Category: overview

Navigate the Holidays! Nerf Goes Big: RhinoFire & Cam ECS-12

Nerf Big Ticket Items for the Holidays:
Vas The Stampede

There are 2 big items out there for Nerf enthusiasts and those that love them this holiday season. If you haven’t finished your shopping yet and have a big Nerf fan on your list, let’s look at the two biggest options Nerf gives you this year. “Nerf or nothin’!”

Both Nerf blasters are at a premium price, which is a lot to ask for when it comes to selecting a toy. What exactly are you getting into?

Nerf Elite RhinoFire:
Price: Approximately $89.97 (Wal-Mart Exclusive)
RhinoFire blaster x 1
Tripod x 1
25 round ammo drums x 2
Darts x 50
90′ Claimed Range
Batteries not included (6 “D” batteries)

Nerf Elite Cam ECS-12
List Price: $79.99 (currently $67.99 at Amazon.com)

Nerf Cam ECS-12 blaster x 1
18 round dart magazine x 1 (orange, not the blue as seen at Toy Fair)
Darts x 18
4 GB SD card
Alleged 90′ ranges
Batteries not included (8 “AA” batteries)

How are they?

Say hello to the 2 big ticket items from Nerf this year. Let’s start with the Nerf RhinoFire. A descendant of the Nerf Vulcan, the Rhino is a big blaster compared to the other recent releases. Here is your new heavy weapons turret.

Nerf Rhino Fire with some… extras.

The RhinoFire has 2 mag wells, multiple tactical rails (for accessories), and a few attach points for a sling. There is a tripod that sits on the underside of the blaster. The RhinoFire tripod fits on the older Vulcan, so it is safe to assume the opposite holds true as well. Unlike the Vulcan, the front grip handle is a bit more in line with the form of the blaster, it doesn’t jut out and swivel.

The blaster is a big, double-barreled unit – the barrels alternatively pump when firing, and as some folks commented reminiscent of a turret. As such, there is a roleplay aspect to this blaster that in my opinion dictates the best practices when using the blaster.

Usage:
 
Firing the blaster is a little different from a traditional setup, there is an orange tab on the back handle that does all the work – a little pressure to start revving up the flywheels, then fully press the tab down to engage the pusher arm…. and unleash foam. It is ESSENTIAL to rev the flywheels first, otherwise your first shot is going to dribble out of the barrel.
 

So yes, the RhinoFire is essentially triggerless, but that works because of the way the grip is styled. Going back to the “turret” look of the Rhino, the grip is styled for two-hand usage but also incorporates a t-style handle for quick carrying.

Peek at the underside

Suggested Best Practices:

That’s right, carrying. When I used the Nerf Vulcan during games, I wouldn’t “run and gun” with it. As it was a “heavy” blaster, running with it felt awkward while trying to shoot. I would pick a spot, shoot, then pick up and relocate. Lather, rinse, repeat. I would avoid firing on the run due to the chains, and size. I was also firing from the hip, as the design of the blaster lent itself to that position. If I had to reload, it was a task switching out chains by myself and maintaining a stream of darts.

With a “turret” like the RhinoFire, it is important to separate shooting and running into separate actions. Run, pick a spot, provide fire, relocate. Lather, rinse, repeat. Additionally, firing from the hip makes accessing the firing button faster, just drop your hand onto it when you wanna shoot. A sling on the RhinoFire makes this firing technique quite easy, at least for me. One other caveat is… you’re going to want to carry a lot of mags. Either conscript a friend into caddying your ammo to make a 2-person team, be ready to lug around a bag and/or pouch to dump empty mags into (unless you’ve formed a zen-like mentality with your gear and don’t mind losing stuff.)

Ammo/magazine compatibility:
 
As far as what magazines to use… I had best luck with straight 18-round N-strike magazines. While the firepower behind two 35 round drums is impressive, the reliability just wasn’t there, darts would jam or dribble out of the blaster when using those types of magazines. Jamming was much more prevalent with larger capacity/rounded mags (including the included 25 round magazines, and the 18 round drum mag from an Alpha Trooper). The reliability issues could be due to age/lack of maintenance on the older, larger drum mags, but even the 18 round straight mags from the same time frame worked no problem. Ammo wise, I checked Elite Streamline darts and Elite Suction Cup Streamline darts in straight 18 round magazines and experienced no jamming issues.

 NEXT!

The Nerf Cam ECS-12 is a bit more straightforward than the RhinoFire. As a semiautomatic blaster, there’s already a myriad of similar magfed blasters out there in the Stryfe and the Rayven. The Rapidstrike is a full auto “rifle” that is still available, which makes the Cam ECS-12 a tough sell, especially at that price.

So what are you paying for? 90′ range, and a 0.3 megapixel camera? The awesome aesthetics?

Let’s talk about the camera. It’s low-res, and if you don’t already own the Nerf cradle for a mobile device, a GoPro, or some other action cam with a mount (such as the Nerf branded ones from Sakar), then this is an option. But realize there are other, less costly blasters out there.

Here are some samples of the Cam’s still shots –

Inside

Outside

The camera’s not the best quality. But then again, given the blaster’s target audience (not including this blogger) the quality of the camera isn’t so much the concern of someone looking for a gift for the Nerfer in their family. And when I discussed the camera quality with Hasbro at #NerfAllAccess this past summer, in order to keep the Cam under $100 it was necessary to use something so low in megapixels. And again, if you have a camera already, this probably isn’t for you. But someone out there may get a kick out of this because it’s a 2 for 1 unit. Requires no additional screws, mounts, or similar extras. And it doesn’t interfere with using the sights on your blaster, as mounts tend to (unless you mount your camera under the muzzle.) This offers a streamlined camera to make recording unobtrusive.

Eeeeeexcept when it comes to noise. Unfortunately, the camera picks up a LOT of the whine from the flywheels when the Cam revs up, which can be distracting when reviewing footage and trying to edit any footage. Caveat emptor.

The range is questionable on the Cam as well. And yes, the box does detail in a handy graph on the package just how often the 90′ range occurs, but I saw most of my flat/angled shots hit around the 50′ mark, well below the advertised ranges. To me, it looks like it rarely hits 90′ but since I Nerf stock anyway, that’s not a big deal to me. If anything, I have more issues with the camera image quality and the audio pickup.

What I do like about this blaster is that while the stock isn’t modular, it is definitely one of the more comfortable blasters I’ve used in recent history. I prefer using a foregrip on it, and it is a comfortable hold. However, I can only speak for myself. Ultimately though, I see this being more of a gift for Nerf enthusiasts just getting started in the hobby, or from relatives getting their family Nerfer a present. More hardcore enthusiasts might not find much interesting or useful, given they already own a camera or have a less expensive blaster that performs similarly.

Final verdict: If I had to choose between either blaster, I’d select the RhinoFire. It’s arguably the more diverse of the two, and offers more bang for the buck. More shots per reload (depending on your loadout), different feel from a lot of the rifle/pistol variants out now, and it’s overkill. While you’re not as mobile with it, I see a lot more people having a lot of fun with this blaster later on long after the wrapping is tossed and the boxes are broken down.

Hope this was helpful! Enjoy the remaining days of your shopping window 🙂

New York Toy Fair – Nerf, Zing, Katniss, oh my! Possible trending for 2013

New York Toy Fair ended and that leaves a hole in my schedule and a LOT of material to run through.  But as always, I’ll do my best.

Nerf-wise, the biggest news to come out of the showroom this year wasn’t some super secret video with a mysterious silhouette.  This year Nerf was upfront about where they’re going by revealing their new line with girls in mind, the Nerf Rebelle.

For years, I’ve been running the “Foamme Fatale” gallery on my blog to show that in fact, girls are interested in and play with Nerf toys too.  This isn’t, nor should it be a new or surprising development.  From Amazons to Samus Aran, females are into the action toys as well.  It’s good to see that for a couple of years, Nerf did the research and is now getting this initiative in gear.  1200 girls surveyed to see what it is they wanted out of Nerf blasters, and the Nerf Rebelle line is evidence of that.

Now, I don’t remember, but did anyone see girls in the running for the last user-submitted NDTL?  Just putting that out there.

First off, I’m a big fan of the line.  I love the functionality, the streamlined feel of the blasters, and the call back to older weaponry (Nerf Crossbow, Bow N Arrow) with some of them.  The “Rebelle” (and I think even that’s a bit smart, I believe playing off “reveille”) line will get the same performance as the Elite blasters, and the only difference then is the outside aesthetics, kinda like how boys and girls are different on the outside, but on the inside we’re all able to reach 75′. (Or something like that).

Nerf Rebelle Heartbreaker Bow
Nerf N-Strike Blazin’ Bow

The performance is there for the Rebelles, for sure.  And handling the blasters I can tell you the function matches the form.  They are sleek, streamlined, feel pretty mobile, and are very eye-catching.  All good ingredients for success.  Now, at first I was wondering about the pink trim, and “why does the girls stuff have to be pink?” but… it’s what my niece has been looking for.  And this is why I say it will sort of challenge gender stereotypes.  Sure, pink is a stereotypically feminine color, but remember the original Bow And Arrow(s?)  And as cool as some of these blasters are (I refer to the Nerf Alpha Girl) the boys are going to HAVE to get used to a pink blaster.

So, failed argument bemoaning the coloring.  Nerf researched high and low for 2 years figuring out what girls wanted, and they wanted pink blasters, accessories, social interaction, the works.

One more note on the pink… the packaging and everything is going to stand out on the shelves.  Think about it.  You walk down the toy blaster aisle, as a young girl you see aisles and aisles of shooting toys in a sea of blues, greens, yellows, oranges, and all with serious-faced boys firing blasters…. and there it is:

Something different.  A pink box, a couple of girls looking like they’re ready to have some fun with blasters.  And not just blasters where it’s “oh, these are for boys, but hey girls can play too” it’s FOR you, a female, speaking TO you in the advertising.  Images mean everything, and this might be what it will take to get most (remember, research of over 1200 girls for 2 years) girls to give the blaster aisle a 2nd look for something directed at them.

Marketing theories aside, the Nerf Rebelle line is only one hint of a trend to bridge a gap between boys and girls in the active toy department.  Not just Nerf, but Zing Toys made a pink bow called the Huntress:

As well as included some female characters into their marketing collateral.

What does this mean?  Attempts to appeal to the association to characters such as “Katniss Everdeen” from The Hunger Games and “Merida” from Disney’s Brave.  No joke, a number of the pitches I heard during Toy Fair drew correlations to creating strong female empowerment imagery to associate to one’s toys.  Or it was applying technology for existing “Boys'” toys to “Girls'” toys.

What does this mean for our blasters?  Nothing alarming, don’t get me wrong.  What this means is that girls have been recognized as a missed opportunity in the action toy department, and Nerf’s Rebelle and Zing’s Huntress are the start.  We might see more of this female-oriented development from other companies in the future should these particular initiatives succeed.

The OTHER point, is with the social climate being what it is right now in regards to firearms, bows and arrows and weaponry of that category are the 2nd trend I’m wondering about.  That’s why you see a Blazin’ Bow after a series of triggered blasters from Nerf, the Rebelle line is bows and crossbows (for the most part), and why Zing is what I believe is the dark horse of the category with their bow-centric toys.  Sure Rebelle has the revolver, but unlike the Nerf Elite series, between the aesthetics and the color scheme, Rebelle seems like it is trying really hard to shake the image of a modern firearm, with all the smooth aesthetics and bow-type functions in spite of the triggered system (that’s why the Heartbreaker is the big item from the Nerf Rebelle line; it’s a non-triggered toy I think and thus less of a firearm.  And Katniss.)

POINT #2:

My Last Dart has already spread the news that Nerf is going to make discs that serve different functions, one of which is to get the discs to fly faster and farther.  Knowing that they are already pushing the envelope with the blasters themselves, this makes sense that they decided a back door way to try and get higher performance with the ammo.  The Elite darts were only the start (essentially modified stock streamlines). Now you have what could be a precedent for different dart types as well.

Other companies do this now.  Zing has two versions of arrows; the long-range version and a suction cup version.  Each gives a player a choice on how they want to play, so I would not be surprised to see more of this, with different types of ammo that might fall within safety regs but are different from foam darts.  See: the TekRecon, Vapor blasters, and Xploderz ammo.  Heck, Marshmallowville is out there with Marshmallow shooters too.  Rubber bands, water pellets, marshmallows… smaller ammo than darts, flying farther, and higher ammo capacity than Nerf. (TekRecon’s Havok is going to boast 90 shots per reload, and similar with Vapor and Xploderz.)

 

Head spinning yet?  Girls are a new market, look for new innovations in ammo types more than the blasters, Max Force and the first round of water pellet blasters was the start.  Possibly blasters are going to start looking crazier and crazier, so they look less like real firearms.  Ultimately though, Nerf still has one more (or 3) trick up its sleeve…. the as-yet unrevealed blasters that are under NDA right now, but being hinted at.  Nerf’s still THE brand to contend with, and we’ll just have to see what happens next.  Lock and load.

Now:
Nerf
Zing
Vapor 
Marshmallow Shooters
Xploderz
TekRecon
PrimteTime Toys (more foam dart shooters, but they’re revealing more later this year)
Splatmaster (though that’s paintball)
Whew!