Category: blogger

Toy Fair 2015 – There, and Back Again. (Nerf and More Round up!)

Toy Fair 2015 Preview – Expectations and a look back at Blasters in 2014
Vas The Stampede

Sorry it’s been awhile, you all! Just a heads up, while I maintain here, I am also posting content at the following:

Instagram: Blasterbot1984
Facebook: Foam From Above

Just like the title says, I am here in New York City, and ready to go for another round at the New York Toy Fair. The blaster scene is a little different from last year, but there’s a lot of buzz surrounding this year’s show. Dare I say it, possibly even more than last year.

NERF:

Nerf had a hit on their hand it seems with the Rebelle line, expanding on the roleplay/bow and arrow aspect of the blasters to appeal to young girls. While I have my own opinions about gender specific toys, the line is still around, and going strong. So strong in fact, there will be a whole slew of new blasters to check out at this year’s show, including the Revolution Bow:

Image taken from Toyqueen, writing for about.com

 
Nerf’s largest release (literally) was something not on display last year, the Nerf Rhinofire. After the initial releases of the Slingfire, the Mega Thunderbow, and the Nerf Cam ECS-12, Nerf crashed through with one of the biggest, full auto blasters to date. While pricey and even a pain to reload, the blaster was a lot of fun to use.

There is already a large amount of buzz for Nerf in 2015 as well, starting with info about the Rotofury, The Doominator, the Nerf Modulus, and most recently today, NERF RIVALS.

The Rotofury
Nerf Rival blaster (this is the Zeus MVX-1200)
Nerf Zombie Strike DOOMINATOR

Needless to say, that’s a lot of blaster to look at over the weekend. I’ll be back Sunday with the report on Nerf, after my visit to their showroom that morning.

Other Brands:
 
Tomorrow is the actual Day 1 of Toy Fair, but the Hasbro Showroom isn’t open to tours yet, just a special event. That being the case, I’m going to spend time checking out the other brands such as Zing Toys, Primetime Toys (makers of the Scorpion Gatling Gun), Hogwild Toys (the Power Poppers makers), Marshmallow Shooters, Maya Group (whose offering this year might be something different, the branding doesn’t seem Xploderz related but you never know), Zuru (if you bought the Vigilante), and of course, K’Nex and their K-Force. BOOMco will also be on hand at Mattel’s showroom, but I won’t get a look at their new stuff until Monday, during one of their media events.

That being said, you never can be too sure what else might be on that show floor. I’ve seen push rockets, something called a “Titan Torpedo” (which looked a lot like the throwable Uberdart), and maybe there will be some new vehicle blasters like the VMD cars and Attacknid. But that’s part of the fun of the show for me, that extra sense of discovery!

The big release from Zing last year, the Firetek Bow
Ghostbusters Marshmallow Shooters first seen last year, just in time for the new film!

It’s going to be a busy few days, make sure to check the social links above for live-updates, but come back here for the full writeups. Thanks for your time!

Fish Out of Water – Playing in Living Legends 6 [paintball]

First, let’s get some pertinent links out of the way:

CPX Paintball
Living Legends of Paintball
Viper Paintball Scenarios

A favorite saying I have is that “life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”  Having played Nerf so much, I also try to keep an open mind about the other Ways to Play out there, whether it’s water pellets, rubber bands, or in this case, paintball.

I barely remember my first time playing paintball, just that it was a bachelor party.  It was fun, but definitely different from Nerf in range, pain factor, ammo capacity, and so much more.  It was its own game, and I had a blast when all was said and done.  It was cost-prohibitive to me though, so I didn’t play all that often.  Whenever someone had another bachelor party or random get together, I managed.  And then I found out about Living Legends.

For a little history, the first Living Legends was held in 2008, and it was a relatively huge paintball scenario game that took place at CPX Sports, an approx. 143 acre property with about 18 or so different fields.  Only for Living Legends…. basically the entire park was the battlefield.  It was intended to let people come together and have a great experience playing paintball with some of the greats in the sport.  And maybe through the weekend, earn a legend of your own.   That first Living Legends had just under 700 people.

This year’s, number 6, had just under 2,000. 

CPX is below:

[googlemaps https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=CPX+Sports,+Chicagoland,+Schweitzer+Road,+Joliet,+IL&aq=0&oq=cpx+c&sll=39.739318,-89.266507&sspn=8.697629,19.753418&t=h&ie=UTF8&hq=CPX+Sports,+Chicagoland,+Schweitzer+Road,+Joliet,+IL&hnear=&radius=15000&ll=41.466207,-88.155785&spn=0.071946,0.071946&output=embed” width=”425″>
View Larger Map

Anyway, I decided this was something I needed to experience at least once, so I went for it.  Two teams (New Empire vs The Horde), and a game that ran all weekend.  I picked up some gear, played a couple of more times at CPX leading up to Living Legends, and finally this happened –

(Language warning, a word or 2 slips in the video)

It was intense, it was dirty, it was great.  Work to organize an event like this began about 6 months prior, in order to organize missions, planned skirmishes, the works.  Points and objectives were all out there, it was up to us the players and our commanders to get out there and do the work.  From about 10 AM until 6 PM I was respawning and marching to different points of conflict, making friends along the way, and just throwing myself into it.  If there was a particular spot they needed people, I went.  If I was walking along and ran across a firefight, I joined the line.  It was by and large one of the most physically demanding things I ever put my body through (on top the gear and activity, it was about 80+ degrees that weekend so water was my best friend) but it was worth every bruise and sore muscle afterward, just to say that I did it.

I had a number of tense moments in trees, bushes, and buildings thinking that I’d turn a corner and run into a cadre of Horde team members all bearing down on me, or just trading shots with multiple targets and hearing paintballs fired at 270-300 fps zip past my ear, break on trees and burnt out cars.  And your only choice is to keep going until you’re hit, paint, or air ran out.  (And the way they handled logistics, it was more likely you’d get hit before the other 2 conditions played out.)

Not to mention that there were some great people I ran into.  Our Commander, Wolf , was very easy to talk to and say hi, whether at HQ or at the concession stand.  I used a few videos of TechPB’s as a reference about what to expect and how to prepare, and managed to meet him as well.  Everyone I spoke to (either on the field or moments of down time) was either willing to help answer a question about where to go, what to do, or if a ball had broken on me.  The refs were great, making sure the rules were followed but also that players had answers and most importantly, were doing ok.  I had never been asked/told to hydrate so much, it was good reminder.

Also, in the video I mentioned “tanks” and this is kinda like what I’m talking about –

Taken from Bunker Shots – https://www.facebook.com/Bunkershots

Sadly, I only went for 1 day.  Day 2 was the “Final Battle” where moments like this were commonplace: (it’s a battle over a single spot to score points). 

Photo taken from “Bunker Shots”  – https://www.facebook.com/Bunkershots

That being said, I consider this Bucket List item only half complete.  Next year!  Until then, I’ll keep exploring this hobby too and hopefully have a new trick or two up my sleeve for next year.  There’s truly nothing else like it that I’ve experienced yet, and I can’t wait to do it all again.

See you on the field.

Thank you so much to CPX and Viper for putting this all together!  Thank you to the pro shop staff!  To HK Army!  And most of all, to every player that was on that field.  It was an honor.