If I understand you correctly, you can pull the grey slider back but the action of doing so is too easy; you can pull it back but doing so doesn't cock the Maverick, right?

The way I fixed my problem with the Maverick not cocking is making sure the steel pin catches the hole of the orange cylinder (the one attached to the spring). You'll notice an orange protrusion with a hole. When reassembling the Maverick it's important that (1) the steel pin properly goes through that hole, and (2) when both halves of the Maverick's shell are reassembled that the pin is protruding through the narrow grooves on either side of the gun. Only when you've confirmed that should you replace the gray slider's halves, making sure that the steel pin now engages their proper fittings on the gray slider's halves.

So when you're pulling the gray slider back, you're in fact pulling the steel pin which in turn pulls the orange cylinder back, creating tension with the spring, and if pulled back far enough, it's locked into place -- and released when the trigger is pressed to disengage the lock.

If for any reason that little orange protrusion is broken, you'd have to somehow fabricate a replacement or replace the Maverick. That is why stronger springs are not always the answer because of the inherent material weakness of the plastic used. Now if the part were metal then that would be something else but finding a fabricator who works in metal could result in a part that costs more than the whole Maverick, unless you're good with welding and power tools yourself.

Hope I understood you right, and I hope this helped.

Hey, I've always wondered how they come up with new nerf guns (designs) and so I was wondering if they like look on some websites or something. Also, can you apply for a job as a designer for one?

There are two roles here, with overlap: one is the designer, and the other is the engineer. Sometimes the designer has to wear two hats.

You start with an artistic concept, and then someone in engineering has to evaluate the concept to see if it's feasible or not. There may be discussion back and forth where the engineer may say what can't be done or what needs to be changed in order for the design to work. The best kind of artists (i.e. the most hireable) for situations like these are those who are trained in or already have some experience in industrial design.

If you can produce a 3D model, then great. But if you can produce a 3D model with the internal mechanics that would actually work, factoring in where the screws go and the thickness of the plastic walls and also with understanding of 1) material strengths, 2) manufacturing simplicity vs complexity, 3) where the physical structures or internal mechanisms might go wrong too easily, and, most importantly, 4) how manufacturing a batch of 10,000 will cost if you do things one way versus what it would cost if you do things another way. Subtle changes will impact that.

A certain part that you might like may cost $3.00 may be shot down by the manufacturer so you may be required to use a far less expensive part that costs $0.50 so your design may have to be tweaked. What you would have to do is figure a way how to keep the costs down so that when a batch gets produced and sold to the big retailers that profits are maximized for your company.

If you open up a Maverick, it's an engineering wonder. It requires something like AutoCAD to keep track of the internal mechanics because there are an incredible number of parts.... which is why I think Hasbro has chosen to reissue certain designs in different colors because engineering a Nerf gun can be costly.

This doesn't mean you should be discouraged from trying to become a Nerf gun designer, but the more you can bring to the table beyond just art skills the better your chances are of being employed by a toy manufacturer.

Talio,

I'm sure you have some humorous war stories to share, being I.T. Maybe we can swap stories over beer some day....

My job cycles tend to go as follows:

Year 1-2: Get a new job, work your ass off, change lots of things that are broken, implement new programs, start a long range project or two.

Year 3-4: Things are starting to click. You have a chance to take a breath now and then. Realize some of the time savings that your processes have created.

Year 5-6: You have a harder time seeing the places where you should innovate because you've looked at the same systems for so long. Everything is almost habitual and you're starting to think about the day when you...

goto Year 1-2;

While I appreciate the dedication Talio has towards his work and have felt the same way from time to time, I absolutely need to have fun at work or it's not worth it. I do not believe that the work is the only reward - that's corporate brainwashing. It's great to enjoy what you do, but you're not going to enjoy it for long if it's all you do. Google forces their employees to have a side project to work on one day a week. They realize that doing the same thing 40+ hours per week is not good food for a creative mind. That's in addition to the regular hockey games they play. An office that isn't nerfing each other or playing hockey in the parking lot mid-afternoon or doing something active and fun is sitting in their cubes half-asleep listening to the drone of the ventilation system.

I'm more than sympathetic for Talio's position. I used to be a systems engineer and I was posted by my company at a bank. We had to wear shirt, slacks and tie. Banks tend to be very "east coast" in their culture. Everything is very rigid and there is very little room for fun. Talio is in a corporate environment that is very competitive and political and if he fires just one Nerf dart he could get called in by a manager, Human Resources, or get fired if he ticks off the wrong person.

Our corporate culture is very much t-shirts and jeans. I've been with the company full time for months before we got funded (i.e. worked for free) so I have had the privilege of helping guide the corporate culture. My boss (a VP) and I had a Nerf firefight last Friday, in fact. The CEO has had occasion to test out my Nerf guns.

Being an SE is hard because people call on you when things break, and if you don't fix it in a timely fashion you're shot down big time. You're also working in an environment where fellow employees are trying to "one-up" you to come across as better or more knowledgeable and more intelligent; they can potentially be very political and backstabbing.

Sorry, Talio, I've done what you're doing for 11 years and I've moved on to help people start companies. So part of my job is also to make people like yourself enjoy their jobs, by giving them opportunity to blow off steam and to fire a Nerf dart now and then.

I think your boss is going to fire you for wasting productivity.  You posted it in the middle of the day, so obviously you were at work.  I'll tell you what, I can find you something to do, because I'm busier then a one armed hooker in a sexual offenders half way house.

Other then that, it was uh...long.  I'm really not sure how to take it.  On one hand I want to smack you and tell you to get back to work.  The other side remembers we have an Unreal and Battlefield 2 server running in our office.  As if I ever get to play it during hours though.  God damn work.

Talio.

Are you feeling a bit grumpy today administering NerfHaven from work, or are you still mad at me from months ago?

The heads of my company love the Nerfing and they use Nerf guns.

The length of the article is necessary because an absolute newcomer may not have the inside knowledge you all have to understand NERFing.

I needed to kill time so I dropped into Toys 'R Us. Imagine my surprise to see the NERF N-Strike "FireFly" on the shelves! Up until recently the FireFly was only sold at WalMart (not to mention sold out).

As you've heard me share before, here in the office we standardize on the Nerf Maverick Rev-6. It is an excellent starter weapon with 6 rounds. You cock the gun's slider, and then you fire. Each time you fire, the barrel automatically rotates to bring the next foam dart in line with the air stream and out the dart goes and gets some helpless employee, so you get to see him/her twitch into body configurations not normally seen in a professional setting (just don't do that when clients/customers are actually on the premises!)

When some of us heard of the Rev-8 Firefly we wanted it badly. Some of us are Stargate SG-1 fans so the P90-style configuration immediately had an appeal. Having an 8-shot capacity would naturally be superior to only having 6-shots. Then when we first saw a photo some of us went, "Well... it's a bit bulky looking.... looks a little silly and toyish but okay, I still have to have the 8 shots."

Hasbro, the manufacturer of NERF guns, announced the FireFly would be out late Summer. However, the FireFly's release in Toy's R Us was preceded by the Dart Tag. (Note: technically the FireFly was out several weeks back but here in our area there is only one WalMart and it's location isn't entirely convenient, whereas there are many Toys 'R Us stores in our metropolitan area.) The Dart Tag is an approximately $40 investment for two guns, each of them 10-shot. We acquired some for the office and our Nerf wars escalated in proprotion to our greed for greater firepower. But more on that later.

First the FireFly review, from an Office Nerfer's viewpoint. We are adults, mind you. But just because we're all between 25-45 years old, it doesn't mean that there isn't a dweeby childlike side to us. We love Nerf. The only difference between us and teenagers is that many of us have aching joints, arthritis, tendonitis, fatigue, fat, or a complete lack of exercise. But we still like to have fun. Office Nerfing is a very good way of relieving stress and increasing the company's team dynamic, increasing productivity and internal communication. It bolsters confidence and quality of each nerfers core competencies. I write all this in corporate lingo so any of you dubious managers out there who think I'm full of nonsense can identify (I am a Marketing Manager).

The N-Strike family of NERF guns are a very handsome and sporty envisionment of futuristic firearms. The colors are primarily a sporting orange, yellow, publish-blue, bright orange and gray. The advantage of these looks is that the guns look hella cool (okay I sound like a kid even though I'll be 40 in a few years) and there's no mistaking these guns for real firearms should cops ever show up to look into your activities. The FireFly is not so much a cousin to the Maverick but more like a Big Brother. A big honking huge bigger brother.

First, aesthetics and handling. The FireFly handles like a dream. It fits very snugly against my biceps. It's not too heavy or unwieldly. I have medium sized hands, and I applaud Hasbro for making these adult friendly, since grownups will likely play with kids (attention grownups: make sure everyone wears eye protection. Darts in the eye sting like crazy!) Again it looks hella cool and bespeaks power. People around the office immediately become more intimidated because it's bigger and bolder-looking. The FireFly's looks definitely reinforce the color and design scheme established for the Maverick Rev-6 as well as the single shot Nite Finder.

There are some cons, however, to the design. First, the natural tendency is to do something with your second hand, i.e. grip something on the front to steady your fire. As this is a NERF gun there is no recoil. However there is nothing to grip like on a real P90 assault weapon. There is a tiny area under the trigger. I think that your second hand will instead be cocking the gun's topmost orange slider so that you can fire the darts.

The FireFly, again, supports 8 foam darts in the barrel, and interestingly the barrel is transparent. Adding batteries to a compartment and activating a switch causes a lightbulb within the gun to turn on, thereby exposing darts to light. Why? So that at night you can have some fun with glowing darts. From a marketing standpoint, this is ingenious but this is where the execution falls short somewhat. The suction cup tips of the white darts do glow in the dark, but not the white foam darts themselves. Instead, Hasbro ships the FireFly with some sticky labels that you roll and adhere to the dart's foam, and the labels themselves glow-in-the-dark. Now for us adults this might end up being a total waste of time. Unless a label is essential for describing the function of a gun (e.g. the RapidFire 20's "full auto" versus "select fire" modes) then we adults may not go as far as sticking every single sticker on a product that ships with it.



The stock has a depressed area that holds 4 rounds on either side. This can be useful because it sucks to run out of ammo in an office fight. Normally we just wait to be fired at and we pick up the opponents' darts off the floor, stick them in our gun, and fire them back. Usually we don't need to carry extra ammo. (Don't carry them in your pocket. If you forget and you sit down, you'll scrunch up the foam.)

The barrel is opened and while the darts that ship with the gun do fit in snugly, there is a slight chance they'll side out of the barrel onto the floor. But this disadvantage applies to almost all Nerf guns, with the exeception of the Maverick Rev-6.

The stock has a little plastic bar that looks like it would have supported a hook for a strap. But ideally there should have been a second hook so that if you found such a harness to wear, the gun could remain horizontal and your darts wouldn't slide out onto the ground, but unfortunately Hasbro didn't execute on that. Having such a feature would allow you to have the FireFly as a primary weapon and a holstered Maverick as a backup. With that firepower you could take on someone with a Dart Tag. Because you can't effectively use two cock-and-fire guns at the same time, after you deplete one gun you can go to the next.

Now the range. Our current office champion - the Dart Tag - wowed us with its range. From an Office Nerfing perspective, when discussing a Nerf gun's range, most people will fire straight, leaping out from behind cubicle walls. You're lucky if a dart goes 12-15 feet or more. But it's not an impressive distance but then again you might not need it to go that far. In order to get that annoying employee farther away, you do have to angle your gun somewhat. When you see people's reviews on the web on how a Nerf dart went 80-120 feet and you wonder why you can't replicate that in the office, well there are factors involved: wind speed and direction, and are they holding the gun up at a 45 degree angle? Bear in mind that if you do any Office Nerfing there is this thing called the ceiling.

So here are some tests I ran.

Initially I was concerned with the range of the FireFly when fired just dead straight. It didn't seem to be that much more than a Maverick. But I didn't want to give up on it just yet. When I used Whistler Micro Darts (these are round-headed darts that have a hole that when fired create a whistling sound that make employees duck for cover) the more aerodynamic design allows the dart to go farther. Angling the FireFly up slightly I managed to fire a Whistler into the CEO's office, achieving a respectable distance of approx. 35-40 feet. Now that was impressive. Firing the suction-cup tipped darts didn't achieve nearly that range.

When I used a microdart in a Dart Tag, thet Dart Tag achieved a 30-35 foot range. Bear in mind that darts aren't very accurate. Some will fly higher or lower than you intended per any deformations or bends in the foam. So it's very difficult to get an accurate apples-to-apples comparison of ranges.

Then I realized why we liked the Dart Tag. The micro-velcro-tipped darts are round-headed and more aerodynamic and thus have greater range than a Maverick using suction-cupped tipped darts. We've used Whistler ammo in Mavericks and have had great range. (Warning, don't get shot in the eye like I did with a velcro tipped darts. We may be decommissioning such ammo and will be mostly using Whistlers for range and for the fun sound.)

Followup tests showed that the FireFly consistently fired Whistler ammo farther than Mavericks. The darts seemed to not flail around but go on a relatively unwavering path. Aiming is not as easy as with a pistol but you get used to "guesstimates" quite nicely.

The barrel appears to be of similar design to that of the Maverick. Those into modifications will notice similar kind of springs and stems as the Maverick and will likely attempt to remove them to increase the airflow. The annoying part of these objects (or obstacles) is that if a Nerf dart's foam is slightly too narrow, it won't stay in the chamber and the spring will cause it to stick out like a sore thumb; it won't fire.

Like the Maverick, a Whistler dart that is not fully inserted but pops out could cause the gun to jam. This is easily remedied - just stuffing the round deeper into its chamber. It's open design allows you to easily replenish the barrel with darts lying around the ground.

In conclusion, I think the FireFly is a great buy. It may be 2 rounds short of the 10-round Dart Tag, but it has superior looks to the Dart Tag and superior range. It wields well, and seems reasonably accurate. For office Nerfing there is no need to modify this gun to have a lot of fun. If you're like me and work some evenings or weekends, you probably don't have much free time to modify the toy gun in any way. I'm satisfied with the FireFly as it is though I might consider an attachment near the front that will allow me to hook up a harness at both ends of the gun so I can then fall back to a Maverick. But at the rate we fire darts at each other in the office, a backup weapon isn't necessarily needed.

Summary:

AESTHETICS: 8
HANDLING: 8
OFFICE RANGE: 8.5
ACCURACY: 7

OVERALL: 8

No I don't think I'm owed anything. Shouldn't people just be courteous to one another? It was a simple mistake of inaccurate recollection. I don't participate on this site on a daily basis, nor do I keep up with Nerf news on a daily basis and remember every minute detail.

Here's for some interesting reading. Lonnie Johnson is the inventor of the Super Soaker. He founded a company called
Johnson Research & Development Co., Inc. (http://www.johnsonrd.com/) and here's some interesting tidbits of information that give us a better view of the industry at large.

"The Super Soaker® brand name has captured approximately eighty five percent of the worldwide water gun market. Sales for this remarkable toy reached an impressive $200 million in 1992. "

That's a lot of money.

On the Company Profile page it explains: "After several false starts, the Super Soaker® was licensed in 1989 to Larami Corporation. In 1995, Larami sold Super Soaker® to Hasbro Corporation.... The competitive advantage of this toy has been maintained worldwide by an array of intellectual property rights owned by Lonnie Johnson."

It further states "Johnson Research has another license agreement with Hasbro which covers the design, engineering and development of NERF® soft foam dart guns."

Prettying interesting history.

"Finally, someone else on this board knows about marketing. My prayers have been answered." - One Man Clan


Merlinski,

Yes, thanks for the clarification for phosphorescent vs. fluorescent. Since I described the lighting mechanism, you no doubt understood what I was trying to say.

"The new stuff is coming out in the fall of 05. That could mean end of the summer, it could mean the beginning of winter. " - One Man Clan

You're right. I read "summer".

I hope it gives you an ego boost to show how "wrong" someone is for asking a simple question. Are you trying to prove my theory that these forums are an unfriendly place now for people who are trying to contribute to make your environment a nicer place? Or should I be hanging out at NerfHQ? Maybe there are more adults there and more kids here.

http://disneystore-s...id=411053776970

Pardon the UK-based link. I came across this bow and arrow set in a Disney Store in a shopping mall here in CA and couldn't resist buying it. "Sir, are you buying this for a child?" Yes, I'm buying it for myself.

I believe this is a repackaged/OEM version of a Lanard "Blast Bow". It appears to be identical in profile but with colors changed to fit Buzz Lightyear.

So here are a few notes of observation.

1. The "Toy Story Bow and Arrow" comes with 4 yellow missles that look like the old Arrowstorm arrows. I have not yet tested it on my classic Arrowstorm (I keep it here at work to ward off evil employees, muhahahaha). I'll follow up with you all once I bring the Bow to work.

2. The arrow seems to go anywhere from 12-20 feet (of course, as with most Nerf guns, the dart or projectile will go farther if you angle the weapon higher).

3. The air tube where the arrow is slipped over has a grill. After removing it with some pliers to remove any possible restriction of air, it doesn't seem to have improved the performance much if at all. However a Nerf Microdart will fit in there pretty well, it seems.

4. The system gives you a missle holder where you can hold the remaining 3 with 1 on the firing tube, totalling 4. The missle holder can be placed on either side, but it has a bad tendency of coming off. You have to determine which side you want to permanently mount it on and then use some superglue to keep it in place.

5. Unless you have a very steady hand, it's not terribly accurate. Keeping it steady as you pull the bowstring, and then keeping it steady once again as you release it is a challenge. The arrow's fins are angled so that the missle will rotate through the air, but that might cause the arrow to not go perfectly straight.

Because a Nerf Microdart fit in the air tube, it led me to think that this was an OEM of a Hasbro Nerf product, but clearly it's a Lanard as I have a picture of the Lanard "Blast Bow" and the design is identical.

A deeper web search showed these products also:

http://www.leapsandb...roductID=347755

http://stewarttoys.z...me-078341616389
(Click on the image for a larger one. It seems to use hooks instead of hydraulics.)

http://www.sensation...916061514401747

http://www.ltdcommod...208-6BUV&Page=1

Hello?! Not using the search function? Excuse me, but I was one of the participants on that gigantic thread regarding the Rev-8 and I contributed towards a better understanding of corporate marketing and profitability. I was thanked for that with the words, "Finally, someone who understands marketing" for sharing my experience with the Nerf community.

I recall the conversation was that the timeframe was "summer".

How come people suddenly are getting anal with me?

Also, READ my original post. I said I knew it's summer but obviously the Rev-8 isn't out. Those who posted "use the Search Engine" obviously haven't properly read my post, else they would have contributed something intelligent. The only intelligent answer was "It's not quite considered summer yet... it'll be supposedly out late summer" (paraphrased).

Look in the mirror before you blast someone online.

Hi there, your friendly officenerfer here. I was wondering if anyone knew when the N-Strike Rev-8 Firefly is coming out. It's summer already, and Hasbro's put out their top-of-the-line super soaker backpacks and cannons, and kids are all water fodder. But what happened to the Rev-8 we were all nuts about a few months ago?

Any insight is appreciated.

Various Buzz Bee toys can be found at your local Albertsons supermarket.

-Groove out.

Groove,

You might not want to post that line graph. It basically shows that you can be affected by the "unsmartness" of another. ;-) (No offense to the thread starter though!)

I'm going to dissent with McLaren here for one second.  DO NOT BOMBARD HASBRO with letters and calls.  Talio and I have a direct link with the company, how much more do we need? 

This is the ABSOLUTE LAST TIME I WILL ANSWER THIS QUESTION!

The new stuff is coming out in the fall of 05.  That could mean end of the summer, it could mean the beginning of winter.  The main factor is China.  Our toys are manufactured there and distributed across America.  Think about when the NF and Nstrike came out.  The west coast saw it a about weeks before the east coast.  It would make sense if thats where China ships to and then distributes from.  However, being that Newark, NJ is one of the busiest ports in the country, it may very well come in there.  I do NOT know Hasbro's distribution chain, nor the chains of all major retailers.  Even when it gets to the shelf, their lazy ass employees have to put it on the shelf.  So an exact date is out of the question.

TALIO and I are not holding back information other than what the rereleases MAY be only because we were asked to by Hasbro.  Believe us guys (and BK), the second I get an email from our friends at Hasbro that says we can tell you anything, we will bombard YOU with the info.  If we are the "nerf ambassadors" as someone put it at our meeting with them, then how can we serve our role to keep quiet about new information.  We are in a unique position and hopefully all will be revealed soon.

Yes, do not call Hasbro please. What I was referring to was generalities of how companies mathmatically extrapolate feedback. Please listen to OneManClan.

(BTW, if anyone case to know, "MacLaren" is actually a correct historical spelling. So is "McLaren". I go by the "Mac" spelling. The "CS" stands for Counter-Strike as I'm a gamer.)

Usually companies try to target two major seasons: summer and Christmas. Summer is when kids have break from school and so they have to do something constructive like shoot each other with foam darts or water streams. Based on the target season, companies should launch their products 30-90 days prior to the target season to get exposure. Not everyone reads forums or press releases. If they're at the stores at the right place and right time and happen to spot a cool product, and if it's priced right, they'll buy it.

As you may have noticed, even though it's April, Hasbro has already pushed out their latest line of Super Soakers. I've taken apart a $15 model (their basic 3-mode hand-held) and let me tell you it's incredible in terms of mechanics. I took it apart because I was studying the internals to see if it could be modded, but the upcoming N-Strike Rev-8 Firefly may possibly make my plans obsolte; I'll just wait. They have a backpack-based system and it's -- get this -- metal and plastic. The trigger mechanisms feel incredible; they not only have that satisfying feel, but it internally snaps the valve open to release pressure. Whoo-mama.

And I've taken apart the Maverick and studied it. Hasbro has definitely upped their quality and design. Mechanically these are really good designs.

I also want to encourage you all to value the ambassadorial relationship we have with OneManClan. I happen to also participate in a wholly different collector community and know the value of such a relationship. There are manufacturers who don't really talk to people and don't care about their products. They'll even go as far as to squelch or sue anyone who publishes grips or complaints of their marketing or quality.

When you have something like this, it's important to preserve this for the good of the community.

So here's my photo of the Hornet.

Thanks for the tip regarding ImageShack.

When can we expect to know what is being re-released, or when it is going to be re-released?

Generally companies like Hasbro has to be contacted or written to (i.e. their Marketing Department) with a specific request. When a large company receives 1 caller's feedback, for example, they count it as 100 people. So if 50 people called, they'll do the math: a theoretical 5,000 people want the product. If you want it badly enough, encourage people to do a letter writing campaign. Another idea is to write to a specific customer of Hasbro (e.g. Target, Toys R' Us, etc.) and do a coordinate campaign.

On a separate note, Toys R' Us claims on one box to have an exclusive of a certain Nerf gun, so it's not impossible for a re-released limited run of a specific requested model.

Another marketing thing is this: a manufacturer will not release a product if it's going to compete with an already-existing product being marketed by that manufacturer.

OneManClan, thanks for the word of confidence.

I need to point out that I do believe NerfHaven and NHQ and sites like these are important to Hasbro not because we are all a majority but that we represent a demographic: we buy their stuff, and we are from different locations around North America and so we represent a healthy cross section of their target market.

Some of us here at the office are salivating over the Firefly REV-8.

We will be watching. We will be waiting. And we're going to come after you if you spend too long near the water cooler....

I see a lot of questions along the lines of "Will they re-release XYZ" and let me share a marketing perspective as a Marketing Manager (no, I don't work for Hasbro).

Many a marketing decision is based upon market validation and competition. First, will people buy it, and second, what is the competition making?

Now I've "re-entered" the Nerf market after leaving my last nerf-warring company six years ago. There have been many products over the last 6 years, more than I can count.

Where the industry is today is that Hasbro has competition. From my brief observation of the Nerf industry I see competitors like Lanard, Buzbee, and Larami. I'm not sure if Buzbee and Lanard have some kind of connection. The "stick to all" cheapo Buzbee pistol (has some kind of gooey plastic on the end of the darts. Motif is green and black) seem to have similar packaging to the Lanard Blast Bazooka which is painted similarly.

Anyway, the N-Strike product family has a far more mature look to it. The others look like really bad plastic and shoddy workmanship. When I opened up my Nerf Maverick I was very impressed with the mechanics of the internals. A lot of thought has been put into thse N-Strike products.

The goal of any business is to make money. When you're a giant like Hasbro you have stockholders to answer to. You can't afford to re-release an old product without any prior market-validation (that is assessing the market to see if there is a demand), and if you do have market-validation it had better sell. If it doesn't, the shareholders will be somewhat concerned. Therefore in order to meet Wall Street expectations, Hasbro *must* be profitable. The best bet is to produce something that is new and attractive and "sticky" (i.e. keeps people coming back and buying more). The only way to do that is to be creative and innovative and market the heck out of the product.

One aspect of Marketing does look back on the original product line to see which sold best and to understand why. Just because we like the mod-ability of a certain gun doesn't mean it was a best seller. Heck, you may have identified the superiority of the accuracy and range of a certain gun, but the lousiest of the product line sold best because thousands upon thousands of little kids were attracted to their day-glo color.

Just food for thought for ya'll. Enjoy!

I think I understand the flash thing that makes the darts glow. Any kind of thing that is flouresscent will glow if exposed to light. If the foam darts are phosphorescent and there is a light source inside the gun that exposes the darts to light before they're fired, then when they shoot out they'll glow. You don't have to "recharge" the darts yourself... each time you put them back into the gun, the internal battery and light will "charge" the phosphorescece for you.

Ingenous.


(Edit: I intended to say "phosphorescent" instead of "flourescent". Thansk Merlinski, for pointing that out.)

... as I just found out myself. The microdarts have diminished accuracy; they fire and the range is okay but the accuracy isn't the best... I'll stick to my Maverick for now.

Very interesting statistics. I was wondering "How are people getting 45-foot ranges with a Maverick when I can barely shoot 24 feet?" And then I realized this 45-degree angle. The problem with an office nerf war (as I am an OfficeNerfer) is the ceilings. The ceilings are seldom more than 9-11 feet high. So unless we're firing from the ground there's no practical way of aiming over 45 degrees. Also, even if you were prone, there are these things called cubicle walls.

That's not to say we don't try to aim a little higher to go over several cubicals but we risk hitting the ceiling. It takes time for the dart to go that far. However, nothing's more gratifying than seeing a sonicdart whiz across the office and seeing employees duck or cringe at their computers (especially them engineers who say they bought their Maverick to be part of the company spirit but the lamers never use them!).

I have a new photo of the Hornet. It's about 65k. How can I upload it? I don't have webspace to host this.

Anyone watch Rush Hour? There is a scene when Lee (Jackie Chan) and Carter (Chris Tucker) argue over whose daddy would whoop whose daddy while eating Chinese food takeout. Then later Lee teaches Carter a gun disarming move that looks like this:

Carter holds a gun out, with arm outstretched. Lee then takes both hands and rotates/folds the gun with the mouth now pointing at Carter and somehow takes it out of his hand. It's over quickly. Snap-take!

A friend today at the office held his Nerf Maverick at me and was going to shoot me point blank. I lifted up my hands. "I'm unarmed!" I said.

"I don't care!" he said with a grin.

So suddenly I do the Jackie Chan move. I turn the barrel away from me ---

--- towards him ---

and with the other turn the rear of his gun forward.

Now with the gun pointing at him I put my index finger into the trigger.

POP!!!!!!!!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!

Office laughs.

Howdy, here's my second starting thread since joining.

Today, guess what arrived at the office? Two classic Arrowstorms! That's right! I found them on e-Bay for what I felt was a reasonable deal considering they're classics. (I'd really like to see Nerf sites put the classics into one section and all modern and readily available ones in another so that you can tell which aren't around anymore at a glance.)

The arrowstorm is loud. It may not be obvious from photos but the way they are fired is by pulling the rear grip away from the forward grip. As you do, the round in the 10 o'clock position rotates to 12 o'clock and the round fires.

Now originally these were made to fit those yellow arrows, as I understand. I don't know if the design was intentional or not but it seems Megadarts have no problem being fired from them. Some darts -- yellow and pink -- arrived with the Arrowstorms and sometimes take a little bit of encouragement coaxing into the barrels.

But imagine my surprise -- get this -- when I considered Microdarts for these puppies. I had thought I needed to modify them. And in terms of diameter the barrels are wider than the microdarts. However the microdarts' and sonicdarts maximum diameter -- thanks to the rubber suction cups or rubber ends -- fits into the barrels quite nicely. Push 'em all the way down and then pull back to fire. They go a nice distance but accuracy and range falls short. The larger Megadart can go about, oh, 40 feet while three sonic darts I fired fell short by 6, 9 and 12 feet approximately. There are exceptions though. Sometimes a sonicdart seems to go very far. It's a little unpredictable and the results aren't always the same.

However this is probably negligible in an office firefight. This is not to say that you don't have to have good range because you do need to occasionally fling a dart at the loudmouth fellow employee who's taunting you from five cubicles away. But it's better tactics to sneak up a little close because in the time the dart takes to sail across a few cubicals, your opponent can duck all too easily. In such case I sneak up close and try to bounce a shot off the ceiling (don't do this if the ceiling is made out of a material that's white and crumbly, else it'll mess up some people's hairdos, contaminate coffee, etc.)

Anyways, range is important but as a short- to medium-range weapon it's not bad. Once in a while people run into each other, scramble backwards to get at each other. The Arrowstorm is formidable because it reminds you a bit of an ol Thompson / Tommy Gun from the ol' Al Capone days. The loud clacking noise, however, is a bit annoying. I may need to treat it with some kind of thin silicone lubricant because the plastic looks a bit dry.

That is a very comprehensive and well thought out review. I'll have to admit that I caught it in parts, because I've had a few classes this afternoon. I like the different prespective it brings, because I haven't had an indoor nerf war in over 4 years.

It's nice to see another Office Nerfer once again. It's so seldom that we actually see one of you post about the escapes you guys have. I really want to cubicle Nerfing when I get into the work world. I guess I'll just have to settle for outdoor Nerfing at the moment.

Oh yeah, welcome to NerfHaven. Your first three posts have to be the best I've seen out of a new member in ages; then again, you're a professional and a lot of our new members are ~13. Oh well, you killed them anyway. I do have one suggestion though, the edit button is usually reccommended over double posting.

On a side note, I couldn't help but notice that you have an engineering department. How about hooking a fellow Nerf warrior up with an internship?

Thanks for the welcome, Shindig. I guess we Office Nerfers are fewer and far between than I'd like. The beauty of the Nerf for the office is that it doesn't hurt like a paintball gun and doesn't make that much mess. Plus, nobody can sue you for firing a nerf dart at someone. Now if you hurt someone in the eye, that might be grounds for dismissal....

We currently don't have an intern program. If we do and if you have the means of staying out in the Bay Area, California, I'd be interested in seeing your resume. There are, after all, a wide variety of engineering disciplines and we may not be the best one for you.

I used to belong to the now defunct 3DO Gaming company. Trip Hawkins, who founded EA, allowed a remarkable culture in that people brought all their childhood toys and propped them up in their cubicals. I'd go by the High Heat Baseball section and see Micronaut-related toys from way way back and go, "My goodness; these toys would fetch HUNDREDS on eBay and here they are in mint condition, all propped up, and nobody comes and steals them!"

Then came the Nerf wars. We had a few megadart shooters in the form of the Chainblazers (or whatever they were called). Those were fun. Once in a while we saw someone with an Arrowstorm and this yellow arrow missle would go hurtling towards you.

But then came... the Ultimator.

By the time we became aware of the Ultimators, it had already been discontinued. Some dumb parent wrote in and complained to the manufacturer that the Ultimator missles totally knocked their kids back and how dangerous they were.

Those of us at the office looked at each other and just said, simple, just don't buy it for your kids. We adults LOVE to have that.

The first time I fired an Ultimator was like a religious experience. The thing was freaking huge. Here was the Nerf version (I think Nerf made it) of something that was the equivalent of another something that could take out a jumbo jet. Go 100 feet or 50 feet (whatever the marketing verbage had said). Yeah, right.

I cranked the lever on the top something like 12 times. I took aim. Back there in 3DO I could aim from Customer Service (CS) down to the artists' den who were working on Meridian 59.

FOOOM!!!!!

The missle PaCHEWS through the air and goes FOOMMM!! past an IT guy and an artist ducks and it lands on the ground.

Of course, the person who loaned it to me was right about now laughing his rear off at my expression. It was a mixture of shock and awe.

The next thing I knew, the people in CS started standardizing on the Ultimator in their department's Office Nerfing because it hurt the most. Once in a while you'd hear these sounds...

Crank-crank-crank-crank-crank---!

Tip-toe... Tip-toe... Tip-toe...

* * * FOOOM!!!!! * * * *

"AUUUGHHHH!!!! DAMMUT YOU GOT ME!!!!"

Laughter erupting from all the cubicles within earshot.

I went to Toy's R Us to scout for some Ultimators. All the clerks said they sold out a long time ago, but it just so happened that instinct kicked in. I looked at a very dull area of shelves that looked like miscelaneous boxes and looked behind them...

... and found one!

Apparently some wiseguy had the same idea but didn't have the cash and so tried to hide it from public view. I picked them up as quick as thinking and armed our I.T. department.

After several months of insane fun, the missles started to wear out. The foam started getting weaker, but the nubs on the front were starting to weaken structurally from all those point blank. So a bunch of the CS people went off to Home Depot and started buying foam left and right to fashion tools to make new foam missles.

There were varying degrees of success. Some were in odd shapes. Some didn't make it far but hurt short range (cone ends). Some looked like they were the tin man from Oz but mutilated into a nerf missle.

In my time at 3DO I managed to barter for a second Ultimator. By the time I left I gave my two Ultimators to my friend to arm him in the CS wars there. He later gave them away when he moved on.

None of us Office Nerfers had the concept of taking the Office Nerf War concept to our next companies. I'm very fortunate to have been an early stage employee with the founders of the company I'm currently working at, so I've helped shape our company culture.

Now we have insane Nerf wars. Maybe I'll tell you guys about it some time....

CSMaclaren;

Nice to see an 'adult' getting excited about nerf. If you want to get serious about the sport take some time to read some of the back log of topics and use the search function if you have any questions.

Most of us are already aware of the features, benefits and cons of the N-strike set, but it is interesting to see it from someone coming into things fairley fresh.

I would suggest you try an airtech 2000 if you can find one. They are small but pack much more punch than the Scout sidearm after a few modifications.

Thanks for the welcome. I've not yet checked into the Airtech 2000 system just yet. I'm worried about darts sliding out of the barrels.

Interestingly Hasbro makes those super soaker type guns and those don't have to be pumped 20 times to build up air pressure. I'd love to see a mod of those to do select fire.

I took apart a Maverick this weekend and the mechanism by which the revolver works is pretty complex, and I don't have the skill to adapt the revolver to a super soaker.

I'll probably post some thoughts on the Maverick in a separate post.

Nice post.

When you were talking about the scout, with the laser sight beneath the barrel-were you talking about how it mimicks a real gun with a laser sight, or how it has a laser sight. Because the Scout doesn't have a laser sight...

~Sinfil

"Scout" - ah, I knew I forgot what it was called.

Yes, the Scout resembles a slightly smaller version of a glock with a lasersite. That's the visual impact that it has though it's modernized and in the red and metallic gray motif. There is no "light" or "lasersite" on the Scout. This part contains two placeholders for extra darts.

This is not in reference to the NiteFinder which does not ship with the N-Strike unity system. The NiteFinder, rather, follows a blue and yellow motif like the Maverick.

This is my first post and first review, all in one!

Let me tell you how serious I am about Nerf wars in the office. I proposed this to the higher-ups at my company as a good way of relieving stress because certain co-workers were not getting along and somebody needed to be shot, howbeit with a foam dart or mega missle. We are adults (I'm 37, and we're a bunch of grown men in different departments from 25-45) playing with Nerf guns around the office!

It's been several weeks since we added Nerf Wars to our corporate culture, and so far nobody has died and productivity seems to have improved. We even cleared out all the Nerf Mavericks from our local Toys 'R Us. (Since I'm the Nerf Procurer, I feel like Santa Claus - or an arms dealer - going around the office and peddling these Nerf Maverick's to the employees, and then teaching them how to lock 'n' load.)

The Nerf Maverick smallarm is downright cool-looking and became our "standard" in the office for several reasons. First, anyone can afford $11.00. Second, six darts isn't bad. Third, reasonable range (I know they diluted the power of these guns so that they don't put anyone's eyes out. Of course, I'll be trying to figure out how to mod the Maverick to increase its range). And forth, the darts don't fall out of the gun by accident. Those are the pros. Cons: the gun does jam once in a while. You have to make sure the darts are tucked into their holes. The whistler darts seem to go father than the suction-cup ended ones, but they seem to puff out of their chambers more in the revolver and jam. But clearing the jam is easy. Hey, jamming happens in a firefight. Adds to the laughs.

Some people wonder what place Nerfs have in the adult life. Most want to do paintball fights. This isn't practical in the office. And if you're not properly attired, paintballs can hurt. Foam darts don't hurt; they might sting if you modified your nerf-style gun.

So, get this: I walked up to one of the Engineers and asked him if he wanted to take part in the company spirit. He said no. Then I put a Nerf Maverick in his hand and told him to fire at the white board. He fired not only one but all six darts. Something awoke in him. "Yes, put me down for one!!!" And that's all it took. I'm a Nerf-evangelist!

And so it begins: a search for an "ultimate" Nerf-style weapon without many modifications, hence my review of the Nerf N-Strike. My background in the Nerf Wars go back about 8 years when I was first exposed to them while working at The 3DO Company. I remember the Ultimators and Chainblasters and maybe a Balzooka or even the Arrowstorm. Today's nerf-style weapons are varied in quality and power. So here's my re-entrance into the Nerf community.

The N-Strike, as you can see from the advertisement is three weapons:

1. A massive rocket launcher (the Titan)

2. A small sidearm

3. A semi-automatic weapon (the Hornet)

Please pardon my not using their proper marketing names accurately. As I said, I'm 37. I don't care what they're called; I just want to shoot the guys in the office with them.

Weapons 2 and 3 integrate with the rocket launcher to form a mega weapon. The interesting thing is: how do you manage them all? Well if you're a kid, you look insanely powerful. If you're an adult, you look insanely powerful until some employees laugh at you, and then you'll look insanely dorkey.

The integration of all three weapons is not just physically combining them and locking them in place. They have secondary buttons that if you press a button on the main unit (rocket launcher) it will cause the nerf darts on the secondary weapons to fire individually! A very novel idea.

Things to consider when reviewing:

1. Does the ammo slide out of the unit?

2. Does the ammo jam the weapon?

3. Is the unit ergonomic? (Any sharp edges that might cause discomfort?)

4. Is the unit attractive looking? (No sense in looking like a dork around the office.)


ROCKET LAUNCHER: THE TITAN

First, the rocket launcher. This is the first and most closest thing to the original Ultimator. I recall that some family consumer magazines attacked the Ultimator because after firing it at a small kid, the small kid was half a block away. Not good if you're a parent and that's your only kid and you can't make another. In terms of aesthetics, the launcher is downright cool-looking and scary when you bring it to the office because that big foam missle has got to hurt. But it takes twenty freaking times of pumping before you can build the proper air pressure into it. That's a bit of a workout. And in that time, you have to duck everyone's fire. Yes, you had to pump the ol' Ultimator up a bit. I no longer have my Ultimator so I couldn't say if the foam missles of the N-Strike would work with old Ultimators out there. The missles look very close to those of the Ultimator.

The fins looked tilted and then I notice all three were tilted that way to cause the missle to rotate. It just didn't seem like it travelled fast. The launcher itself requires a silencer-styled red tube to be screwed onto the mouth of the unit. The unit has vents through which air escapes when the trigger is pulled. But then air has to go down approx. 8-9 inches through another series of vents. I wonder if the airflow would improve if I used a Dremel tool and ground them all off. I notice that at the tip of the "silencer" the vents cause air to come out in opposing directions. Those who understand airflow physics: please feel free to comment.

In short distances the missle would travel quickly. In longer distances it was okay. A bit slow bit it made it about 24 feet.

In terms of pumping, the manual says to put it on the ground, step on it and then pump away. If you're an adult, forget it, just pump it with your arms.

Overall this is an attractive and reasonably ergonomic unit but the pumping takes the fun out of it. Once you fire, you'd better have a second foam missle/rocket on your person. I cannot help but wonder if Hasbro intentionally designed the flight of the missle to be slower. But when you have this honkingly huge missle going towards your head and you're trying to duck out of the way and other office employees watch you try to save your own life against a foam missle, that's half the fun of Nerf Warring. ;-) The thing I don't like is having to pump this twenty times. The Lanard Blast Bazooka requires 4-8 pumps and though the missle is lighter (and replacement ammo seemingly more difficult to find) the missle it fires not only whistles but travels a lot faster.)


SEMI-AUTOMATIC WEAPON: THE HORNET

Have you played Halo? This unit reminds me of the Needler - the Covenant weapon that fires energy needles. It's a medium sized weapon that looks extremely cool and is ergonomic. The Hornet requires pumping (again 18-20 times) but it makes a good grip for your second hand while your first hand is handling the trigger.

This has the potential of being an "ultimate weapon" for me but I think it falls victim to bad design.

The unit requires that it's "cocked" first. If you don't and start pumping away to build air pressure within the unit, you'll only be able to fire one dart. If you cock it, then pump 20 times, you have the potential of firing this like a select-fire / semi-automatic weapon. VERY COOL. So when some employee you're trying to get nails you with his Maverick, you take your Hornet and zap him. And before he knows it, another comes, and yet another, and yet another.

Another cool feature is a big orange button on either side that when pressed will launch all six at your enemies.

Now here's the down side. The orange foam darts that come with the unit have a tendency to slide out or even fall out of the forward tubes, so when you hit the trigger the air pressure just "fuffs" and there is no firing. When cocked and primed, if one dart fails to fire, if you pull the trigger yet again you can fortunately fire the next dart in sequence. And there is a sequence. It's good to memorize it. But if you realize your mistake and try to re-insert a dart that has slidden out a bit, it may not come out at all.

Or is there a sequence? Sometimes when I pull the trigger, nothing happens, but then when I fire again, a dart does go out -- just not when I intended to fire. This can be disconcerting in a firefight. You're not sure if your gun works or not, and you're not sure if a dart has slidden out an inch or not.

One solution is to use the refill pack ammo which use black foam. The black foam darts seem to be a very slightly bit larger and slightly more durable than the orange ones. They hug the space in their barrels a little better and have a lesser tendency of falling out.

Imagine my delight with six whistler darts in the chambers and firing perfectly in sequence. But to have it fire perfectly requires some work: cocking it and pumping it 20 times, then making sure no dart is slipping out. It's a pain to have to micromanage the weapon.

Out of the box, the orange-colored soft-plastic site was bent. No biggie, because it does very little to improve your aim anyway. A knife could cut the bent part off easily.

Overall the Hornet has the chance of being an ultimate weapon but falls short. The Maverick has little to no tendency for the foam darts to accidentally slide out of the barrel because when not being fired the chamber is not aligned with the barrel of the gun and this keep the Nerf dart from falling out.


SIDEARM

The sidearm echoes the feel of a real life sidearm with a laser site beneath the barrel. But the red and gray theme shows it's a toy. You can keep one in the barrel for firing and an extra two nerf darts in the available storage holes beneath the barrel. You cock it and then fire. The range is fair. I can get a dart about 12 feet but to hit things carefully I have to fire at an angle and hope it arcs over the cubicle walls and hit my co-worker on the forehead.

It's a reasonable sidearm. It integrates with the Titan on the side, and by pressing a button on the Titan the one round in the sidearm will fire.

Overall, it's an attractive looking sidearm. Maybe simplicity is best here. If I had a big pocket or fanny pack full of ammo, I could have a lot of fun with the sidearm.


CONCLUSION

There is a great misconception that Nerf guns are only for kids. For us professionals who work in Silicon Valley's hi-tech industry, it's a wonderful means of stress relef. For you engineers out there who don't exercise (yes you) this may be the only exercise you actually get. You should thank anyone brings Nerf Wars to the office, otherwise your butts remain numb sitting in front of the computer 9-12 hours a day.

One may gawk at the $39.99 price since the Nerf N-Strike Maverick 6-round pistol retails for $10.00 + tax. You are in fact getting three weapons, not one. How much you value them individually is a different matter. In terms of ease of use and practicality, the sidearm ironically is the best of the three.

The Titan is unfortunately too unwieldly to use in a firefight when everyone's armed with a Maverick pistol and can unload 6 darts onto your forehead while you're trying to pump it.

The Hornet requires too much micromanagement. Being able to launch six whistling darts at an enemy is very, very satisfying, but the preparation and the management to get it to fire quickly makes this toy more frustrating than joy-bringing.

This experience has been valuable. Had we not entered the consumer-end of the market through the Nerf Mavericks we would never have considered a baseline or standard to compare other nerf-style weapons against.

Thanks for your time and feedback.