Light Striken

I received a package yesterday from a Laser Tagging friend that had a nice assortment of gear.  From an old school Laser Challenge Team Force sensor vest to a V2 Ultrawide Blaster to some off-brand head-sensor system I hadn't really ever seen in person.  However, I was most surprised to come across a GAP-024 Striker and a Target from the Light Strike line.  I have been reluctant to pick up any of these myself, even being the avid laser tagger that I am.  I haven't heard wonderful things about this line and the price tag wasn't low enough to warrant me purchasing a set to test out on my own.
I was hoping to get a full idea of the Light Strike system with this stuff, but I'll probably need to find a second blaster to really assess this gear.  The Target sensor proved to be far more simplistic than I had anticipated, as it just changes colors to whatever team setting you manage to fire at it.  The stories about being able to switch teams on these whenever you want looks to be true too, as there's a button on the main display that allows you to change instantly.  You can probably imagine the opportunities for cheating with a feature like that.  I almost prefer the no-teams approach to Laser Challenge since you can at least hit anyone instead of your opponent changing to your team to avoid taking fire from you.

I suspect I'll need a little more time/another blaster to finish up my opinion of this system.  I will say that the blaster was much more comfy than I had originally anticipated.  It's got a nice weight to it and the grip is comfortable.  Trigger feels nice too.  There is also more detail to this blaster than I originally gave it credit for, but the main panels are just basically stickers with graphics on them.

I did, however, run a few tests with Light Strike up against my two other laser tagging systems:  Laser Challenge and Lazer Tag.  I check for cross-compatibility between new systems.  For instance, Lazer Tag brand blasters (like LTTO and LTX) are able to land hits on most Laser Challenge sensors, but cannot receive hits from Laser Challenge Blasters.  As such, if someone were playing a Laser Challenge game, they could use a Phoenix LTX as their blaster, so long as they were wearing a Laser Challenge sensor.  I ran cross-compatability tests with the Striker and the Target and found no hope of utilizing this system with other popular systems.  In my next update, my pal Sundawg will be hooking up this Striker to his equipment to see what kinds of signals are used for Light Strike.  We'll release all that technobabble once the tests have been completed.

Universal Nerf Opens it's Doors

If you haven't noticed already, there's another new blog in town.  I know, right?  Who needs another Nerf blog?  Well that's what myself, JetCell and Triangle were discussing a few weeks ago.  It's a place to feature YOUR work!  Head on over to get the full scope of what Universal Nerf is all about.  Click the logo to get started!

Congrats Skurj! Vacation for the Giveaway!

Congratulations to Skurj, the winner of the modified Tactical Light!  If you don't know, he runs a blog called "The Hive Mind" and when he was randomly selected for the winner, I couldn't help but think that maybe this light would look good on one of his recased laser tag blasters like that Longstrike pictured to the left.

Either way, it's a busy time of year for me right now.  Hobbies are kinda taking a temporary back seat to everything else that's going on, and since I'm still a week behind on getting Eagle1011 squared away with his prize from last week, I figured it best to put the Weekly Giveaway on a bit of a hold.  Next week is Finals week for me, and I've also been playing in a Pit Orchestra for a musical in town, on top of normal holiday busy-ness.  Don't worry, it'll return once I get some time back, as I've still got plenty of stuff here that could use good homes.

In the meantime, go check out Skurj's blog.  Or the new Universal Nerf blog, or any of my older posts.  Though it's not really my place to tell you what to do, I figured some suggestions and shameless plugs couldn't hurt!

Don't worry, I'll still be posting stuff and bloggin.  The Weekly Giveaway will just be taking a bit of a break to give ME a break!

LTTO M4 Carbine Final Pics

Earlier I shared a Nerf Recon recasing of a Lazer Tag Team Ops Deluxe built by another fan.  It was functional and didn't look half bad either.  However, new pictures of this creation have surfaced and the new paint job/details really make this fella look great, so I thought I'd share those with you here!

I'm told that it's actual range, now that it is focused, is 1,892 ft with a magnifying scope.  With only the red dot sight, it's effective range 1000 ft or so.  The Entire blaster is running off of a LTTO Deluxe system, with a working rumble pack as well as Hit Lights installed in the sensor dome (not standard on a Deluxe).  He's done a fine job with the paint job and finishing details on this blaster!  Enjoy the images!

 Pictures of the finished LTTO M4 Carbine have given it a different paint scheme than the all-black pictures from before.  The subtle tiger stripe patterns, orange accents, and other details are nice and crisp.  If I didn't know any better, I'd say this was factory made!

 Size Comparisons wtih the LTTO Tag Master Blaster and Deluxe.

Whiteout Conditions

It's the first big snow for us here in the Heartland, so I nabbed my favorite Whiteout blasters and ran around outside.  Got some neat pictures, and the Whiteout blasters just lend themselves well to this weather!

Pictured are my two favorites, the Whiteout Longstrike and NiteFinder.  The scope is off of a Super Soaker Shotblast, and I've also got a Bandoleer with Whiteout Whistlers and Streamlines on it.

Countdown to 2012

Found this on the Nerf Nation Facebook Page.  Looks like Hasbro is pulling out all the stops this Holiday Season! For every new 25,000 people who “Like” their page, an additional grand prize is up for grabs – up to 7 total!  Click the image below to go directly to the page and enter to win!

Prizes for this are as follows:

Congrats, Eagle1011! Lighting up Week 6!!

Congratulations to Eagle1011, the winner of Week #5's Giveaway, the modded SharpShot!  I do have one regret, and that is not being able to complete this blaster in time.  Originally I had planned on just doing internals, but I wanted to use the unique construction of this blaster to give it a neat paint job.  With the colder weather setting in, I don't have it painted.  Eagle, when you send me your address, let me know what you'd like to do.  I can either send the blaster as-is or I can give it a paint job of some kind.

To express how sorry I am for not having this blaster done today, here's an embarrassing picture of me being a complete goober.  It's actually pretty normal for me.  But nevertheless, I've already got THIS week's prize in the "completed" bin!

This week's prize isn't a blaster, but an accessory.  Cleverly housed inside of an N-Strike Tactical Light that is commonly packaged with the Nerf Recon, this is actually an LED Flashlight.  The on/off switch turns this bright light on and off running off the original AAA's that the Red Dot light would've run off of.  I've found them to be very handy for indoor games, especially when trying to find darts in the aftermath of the game.

Which brings me to this week's question:  what's your take on the Accessories in the N-Strike lineup?  Technically Vortex counts too, now that they've got that scope and stock that are N-Strike compatible.  Whether you love 'em, hate 'em, or just want to see something new that hasn't been done before, comment and you'll be entered to win this Flashlight!