Ok, are we good? You all had enough time to let it all sink in?

The Nerf Vortex big reveal has come and gone, we’ve seen the video and there’s promise that as time goes on, we’re going to see more. More photos, more videos, and more general info. In the midst of all that we still have the N-Force Vendetta double-sided sword on its way, and the Gear Up series in August. And then… 09.10.11. Vortex in all its disc-firing glory starts coming out in stores.

So what did I think of the video? What are my opinions on the Nerf Vortex blasters?

I’m intrigued. New clip system, new ammo style, and the shells look pretty cool too. The colors seem a darker color scheme I think than any previous N-Strike line, with its red and green majority, to add to the “N-Strike Vs. Vortex” business.

The first proper look they showed off was a pistol with an integrated clip, and what looked like a pistol on the ground. After showing the integrated clip opening, the video moved on to the firing test of… something? I think it was the “Nerf Nitron” firing, and uses a removable clip, foregrip, and I believe I saw tactical rails. Pump action seems to be the priming mech of choice on this as well. What I noticed most? The range! And for a disc, that seemed to fire pretty sraight out of the barrel. Normally you can expect a disc to curve a little even indoors (as far as I’ve seen) and that wasn’t the case. Revolutionary “XLR” tech? Haha, I think that might stand for “eXtra Long Range” but that’s unconfirmed. Either way, it looked pretty cool.

Here’s the thing, some of the chatter ragging on the Vortex series is about the discs, how streamlines fly better and aren’t as affected by the wind as drastically as discs will be.

Are you all on crack?

I’ve seen my fair share of stock darts get blown all over a park and knocked off course by feet because of the winds here in Chicago. It’s a moot point. Real ammo, foam, it doesn’t matter. The wind interferes with all kinds of ammo in different ways, and that’s just fact. Streamlines already were notorious for being inherently inaccurate, why are they all of a sudden flying straighter than a ruler it seems? Never mind the discs have a wider surface area, so to me that says they’ll have a better chance of grazing their targets. I figure the discs might resemble what they did with the ammo of the N-Strike Disc Shot, a tougher type of foam core.

The blasters look cool, as I’ve come to expect from these latest tacticool offerings from Nerf with N-Strike and the Nerf Nitron looks pretty sleek.

So, to sum up:

1) Nice appearance
2) Pistol, middle blaster w/integrated clip, rifle kinda blaster w/removable magazine, there has to be a fourth I’m missing. Unknown capacity, but if the discs are skinnier than darts these might have a higher ammo capacity than N-Strike by quite a bit.
3) Nice ranges from what I can tell, a lot more than they’ve allowed with darts.
4) Not worried about the discs being blown off course. Nerf ammo generally does anyway.
5) I’ve heard the terms “serious Nerf war” and “fun to just play around” tossed around a bit. THESE ARE TOYS.

I’ll definitely do a more in-depth study of these blasters once September rolls around and hopefully I can get my hands on them promptly once the release – but I’ll hold off any total judgments until I actually see them for myself.