Setups: Gear Up Recon

Before I get back in to the action here on this blog, I'll need to do an announcement. The reason why I've been away from this blog lately is a very special reason; on the 7th of November 2012, my long time partner and I became first time parents to a beautiful baby girl. I know that most of my readership probably aren't parents, but those who are will definitely understand that Nerfing becomes a back seat project when you become a parent, but you do learn to balance all aspects of your life eventually. Perhaps one day we'll share the same interests (my dad and I are both motor racing fans and well in to bicycles) but for now, her priorities are firmly set on eating, sleeping and burping (tough life much?).

But don't fear! For I am still here. Today I bring a setup to the floor, my personal Gear Up Recon. Over time, this has seen a few different changes but with Slydev 3D products starting to gather steam, the options are ever expanding and it's now possible to have enough accessories on a Recon to sink a ship.

For this set up I have here, I've used a Slydev triple Nerf rail adapter on the lower rail of the Longstrike barrel to be able to mount both a light and a foregrip, as well as anything else I want on the other side (Jolt connector perhaps?). Top side I've got a Slydev phone mount on the slide rail. This piece can be bought with an Iphone 4 case already glued on, or bought separately to glue your own phone case on. You can then record footage from your phone as a gun mounted camera, or if you're really keen, use it for communication between team mates (send a photo of the opponent's base back to your team?). Moving back, You'll notice the duct tape mag pouch, an adaptation of HDingo's YouTube tutorial. Top all that off with an N-Strike bandolier and a 12 dart elite mag in the blaster, and that is how you load the Nerf Recon like a pack-horse. hope you enjoy! -Rolley

Links updated

I have finally updated the links page, adding an Australian based Nerf blog, Outback Nerf, Skurl's lazer tag page, The Hive Mind, Lasagna678's mod blog, and finally added the forum and group I'm a member of, Oz Nerf and Brisbane Nerf Group. Head on over and check out the blogs and groups, as well as the Slydev store.

Speed Foam Warfare: 23/9/12

If you know me personally, you'll know that I'm always struggling to get to or organise private wars, let alone  make it to a public war held on a set date. However, I did manage to finally make it to my first public foam warfare event held on the 23rd of last month.

This war was organised through Brisbane Nerf Group and was a speed foam warfare event, so high powered air blasters were not allowed. For $15, you got the use of aftermarket darts (informer snap cap darts) and a raffle ticket for a prize to be drawn during the day. To be honest, I had no idea what to expect, nor what to bring, so I just threw in a Rampage and Retaliator in to my bag, along with a bandolier strap and a hell of a lot of clips. As it turned out, that was a pretty good choice but I still had a lot to learn.

The event field was set up in parklands at Spring Hill, near Brisbane. When I arrived I helped set up under the direction of Thahn and Clem, who were well prepared. The field came together as an array of markers and flags for objectives and spawn points, cardboard boxes as semi destructible cover and tarps strung between trees. Every effort was made to provide an even field for both teams and to create interesting flanking pathways and places to hold down in. All this allowed for a bunch of awesome game types and some pretty intense shoot outs.

The back half of the field

When I got in to the action, I quickly found out that you don't want to be rocking up with a stock blaster. these guys were serious, with blasters that well out-ranged my elite gear and with aftermarket darts, were also incredibly accurate. That said, the limitations on air blasters did allow for anyone with an under powered blaster to still be competitive, it just took a little more careful planning and tactics. The games moved very fast and I did find myself using the Rampage to rush hard, but quite often my attempts were thwarted early on by being sniped by someone well out of my range, and when that happens to be from someone's heavily modded Longshot or Triple Shot, you certainly know about it! So, this is when I learned to play smarter. If I didn't have range, I would have to rely on flanking and the element of surprise. So I resorted to sprinting to cover as soon as the game started, wait for a gap, then move up to cover closer to my target, and hold it down. The slamfire goodness of the Rampage made it difficult for anyone to get past me and allowed me to get a few tags on people who would normally have nailed me with their sniper cannons from way off.

That damn maniac with that Retaliator pistol! Oh, wait, that's me.

This didn't work for every game mode, however, and I couldn't use a Rampage in pistol rounds, which were good fun as well. That's where the Retaliator made it's mark. A clip fed pistol in a pistol round is almost as great as a volt modded stampede in an ordinary round. The high refire rate is handy when you're facing 3v1.

The whole day was well run, and the use of referees helped keep everything fair. Getting an opportunity to meet the Brisbane nerfing community was awesome, and taught me things I didn't even know about yet. It's safe to say that the community is very friendly and welcoming, which gives me a great deal of faith in this young and developing sport of foam warfare. Anyone interested in future events around Brisbane should join Brisbane Nerf Group and start getting involved with the community and keep an eye out for upcoming events. Get into it!

Back in the Day: Nerf Secret Shot II

Annnd I'm back. And I'm coming back with something a little different too. I recently picked up a Nerf Secret Shot II, which was originally released in 1999. This pre-dates N-Strike by 4 years, so I wasn't really sure what to expect from a 14 year old blaster that was second hand.

When I got it, this Secret Shot II was in pretty mint condition, with the exception of a small leak coming through the barrel (most likely a valve sealing issue). It's got a brilliant red, black and yellow colour scheme and is a mega-dart firing air blaster. It's manual loaded via the barrel, and takes 5 or 6 pumps via the handle to fire. But the real kicker, is that the scope on ton is not actually a scope, press the button under the trigger and it flips down to act as a barrel for a second dart. Pretty cool! It is definitely not the tacticool style Nerf blasters of today have become, and it has a kind of top heavy beefy feel, like it's a hand held cannon or something,

Range on this unit was something I was surprised at, even with the leak, it manages to hit 50 feet most times with pretty good accuracy. Even by today's standards, that's respectable for a stock blaster. I have seen a couple of mod guides for it, which involve a barrel replacements and plugging the over pressure valve, which claims to get over 100 feet. The problem is, I'm not really sure I want to mod this unique piece. This would make for a pretty awesome sidearm if modded to take streamline size darts, but on the other hand it's still got it's mint looks.

What do you think? Should I leave it stock? Or do I do a barrel replacement and try to fix that leak? Leave a comment below! September Speed Foam Warfare event coverage next post!

Update!

Just in case anyone was wondering why there's been a lack of posts lately, it's because I'm still currently waiting on internet to get connected at my new place. In the meantime, I've still been active with Nerfing and I have a ton of content coming soon.

Being limited to a smartphone to do blogging on makes it pretty difficult to upload high quality photos, but I can tell you I have a couple of reviews coming up, some battle testing and some local nerf war coverage plus more.

Until then, here's a photo of a guy weilding way too many blasters.

Tactical Tag and the Nerf Hailfire

Image courtesy of Tactical Tag

One of the blasters from the new Nerf N-Strike Elite line that I won't be reviewing is the Hailfire blaster. This is not to say that I don't want to review it, but basically due to cost and the impracticality for the wars I go to, it's not really a wise investment for my already tight budget. However, I can point you in the direction of a nice hands-on style write up of the Hailfire blaster, along with a pretty amusing test video.

Both are by Bazookafied of the Tactical Tag blog (and also writer for Nerf Mods and Reviews). The write-up can be found in this magical coloured text, while the video of 'Zook going to town with 144 darts can be found in the land of link text also.

I would also like to take this quick opportunity to thank Bazookafied for the support of this blog recently, his links back to this blog have helped the readership grow and also helped this blog to finally crack the 40,000 views mark this month. While at the moment I haven't had a whole lot of time to work on this blog thanks to my job sucking up all my free time, I do still have a few things planned for next month, so do check in from time to time. -Rolley

Iron sights and more by SlyDev

Not too long ago I reviewed a 3D printed part from SlyDev that allowed you to attach your Nerf Jolt to any Nerf tactical rail, and I thought it was pretty good, so when Joey announced that the iron sights that he'd been working on for a while were now available in the SlyDev store, I went straight on over and ordered a set. Joey also threw in some other parts to review with my order, so I'll cover those in this post as well.

In the package, I received a full iron sight kit, which includes one back piece and three front pieces for different ranges, a glue on 4cm Nerf style rail, a glue on double dart holder, a glue on an 8cm picatinny rail and a second back piece for my iron sights (I liked the idea of a black rear sight and orange front sight). All of these parts of of great quality, especially for the low price you can get them for on the store, but I'll start with the glue on rails.

Both rails can be attached to any flat surface (or rounded, if you've got some skill in glueing things) and have fantastic tolerances. The 4cm Nerf rail is ideal for tight places and holds attachments very well. I stuck mine on to the side of my rampage at an angle that the supersoaker shield would sit nicely. I tried shaking the blaster as hard as I could and neither the shield nor tactical light would fall off, so I'd say that it actually holds on to attachments better than a lot of Nerf rails. The 4cm Nerf is available for $3 +$2 shipping and an 8cm version is available for $6 +$2 postage. I haven't mounted the picatinny rail to anything yet but I did mount my red dot sight to it and it fits on there perfectly. In the past, I've played around with designing BMX parts and I know that getting tolerances right requires lots of careful measurements, and seeing this rail fit picatinny parts so well impresses me. Perhaps it might look good on my Xplorer grip Longshot... These sell for $5 +$2 postage, or a 4cm version is $3 +$2postage.

Wish the Rampage had a shield? Problem solved.

Next, the double dart holder. I think this would go right at home on any manually loaded pistol type blaster or perhaps a double barrel shotgun blaster. As with the rails, the quality is great and darts hold firmly without being crushed. This can be glued to any flt surface, just like the rails and is available for $2 +$2 postage.

Top: Rear sights.
Bottom: Front sights.

Finally, one of the sweetest aftermarket attachments available is the iron sights. Available separately or as a set, there are 3 front pieces and one back piece to chose from currently. Each of the pieces attach to a Nerf rail via a side screw. The front pieces are all a different height, no drop for high powered air blasters, medium drop for modified blasters, and high drop for stock and lightly modded blasters. The different drops mean that you automatically angle your blaster up to compensate for the fall of the dart as it travels, but you can also mount the pieces closer together to get more angle or further apart to get less, depending on what you prefer. Mine found their home on my Rampage and they look pretty mean. Individual iron sight pieces are $3 +$1 postage, or $10 for the set with $2 postage.

I can't lie, I love these sights!

These little parts are starting to shape up as some of the most innovative small parts that the scene has been needing for some time, and at prices that won't destroy your wallet too. Good news is, SlyDev now ships to the U.S for a flat rate of $13 too, so our northern buddies can get a hold of these as well. I'll bet that a few HvZ players will snap up iron sight sets and at $10 + postage, I can't see why not. For more info or to purchase any of these products and others, head to the SlyDev Store. Thanks again to Joey and SlyDev for sending my these parts for review!

Review: Nerf Elite Rampage and Retaliator

Release dates that Nerf set don't really hold much integrity anymore, especially since anyone can pick up some of the N-Strike Elite line way early from amazon.com. By way early, I mean, if you live in the U.S, you could have had your hands on these about a month ago, but I had to wait for longer shipping times due to me living in Australia. Oh well, sucks to be Nerf I guess. Now, I present the Rampage and Retaliator, the first announced blasters for the N-strike line. Let's start with the Retaliator.



The Retaliator is basically a remodel of the ever popular Recon. I loved the Recon, if you couldn't tell from my review of the gear-up version, So I was pretty optimistic about the Retaliator. Nerf made quite a few changes on this blaster, really the only things that are the same is the barrel shell and the blaster shell itself. It features a foregrip instead of the light, no top sight, a 12 dart mag, barrel with top and bottom rails and a totally new stock, all of which are removable. While the stock is pretty short, it is very solid, and the fitment of all parts is very good. All these attachment points mean you can build this blaster in to just about any style of blaster you see fit. Internally, it's had a massive upgrade, a direct plunger system in place of the feeble reverse plunger, similar to the Longshot's system but shrunk down to fit the shell. This increases the efficiency by a hell of a lot, more air pushed with less dead space equals more power!

"They said I could be anything I wanted, so I became awesome!"

Performance from this blaster with the new elite darts is insane for an out of the box blaster. I do have the 75ft version, and it is definitely hitting those ranges with angle. At close range it will certainly hit pretty hard with great accuracy. Longer ranges gain a fair amount of spread, but nothing like the inconsistency of the old streamlines. (This is actually taking a long time to write this post, because I keep getting distracted by the Retaliator next to me, because I keep shooting impromptu targets in the room... like coke cans and doorknobs...) The downside to the Retaliator is that it still features the same clumsy top slide priming as the Recon, but that can be fixed with this bolt handle mod, or possibly the Xplorer recon slide. Speaking of mods, there are already a few mod guides circulating YouTube and a nice write up on the Modworks blog. Aftermarket mod kits are available through Xplorer, and apparently Orange Mod Works is working on their own kit too. It's really too early to tell what sort of potential can be achieved from these blasters, but I'll say that 90ft+ is totally possible.

Now, on to the Rampage. Not unlike the Retaliator, the Rampage is also a remodel and lovers of the raider will go nuts with this. Unfortunately, Nerf opted to not include a stock, but offers a much more sensible centre feed 25 dart drum mag instead of the massive offset 35 dart drum, so you do lose a bit of capacity, but 25 darts is still a decent amount and mobility is greatly improved. Internals are pretty much the same as the Retaliator's, but it features slam fire capability and is built for side feeding of darts rather than bottom feed. The build quality is again very good, in fact I'd say this blaster's priming mechanism feels a little smoother than the Raider's.

I do feel like this is now the ultimate rush blaster, as it touts the same insane power and accuracy as the Retaliator, although slamfiring will obviously increase the spread of your darts due to the movement. For indoor wars and restricted spaces, dart spread at range wouldn't really be an issue, as the benefits of the short frame and overwhelming slamfire capability coupled with ridiculous power from stock blaster far outweigh any loss of accuracy. Mods are essentially the same as the Retaliator's, however as far as I know, no aftermarket mod kits are available yet, although that's likely to change in the near future, and again, I'd suggest that it's potential could possibly be 90ft+, but no one really knows how far this will go yet.

Intimidating?

Both blasters are very impressive releases from Nerf, and although I had hoped that more new designs would appear rather than remodels of old basters, I can say I am very glad they revisited these two. The Recon and Rider were actually the very first Nerf blasters I had ever used, and feel a little nostalgic every time I pick the Rampage or Retaliator up. But then I pull the trigger and realize that it's halfway through 2012, and these Elite blasters mean serious business. Before anyone asks, yes that is an upside down 35 drum mag in the last picture, I find it kind of a compromise between practicality and massive ammo capacity. To find out how to do that mod, see the links below. To sum up, I need to give out a pair of scores. For the Retaliator, I'll throw out a 9.5 out of 10. I would have liked to see slamfire appear on this one and that's what makes it fall short, but really, it's still impressive as hell. The Rampage gets a 9.5 also, basically because of the lack of accessories that come with it. A shield or stock (or both) would have got it all the way home, but alas, Nerf skimped. I do look forward to seeing if Nerf come up with something totally new again in the new year apart from that god-awful Hailfire ..."thing". I can bet that these two blasters here will sell very well, and will be extremely hard to beat.

Links:
Reverse clip mod
Orange Mod Works
Xplorer Recon rapidfire grip (May fit Retaliator?)
Xplorer Xpower kit for Retaliator

Nerf Longshot: Xplorer grip overhaul

This is my revamped Nerf Longshot. I've actually had it for a couple of years, with just the paint job, custom barrel and AR removal. Since the paintjob is not suitable for public wars, and it's ranges weren't spectacular, I only ever used it for private wars. I decided to give this battle-worn a bit of an overhaul for a party that I was told to bring a Nerf gun to because the host decided it'd be a fun idea to tell everyone to bring a Nerf gun, and see what unfolds.

Before I get to what unfolded, I'll explain the blaster first. For the internals, I cleaned up the AR removal from the dodgy drilling I did when I was just getting in to modding, improved the plunger seal, re-greased the plunger tube, added plunger padding and also lubricated any moving parts within the internals. Originally, I left the stock spring in because I wanted to keep the priming as light as possible for fast firing, but in the end I opened it back up and put a 6kg OMW recon spring in, which still primes pretty easily anyway.

On the outside, I installed the Xplorer shotgun grip and lubricated it's running track, and I have to say, I am absolutely stunned at how well made the grip is. It fits comfortably in the hand, feels incredibly durable and functions flawlessly. I also did something nifty with the mags. I used duct tape to create something similar to a Magpul, which aids in quick removal, speeding up my frequent reloads.

Duct tape magpul

So, I started out with an under-powered bolt action blaster and managed to create a blaster that can fire off darts almost as fast as a slam-fire blaster with more punch and slightly quickened reload times. Even though I didn't repaint the now quite dirty and worn paint, this is now one of my more favoured blasters. Though it's still not all that powerful when compared to a brass breeched LS with a monster pair of springs, I still feel that for the role overpowering of mid range (50ft or so), it does the job well and could compete with any slamfire blaster in that area.

Aaand it's over the fence... Whoops...

The first battle test was in fact, the party that I attended. I turned up with this blaster, a bandolier, 6 mags and around 50 darts, and was immediately greeted with the comment "Holy hell, you definitely came prepared!". The night started quietly with a few people asking questions about the blaster and a couple of other people with Nerf blasters talking about the new elite blasters. After everyone had a couple of drinks (this is an 18+ event, by the way), someone started popping a few shots of and a few brief shootouts were exchanged. An hour later, everyone had arrived, and about half had Nerf blasters for themselves and a couple to lend out. Soon after, all hell had broken loose and there was foam going EVERYWHERE, and I know I heard one person exclaim, "THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU TELL PEOPLE TO BRING NERF GUNS!!!!". This was around the point that the host and I had set up a bunker in the living room while I blasted away at anything I saw. I guess it escalated pretty quickly, but after putting hundreds of darts through the blaster and holding back the most ridiculous onslaught of crazy young adults with Nerf guns without  single jam, I came to the conclusion that this blaster passed the test. I spoke to the host the next day and he tells me that he found foam darts in places you couldn't have ever thought of, but overall, he decided it was a pretty damn good night.

So there you have it. My latest addition (or rather, re-addition) to my arsenal. Future mods might include the Orange Mod Works Immortal kit for the Longshot, but that kit has been quite a long time in the making so it's probably more likely to be an Xplorer composite bolt sled, plunger tube support and an 8 or 10kg spring. Time will tell I guess, but in the mean time, I'll have fun with this as it is!

For Xplorer kits and mods, go to: www.xplorersg.com

Slydev now shipping to the U.S

Last post, I mentioned Slydev making small parts for Nerf, including the Jolt rail connector that I featured, but unfortunately for my American readers, shipping to the U.S was not available at that time.

Well, now Slydev is. I have also noted that soon to come are Quadshot barrel spacers and after that, Nerf rail iron sights and something for the iphone/ipod (possibly a blaster mount???).

Most parts are avilable in multiple colours so those of you that live in the U.S will probably want to head over to the Slydev Store and check out the parts available.

Slydev: Rail adapter for Nerf Jolt

Slydev is run by Oznerf forum member Joey and has recently started developing small parts for foam dart blasters, from rail accessories to additional glue-on rails. The other day, I saw that he had posted about some Jolt related products, and a Jolt to Nerf rail adapter exactly what I needed so I ordered one through the online store.

It cost me a tiny $3 including postage and I must say, it is pretty sturdy.  The 2 part mechanism attaches to any Nerf rail via a small screw which pulls the 2 parts together to clamp on the the rail and your Jolt just clips in to the holder. I used mine to add my Jolt as an under barrel foregrip blaster for my Gear Up Recon. Unfortunately, shipping is only available Australia-wide at the moment, however international shipping may be available in the future. If you have a buddy in Australia but you live overseas, it's probably worth asking them if they can have it sent to them and then ship it to you.

I'm hoping to see a ton more parts from the Slydev Store, as I feel like the quality will improve even further as time goes on. So if you're Australian, head to Slydev store and have a look.

Review: Nerf Jolt

It's been quite a while since I've done a review so I thought I might take another crack at it, this time with the Nerf Jolt. This thing is packs a pretty decent punch in a tiny package and by far outclasses Nerf's previous mini blaster, the Secret Strike.

Check out that stylish font...

In the package which you can pick up for a tiny AU$4, you get the bright orange blaster and two whistler darts. It is a simplistic design resembling something like the repair tool from Battlefield: Bad Company 2 or the noisy cricket Will Smith brandished in the movie Men In Black. Thankfully, Nerf seems to have ditched the tacky yellow colour scheme and gone with a flashy orange, grey and black colours for the Jolt. The quality of the build is also fantastic, especially when these are retailing for pocket change. Unfortunately, but not unlike other mini blasters, it features no attachment rails, not dart storage and no loops for straps or hooks. So far, it's a very nice looking mini blaster, that is built really well, but very minimilistic.

 Interestingly, this is not a mini air blaster, but rather a direct plunger springer. The plunger is actually inside the handle with a pull down priming rod at the base. The trigger and trigger catch are the same piece and act on the plunger directly to hold it in the primed position and the outlet of the plunger system feeds directly to the air restrictor and barrel with very little dead space. Powering the system is a relatively strong spring, so I was expecting some decent ranges from this blaster which is so tiny. It's only a little larger than the Secret Strike, but still fits in my hands pretty well.

How does it perform? Extremely well! Ranges of 40+ feet were an unexpected surprise, and it has a nice little kick to it as well. Even though it has only a small direct plunger, it's still much more efficient than any reverse plunger system due to the minimizing of dead space and aligning the barrel and air restrictor so close to the plunger outlet. I must say, however, the great accuracy of this blaster is a little bit of a waste. Being such a small blaster, it is difficult to aim and that opens up a window for human error, even though the blaster itself is wonderfully on the mark. I can't help but feel that a rear sight would solve this problem to some extent. 

Modding potential for performance is limited, but also a bit redundant anyway. It is possible to remove the air restrictor, and a spring replacement would be a quick and easy way to get a slight improvement on power, but I would only expect a range increase of about 10 feet anyway. Cosmetically, this holds a little more potential. it could easily be integrated in to another blaster, or be used as a platform for great sci-fi or steampunk mods.

In summary, this is a fantastic little blaster, and while not everyone needs a mini blaster, I would recommend the Jolt over the Secret Strike any day. It outclasses any other mini blaster I have seen in performance, ease of use AND looks, despite it being one of the most simple and minimalistic blasters available. Couple that with a tiny price and you get a mini blaster worth a 9.5 out of 10 from this humble blogger.

NERFCORE Melbourne

I am back! Recently this blog has been on an unannounced hiatus due to a whole plethora of things going on in my life, including working overnight shifts at one of my jobs. And my word, there are some seriously interesting things that happen on overnight shifts when you're working in a quick service restaurant. Not really a story for this blog, but let's just say that one night I was witness to freakin' drug bust on the road next to where a work.

Anyway, I am back, still busy so there won't be super frequent posts, but I am here lurking. First thing I'll post about is something my attention was pointed in the direction of thanks to an anonymous comment, and that is NERFCORE Melbourne. They are leading Nerf parties based in Melbourne, aimed at adult Nerf fans over 18. The events sound pretty damn awesome, their "rumble in the jungle" event was held at Revolt Melbourne Art Space with a fully licensed bar, lights, dance floor and music as well as various prizes. I think the video pretty much explains it all. (Profanity warning, song in the video includes profanity, if you don't like profanity, turn the volume down I guess?)

I haven't seen anything like this before, so it's totally worth posting. It looks like one kickass fun time. Follow NERFCORE Melbourne on the website, Facebook page or Twitter. Times like this I wish I lived in Melbourne...

N-strike Elite Rampage internals

In my previous post I had speculated some things about the N-strike Elite range, in particular what the internals were. I know a ton of Nerf fans were hoping for a direct plunger system, and the good news is it indeed will be a direct plunger system inside the Rampage, and therefore one can assume the same for the Retaliator.

Check out Mod Works for full internal pictures. This is an interesting turn of events, since I was actually expecting a reverse plunger with a beefier spring. But this new system seems to have more modding potential, bigger air volume and space for a bigger spring or extra spring could potentially push the ranges of these blasters beyond 100 feet. Time will have to tell I guess.

N-strike Elite update

Procrastination always gets the better of me. A few days ago, some pictures were leaked of the upcoming Nerf N-strike Elite Retaliator and Rampage, which has revealed some very interesting information. Urban Taggers, back in fine form scored the leaked pictures from a reader and has the full lot of photos of the ACTUAL blasters on the blog, posted here.

Add caption

There's a bunch of things that I've found interesting about these leaked photos which you will need to go to Urban Taggers to view so that you know what I'm on about (I'm not going to take all the photos and take readership away from UT.)

First, I saw that both the inner barrel of the barrel extension on the Retaliator and the inner barrel of the Rampage are rifled. I can't really see this having much effect on the darts, but maybe it will give them a slight spin keeping them from going out of control. Next, the plungers. they look smaller at the back when compared to a normal recon. Perhaps a kind of direct plunger? Maybe a smaller plunger to allow for a spring that's thicker and therefore has a smaller I.D? Who knows, but the plunger system is definitely different. Now look at the clip for the Retaliator, 12 darts max, as suspected. Unfortunately, the Rampage looks to have no stock or shield as previous concept art had hinted at, but it does feature a 25 dart drum which looks great. The "elite" darts look like they are thicker and longer, but still use the same clips so it may just be the angle of the photo.

Finally, the one thing that got my attention big time, was that in one of the box art images, there is what looks like an elite Nitefinder, with the annotation next to it that says "look for FIRESTRIKE blaster in 2013 subject to availability". 2013? Subject to availability? C'mon! it's a re-done Nitefinder, get your act together Nerf! Do I also have to mention the fact that they also still have a blaster called the Strikefire? That said, it looks like the shell has actually been redesigned on this one, it looks like the light beam targeting has been done away with, with something else (dart storage??) in it's place.

Interesting. in other news, Urban Taggers ACTUALLY RECEIVED their promised pinpoint sights, after all that drama. +1 to Hasbro Australia, I guess. Let's hope things can all start getting back to normal among the blogging circles now!

inf0rm3r foam funding!

For some time now, Oznerf forum member has been supplying the community with a cheaper, higher performance alternative to stock Nerf streamline darts, available with lightweight tips, heavy tips for higher power blasters, and custom weighted snap caps for extreme performance. I have not used this form of dart commonly called inf0rm3r's blue foam yet, however I am told by many that they are far more accurate and better performing than Nerf streamline darts, work with both modified and stock blasters and are well worth getting your hands on. In fact, I actually haven't read a single bad review of these products.

For lack of another picture, this is
the one straight from the indiegogo

However, these products may disappear for good soon, as some decent funding is now needed to move forward with production. The first indiegogo.com (kind of the same as kickstarter) project for pre-cut lengths of the blue foam is now under way, and pledges start from just $10. $20 will get you some samples and beyond that are packs of pre-cut foam at $48 for 80M of pre-cut blue foam lengths, up to $1000 for 2000M of glow foam (yep, glow in the dark foam available, and more colours are a future possibility!)

inf0rm3r blue foam is what is used at most public Nerf wars in Australia. So, if you want an alternative to Nerf darts in the future, get behind this project! at the time of posting, there is $1921 raised out of $8500 with 34 days to go. I don't want to see this awesome product disappear before I even get to try it out, so I certainly will be pledging! Click here to head to the project's home page.

Project Potato Rifle

A couple of weeks ago now, I started a project that I had been meaning to do for quite some time. The idea behind the project started out as a quest for a potato cannon that performed well enough to hit 50m ranges, but felt more like a rifle than a cannon. As the months went on, I discussed a handful of ideas with a friend of mine and we came to the conclusion it needed to also be accurate, and be able to use different barrels. I finally got around to gathering the materials a couple of weeks ago and after another week of building and troubleshooting (figuring out fuel mixes, finding leaks and accidentally shocking myself with the ignition) in my spare time it's now nearing completion.

So far, this cannon fills all of the criteria I had hoped for. According to Hybrid Gun Design Tool, it will make 50m ranges with a 2 degree angle and a maximum range of 175m with a 1 ounce potato, thanks to the use of propane as fuel and a 685cc chamber that wraps around on itself to form the stock. It utilizes the trigger grip from a Longshot front gun to house the peizo ignition, and just in front of that is an adapter to take barrel sizes up to 30mm without flow restriction. So far I have barrel a 450mm x 30mm bore barrel and an 800mm x 23mm long range barrel. I may build a Nerf dart barrel just to see what happens (HGDT predicts over 200 feet flat!). The cannon is also very safe, all pipes and fittings used are rated to at least 174psi, and maximum pressure inside the chamber is just under 100psi.

Before I painted this yet to be named potato rifle, I did some test shots at 20m and 30m and the accuracy and power is pretty awesome for such a compact cannon, so future additions will include either a red dot sight or a 4x scope mounted on a weaver rail. The suppressor on the barrels is foam insulation for 25mm pipe and is semi-functional in the sense that it takes away the ear piercing "CRACK!" sound from each shot, but still leave a decent thump. I chose purple, white and black for the paint work for the sole reason that I'd never tried that combination before and wanted to try it. Add on a couple of sections of foam pad left over from the suppressor as the cheek and shoulder pads, and you've got yourself a nice comfortable rig for launching vegetables. If you have any suggestions for what I should name this cannon, leave a comment below!

Johnson Arms Steampunk Rifle masterpiece.

I've been following this project of Brian Johnson's for some time now, along with a whole ton of other projects, but this one really blows my mind. His work with lighting at experimenting with different things is really paying off in my opinion. This particular example is a perfect showcase of what can be done with hard work, attention to detail and one hell of a creative mind. The longer you look at it the more awesome details you see, and it's those fine details that really make this former Nerf Longshot look like a serious battle rifle that is actually powered by steam.

Anyone interested in this project or any other work of Brian Johnson's should hit http://johnsonarms.wordpress.com/ and have a really good gaze in awe of all of his incredible work, and read up on the project updates. Johnson Arms does also do commissions including steampunk, mil-sim and some seriously cool sci-fi blasters.  I guess the only word to sum this post up is AWESOME.

The return of an icon!

This past week there's been tons of talk surrounding Nerf's new "elite" blasters, and their de-tuning for certain countries, one of which being Australia, and also about a video of a leaked version of the unofficially announced Vortex Pyragon (re-uploaded by Basic Nerf here). But that news didn't have me anywhere near as interested as this morning's return of the extremely popular Australian blog Urban Taggers after a month of hammering from Hasbro's lawyers about their sources of early release blasters and information. It seems Hasbro has failed after blog owner Pocket pointed out that all of his sources were readily accessible by anyone with the internet access.

What Hasbro has done is absolutely horrible, and has done nothing more than tarnish their own name. I for one, have definitely reconsidered future purchases of Hasbro products, and also whether or not I want my own blog to be supporting a company who would do this to a fellow blog owner. After all this, I wouldn't be surprised if Pocket decided to no longer post anything to do with Nerf on his blog which no doubt will have a notable negative impact upon Nerf's image and sales.

The full story, recounted by Pocket is available for all to see on his blog in this post and is by far, a must read. I am astounded by the poor show of a company that was named one of Ethisphere's most ethical companies and this whole deal has me wondering whether Street Tag Warfare will continue to post anything to do with Nerf or not.

Max Force Maximizer 60 review

The Max Force line of paper pellet blasters has seemingly stopped dead in it's tracks, even a decent launch the line never really sold all that well. It's a shame really, I love the Shadow Hawk 100 I was sent. However, many of these blasters are now discounted, if you can find them. So now is the time to pick one up if you were a bit unsure in the beginning. I picked up this Maximizer 60 for a mere $9.50, down from $20 just because the scope was missing.

Out of the box, you get the blaster, an 8 shot clip, 102 paper pellets with a container, safety glasses and usually a scope (mine was missing, hence the bargain). The build quality feels fantastic. There's no loose, extremely flexible or creaking parts. The overall look of the blaster is different but very nice. It's a bullpup pull and release style pistol with a side port clip feed, with the spring powered piston located under the barrel. It features a rail on top to accept the scope, but nothing else. There is also a loop at the top side of the barrel tip to accept a strap clip but it is very small.

Strap hook, scope rail and loading port

Loading is much the same as the Shadow Hawk, put the pellets in the clip, soak in water and insert the clip in to the port. The clip automatically advances when the rear priming handle is pulled back, and fires out the pellet when you let the handle go. Simple!

Performance is as it states on the box, max range of 60 feet and great accuracy. I was easily able to get consistently accurate shots without a scope at all at a range of 40 or 50 feet flat. fast follow up shots may not be on par with a slam-fire, semi auto or full auto Nerf blaster but with definitely blow away a mildly modified Nitefinder in re-fire rate, and will out-last a Maverick due to the extra 2 shots per clip and quick reloading if you have a second clip. As a side arm or pistol style blaster, the Maximizer 60 is a seriously great blaster.

So what mods could I recommend? Normally, this is one I'd say to leave alone but the decreasing availability of Max Force blasters and ammo leads me to believe that a conversion to Nerf dart ammo with an intergrated RSCB clip would be beneficial and probably yield some great ranges. Overall, this is a great blaster that's going for a decent price at the moment, so pick one up if you were undecided on the Max Force line beforehand, even if it is to turn it in to a dart blaster. 8/10.

Nerf Rampage teaser

Another week, another teaser from Nerf up on their facebook page. This time it's the Rampage on show, but yet again there's two videos with conflicting range claims, one claims 15m, the other claims 75 feet. So after the confirmation of 75ft ranges on Nerf Mods and Reviews, one would now have to assume that their marketing department really has now clue of how to convert measurements from imperial to metric. I have to wonder how such a ridiculous mistake has made it this far. Perhaps Hasbro is too concerned with unleashing legal dramas upon the Urban Taggers blog to fix blatant mistakes..

but that's not the only conflict, in previous images we've seen of the rampage, we've seen it both with and without the mysterious shield, most recently WITH the shield but now it's gone again. I have no idea what's going on now. Both videos below for your analysis, leave a comment behind to tell me what you think.

New N-strike Elite photos!

Head on over to Nerf Mods and Reviews for some great new pics of 4 of the upcoming Nerf N-Strike Elite blasters due to be released later this year. Wait, four?! That's right, there's now one more that doesn't have a name yet, but resembles a Nerf Barricade with a new stock that can hold 10 darts.

Image courtesy of Nerf Mods and Reviews

I think I'm now most excited to see this Elite Barricade in action, and to get my hands on one. I always thought the original Barricade lacked a stock and dart storage, so I guess now I might have to consider using this at wars when it comes out. I do wonder, however, how Nerf can get a Barricade to fire these "elite" ranges of up to 75 feet?

I won't post the rest of the pics here, but I will direct your attention to Nerf Mods and Reviews for more investigation, and also if you'd like to join the discussion about these blasters, head on over to the Oznerf forums.

Nerf Retaliator teaser

Today the Nerf facebook page finally released an official teaser video for one of the blasters in the N-Strike Elite line, the Retaliator, which looks like a re-done Recon. To be honest, I think it looks like fantastic upgrade from the Recon. I predict that loads of people will buy it just for that stock

Original claimed ranges for the Elite blasters was 75 feet, but now I'm not so sure what they're claiming. The reason being, is that the video they released on facebook stated ranges of 15 metres (just under 50 feet), but then, they released another video to their youtube account with the same title but with "(75ft)" tacked on the end...

Sooo, what's the deal? are the claimed ranges supposed to me 15 metres? or did they get the conversion from feet to metres wrong and the claimed ranges are 75 feet still? I'd like to see the feedback on this one, so have a look at both videos below and tell me what you think:

Street Tag Warfare on facebook!

I have been meaning for a very long time to set up a facebook page for this blog, but I'm always so damn busy and procrastinate a lot when I'm not busy. After seeing that Bazookafied had set up a facebook page for Tactical Tag, I decided I really should get round to making one too.

So, get yourself on it! share with your friends, discuss what you like on the page and help this little blog grow to reach a wider community! Link below!

Street Tag Warfare official facebook page

B.S.R 75 - Bolt action spud gun

 When you think of the words "spud gun" or "potato cannon", the image of a redneck (or bogan, in my language) probably comes to mind, with them holding a bunch of slapped together PVC pipes and a can of hair spray, blasting vegetables off in to the distance. Most potato cannon builders aren't anything like that image, but that is how I think I look in my mind anyway. Most self confessed spudders probably build a couple of hair spray cannons then move on to something that requires some kind of calculated science, like a metered propane cannon or piston valve cannon and leave the old hair spray propellant idea behind.

the B.S.R 75 bolt action spud gun

However, every now and then, someone works with the basics and produces a masterpiece. That's what the B.S.R 75 is. I actually saw this cannon quite some time ago on the spudfiles forums, and loved it. but, I completely forgot about this design created by spudrogue420 and didn't stumble upon it again until I did a search for ideas for a combustion potato rifle. It turns out, that this is still the only hair spray cannon I've ever seen like this. Better yet, the B.S.R 75 was built from mostly ABS and PVC pipes, including the scope.

Hard to believe that this is all clever use of plastic pipes...

Bolt action open, shell exposed

The design is somewhat similar to the Serbu BFG 50, except the bolt handle is further forward presumably to accommodate the combustion chamber in the stock. The operation of this cannon is also pretty interesting. while the ignition is a simple peizo button ignitor with button mounted where the trigger would be, and no fuel metering devices, the bolt action system is very clever and also does two things: 1: opens and closes the chamber for a 5 inch long shell to be loaded, and 2: exposes the end of the combustion chamber for fueling and activates the venting fan while the cannon is unloaded.

Man, I'm on a roll with the spud banger posts lately. I think this incredibly innovative cannon deserved a lot more recognition than it received, simply because it shows what you can do with little more than some time, thought, and basic hardware materials. I'm also surprised that no one has tried to build something like this chambered for Nerf darts... Or perhaps someone has? Leave a comment if you've got a project you're particularly proud of, especially if it's a potato cannon that fires Nerf darts.

Uncertain futures?

According to various sources brought to light by Nerf Mods and Reviews, the popular Nerf Alpha Trooper is becoming increasingly difficult to find, and perhaps has been discontinued. This stuns me quite a bit, since it is such a popular blaster and there seemingly is no reason for it's disappearance. Quite a large percentage of this blog's traffic is from searches about the AT.

I'm not sure what the stock levels are like here in Australia, since they are a Target exclusive and haven't been to a Target in ages, however I have noticed that the current stock levels of other blasters in other stores have been pretty sub-standard for a while now, which is more than likely simply due to the long period between the last toy sale and the next. So the whole lack of availability issue with the Alpha Trooper may simply be because of retailers only purchasing what they need to fill space on shelves until the next sale rather than putting much effort in to department that they aren't up-selling. Still, I wouldn't want to see the Alpha Trooper disappear.

In other news, I have discovered that the Urban Taggers blog has been temporarily taken offline due to some unknown legal issues with Hasbro. Updates on the future of the blog can be found on their facebook page. This worries me for two reasons. One: because Urban taggers is one of the very best Nerf-based blog out there, and it would be absolutely horrible to see it go down because of Hasbro's legal crap, and two: because this may effect every other blog that posts anything to do with Hasbro. By extension, this could mean blog authors may need to more closely monitor what they post, and assess whether or not it may land them in hot water too.

Call this a mini rant, if you want, but in my opinion I think it's unfair that Hasbro forced UT to go offline for what I presume is the leaked information on the upcoming Nerf Hailfire. Many sources of media leak information about other company's upcoming products and to be honest I don't see what's so wrong with that, since it builds interest for that product anyway. The way I see it, is if a company is worried about information being leaked early about a product, it's up to that company to guard the information better. Besides, at the end of the day, they're toy guns, and no one should really be taking things seriously and dragging the fun down with legal battles.

End rant, have a good weekend everyone!

Dart Tagging is never supposed to be serious, it's always about fun!