Congratulations to NerfLover, the winner of Week 4's Giveaway: the Minimized Firefly built by Icicle of Arctic Nerf! Get in contact with either of us about receiving your prize. Hope you enjoy it!
Sorry for the Weekly Giveaway announcement for being so late. I've been busy this week with family and Thanksgiving schtuff, so I'm not exactly prepared for the announcement this week. I didn't get a chance to finish up and properly "advertise" this week's item, but here's some general info on it.
This week's prize is an upgraded Dart Tag Sharp Shot. This is an excellent small blaster when modded and, in general, I like it's construction a lot. While it's the weakest of the Dart Tag blasters in it's stock configuration, the upgrades I have made to it have it performing exceedingly well. The seal on the O Ring is perfect enough that it will actually suck a Streamline dart into the blaster if there's one in it when it's primed! Again, I apologize for not having more info on this right now. I'll make another post showcasing the blaster early next week.
And the question to answer to be eligible to win is this: What do you think of the direction the Dart Tag line has been taking with their new 2011 lineup. Be it marketing, comparisons to the older Dart Tag blasters, or just general likes or dislikes about the blaster, I wanna hear what Nerf Nation has to say about Dart Tag half a year after it's latest release. (and with a new Blaster on the way)
Thanks for reading and good luck to everyone!
I think the new dart tag blasters are very good. They seem like Nerf put some effort into them. I got the Speedload 6 but returned it because I couldn't use it right. User error. The Swarmfire,man,that thing is awesome! 20 dart barrel and is fully automatic. I don't have one yet though. The speedswarm looks promising. Fully automatic pistols? Sure! I think the new dart tag blasters are diffinately a step up from the orange and green blasters but I'd give up a speedload or quick 16 for a furyfire. They definatly differentiated dart tag from n-strike as there are no tactical rails. I think these new dart tag blasters are very good but I'd give up some of those for a furyfire anytime.
ReplyDeleteI'm still a bigger fan of N-strike, as i've made no secret of. But having said that I do like the direction dart tag is going in. I don't see much of the marketing stuff, but it seems to be a positive direction overall.
ReplyDeleteThe sharp shot is rather remenisint of the Scout, and the quick-release clip thing needs to be standard on more handgun-like blasters in my opinion.
Seems like Nerf is favoring magazine systems more and more, even though they insist on calling them "clips". Pedantry aside, I like how the dart tag guns have internal magazines as opposed to the detachable magazines for streamline darts. The internal magazines allow you to top off your ammunition on the go. Very handy. I see the Swarmfire as a next-gen version of the venerable Rapid Fire 20. Though full-auto fire is not as fast as the Rapid Fire, I believe practical ROF to be about the same since the Swarmfaire does not require manual pressurization.
ReplyDeleteI think the direction Nerf went into was to try something new and different and see if the nation liked it. PS. congrats Nerflover!
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They don't want people to mod. The new Dart Tag line (excluding the Sharpshot) is encrebibly hard to open and close. Many of the peices just want you to mess up.
ReplyDeleteI think the new dart tag guns are way better than the old sonic guns. I like the loading mech. alot.
ReplyDeleteYou all ready gave me a free blaster, so don't put me in the drawing again, please. I just wanna put in my two cents here, mostly about advertising & Nerf. And yes, I am a nerd and artist, so this is probably going to get rambly. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteLately I've been watching Nerf's adds through the years. Yes. I do do that sort of thing. An interesting thing I've noticed is how stinking good they are. Wait. Before you complain about how bad you think the old ones are, stop for a second, and put yourself into the shoes of a kid in the '90s, then go and watch that ad again.
Did you want to buy that blaster? Nerf must pump a ton of money into advertisement research, because they know how to hit their audience's buttons really hard. Nowadays, kids think fancy "moves" and acrobatics are pretty cool. Why? Because of the countless action movies, youtube clips, and video games with people running on walls, wall jumping, and performing parkour-esque techniques (albeit much flashier, and usually with some sort of artfully timed slow down). Nerf has obviously noticed that trend, and it is reflected in their advertisements, especially the Dart Tag ones.
But wait--there's more! Ever notice the music in any of Nerf's Dart Tag advertisements? That's what really sells it. It makes it seem so amazing. Dramatic. Exciting. Cool. It makes you want to get that blaster, 'cuz it'll make you cool and exciting too.
Nerf really knows advertising, and they've really shown off these blasters. I've no idea how well they're doing sales-wise, but judging by their advertisements, I'd like to think Dart Tag is doing pretty well. If they can tempt a man who approaches their advertisements meticulously an cautiously, then I'm fairly certain they can make a twelve-year-old want to beg their parents for the newest blaster.
First off I only own the Swarmfire (the only direct plunger of the new guns) so far but here are my thoughts:
ReplyDeleteOriginally I didn't really like the lack of tactical rails, but I've found that I don't really use attachments in battle anyway. Plus the blasters already look and feel really nice, and it's cool to have something so very different from the hard lines and edges of the N-strike line. The smooth feels really good. I wish we could use N-strike stocks on the Dart Tag blasters though...SO disappointing.
Being able to top off your clip anytime in battle is REALLY nice, but that just means the Speedload 6 is more or less equivalent to a Maverick with slamfire which doesn't make it worth $5 more in my opinion.
So far, I don't really care for the Swarmfire (Stampede is better except for its reverse plunger) and, unless you are collecting, just starting Nerf, or prefer the new style and have the money, I think the Quick 16 is the only one worth buying.
Nerf seems to be trying to make modding more difficult, but it's not impossible so I'm fine with it.
Also, the commercials and box art for the blasters are really cool.
...I think that covers everything.
I hate the new dart tag line. they are not even close to matching the power and diversity of the old line. to me they are just not cut out for dart tag, but i won't turn down a free gun!
ReplyDeleteI think the aesthetics of the Dart Tag blasters are excellent. The sleek shape of the bodies with that yellow and black color scheme is excellent.
ReplyDeletePerformance-wise, they're... a bit lackluster, especially since they're harder to modify than N-Strike blasters.
All in all, they're pretty cool, but I don't think they can match the N-Strike blasters.
They seem interesting. Though I haven't had the chance to use them they seem like they would be fun to use in a stock war. I like the idea of internal magazines that use taggers and whistlers but they seem too complicated to mod. I really want to see some mods for the new blaster and I'll probably pick it up when it comes out if the price is low enough.
ReplyDeleteThe advertisements for them seem too focused on the NDTL championships than the urban tagging that their former ads had, and I think this puts the line at a disadvantage because it seems more exclusive than it used to be.
The aesthetics are amazing, I like how they have more of a sleek look compared to the N-strike and vortex lines. I've heard that they are easier to paint compared to the other lines because of their panels, which also means that they will have a near perfect paintjob right out of the factory.
I believe that the sharpshot has one of the comfiest, easiest to paint shells ever (but its an IP...) One thing that annoyed me about the dart tag line was that the back was ready for stocks, and we were anticipating more blasters to be released (speedswarm...a bit late/unpromising). The speedload6 was an interesting concept but side loading the darts made it prone to jamming, I did like the secret slam fire though. The quick 16 was nice but not the easiest to wield in a war, with slow reloading and no stock but it was nice. Now to my favorite, the swarmfire:I love this gun. It is comfy and light compared to the other auto guns, when modded it can use any dart and has a nice direct plunger, the turret is totally BA, and the stock is pretty nice; my only complaint is that it is a bit front heavy but my minimized swarmfire is a total beast that I love. All of the shells are tedious to take apart though, but the shells' layers make it way easier to paint. Overall I really liked the release of these guns and I own and like (almost) all of them.
ReplyDeleteI've participated in NDTL before, and have a certain amount of experience. When I found out I was accepted I bought the whole line-up, and made some observations: A stock Sharp Shot is pathetic, while the Speadload 6 has fair ranges but jams on a consistent basis, the Quick 16 jams constantly but makes a decent shield for deflection purposes, and the Swarmfire is hard to load for a gun that runs through ammo like there's know tomorrow. When I talked to the Nerf Representatives, their viewpoint was that certain guns were good for certain team members. My thoughts are quite simple, a jammed, or empty gun is good for know one. In comparison to where the Nerf Dart tag line was before with orange and green Furyfires, I love the choices, but when there's only one good choice it's pretty sad. In my opinion Nerf Furyfires are reliable, versatile, and have a fast rate of fire, whereas the new Dartag line boasts two constantly jamming (especially in competition) blasters, one pathetic single shot (you should have seen how old these guns got when someone was bearing down on you with a Swarmfire)blaster, and one heavy hard to reload automatic. The fact is the winning team wielded four Swarmfires; with guys on the triggers who knew how to preserve ammo.
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