Mega Review: Centurion and Magnus

If you've followed the Nerf Mega line since it's birth a few months ago you'll have found some pretty mxed reviews of both the Centurion and Magnus blasters. Frankly, I found it hard to find an honest review out there, as all I could find was reviews where the reviewer had quite obviously been given a care package from hasbro to sweeten them up, or reviews that were the exact opposite because they were overshadowed by the reviewer's emotion. So, I had to drop the cash on both the Centurion and the Magnus.

First out was the Centurion, apparently the successor to the ever popular Nerf Longshot. It's an absolutely massive blaster. It definitely fits the image of a powerful anti-material rifle, and it feels really empowering to hold. Features on the blaster are pretty minimal though, it has a couple of sling loops and a top tactical rail towards the back half of the blaster, a rail under the barrel which supports the foldable bipod that comes with the blaster. I guess there isn't much more you'd want with this blaster anyway, a funtional scope wouldn't go astray though. Unfortunately, the barrel isn't removable unless you mod it first by removing the locks.  It also comes with a 6-dart angled bottom magazine, which cannot yet be bought seperately.

So what's the main difference between this successor and the Longshot? The ammo. The Centurion fires a huge whistler dart, 20x92mm to be exact, much larger than the standard 12.5x72.5 elite dart. The massive dart carries a lot of energy compared to elite darts but doesn't sting like an elite due to the larger surface area on impact. The wall thickness of the foam is not much thicker than an elite dart's however, which does lead to faster deterioration, not very handy when these darts are hard to come by, and only come in packs of 10. Many people shun this type of new ammo, but personally I think some nerfers can be a stubborn bunch who are hard to convince. Mega darts are a type of specialized ammo for a specialized class of player.

Right, so how does it perform? Out of the box it isn't bad, it does out range other blasters by a small amount, but in't what you expect. There is a satisfying 2-stage KA-CHUNK firing sound and notable recoil. The reason for this, the internals. When you first open up this blaster, you think "oh god, what the hell is this?". The priming mechanism is very different from anything else. Pulling back the bolt handle operates a gear system which pushes the bolt forward, loading the dart and preloading the spring, as the plunger is already locked up. pushing the bolt handle forward unlocks all the safety mechanisms, making the blaster ready to fire. Pulling the trigger releases the plunger, which upon finishing it's travel unlocks the bolt from the closed position by pushing the latch up, and then the whole assembly slides back thanks to a return spring, and the plunger is locked up on the trigger again. The system is a pretty cool way of making the blaster feel like it has recoil and gives it a really cool firing sound, but unfortunately the plunger setup is a reverse plunger configuration. this means tons of dead space, limited plunger volume and poor efficiency overall. This is where most people's gripes are, and although I do see their side, I do like to remind people that a few years ago a large portion of Nerf's line-up were reverse plungered and didn't fire more than 30 feet out of the box, and the whole bolt return mechanism wouldn't work with a direct plunger, so I think we have to cut the designers a little slack, 70 to 80 feet isn't that bad. And of course, if you want extreme ranges, you're better of replacing the internals, regardless of the blaster, and the Centurion offers A LOT of room for a full internals replacement, probably enough to house a cleverly laid out air blaster system.

Ok, onto the Magnus. This pistol is pretty huge too, and just like the Centurion, it feels empowering to hold. It's definitely the Desert Eagle of the Nerf world. Again, it is minimalistic. It features an underbarrel tactical rail, and iron sights on top. In a nice touch of innovation it features something almost no dart pistol has: an internal magazine. Yep, pull the top slide back, load up 3 darts and you can rock and roll. This keeps the overall look very clean, and functional too.

Again, it fires the new Mega darts. And with huge punch for a multi-shot pistol, too. 85 feet out of the box is a range claim that stands up, and combined with the extra kinetic energy of the Mega darts, it feels like a hand held cannon when firing it. Accuracy out of the Magnus is also decent, and the ability to fire two more follow up shots seals the deal for me as a favourite pistol. Better yet? unlike it's much larger counterpart, it's a direct plunger system, and modding for more power is as simple as adding a nitefinder spring in combination with the stock spring.

Since performing this mod on my Magnus, I have not yet put it aside. It's a fun blaster that is satisfying to fire, and performs quite well. For under $20 AU it's well worth adding to the collection, especially if you're looking for a unique pistol. As for the Centurion, I wouldn't recommend picking on up at the going rate of $70+ right now, unless you're willing to drop some decent money, time and effort to replace the internals. It is definitely a great candidate for this treatment, the vast amount of space inside the shell and striking looks outside allow for a keen modder's imagination to really get cranking. I have my plans, but time isn't really on my side just now.

I don't know why it's so red in this photo, blogger does this to me sometimes.

Final note: This is what I deal with taking photos at night. A brush tail possum decided to see what was going on. These guys aren't quite as friendly as ring tail possums, so I had to pack up and head inside before it got cranky with my flash.

Don't try to feed brush tail possums apples. Trust me.

Massive year of Nerf ahead?

2013 was a good year for Nerf. Foam sports continued to grow, more and more people got involved in local clubs and Nerf war events and Nerf released a ton of cool new gear including the epic Rapidstrike CS-18 and the Elite Mega line. Albeit, the Centurion sucks, but from what I'm told the Magnus is pretty good. So 2014 should be one of those quieter years, right? NOPE. It's only January, and rumor mills and talks of prototypes are already going mental.

First off, here's the biggest thing so far, which has filled up my news feed: The Demolisher.

Look at that thing. It's a beast. It's a semi auto assault rifle style blaster with a freakin' GRENADE LAUNCHER. Good job, about time. The stock holds another grenade and is removable, there's a barrel adapter, a tactical rail on each side, the top, and under the barrel. Wait, what? That means the 'nade launcher is removable too? Yep. You certainly can shove that grenade launcher on your heavily modded and over-volted 750rpm rapidstrike, just so that you can now be even more unstoppable. The Demolisher looks really awesome without the grenade launcher too.

It even looks mean without being able to shoot grenades.

This is apparently the first new blaster of the new Elite range, which features 100ft ranges and "smart" internals with magazines that use a "smart" spring system. I have now idea what all this "smart" means, but it seems to have something to do with reliability of feeding darts and obviously more range. For the flywheel fans, there is also a new flywheel system to reach these ranges and improve on the high rate of jams and misfires too.

But that's not all, according to My Last Dart, there will also be 3 new laser sights to match this new revamped Elite range, and 1 more each for zombiestrike, vortex and dart-tag (what?). I'd say these will be sold seperately, along with banana mag packs similar to the Retaliator double 18 mag pack doing the rounds here in Big W at the moment. So, there we have it, The whole Elite line being reworked, "smart" internals and magazines, laser sights, grenade launchers, longer ranges and banana mags? looks like a pretty hge year for fans of Nerf coming up!

Nerf Rapidstrike review

Nerf's releases lately have been pretty average in my opinion, incredibly poor reviews of the Nerf Centurion and lackluster Zombiestrike range have put me off buying the Rapidstrike for some time for fear of disappointment, but I picked up one from Target for $69 (full price). Luckily with that price, I was still far from disappointed with this blaster.

The Rapidstrike is the latest release in the N-Strike Elite range and is this year's flagship for that range. It is a fully automatic flywheel blaster, probably targeting the replacement of the Stampede, which was Nerf's massive release a few years ago being the first fully automatic n-strike mag fed blaster. To me, yes it does replace the beloved stampede but it is a different blaster altogether rather than a revamp.

Cool, so what's it got? This is a very well designed and well made blaster. It's the little things that make the Rapidstrike stand out completely. Around the grip area is designed to be functional and easy to use. There is the usual acceleration trigger as with all flywheel blasters these days, and directly forward is an ambidextrous mag release, allowing fast mag changes (which, as you'll find out later, will be used a lot!). At the base of the grip is a sling loop as well. The stock is retractable with a lever release on the rear of the stock. Also featured is an orange-clear jam door to let you quickly see what is going on in the case of  jam or misfire. The rapidstrike also comes with a clear 18-dart magazine. The front of the magwell has an angled grip for those that prefer that style of grip over a foregrip. Nerf has also been generous with Tactical rails too, one top handle rail, a top rail on the barrel as well, a rail on the left and right side of the barrel and an underbarrel rail as well. finally, it has a built in sight through the top handle with a front flip up sight and a barrel adapter. Just kidding, there's more. Two more sling loops are available to use on the rear of the top handle, and an integrated sling loop at the front of the barrel. Have I missed anything? Everything functions perfectly on this blaster, it's very solid feeling, and the stock sliding action is smooth. Pulling the trigger is much lighter than a semi automatic flywheel but still retains a certain amount of feel. When it fires, the internal dart pushing mechanism is smooth and never misses a beat. In terms of loadouts on this blaster, I highly recommend large capacity magazines or drums, and also having a method of carrying spare magazines or perhaps using 18 dart mags taped together. If you prefer a foregrip, the Retaliator's foregrip goes nicely for moving around but you can't go past the stampede grip for bunkering down and defending. The only thing that bothers me about the aesthetics of this blaster, is why they chose to paint an orange stripe on it instead of a white one like the rest of the line, and why there is STILL NO TOP RAIL ACCESSORY IN THE ELITE RANGE?!? Seriously, just release the damn elite pinpoint sight to everyone, Nerf.

Performance is where it shows that it is a different kind of blaster to what the Stampede was. While the stampede once modified could steadily chug out darts with decent range and relatively good accuracy, The Rapidstrike is evidently geared more towards maximising dart output in exchange for accuracy, especially after performing some basic voltage mods. It will empty an 18 dart magazine before you can even think about how many mags you have spare, but will not be a blaster to pick people off one dart at a time as it's spread is about as accurate as hip firing a slamfire blaster. However, this means that using short bursts of 3-4 darts is extremely effective for suppressing and area denial. Combine that with it's short length and light weight and it is also fantastic for rushing and attacking. No one in their right mind is going to try to attack a maniac with a Rapidstrike without being able to do so from as far away as possible. It's also very reliable. I have heard some reports of constant jamming, however the only times I encountered a jam was when I was using seriously mangled darts, and even then it would still manage to get them out the barrel most of the time. Other times consisted of a misfire, pulling the magazine out and the culprit dart just falling out, and putting the magazine back in and firing again straight away. Pulling the trigger is satisfying and the first time I emptied the magazine (about 30 seconds after I got it out of the box) I was left with a huge grin and started formulating plan on how to ambush the next person to step foot in my house.

Modifications are where this blaster can get pretty complex. Inside is a huge tangle of wires, circuit boards, switches, resistors and 3 motors. From what I can tell, the dart pusher operates on a form of logic gate to ensure it returns to it's retracted position. It seems the curcuit has an input from the trigger and also a switch under the pusher, which is released when the pusher returns. So for it to fire, the trigger must be depressed, for it to stop firing, the trigger must be released and the pusher must return back to release the pusher switch, in turn cutting the voltage to the pusher motor unless the trigger is still depressed. Furthermore, there is a thermistor on the trigger curcuit, and two resistors for each motor including the pusher motor. Once you've got your head around that, you can rewire the internals and load up the voltage and even go as far as replacing the motors and setting up individual power sources for the pusher and flywheel motors. This should net you something similar to what the mad scientists at Brisbane Nerf Group have come up with:

In all, this is one of the very best Nerf blasters I've owned. It's well designed, functions great, performs really well and is intimidating to come up against. I used my modified Rapidstrike for about 90% of the time at the 4th anniversary BNG war, and only stopped because I had no spare batteries. I absolutely love this thing. I definitely recommend this blaster over the Centurion. Since the orange stripe really comes down to a matter of opinion, I'll give this blaster the highest rating I've given any blaster on this blog, and that is a 10/10. I really can't properly fault this blaster on anything at all.

Tek Recon - High tech blaster tagging!

Ever wish you could have some kind of online intergration for your blaster wars? like having a smartphone mounted as a kind of heads up display that can track team mates, enemies and add another element to your gameplay? I've always tinkered with the thought, but so far not even Nerf has really touched that idea. Enter Tek Recon, a young company designing blasters to not only have smartphone mounts, but also the app to go with it, allowing you to do all the above mentioned wishes, and a little more.

I've actually been following the Tek Recon storyline since it was unveiled at the NY toy fair some time ago, and it does look like they are doing it right. I'm actually pretty keen to see these roll out, the blasters fire little rubber band type ammo with what looks like good accuracy and range, they're easy to use, look really awesome, and the smartphone mount looks like it will adapt to any smartphone, not just an iPhone or iPod Touch. What really catches my eye though, is the quality of research and development that has obviously gone in to creating the Tek Recon blasters so far. I've already mentioned the blaster designs being superb, but the app also has some great features, customisable crosshairs, firing sounds, the ability to "scan" flags and targets for different game types, GPS integration, you name it, they've thought of it and done it. What they are missing, however, is some funding. They need some funding to finalise the app, do some marketing and really, just to get these blasters on the shelves.

How can you get your hands on a Tek recon blaster and help get these to the market? Kickstarter. They've got a kickstarter project up, and they're over half way to their funding goal of $50,000. some of the rewards are really awesome too, you can choose from a single blaster, to battle packs, to packs with flags and blasters, even a pack where you fly to the Tek Recon film set to appear in their nest commercial!

I'm already behind this project with my pledge on a limited edition Havoc blaster (only 75 available) and I do hope this reaches it's funding goal, so check out the video and get behind it!

Tek Recon homepage
Tek Recon Kickstarter

Review: Nerf Strongarm and Firestrike

Side arms aren't normally my thing, other than for designated pistol rounds at wars, or for shooting random stuff around my house when boredom kicks in, But I still collect them nonetheless. This week I have a Nerf Strongarm and Firestrike, both falling under the N-Strike Elite banner. These are both locally bought grey trigger versions.

Let's start with the Strongarm. Looking at the Strongarm, you can instantly see that it draws it's inspiration straight from the Maverick. I never really liked the Maverick that much, it's small and weak reverse plunger firing mechanism, design flaws and lack of modability made me move on to other blasters pretty quickly. But the Strongarm is very different and addresses the gripes some people had with the Maverick.

Aesthetically, It looks like a refined Maverick, of course. The top rail has been moved from the priming slide to above the turret, where adding accessories won't impede on priming the blaster. The small barrel opening has been widened, and the right side has a cut away in front of the turret so that jams can be cleared more easily. The turret now pops most of the way out and can be spun easily while it's popped out, and can be rotated manually one by one when loaded in the blaster, this is something that used to require a mod known as the "roulette" mod on the Maverick. The sling loop on the slide has been made bigger and the hand grip now features one as well, along with a small extension for people with bigger hands.

Performance is where this blaster shines as a six-shooter. even though it's a grey trigger version, ranges are still hitting 50+ feet with what feels like a very light spring load. Like the rest of the Elite line, Nerf have opted  for a small direct plunger system, giving it much more potential than similar sized reverse plungers. The air seal against the back of the turret is good, with a foam pad pressing against the turret as it fires. What really has been a fantastic improvement over the Maverick is the inclusion of a slamfire feature, allowing you to fire off all 6 darts in very quick succession. Elite ranges, mod potential and slamfire capability would allow the Strongarm to be used as a decent back up in tough situations, particularly if you really just need to buy yourself a few more seconds to reload your main blaster. That's the whole role of a sidearm, right?

Orange Mod Works already have a pre-order for a performance upgrade kit to suit the Strongarm, which also provides 20% discount for their future "external mod kit" (I have no idea what this would entail). So at under $15AUD, This blaster is a great addition to any nerfer who liked the Maverick or likes a manually primed sidearm, but I would not discourage anyone else from buying one either.

Right, now the Firestrike. This too obviously takes it's cues from an older N-Strike model, the Nitefinder. It always had a tough task bettering the already well rounded Nitefinder. On the outside, the layout has changed and overall the Firestrike has become a more compact unit. The light and dart holders from the Nitfinder are features that have been retained in the Firestrike but have been condensed and more form a part of the blaster rather than looking like add ons. The activation for the light is now a standalone mini trigger below the main trigger and can be operated independantly from the firing mechanism totally. The hand grip has been shortened and is less wide due to the move to AAA batteries powering the light. Priming and loading are still manual actions much like the Nitefinder. It is a very good looking little pistol that could be holstered easily, but it is a bit small for my hand size.

What is disappointing about this blaster, however, is the performance. I know this is a grey trigger version, but I still expected similar power to the grey trigger Strongarm. This is not what I got. The spring load is very light, and ranges I'm getting out of this are even inferior to the Nitefinder. I would say that I only got 30 feet maximum from the stock blaster, not something I would put under the "elite" banner. Upon opening up the blaster, I found out why. Comparing it to the Nitefinder, the draw is shorter, the plunger tube is slightly smaller, the barrel has an air release hole, the plunger head has a fair amount of dead space and the spring is pretty weak. Of course, there is an air restrictor as well. It's obvious that all these things will add up to reduced performance but I do feel the move to a shorter and smaller diameter plunger tube is something that will not allow this blaster to exceed it's previous counterpart in performance.

Overall, the Firestrike is a fantastic looking blaster, but at the same price as a Nitefinder, I would only recommend the Firestrike over the Nitefinder if there was a requirement for something that can be holstered, or if you can't find a Nitefinder. It's disappointing that a once sought after blaster has an elite counterpart that is 2 steps foreward on the outside and 1 step backwards internally. Anyway, that wraps up this review, hope you enjoyed.

Nerf Rapidstrike - with internals!

So everyone is raving about the Nerf Rapidstrike photos that have been leaked on baidu.com:

Well, here I was cruising Reddit, when I stumbled upon these posted up by "Rapidstrike", with a link back to Baidu once again:

Interesting, right? Until now, I hadn't covered the rapidstrike, since every other blog and their dog was all over it anyway, but no one has posted these yet, so I thought I'd get the word out. So we can confirm loads of things with this: full auto dart pusher, lots of wires and safety mechanisms... And lots of Wires. also, wires. seriously, there's literally 7 or 8 separate wires just behind the trigger...

Anyway, enjoy, speculate, plan mods, whatever tickles your fancy!

Orange Mod Works working on sealed breaches?

I saw a few pictures pop up in my facebook news feed last night by Orange Mod Works which seem to not-so-subtly hint that they are working on a sealed breach system for the Nerf Retaliator. I'm not sure what to make of this, as there is no pre-order up on their website yet, but they are calling it "the second stage", obviously referring to the stage 2 "solid" kit for the Nerf Retaliator.

From what the picture shows, it's a kit with revamped internals, adding on from kit #1. Bolt sled, metal trigger, bolt, plunger and receiver are all included by the looks, but it also features a barrel extension that is supposed to allow the dart to accelerate more as it leaves the barrel, using the full potential of the direct plunger volume of the Retaliator.

If this kit is indeed going in to production soon, I'll be pretty happy. I like my Retaliator, but at the moment it has no extra power over my rampage, so it's kind of an inferior candidate for the same role. giving it some extra power would bring it in to it's own field, it certainly couldn't out range a longshot, but it could out range a rampage with the two Orange Mod Works kits, and it's more compact than a Longshot. This kit and the stage 1 kit would make the Retaliator one hell of a pistol or short rifle.

Good work Orange Mod Works, I do hope this makes production soon!

Limey Tactical: Tacticool Nerf gear!

Finally! pouches and vests that look cool and are designed for Nerf gear!

I stumbled across this blog selling tactical nerf gear on the Remedy Metal facebook page, they are selling custom pouches for Nerf mags and drums, tactical vests, dart holder wraps and all sorts more. Most of the gear is modular to work with the Limey Tactical vests and belts. Anyone who's gone along to a few nerf wars will know that being able to carry extra gear on field is a big advantage, but if it's not secured in a way that it doesn't impede on your movement, it's clumsy and not really worth doing (tried carrying a bunch of drum mags in a bandolier? it doesn't work.)

The page is definitely worth checking out, I'll be ordering some gear when I can and reviewing it here, but from what I can see it is of very high quality.

Limey Tactical

Edit: HAPPY BIRTHDAY STREET-TAG WARFARE! I just realised that 3 days ago, it was this blog's 2nd birthday.

I would like to say that the last 2 years running this blog, though now not as often as I used to, has been great fun, especially with getting among the Brisbane based nerfing communities for wars and sharing ideas, as well as getting to know little bits of the international community (Bazookafied of Tactical Tag - thank you for mentioning my blog every now and then! If I had the means to thank you properly I would!). I hope the next chapter of this blog features more growth and readers, because that's why I do it! to entertain you guys!

Toy fair time! -The Toy Spy's Nerf showroom preview

New York Toy Fair is my favourite time of year, where I sit back and check out all the new releases and quietly wet myself a little with excitement. This year looks to be a pretty sweet year with more Vortex releases, more N-Strike releases and a whole new line for girls called "Rebelle". The video below is from The Toy Spy, which takes a quick look at the Nerf showroom this year, as well as shows some firing tests. unfortunately the Nerf Rebelle gear is not in this video, but some really awesome blasters like the Blazin' Bow is shown. Enjoy!

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

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

OMW: New Massacre kits available now!

I'm a little late on the uptake for this one, however Orange Mod works now have their long awaited "Massacre" mod kits available for the Nerf Alpha Trooper, Longstrike, and Raider. These are the kits with polycarbonate parts that are stronger than the original Nerf plastics, and will give your blaster a serious performance boost, reaching around 90 feet per second muzzle velocity.

Alpha Trooper kit - From the OMW facebook page

All kits are $36.99 U.S +shipping and include the following:

-Trigger catch
-2x Strength trigger catch spring

-Reinforcement plate

-2x Strength min spring (6kg)
-Polycarbonate bolt sled with pin
-Polycarbonate breech with o-ring
-Polycarbonate plunger

-1 tube of silicon grease
-2 OMW stickers
-Instruction sheet

They have also have A to Z  mod guides available for FREE download for the Nerf Recon, Alpha Trooper, Longstrike and Raider, along with video assembly guides for the Massacre kits on each of the product pages.

For more information and purchase of the new or existing kits, visit Orange Mod Works.

Supporting the sport

I spotted something on the Nerf Mods and Reviews blog this afternoon regarding a new company called Random Hat is looking for some backing to produce their first run of aftermarket parts and accessories for dart blasters. Their first project is a mag holder that attaches to Nerf tactical rails. Unfortunately, projects like this take A LOT of money to get off the ground, so more often than not, without some kind of external investment many companies don't even make it off the ground. There is, however, a kickstarter site has been set up by Random Hat to allow people to get involved to help get the project off the ground.

In my opinion, companies manufacturing aftermarket dart blaster parts are important for developing this little sport in to something bigger and more awesome. Without them, the only real driving force behind developing anything is Nerf themselves, and being realistic, their primary goal is to make more money. Third party companies run by Nerfers FOR Nerfers have a slightly different view, their best interests are the interests of Nerfers so more powerful blasters, cool aftermarket gear and making this stuff accessible to everyone is the primary goal.

Dart tagging is at the same stage as an industry I am already heavily involved in was about 5 or 6 years ago, and that is BMX. As soon as rider owned companies started building the industry got some pretty awesome things that riders wanted for a long time. stronger bearings, lighter bikes, variety of sensible geometries in frames and a freecoaster hub that could actually be used for freestyle were all results of the most recent BMX boom. So, it's up to the Nerfing community to now stand behind what they do and take control of the future of the sport.

Not gonna lie, looks a bit odd, but would be extremely useful!

But anyway, back to what I started with, Random Hat need $20,000 to kick start their project and have a variety of packages for backers ranging from a tactical rail mag holder for people who pledge $25 or more, to a reseller deal which gets you 30 tactical rail mag holders and priority for shipments for pledges of $1000 or more. For more information see this link.

Messing around with the Rayven

Wednesday I *finally* was able to get my hands on the recently released Nerf Rayven to put some shots through. I didn't have a whole lot of time to spare so I only took the one photo from my phone of one decked out senseless. I will do a battle test one day soon, but as for a review I'm not going too in depth, as others already have that base covered (links at the bottom). I will say, however, the Rayven is a little shorter than I expected. I feel that it could potentially be the ultimate blaster for the people who like to dive in to the thick as fast as possible. It's a definite out-of-the-box performer (once you add batteries, of course) and though it won't take out anyone from huge ranges I still think it will induce a bit of fear upon anyone.

Highly impractical, but extremely fun.

The above example feels great to hold, but small aperture barrel extensions really kill the power from this blaster so if you want to use a recon barrel it might be wise to gut it and re-barrel it with some larger diameter PVC. And to think, a few months ago I was upset that there were no bullpup Nerf blasters!

For reviews, check out the following links, in no particular order:
Urban Taggers preview
Nerf Mods and Reviews: Jerm's Review
Nerf Mods and Reviews: Drac's Review
Foam From Above review
(at the time of writing this blog I was pretty tired, so if I've missed any, let me know!)

N-Strike Elite?

Ok, I've finished moving and finally have some free time to update the blog again, sorry about the extended break, moving house is probably one of the least fun and most time consuming things I can think of. While I was gone however, it seems Urban Taggers has picked up the ball again on another new rumor concerning Nerf's N-Strike line. Take a look at these two pictures from Urban Taggers:

Interesting, right? A redone Nerf Raider named Rampage, and a redone Recon named Retaliator. Both box art features a new "N-Strike Elite" logo and claim to shoot up to 75 feet. That's a seriously bold claim that at first I didn't hold a whole lot of faith in, until I read this on Nerf's facebook page this morning:

"Nerf: Toy Fair 2012 kicks off in NYC this weekend. Keep your eyes on this page as we share news and photos, just because Nerf Nation rules. We will be telling you about one of the biggest Nerf innovations and most impressive developments to the......sorry, we've already said too much. Stay tuned for more, Nation - it's totally worth the wait."

So what do you make of THAT? Urban Taggers has always had rumors first, and almost every single one of them has become true, so I dare say, based on the evidence given, Nerf may finally be releasing something for the people who always want more power. Could this be the first step towards Nerf becoming even bigger, and the sport of dart tag growing to new heights? I think it might be. I think I might have to write a part 2 of this post...

For more information:
www.urbantaggers.blogspot.com

http://www.facebook.com/NerfNation

Nerf Rayven turns up in Queensland

Probably the most anticipated foam dart blasters since the Stampede, the Nerf Rayven has finally made it's appearance at most major retailers. I spotted it today at my local Kmart in southside Brisbane. It is unfortunately pretty expensive in my opinion, at $45au so I decided not to pick one up just yet. I'm still yet to see a Lumitron, but i doubt it will be too far off.

Also, this will most likely be my only post until next week, as I am moving house (AGAIN). Thankfully I'm back in to a full size house rather than restriction of being confined to an apartment. That means I'll finally have some space to mod and paint!

The long awaited: OMW Longshot kit available for pre-order!

I'm sure there have been a hell of a lot of people hoping to see an Orange Mod Works mod kit for the Nerf Longshot since OMW went public with their Recon stage 1 kit, and now those people (including myself) have had their hopes fulfilled. The Orange Mod Works "Massacre Immortal" kit for the Longshot is now available for pre-order on the website, expected release date is to be some time in January.

I am absolutely stoked on this kit, because while others have made some replacement parts for the Longshot, this kit is an almost full overhaul of all of the internals. Included in the kit will be:

-Trigger catch
-Double strength trigger catch spring
-High performance main spring
-Bolt sled and bolt sled pin
-Plunger rod and plunger face
-Plunger tube and plunger retention plate
-Breech
-O-ring
-Metal trigger
-silicon grease

So, needless to say it's a pretty epic kit for $59.99US. The only things that it doesn't include are things like safety locks and cosmetics. I'm a little interested to see if the kit comes with the breech and plunger tube assembled or whether it needs to be put together somehow, and whether they've just straight copied the original with polycarbonate or redesigned it to be free of the dead space that the original has.

The kit also comes with a limited edition collectors tin box. I, for one will definitely be ordering this kit as soon as I get back from some time away (I've been working far too much lately...) Anyone wanting to pre-order the Longshot kit or purchase any other Orange Mod Works kit, should visit the link below:
Click here to visit Orange Mod Works.

New lens

Just a quick post, I am now back in action with my camera. I've now got a decent close end lens that I've bought from a good friend of mine to replace the lens that was stolen. So I may re-do the photos of the "Gear Up" Recon later tonight, to replace the ones taken with my old-school Pentax lens.

For the other camera nuts out there, it's a canon 17-40mm F4L USM. For the non camera nuts, it means I can take sharp, close range photos with a nice depth of field (subject clear, background out of focus). Now all I need is some sweet tagging gear to take photos of!

Urban Taggers: on a roll!

Delivering the goods once again, Nerf blog Urban Taggers have scored themselves a Nerf Rayven CS-18. Urban Taggers is generally a great source for all upcoming Nerf blasters, usually having their finger right on the pulse at all times but this time I think they've really outdone themselves. Not only have Nerf not even announced this new blaster, but within a mere 11 days they've sourced what seems to pre-production or even final model of the rumoured N-Strike Rayven CS-18, and even BETTER is they've done a full pre-review (I guess that's what you'd call it). It is a very good review as always from Urban Taggers so I do highly suggest you head over and read up. It also clears up tons of the speculations that people have had, but still leaves me wondering, "what's in the front bulge?". Anyway, Preview: Nerf N-Strike Rayven CS-18

Nerf Rayven: One exists!

Popular Australian-based blog Urban Taggers got a hold of another picture of the "rumoured" Nerf Rayven CS-18 and posted it up today, asking their community, "does it still interest you?". This post (which can be viewed here) has attracted tons of comments speculating about it's function and internals, and some have criticized this blaster already over the main speculation of it being a flywheel powered blaster.

Picture from Urban Taggers

The main thing I got out of this is that if a real version exists, and the image landed in the hands of Urban Taggers, that means at the very least, Nerf has completely finished a working design for this blaster, sent it away to a rapid prototyping company that works with plastics (or more likely, their usual manufacturer), and a prototype or even final concept has been made. Now, a lot of time, money and effort goes in to progress like this so, it's likely that if the Rayven has made it this far that it will probably make it to store shelves.

Now, of course there'll be those who will tell me I'm wrong, but after seeing a photo of the blaster as well as the box art, here are my predictions about the features of the Rayven CS-18:
-It's a flywheel blaster. Think about it, it's semi auto, and there's no space behind the darts for a plunger, nor is there a priming handle. Furthermore, there's what looks like a toggle switch for spool-up present under the trigger, similar to that of the flywheel powered Vortex Nitron, and there are some interestingly placed bulges in the shell under the scope rail.
-Battery box on the clip is used to power some kind of light to charge glowing streamline darts. The box art states that it uses "firefly tech" and "clip charges 18 glowing darts". That one is obvious.
-Battery box on the blaster powers the flywheels. what is interesting however, is that it requires 4 batteries, unlike the Barricade's 3. This could mean it's feeding more power to the flywheel motors for more power, or there is some lights in the blaster as well.

One thing that has everyone stumped, including me, is how the darts move to the front set of flywheels? The bulge in the case under the front of the scope rail I'd say almost definitely houses a flywheel, but if this is the only set of flywheels it would be almost impossible for the darts to make it that far from the clip via the usual "pusher rod" mechanism, so is there another set of flywheels inside that bulge at the back of the scope rail? seems like a strange system for flywheels, but perhaps it's a way of gaining power without sacrificing accuracy? Who knows. Either way, it looks really good and I'm sure when it's released we'll see plenty of repaints, mods and re-casings.