Wilder®, a leader in innovative play experiences, and HASBRO, a leading games, IP and toy company, are excited to unveil their newest collaboration: NERF® Battle Play Experience Targets and Accessories Line, set to launch in July 2025. The innovative product line reimagines target play- through immersive gaming that combines real-world action with video game-inspired experiences. The line encourages players to use their favorite NERF blaster for single and multiplayer play, and offers themes including zombies, robots, and more.
Unlike traditional targets focused on linear play and scoring points, Wilder®’s new line introduces new dynamic and interactive target elements with:
● Surround-sound ambush scenarios, where enemies attack 360 degrees around the player.
● Zombie swarm attacks that require players to fend off hordes of zombies, but be sure to watch out for granny.
● Arcade-style modes, offering exciting multiplayer tag-team matches and real-time versus battles.
“We’ve had a blast – no pun intended – working with Wilder to take the NERF play experience to
exhilarating new heights with video game-inspired battle targets and accessories to complement
Hasbro’s NERF blasters. Innovation, fun and heart-pounding adrenaline are core aspects of NERF’s
DNA. Pair that with Wilder’s creativity and high energy play, and we have a recipe for success,” said
Bradley Bowman, Senior Director, Licensed Consumer Products, Global Toy of Hasbro.
The Collection
The collection will include the following items:
360 Battlezone – Immerse yourself in a game of reflex like nothing before. Stand in the center and fight off zombie, dinosaur and robot threats with target SFX sounds all around you. Use all your senses and decide to blast or not blast. Is that sound in the distance just a bird flapping its wings or is it a dinosaur coming to attack you? Stay on guard and hit the red light before the sound stops. Beware, multiple targets might attack and sound at the same time. (Launching July at Amazon, Macy’s and other retailers)
STRIKE ‘N’ SCORE – Get ready for next-level ARCADE GAMING. Experience unique gameplay where you can challenge friends and compete live in head-to-head battles at the same time. Or, play solo and try to beat the timer and your high score! Hit the bullseye for extra time! With 4 exciting game modes there’s endless fun. (Launching July at Target, Amazon, Macy’s & other retailers)
ZOMBIE SPIN STRIKE – Try and stop the endless swarm of zombies before they get to you! Each successful zombie hit splits the target on impact. But be careful, watch out and try not to hit granny! With 3 speed modes, this electronic target is sure not to disappoint. (Launching July at Target, Amazon, Macy’s & other retailers)
BOT ARENA CLASH – Get ready for action! Take down evil robots and drones, rack up points, and race against the clock. Aim carefully – will you hit a Robot or a Drone for extra points? With four interactive game modes, including voice-commanded actions and multiplayer versus battles, the excitement never stops! (Launching July at Amazon, Macy’s and other retailers)
The focus of this trip was to learn more about the Nerf N Series. It’s new, thoroughly researched, studied, and even put through an air tunnel. All in the last 2-3 years.
And why? To eventually become the new norm of Nerf blasters. No more “full-length” or “streamline” business, in the 8+ category N Series will become the main focus. The 14+ areas like “Pro”, “Rival”, and “Gelfire” will still be around as they are, but the main younger lines are going to change.
WHAT
The N Series. The N1 darts. New ammo, tested to be more accurate and fire at faster speeds than any previous Nerf dart. Nerf showed the extensive heads, material, and even the air tunnel they used. The dart had to be safe enough to pass a choke test while also surpassing the performance of previous darts. Accuracy and speed (from the FPS view) were the main hallmarks here. And I can understand that. Most of the games I’ve played end up within 50’ or less. I prefer staying at that range. And yes, we can get those long ranges but between objectives and making sure we get our tags or can see where our shots go, being out a hundred feet isn’t a great user experience for me. To call hits, you need to be able to see where you are shooting and who you’re tagging. Faster and more accurate, that’s what will be noteworthy about Nerf N Series N1 darts and blasters.
There is a second part to the creation of the new dart as well. It’s to make Nerf distinctly identifiable. Protect the brand. Nerf, Xerox, and Kleenex are all related in one way, they are brands that have become synonymous with their segment. Toy blasters, whether they shoot arrows or foam, tend to get called “nerf guns”. When Nerf made the Rival line, how long was it until other companies made similar products? Or darts and accessories that were compatible with the “major brand?” Maybe this cut into the bottom line, maybe Nerf would be the ones in trouble when someone had a magazine that broke or darts that came apart from bad glue, or got injured because the darts they used were tipped with solid plastic. All of that would still be referred to as a “Nerf gun did that”. With total adoption of the N-Series and N1 darts, Nerf can always point out if something is their product or not, and no longer be conflated with products not made to their specifications. Sure people can still name every blaster a “nerf gun” in their YouTube videos, but it’ll be less applicable as time goes on.
NEW NERF DARTS AGAIN???
When the Nerf Elite line launched in 2012 (or around then?) the blasters at the time used orange streamlines (which had HUGE inner stems attached to the dart head), sonic darts, some suction, and dart tag darts, which all had bigger dart heads that couldn’t fit in magazines. It was chaos! Mixing in different darts from Buzz Bee and Dart Zone further complicated things. Nerf Elite gave us elite streamlines with longer distances, and shorter dart stems, and led to ammo supplies that began to look less orange and more blue (yes, still orange dart heads, but let’s not be picky). The Stampede and Longshot could still use streamlines, but the new blasters would be optimized for Elite dart usage, and the new ammo outshot the original streamlines, so why use the old stuff anymore? Soon, more and more kids that showed up to meetups were bringing elite blasters, new to Nerf games, or just got a new blaster as a gift and wanted to try it out.
Twelve years later, here we go again.
Hello, Nerf N Series, and your N1 dart.
WHY (Let’s get the knee-jerk reaction first)
That’s a popular question!
WHY –
Make new ammo for seemingly “new ammo’s sake”?
Make your old blasters unusable going forward.
Did they not use already existing darts or bring back darts you have made (I see you, Accustrike fans)
Repeat mistakes you made with Ultra?
And while those are valid concerns, the Nerf team had some pretty solid answers, at least that’s how it sounded to me.
Performance. The N Series darts are said to have higher FPS than streamline ammo, and fire more accurately meaning better groupings. Distance isn’t as much of a factor, because more battles happen in close quarters at home, and that’s where the blasters are getting used. The Nerf team let us test the blasters through a chronograph and in my experience I can attest that FPS numbers for the N Series blasters I tried were improved over the FPS numbers for current stock Nerf Elite blasters. To be more specific, Elite clocked in at 70-72 FPS while the N1 darts hit 85-90 FPS.
And the groupings are definitely closer, too. I liked the Accustrike line because while I did give up some distance my darts all stayed in the same time zone compared to streamlines that would fly in large sweeping arcs. In a way, the Nerf team said they took aspects of Elite, Accustrike, and Ultra, all to influence the N Series darts. They wanted the best firing dart they could manage across the widest audience.
Global availability. Nerf is sold in A LOT of areas worldwide. Singapore, Austria, Germany, Australia, and more. This means that they have a lot of different safety regulations to adhere to to sell blasters, and it’s not just about Kinetic Force or FPS. NOISE is another determining restriction. And Ultra wasn’t just expensive, it was loud. Why don’t blasters have slamfire? They’re too loud. When designing blasters, they need to make what has the broadest appeal across all their US and international markets.
It was always my belief that lines like Ultra (which was 8+) were designed to fill up shelf space where Hyper and Rival couldn’t go, and I wasn’t too far off the mark. Even Mega and Mega XL had difficulties being sold overseas, which is why we’re going to see this shift towards a dart with improvements but is still targeting the 8+ market. Even better, Nerf took some lessons from Ultra and worked to get the prices down. The most expensive blaster of the line is $39.99, and 100 darts in a pack will go for $9.99, more darts will also be included with each blaster.
“Nerf” and everyone else. As someone who’s compiled his own pile of blasters and ammo, a transition period is pretty rough, and that’s what we’re seeing here. But while this looks to be Nerf forgetting about the longtime fans, I don’t see it that way. As I mentioned, this isn’t the first time Nerf has introduced a new ammo type that eventually became the main supply. The transition affects those who have lots of blasters that use streamlines currently, but at the moment there are already so many third-party sources for that type of ammo. I don’t think that particular design is going away any time soon in general, Nerf focuses more on N Series blasters and N1 darts, and other brands will still make full-length darts. But again, this isn’t happening overnight.
There are still a lot of unreleased full-length dart blasters in the market right now. One day we’ll look around toy shelves and Elite streamline dart packs will be gone, the same as what happened with the original N-Strike ammo and mission kits. But that day isn’t here yet. But the N Series is here, and we’ll see it for a while.
WHO
I’ve already touched on who will benefit from the Nerf N Series and N1 Dart. New players and folks who get Nerf for the first time in the 8+ group. They’re going to have one Nerf dart that’s for 8+ (Nerf Rival, Pro, Hyper, and Gelfire are 14+, Mega, Mega XL, and Ultra, are most likely discontinued or greatly reduced in presence) and all across all of Nerf’s global markets there will be one dart that is within regulations for sale. No worrying about grey triggers, or sending only certain products. Every place that sells Nerf will have N1 darts and Nerf N Series blasters. Nerf can reach so much more of their target market than they do now.
WHEN
June 2024
WHERE
Where blasters are sold!
And yes, Hasbro flew me out, put me up in a hotel, and had me tour their headquarters (with some other folks from the internet) to get this First-Look at the N Series. But if I didn’t honestly think this was worth a look, I’d say so, and I would have mentioned it directly to the Nerf team as well. That being said, we’re looking at a new world of Nerf coming up, and between the lower costs per blaster, the increased ammo, the better accuracy, and faster dart flight, I’m here for it. Thanks to the team at Nerf and Hasbro for having me along, I’ll see you all on the field.
Foam From Above 