Sarah J

Light Strike: A 'blink and you'll miss it' video feature

Target's upcoming mid year toy sale will be the last of the big retailers to do their rendition of "Australia's biggest toy sale". On the whole, it's similar to the other sales as far as Nerf and Max Force is concerned other than the variances in price, but the thing we're most interested in is they seem to (at least for the time being) have the exclusive rights to the new WowWee Light Strike laser tag line.

So far we've seen the dorky official promo vid, and we've seen various promo pics, but this "sneak preview"  from the Target VIP mail out shows just that little bit more; have to admit the blasters DO look better than I thought admittedly. As always I'm not particularly impressed by the 'enthusiasm' from the video hosts- nor do I really understand why Light Strike should interact at all with the world of Light Sprite fairies.. but hey.. any intel is.. intel:) 0:56 is where it all happens.. or watch the whole thing and feel suitably..dumber for it:)

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..

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?

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:)

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

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.

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

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.