15 replies to this topic

[Peacemaker]

I just visited my local Toys-R-Us earlier today, and I noticed some new guns on the shelves that I’d not seen before.

First off, just a note… TRU seems to be restocking AT3Ks. I haven’t seen them on store shelves for quite a while, but my TRU now has about a dozen of them in stock. A good thing.

Now on to the new guns. Toy Quest has a new line of guns under the Air xXL line. I saw 3 of them on the shelf. The first was a fist blaster (or something like that). Just 3 short barrels that sit on the top of the fist and a rubber bladder that you grip in your palm. You simply squeeze the bladder to create the airflow that fires the darts. They didn’t look to me to have any potential at all.

Secondly there were the Air xXL Electronic Skeet Shoot sets. Like the Tech Target, the set includes a gun, a target system, and a handful of foam darts. The target system here throws large foam disks (skeets) across the room and you’re supposed to shoot them while in flight with the gun. The gun itself looks kind of interesting. It is a decent looking “rifle” sized gun with a removable stock. It has a 4 barreled revolving chamber at the tip and a cocking pump on the underside (like a pump shotgun). The barrels automatically revolve when you cock the gun with the pump. The gun also comes with a mount on the top that holds 4 extra darts (the set comes with 8 darts total). The darts are basic Nerf-type by design (hollow foam cylinders with rubber suction-cup tips), but are at least twice as big as a standard micro dart. It’s hard to tell from the box, but it looks like this is a spring gun of some sort, and not an air gun, so I’m not confident that the gun has that much potential (considering that the box advertises that the gun fires darts “up to 25 feet”, it doesn’t instill me with much confidence).

The more interesting gun was the Air xXL Bazooka Missile Launcher (not to be confused with the Blast Bazookas… different line). This gun is HUGE. By far the biggest, bulkiest gun that I’ve seen in a long time. It’s at least 3 feet long and rather fat. It has 2 handles with partially rubberized grips (a rear handle with a trigger and a forward handle for the front hand to grip) as well as a rubberized section at the rear of the gun to act as a shoulder stock. It is designed to fire these really big foam missiles (approximately 3 times the size of the stock missiles that come with the Max Shot.) Like the Max Shot the missiles slide over the forward barrel. Unlike the Max Shot, the forward barrel is about 2 inches in diameter. Basically, the gun works like this… on the top of the gun is a grip lever that you pump forward and back to prime the gun (about 14 pumps for a full charge) then you pull the trigger to fire the missile. Unlike the Skeet Shoot (which is in a closed box), the Bazooka comes in an open-faced box, so you can get a decent, hands on feel for the gun without taking it out of the packaging. The up side… the box advertises that the gun can fire its stock missiles (which are friggin’ huge… at least as big as a dozen or so micro darts put together) over 60 feet, so if one can successfully and effectively mod the barrel to taper down from 2 inches to a ½ inch, you can imagine how far this sucker could feasibly fire a single micro dart or a micro Stefan, which means it could be a damn good loser. The down sides (other than its large, bulky size)… when you work the cocking pump, the gun gives off a very audible series of clicking noises, like a built in sound effect system. It’s rather annoying to listen to and would surely spoil any stealth tactics that a losing nerfer might be trying to use. In addition, it’s got a helluva kick. I pumped up the gun in the box and pulled the trigger, and the damn thing nearly jumped off the shelf. Interestingly enough, though you have to pump the gun up to (assumingly) build air pressure like an air gun, when the gun is fired there is a very recognizable sound of a large spring being sprung. Is it an air gun? Is it a spring gun? Is it an amalgamation of the 2? Who knows. But that mule-worthy kick will probably screw with your accuracy and cause you to shoot high.

These guns are definitely not cheap. The Skeet Shoot is priced at $39.99 (I suspect you’re primarily paying for the target/skeet thrower), and the Bazooka Missile Launcher goes for $29.99.

So, anybody else seen these guns yet? Anybody bought them? Anybody tried to mod them? Does anybody know if they’re worth the outlay of cash?

[JSkater]

Wow. Great post!

That launcher sounds kinda like the Ultimator. Ya know, the whole "Coil-the-spring-up-until-your-wrist-snaps-in-half mechanism".

[VoLT]

Sweet! Thanks for the info. As soon as I can get someone to take me I'm gonna clean out my TRU of AT3Ks.

[cxwq]

The XXL guns are pretty old news but the restocked at3ks have some promise. Hopefully it is an actual re-release and not just some idiot sales clerk finding a box of them in the back of the store where it had been misplaced for a year.

Either way, thanks for your impressions of the two XXL guns, there isn't all that much discussion regarding them on the forums. Probably more due to their price tags than anything else.

[Crankymonky]

I saw the Skeet Shoot and drooled over it. It looks like it has such a rifle feel. Then I saw the price tag...So I bought a Uruk-Hai XBow. I really hope that the 3ks are rerelleased! Then I can have like 15 like our favorite monarch!

[ompa]

Eh, that skeet shoot looks really interesting... If it was a pump gun, that would be great- it might be like a sm1500 in rifle form. Too bad the thing costs $30. Then again, isn't that near the price of a wf or rf20 on ebay ?

~ompa

[Crankymonky]

Its $39.99. Why wouldn't you like it cocking? So much more reliable. These guns show me that next line won't be to bad since your getting 2 guns, well actually 3. I am thinking that the bazooka thing in the next line could be used as a gun implacement. Maybe have one on each end of the field in case someone runs out of ammo they could go there.

[reversedracula]

My friend has the big foam missile launcher, whichever one that is. It's pretty sweet just to carry and make some noise with for a fear factor. We were recruiting at accepted students day at my college for our Nerf games, amongst other things, and I must say that that thing made quite an impression on folks just by holding it. As for its actual use, it's almost like having someone slowly throw a foam football at you. It gets about fifty feet but lacks accuracy. Still, it looks and sounds and feels like a demon.

[GeneralPrimevil]

That's why I'd buy/make one. Recoil in a Nerf gun? Sweet. I'll have to get some pics of the thing, then I may buy it, or build my own.

[nerfspecialforces]

Hey, I saw those a couple days ago! My TRU still sells RF20's. Didn't see any at3k's though. I want a sheet shooter thing, then I saw the price and decided to start selling the RF20's on ebay so I could raise enough money to buy one.

[texmustache]

For the love of God, don't buy the Skeet Shooter. The bazooka is okay for awesome-ness factor because it shoots giant foam missles, but the skeet shooter sucks huge balls. On the box it says "shoots 25 feet". They lied about that. It's maybe 7-10 feet flat, and 15-20 angled. Sure it feels like a rifle, maybe. But it's still a little small. It be easier to take the internals of an AT or SM and make your own out of PVC. The internals of the skeet shooter are really messed up. The plunger tube is really small, and the catch and trigger are weird. DONT BUY IT.

[Peacemaker]

I'll go along with you on that one, texmustache. I gave in to curiosity, broke down and bought the Skeet Shoot yesterday. It just looked so damn cool. I have to admit I liked the heft and feel of it. I liked the textured, rubberized grip and the handle was big enough to feel comfortable in the hands of a teen/adult (unlike some guns that were obviously designed for 9 year olds with handles so small that disappear in your hand), and with its stock and over all size it had a good rifle feel to it. But performance-wise, it blows chunks. Out of the box it got about maybe 10-15 feet in range at a level shot (maybe). I didn't open it up to inspect the guts, but it felt like a very weak spring gun in operation (weaker than the SM350, which is saying alot), and the barrels had some really funky looking air restrictor designs built into them. Upon close inspection of the outer assembly, it appeared that the round pieces on the nose of the gun (encircling the rotating barrels) and the ammo holder on top of the gun were separate from the 2 main halves of the primary shell, and quite possibly glued/bonded to the shell halves (like the nose on the Max Shot), which meant that I couldn't open it up without permenantly damaging the gun, which I didn't want to do. I had so little confidence in this gun's potential that I didn't want to damage it in any way, so that I could rebox it and take it back. Which is exactly what I did this morning. I returned that piece of crap to TRU, got my $43 back, and bought another AT3K for $10 instead.

[nerfspecialforces]

Well, you never now... I could say almost the same for my D T-3. Only it shoot 5-7 feet-literally. Now the gun shoots like a X-bow.

Edited by nerfspecialforces, 18 June 2004 - 09:49 PM.

[texmustache]

Yes you do. Did you read my post? I looked at the internals and i'm saying they're weaker than a LnL, probably weaker than a SM250! This...thing....sucks! Cool design, maybe, but it still blows.

[nerfspecialforces]

I just wanted the shell really. I was planning on making the insides or doing an intergrating with my D T-3 since the trigger things in that is gone. Do you think that thats possible to do, looking at the insides?

[Bobert]

DON'T buy the sleet shoot. The target system brakes and the gun shoots about 5 feet and it is very tiresome to pump.

Edited by Bobert, 19 June 2004 - 11:55 AM.