69 replies to this topic

[MyLastDart]

Hi guy, I just wanted to get some useful information and feedback for the contacts I made at Hasbro (Development Design Engineers) who said they would welcome feedback (they read feedback from communities when they can, but they can't read them all).

So my question is this - What do you want from next gen blasters? What works good for you? Do you like the simple Nitefinder shell blasters? Or more complex firing mechanism/internal blasters? Is a "simple shell" better for you? Or does complex mean raising your game to the next level?

Please give examples of mods you have done, the success you had - or didn't have - why did/didn't it work?

I kindly request you avoid flaming, abuse to others experiments, or mods gone wrong. The worst failures can result in the best successes

I'm simply interested in your constructive theorem-found results.

I thank you all for your input, and time!


ps: Please do give working feedback, it's hard to quantify 'passing comments' to hardcore 'tried and got the tshirt' stuff

Edited by MyLastDart, 26 January 2013 - 06:50 AM.

[orangeparkour]

I personally am not very interested in electronic blasters. I think they are cool, and can be very fun to play with, but not that satisfying to work on. I think we have plenty of single shot direct plungers as well, so some weird cool new unique air blasters or some other different system would be very cool and interesting to work on. Hasbro's own version of hoppers, or other new reloading system would also be very much appreciated. And then of course, I love to hear you say things about larger ammo.

[Mully]

Flywheels, large pt's, and anything that's pump action.

[Phoenix66]

Bring back the longshot!

[HOTH]

Bring back the longshot!

Not happening.

They are looking for new technologies, and the longshot was a clunky and inefficient design. I would personally like to see more electronic blasters because it seems to reinvigorate the mods on the forums and what not. Some really cool stuff can be done with them. And for those that are not a fan of electronic blasters, there's always eBay. At the end of the day, Hasbro will do what they think is most popular among the 8 year old kids, not the post-pubescent forum dwellers who enjoy voiding their warrantees. Although there are ideas that we think would be great to work with, the majority of their purchases come from kids who do not plan on opening up the blaster to examine its defects and strengths.

Edit-

Flywheels

Flywheels are the bomb

Edited by HOTH, 25 January 2013 - 09:36 PM.

[Ivan S]

I'd like to see the return of semi/fully automatic air guns. If they used n-strike clips that'd be awesome. And I know this is asking for too much, but my dream Hasbro gun would be an electrically pumped air gun.

Most people in the NIC can easily throw together a simple homemade that shoots 100 feet, but automatic and semiautomatic guns are something the community has never really been able to reproduce. So I think the place where Hasbro can provide us the most is complex, rapid fire guns like the stampede, RF20, and magstrike that we could never build ourselves.

TL;DR: We can build simple, long-range guns ourselves. Hasbro should build us complex, rapid fire ones.

[mr trouble]

I agree with Ivan I would like to see Hasbro put out some more air powered blasters that are full and semi auto. More specifically I really want to see a triple round burst blaster. I would also like to see that they continue to produce simple, cheap and rugged blasters like the night finder and the scout. It's good to have really cheap entry level blasters for parents without serious amounts of cash. Electric blasters won't ever go away but I feel like they deviate from my view of Nerf. Nerf should be fun and cheap. The whine of electric motors and the cost of batteries kinda ruins the game.

[quertyman]

I wish hasbro would come out with some more air blasters. Like the airtech and supermaxx line. And I'm just talking about the small tanks and not the actual design.

[2TAGS]

Airguns , no longshot crap, amd no more flywheel bullshit. And lose the barrel and stock attachments. Enough said

[HOTH]

no more flywheel bullshit

What is wrong with flywheels?

[pit viper]

I like to believe the idea that Hasbro will make a semi-auto air gun that could decent ranges of maybe 60+ feet (PTG). Maybe, Hasbro could create a subdivision to NERF that is meant strictly to satisfy the modding community and is run by actual modders. The blasters would have basic mods done to them (AR removed, beefier spring, easier to perform further mods) and mod kits would be available (possibly contracted through OMW?) for all of the blasters. There would be more complexly fired blasters since more experienced Nerfers would be using them so there would be less complaints. Attachments could also be more complex such as: Tac rail to tac rail, an actual flaslight, and clip/dart holder. The darts would be something like AMIORS or some other safe homemade dart. To avoid legal issues of guns being "too" powerful they could just say on the box or blaster or both: "NERF and their parent company Hasbro are not responsible for any injuries caused to you by the blaster or darts." Also the same spiel that modifying darts or dart blaster will result in a voiding of the warranty.

Just my two cents.

[Apollo441]

They need to bring back vintage blasters like splitfires crossbows and air techs

also what would be a good hit turreted shotguns like the triple shot or doomsayer...

[The Snake]

I Think what Would be the best thing would be a shotgun like nerf gun, but with a turret or something. That would be cool and possible. Also, more air guns.

[Mully]

I like to believe the idea that Hasbro will make a semi-auto air gun that could decent ranges of maybe 60+ feet (PTG). Maybe, Hasbro could create a subdivision to NERF that is meant strictly to satisfy the modding community and is run by actual modders. The blasters would have basic mods done to them (AR removed, beefier spring, easier to perform further mods) and mod kits would be available (possibly contracted through OMW?) for all of the blasters. There would be more complexly fired blasters since more experienced Nerfers would be using them so there would be less complaints. Attachments could also be more complex such as: Tac rail to tac rail, an actual flaslight, and clip/dart holder. The darts would be something like AMIORS or some other safe homemade dart. To avoid legal issues of guns being "too" powerful they could just say on the box or blaster or both: "NERF and their parent company Hasbro are not responsible for any injuries caused to you by the blaster or darts." Also the same spiel that modifying darts or dart blaster will result in a voiding of the warranty.

Just my two cents.

I think the one problem with this it's it's too be likened to 8yr olds playing m games.
Even if it says, on the packaging, that it's not meant for a certain age group, that certain age group will end up with it anyway no matter what.
It doesn't seem like a good idea from the company's point of view.

On the subject of air guns, even though they are fun, the are outdated and useless to everyone but the nic.
9yr olds want springers, not airg.
In their opinions springers are faster better, etc.

The nic only makes a up a fraction of hasbro's sales, I don't think airguns will be back soon.

[481IceDragon]

As difficult as it would be, having multiple shells designs, priming mech designs, and internals, in a sort of build your own blaster would be pretty neat!

[HOTH]

They need to bring back vintage blasters like splitfires crossbows and air techs

I don't that would be all that great. And it would definitely not happen.

People who already have those "vintage" blasters would be upset at the depreciation
The plastic sucks
They do not conform to the ever changing safety standards
Hasbro would have to use a different plastic from what they use now, and thus use the old molds
Most of those blasters were not even designed/engineered under the Hasbro regime. So, that would not work well either. Kenner and Larami (technically, Hasbro acquired the nerf line in 1991, which predates most vintage blasters. however, Kenner and Larami still had most control over the blaster production until like 2000, hence guns like the Crossbow and Splitfire bear the Kenner text and not Hasbro)

It just makes no sense for them to do that. Plus, they do not out-preform (to a great extent) the contemporary blasters. So why would kids buy them? They do not know how "vintage", or valuable they are to us.

Edited by HOTH, 26 January 2013 - 12:03 AM.

[Zorns Lemma]

Maybe, Hasbro could create a subdivision to NERF that is meant strictly to satisfy the modding community and is run by actual modders.

This will never happen.

Any suggestion worth providing will be in the form of an idea that benefits us, but that Hasbro can implement easily and sell to the masses. None of their actual market audience cares about the Splitfire or Crossbow.

Keep in mind we comprise of maybe .0001% of Hasbro's audience just for Nerf, and Nerf isn't even their main product. They've been slumping since 2009ish and their 4th quarter revenue this year again was below projections.

They're not going to produce anything that can't be turned into a huge marketing and revenue horse. They experimented with marketing to the mid-teens age group with Dart Tag, but that failed because those guys are too busy playing Call of Duty and making monosyllabic insults over VoIP. So they won't produce anything that an 8 yr old can't use which basically means smaller blasters and more flywheels. Air guns are awful from a consumer standpoint and a electric powered air blaster would be too costly to market.

Tacticool attachments won't go away because those sell incredibly well for their cost (this is the primary reason why the gun manufacture lobby is so against more regulation because attachments make them $$$).

[ShaNayNay]

I personally am not very interested in electronic blasters. I think they are cool, and can be very fun to play with, but not that satisfying to work on. I think we have plenty of single shot direct plungers as well, so some weird cool new unique air blasters or some other different system would be very cool and interesting to work on.

This perfectly sums it up for me. However, I do like large electronic direct plunger blasters like the Stampede. I would really, really like to see Nerf turn back in the direction of air tank powered blasters. Some sort of semi-auto firing air blaster would be just incredible. It has been done before on the NIC, but the valves required to achieve full semi-auto are quite expensive to purchase, so it is not done often (excluding sceptors).

In addition to complex air/plunger firing systems, just simple, cheap air tank blasters would be a nice treat as well. Some simple air blasters like the at2k and Panther are so popular because they fetch great range, have high quality internals that don't break, and keep a low price tag. I would personally like to see some complex air blasters released, but with them some simple, cost effective air blasters as well.

One last thing: It seems to me as if the Raider stock is the most popular stock to use with blasters. However, it is not bundled with the Rampage and is no longer available. Would Hasbro ever consider making some sort of tactical bundle that came with the Raider stock, and various clip or drum sizes and hard to find tactical accessories? I couls see this becoming popular with general consumer Nerfers outside of the NIC as well.

I also think that bringing back vintage blasters is an absurd idea. they are vintage, so keep them vintage. There's no need for every single person on the NIC to have unlimited Crossbows at their disposal. I would also rather not see the Longshot again. Nerf hase been there and done that; the Retaliator, when properly brass breeched, gets close to the range of an Angel breeched longshot, if not more; stop being so butthurt and get over it fellas.

That's my two cents. However if February 9th is as good as you say it's going to be, I feel like all of this may be pointless as it may completely change out minds on some of the stuff we are wishing for.

Edited by ShaNayNay, 26 January 2013 - 12:41 AM.

[meatballica]

Larger diameter ammo of sorts. Like, 1 1/2" mongo darts.

Nerf's version of a breakaction grenade launcher

Air tanks and pumps

Single shot breeched guns

Maybe a new Titan like blaster but with some new twists to it

Detachable integration blasters similar to the Longshot and its corresponding Frontgun

More muzzle attachments

Maybe a Nerf tactical kit that comes with various attachments for blasters like a stock, ammo holder, etc

A loading style similar to pump action shotguns or with some other built in clip like that

I personally prefer having two grips on a blaster like on a Raider/Rampage instead of having a grip like an AlphaTrooper.

I also like a good area on the gun to be clear. Like on the Stampede where it had the section so you can see the bolt.


All of these are based solely on what I find would be fun or what I enjoy playing with. Not from a modding perspective. Other than maybe the airtanks and pumps but they do have their own playing style which I enjoy a lot.

[2TAGS]

What is wrong with flywheels?

They are obnoxiously loud and scare my kids and pets .

[HOTH]

They are obnoxiously loud and scare my kids and pets .

Well I can't argue with that, but I rather like them. Gives a modding challenge.

That being said, a good suggestion to Hasbro would, I suppose, to improve on the flywheel design. I am talking quieter, more accurate, and compatible with other types of darts.

[Datum]

Less about what I'd want for mods, but I really liked the belt fed aspect of the Vulcan. It was really fun and I felt like a total badass using it. Problem is, I really only liked the belt from it. If there were some sort of Elite belt-fed blaster, I would be all over that. The Vulcan did not have much potential as it was so complicated and based around electronic systems that made upgrading it costly and difficult.

Here's my awful idea: use a similar auto-valve to the Magstrike, attach it to a large air tank/bladder (A full dart belt worth of air, 25 shots at least), and stick that to the Vulcan's belt feed (you can use the reciprocating part of the valve to operate the belt feeding mechanism). BAM! Squad Automatic Weapon.
Doesn't have to have a giant magazine or insane fire rate. Sell extra belts that might be easy to piece together, and the air valve can be fiddled with by replacing springs and hoses to tune the fire rate and volume of air per shot. The tank can be modded to have more capacity easily, pumps can be replaced, etc.

[T da B]

I would like to see more electronics in blasters. Now that the cost of basic electronics is so low, why not incorporate some into blasters? Maybe an ammo counter, a range-finder, or how about some LEDs instead of a worthless laser sight?

Another thing I would love to see is foam obstacles, bunkers, and objects that can be placed in a Nerf battlefield.

I don't really care about bringing back any blasters from the past--Nerf should always be evolving!

[The Snake]

After reading some more, Ive been wanting a new electronic clip system automatic blaster. Kind of like the stampede. I know that that wont happen but maybe from a marketing point of view, a blaster with SOME similarities to the stampede, like the automatic feature, would be a great way to go. Think about it. All of us modders like the stampede, except that it lacks range, and I'm pretty sure the target audience for hasbro would love something automatic too. Just my input, but I'm sure everyone could agree with me.

[DICE134]

I personally think we need more air guns (with decent sized tank), more blasters with removeable stocks, simple springers such as the night finder, blasters that are large enough to be comfortable for taller people (with things such as decent sized stocks), and blasters with other blasters integrated (not like the longshot though where the front gun is removable).