Mission Accomplished!

I didn't expect to fool everyone, but there were more than enough folks who took the bait with yesterday's prank.  Yes, if you missed your calendar, it was April Fools Day.  The "Rhino-Fire", as far as I know, does not look like that photoshopped MEGA blaster.  However, it was quite amusing to see some fans speculate over it.

If you did find yourself among the ranks that fell for this, don't feel bad.  I simply took advantage of the fact that Nerf has starved us of any decent News for a month or so.  We can probably blame this on the overload of information during ToyFair 2014.  There's buckets of new blasters that were all announced at once and now... we get to wait.  Some of the blasters we're waiting for might take over half a year to hit shelves, so the info-hungry fans of Nerf were spoiled in January and February and then starved through the whole month of March.  It set up the grounds for a prank PERFECTLY.  Any sort of news, April Fools Day or not, was going to be believable.

Besides, if you paid attention, there was a hidden clue in the bottom right corner of that post.  In a small black box with the text "April Fools!" (you can see it if you highlight it), you'll find the link to the image I used for this prank. ;)

Reading all the "It's a FAKE!!!!" claims right next to "I can't wait for this to get released!" posts was quite amusing.  Sort of reminds me of the Elite Longshot stuff, which was never intended to be a phony or anything.  To this day, I'm still seeing "YOUR A LIER" posts every week from people that are too dense to either A: read the description or B: see the embedded links and such saying "SEE how I made it!"

Gotta thank Buster Builder for the photoshop that I used for the "Rhino-Fire" announcement.  It was good enough to look new, but had enough small imperfections and clues to tip off die-hard fans that caught on.  Honestly, I think it was a good way to stir up Nerf Nation a bit.  Things have started to slip to the stagnant side for activity.  Some of the big blogs that thrive on news haven't had a whole lot to say because, well, there's nothing really to say!  Makes me happy that I do more than follow the latest releases.  I get out and play the game (including that awesome match we had on Sunday!)  Not just so I've got something to report on a weekly basis, but because I really think that's where the core enjoyment of this can be found.  Not waiting for something to show up on the shelf, but to get out and USE it!  So get off your computers and smartphones, people!  Go ENJOY your blasters!!