mikejonas

Have you taken a position on the issue? That may affect what resources and research are ideal for you on the matter.

One thing that you might include in your discussion is how wasn't/isn't just a Nerf issue, even though you're focusing on Nerf and Rebelle as the most recent, prominent example. Other recent instances of the same sexism controversy would include Lego's "Friends" line and earlier attempt at making girl-friendly Lego toys, like "Belleville"; the girl who recently petitioned Hasbro to make the Easy Bake Oven in "boy-friendly" colors; the origins of the G.I. Joe toyline (and in fact, the whole action figure industry itself) as a way to make and sell what essentially were "dolls for boys." This isn't the only time toys originally intended for one gender were rejiggered, spun off, or counterprogrammed for the other gender.

There was an article on Rebelle from the hard copy version of Wired Magazine not too long ago (it doesn't appear to have been reproduced on the website as of yet), which revealed that girls made up 10-15% of Nerf buyers before Rebelle. It also showed that boys in a test group still appeared to enjoy playing with the Rebelle products.

Why is Nerf realeasing a repaint line, if it's just to match the Revonix, thats kind of lame.

Riiight, like Nerf has never rereleased a blaster in a new color scheme before.

Knowing the DPCI is basically useless

Tell that to all the people with $6.00 EATs, including THIS GUY who apparently made his own "moronic" post about Target DPCIs back then. Obviously history won't repeat itself with that bargain, but getting the jump on the new blasters when they hit the stockroom is still something that even the most hardcore, humorless Nerf fan would appreciate.

the iPhone attachment has seemed to be influential on Hasbro, as photos of a Nerf branded and coloured have been popping up over the internet..

I'd dispute this because of the existence of LTAR and the current Nerf IOS app, not to mention Rebelle. I'd bet that Hasbro's been working on marrying smartphones and Nerf blasters for a long time. Tek Recon are claiming some intriguing features, but we'll have to wait and see how well it works in real life, and unless they've got some solid patents on some of those features, there's nothing that says Nerf's application won't be at least as good somewhere down the line.


I guess I'm just a little skeptical about Tek Recon overall. I'm doubtful about the blasters' accuracy. I'm worried about how well the smartphones are secured to the blaster--while Nerf's solution is a thick, all enveloping case (which is one of the reasons why they haven't tried to support Android phones in their myriad form factors, as opposed to four or five for Apple), Tek Recon uses a clamp system that appears just too flimsy for my taste and clearly leaves a lot of the device exposed. I believe someone also pointed out somewhere that while the ammo is recoverable, its size makes recovery difficult and some may lose some or choose not to recover the ammo (which is troublesome because it's not biodegradable). All minor issues, perhaps, but enough to make me wait and see until it's out in the wild and real reviews and reactions come in.

If only they could come out at 6$ like the elite alpha trooper. (hope!!!)

I don't think that's going to happen. The EAT's price issue came as a result of 1) Target giving the EAT the same DCPI as the original AT (which I guess they felt was reasonable--they'd cleared out the stock and it was a store exclusive), and 2) Target not updating the price for that DCPI (which was set at the $6 clearance price for the old AT) before the EAT showed up in stockrooms, so that enthusiastic Nerfers in-the-know who could cajole someone into (unwittingly) breaking the street date got the EAT for the old AT's clearance price.

While the Rapidstrike is the successor of sorts to the Stampede, I doubt that the two will share the same product IDs in the stores where they will be sold.