Ultrafire Sale

If you've ever wanted to upgrade the voltage in your Barricade, Rayven, Stryfe, or any battery-driven foam blaster, now might be a great time to cash in!  Amazon.com has a sale on UltraFire 14500 1200mah 3.6V Rechargeable Li-Ion Batteries.  These fellas are excellent for voltage modifications.  With this set, you get 2 Ultrafire Batteries and a charger for them.  They're usually 16 bucks, but there's a sale on 'em for $13.98 from Amazon.com. While these might seem too expensive for some, because they're rechargeable, these batteries can be used over and over again.  They also hold a charge for quite a long time.

Still out of your budget?  Try picking up Energizer Ultimate Lithium batteries at any major retailer.  They're still a little more expensive than normal batteries, but they last longer and have a slightly higher voltage than normal AA batteries.  You'll still get a bit of a power boost out of your blaster... just not as extreme of a difference that you would get from Ultrafires.

Firefly for All!

Looks like my friends at Urban Taggers have found not only Firefly Tech Clip System darts and magazines, but there's also one for Vortex Disks too!  This further continues my speculation about a recolored Lumitron in the same colors that the Pyragon and Diatron feature.

I'm also having an AWFUL time trying to picture this Firefly Tech mag for Vortex looking good in ANY of their blasters.  Just imagine... WHITE with this Green?  Ugh... no.  How's about the traditional Vortex colors with this?  Still no.  Or whaddabout an ALL Green blaster thanks to this being paired with the Lumitron?  Yeah... I don't see how the Vortex lineup wins with this one.

Feel free to weigh in on your opinions on this.

When I was looking for the Firestike...

...I found these two fellas.  Guess it'll have to do.  That's right, the RoughCut 2x4 and the Strongarm have become the latest additions to my N-Strike Elite Family!  Pictures and a little bit of an initial review are in this post, but I'll eventually have full video reviews of both.  Until then, enjoy these photos on my Facebook Page!

Sadly, there's not a whole lot of justice that "Pic Spam" can do for either of these.  There's only a few gadgets that look decent on these two blasters, so I tried 'em out.  I would have to say that the best accessory for the RoughCut has to be the Barrel Break's ammo clip (it's perfect because it fits 8 darts).  For the Strongarm, I suppose the neatest thing I could think of was using it as a shield with the Super Soaker accessory while using something Semi-automatic with your dominant hand.  Kind of a "Sword and Shield" type of thing.

I've already modified my Strongarm by removing the AR.  There's only one AR in it instead of the 6 that were in the Maverick or the 5 in the Spectre.  It's internal layout is unlike any other pistol I've seen.  I was seriously impressed with it.  The RoughCut 2x4 has remained unmodified, mainly because I've been told that if you remove the ARs in this blaster, you ruin it's "Dart Sensors" that are honestly one of the more impressive parts of this blaster.

Again, I'll have full reviews on each of these blasters in the coming days. I'll also have a full review on the Stryfe, as I realized that I only did a brief internals overview of it.  My Elite collection just keeps expanding and I can't wait to see what's next from Nerf!

Dart Sensors for Elite

If there's one feature that's really been prominent in Nerf's newest blasters for the N-Strike Elite line, it's been "Dart Sensors".  The Elite Triad, Rough Cut 2x4 and Stryfe all utilize systems that detect whether a dart is present in the chamber or not.  The systems utilized on the Triad and Rough Cut are designed in such a way that regardless of whether the blaster has a full load of darts or whether it's only partially loaded, it will still fire.  For instance, if someone only loaded the top left barrel and the bottom right barrel of the Rough Cut's 8 dart front-loaded capacity, the blaster would still fire both of those darts when primed.  It's a nice reliable system that gives the user the comfort that regardless of where the darts are loaded in the blaster, it'll still fire.

The Stryfe is a little different.  Since it can only fire one dart at a time, it's Dart Sensor detects whether there is a dart in the clip or not.  If there isn't a dart detected, the trigger won't pull.  This system, while helpful, has a few flaws that have been noted by the community.  Certain darts (depending on their condition) and certain clips will not work very well with this blaster since it sometimes does not release the Dart Sensor safety all the way.  If the back end of a dart is bent or if a clip that does not lift up the dart as far as it should be, the Dart Sensor will remain locked and the blaster will not fire.  I've actually removed the Dart Sensor on my Stryfe due to it's unreliable nature.

Knowing the safety mechanisms and features of your blaster can make a big difference for effective use in games.  I hope that understanding these systems more will help players utilize them to give them a tactical edge when being used!

Holiday Brawl

If you're like me, this Holiday season stresses you out a little bit.  And if you're like me, you've got hobbies and activities to keep you sane.  That's where my plan-a-saurus rex abilities come in handy. In the next couple of weeks I'll be planning up an Indoor Nerf game and an Outdoor Laser Tag game, ALL before Christmas hits!

I'll have details on both games as they happen.  The first is a Nerf game scheduled for the 16th.  Then we've got a Laser Tag game set on the 23rd.

And with that white precipitation upon us, I thought "Hey, I've done a lot of Winter stuff!"  Here's a few links to previous winter-inspired posts I've made.


Whiteout Series Spectre
Whiteout Conditions
Shedding Light on my Enemies
Life after Humans
Winter Laser Tag Game

Singled Titan Adapter

A few of you who follow our Facebook Page have seen it already, but I thought I'd explain this project. This is my Blue Titan, (Part of the Blue Unity Power System I assembled) I am modifying a spare rocket nozzle to be used for firing single darts through a cosmetically-appealing barrel.  Utilizing one of my spare Retaliator barrels as the frame also means that it'll have the ability to use tactical rails for accessories.

I know a lot of folks have done singled Titans before, and it's a really simple mod if all you want is range... but I just wanted mine to look pretty.  The adapter is removable so the Blue Titan can still be equipped to fire rockets, too.  I was thinking of doing something similar to my Red Titan and a Red Strike series Recon barrel, but I have obvious reservations about messing with a rare piece of N-Strike History when it comes to the Red Strike series.

Winter Nerf Game #1

So a few friends got together on an unusually nice December morning to play an indoor-outdoor game of Nerf.  We were allowed to use the entire home, inside and out, for 3 hours and boy did we take full advantage of it!  It was not only a great set of games, but also allowed me to combat test the N-Strike Elite Stryfe for myself!