Marshmallow Shooters and Paper Shooters partner up at New York Toy Fair Vas The Stampede
Had a chat with the folks at Marshmallow Shooters and Paper Shooters (soon to be Spitball Blasterz) to see what they were up to, and surprisingly, they joined forces! Marshmallow Shooters has some new management, new manufacturing, which means new products. Paper Shooters, after a couple of hiccups, struck a deal to work products with Marshmallow Shooters. This also means that Paper Shooters is going to start exploring making all-plastic, shell-free shooters (hence the rebranding to Spitball Blasterz).
The new Marshmallow Shooters pump a bit more efficiently while shooting a bit farther. The “Extreme” Marshmallow Shooters also have a front-loading muzzle now, as opposed to the breech-loading on earlier models. Reusable ammo was also available, though no sign of the “orbballistics” shooters from a couple of years ago. The new agreements should alleviate some of the cost of the Marshmallow Shooters (which, are pricey in some circles) and affords Spitball Blasterz a helping hand in the manufacturing department. Also promising, new manufacturing means Marshmallow Shooters may diversify to other products. What products, that remains to be seen.
Paper Shooters (henceforth referred to as Spitball Blasterz) is moving forward as well, to all plastic bodies. The original kits had a plastic skeleton which was then covered by a treated cardboard. The new shooter models I saw are all plastic, rear loading, and don’t require casings for the paper wad ammo. The paper construction/paper mould kits are still going to be available in the line though, so construction/gunsmithing fans will still have something to work with here. The prototype all-plastic rifle I tried out felt pretty comfortable, and shot well enough, but like all things at Toy Fair I await with cautious optimism.
Good to see more options for play out there though! Marshmallow Shooters undoubtedly has an audience (given their longevity) and Paper Shooters offers something just a little different from the out of the box experience. Where their products find a home in the community will be interesting to see, I’m just glad to see that there is still more invention out there when it comes to Toys That Shoot.
note: there was so much great stuff at Toy Fair! The Five involved with this list are by no means representative of the whole experience.
Edit: previous version of the article incorrectly listed the company for RBS as Super Impact, that has been corrected as of 2/29.
1. Nerf – I’m cheating a bit here. (See the full gallery of images here) The Nerf booth had a ton of things that I felt will be huge in 2016. Heck, the Nerf brand in general is going HUGE in 2016 and beyond, from what I could tell. Even the Platinum Bow from Rebelle is a huge offering and regardless of it being Rebelle I intend to own one. Other blasters, like the BattleScout and the HyperFire, offer new twists on previous features, like the stripper clip (seen on the Magstrike and Powerclip, mainly) and a new camera, while the HyperFire has an increased Rate of Fire. The Nerf Rival Khaos is a ridiculous beast, and while the magazine compatibility is lacking, that is a seriously hilariously large blaster and magazine.
The Nerf blasters this year are incredibly eye catching, but with that comes a level of functionality in some blasters that may change the blaster landscape over the next year. Not just because the Tri-Strike makes most available ammo types usable in a single game play, or that the Hyperfire may arguably be the fastest Rate of Fire for a stock blaster to date, but because Nerf is showing confidence in its brand to try some crazy, oversized ideas. The Brainsaw is evidence the Zombie Strike line continues to produce some fun toys (yes, TOYS) while the Double-Dealer is another massive eye catching piece with its double mag setup. (The Double-Dealer was a non-functioning prototype when I was at the booth, so sadly no firing video. But the stock is in fact a magazine holder, if you haven’t see it yet.) My main concern though is the main blasters are going anywhere between $30 to $80, and to a family that can add up, even to an enthusiast collector. But the fans have wanted bigger and better, and this year, Nerf served that up in spades.
2. Buzz Bee gets “The Walking Dead” license
In addition to continuing to offer a low cost alternative to Nerf, Buzz Bee has the license for “The Walking Dead”, which I can see a lot of people getting excited about. Especially the rifle at the bottom, which does not seem to use an ammo belt like the last rifle of this style I saw (not from Buzz Bee, I believe). It looks like the license is more for the comics than the TV show, but at this point it’s still “Hey! The Walking Dead!” There were some other prototypes at the booth (a blaster reminiscent of the Magstrike/Powerclip, air powered and still very cool) but this is what really caught my eye and has gotta be one of the most telling things for me that Buzz Bee has some serious plans for the future and bears watching even more than before.
3. The Precision RBS system (from Super Impulse) –
This wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been taken with a new type of blaster and ammo, but there was something so elegant about the Precision RBS system it deserves a callout here. These are rubber band shooters. And not some specialty rubber band ammo, but every day standard rubber bands (three different sizes) which makes getting the ammo easy in a pinch. The larger models have integrated ammo holders, an integrated second blaster, multiple round firing (and the RoF is semiauto, in case you’re curious). The guys who invented this really did their homework about rubber band shooters, and what players look for (even a separate firing mode) in general from a user standpoint, they really thought of a lot of things for this line. I look forward to seeing more from this blaster, that’s for sure.
4. Paper Shooters
Finally! After years of communication, I finally met the owners behind Paper Shooters, and they look ready to hit the American market. Now, these aren’t your typical blasters- it’s a model kit first (so there is some build time to invest) and a functional blaster second. These are some pretty pieces of kit when you’re done, judging by what I saw at their booth, and when you finally get the blaster built it’s very satisfying shooting them. The shell ejection, the pullback lever, it all feels very cool (for lack of a better term) when shooting them. Even moreso cause this is a blaster you build from the ground up with the kit, so it’s a very different offering from when you have a blaster and modify it, now it is your own you built from basically scratch. 5. K’Nex
K’Nex continues the K-Force line – now we have magazines, motors, and turrets to add into the mix. The beast pictured above is a custom build, but it’s three linked triggers to fire three darts at once. I used the initial kits and found the build times a little long, but I attribute that to my unfamiliarity with using K’Nex pieces. All the same, I am glad this line is still kicking because of the customizability it offers, and really want to sink my teeth into some custom builds this year.
Questions? Comments? Did you want to add anything? More galleries and more in-depth writeups to come, thanks for tuning in!
Paper Shooters Launches Website January 30! (Paper shooting blasters) Vas The Stampede
Paper Shooters is back, and this time, with funding. After a couple attempts at crowdsourcing, the product is ready to roll out and take orders! Featuring a familiar “paper ammo” (a la Max Force, if anyone remembers), these blasters are different for a few reasons:
+ A trigger! + Instead of buying more ammo, the product is supposed to include a mold that people can make their own out of normal paper (which then gets loaded into a shell, that loads in to the magazine, that loads into the blasters.) + A trigger! + Customization is something encouraged with these blasters as well. Make your ammo, build your own blaster (it starts out as a construction kit, from what I understand), and the game is yours. +Nerf designers are part of the team working on this line.
Some things about this release that make me a bit nervous –
– The cost. Between $35 & $49. – The Clan App gets used on a wristmounted smartphone? Hrm. – Accuracy of the paper wads – Using paper wads! They got messy before, and I can see loading each individually into a separate shell being time consuming. – Shells/magazines sold separately, I assume. And when I first learned of this blaster, PvP wasn’t a big part of the conception, as I understood it. A Clan App to track stats changes that. But until I try it all out, I can’t say strongly either way if this is a good option for even casual or office wars. Given the past history with other brands and their mobile apps, I’m a little reserved about that until I see it.
Do I have reservations? Sure. But without the blaster in front of me, I’m at least willing to try it out. New blasters, new companies, new innovations can only help the hobby!
They’re back! In case you haven’t heard already, Paper Shooters returned, and is taking another shot at getting funded via indiegogo.
Back in April, I wrote about their first campaign, outlining it was a plastic blaster/shooter/model kit that used paper wads similar to Max Force ammo. As you’ll recall, I mentioned continuously in my initial analysis that Paper Shooters was not to be perceived as most other blasters, for a couple of reasons:
1) You had to build it out of the box; this is a construction/model kit first and foremost (according to the literature I’ve run across) and the play experience/target shooting aspect is secondary. The functionality just adds to the experience of building the shooter. You are responsible for the success of your own tools depending on how much care you spent building it. Modders can understand that, I think. And on top of that, Paper Shooters is ok with modifications performed to their kits, reinforcing the “model/construction aspect.”
2) While it was a plastic blaster, there was a specially treated water resistant cardboard skin/arrangement of sorts that was part of the external assembly around the plastic skeleton. Essentially, you can mix and match the skins (if you had the multiple versions available. But, that could get costly.)
3) Shells. The magazines hold 8 shells (last I heard, and from the looks of the indiegogo acct.) and while these are supposed to hit 75′, shells might be problematic for someone looking to these for the typical blaster play experience. Buzz Bee shells were problematic in that once you ran out of shells, you had to reload them AND locate each one to get your ammo capacity back. Nerf magazines are limited as well, but much easier to keep track of (although bulky). So I wouldn’t expect to use this in a typical Nerf war, maybe more for target practice or office hijinks against other folks who had Paper Shooters.
These are a few of the skins available (taken directly from the Indiegogo site), and like I said, getting started owning these shooters can get quite costly. While the perks from the campaign include ammo, and a mould to make more paper ammo, the initial investment might be a little much. But if you are a fan of building models, this might be right up your alley with the construction challenge and THEN you have a functioning shooter as well. (I believe the box is STILL supposed to assemble into a zombie head, but I could be wrong or that has changed.
Either way, it’s still an interesting concept as far as getting one involved in the construction side of blaster building (if they aren’t already modding), but unless the campaign succeeds it doesn’t look like we’ll know anything solid about the products. While the video shows what I’m guessing is a prototype that looks like it functions pretty solidly, that’s all we have to work off of, and the faith that is inherent with crowdfunding. Should you decide to back them, it would definitely seem like you’re in for a very different experience than most other shooter kits on the market currently. Until they’re out and funded, there’s really nothing to demo here. But, at the very least you’re aware of this creation!
Also, if you have your doubts about how good cardboard can look, I leave you with these links:
Foam From Above 