Mod Night Tonight!

I'm working on both Nerf and Laser Tag gear tonight with a few friends.  Projects to work on range from Arduino-run laser tag boards for the LTX with custom sound effects to repairing my broken OMW Longstrike Massacre to whatever else we feel like!  Click the "T³ Chat" Button in the upper right side of the menu bar to weigh in on what we're doing!

Star Wars Lazer Tag

Naboo Attack Lazer Tag System (circa 1999)

Star Wars.  It's popularity is undeniable.  And yet, with all these epic laser battles around, you've gotta wonder... where's all the Star Wars themed Laser Tag blasters?

Quite simply, they already happened.  Back in the late 90s, Tiger Electronics released a few Star Wars themed sets compatible with their Lazer Tag-brand that was out at the time.  While they are not directly compatible with any of the new Lazer Tag-brand gear that's out now (LTTO, LTX, LTAR), they can be used in special hosted settings with the LTTO Tag Master Blaster and LTTO Drone under the "WoW Mode".  Still, they're neat looking blasters and I've been able to find a few pieces.  Enough to make a review of it!

One of these pieces is also the core of a commission project for a friend across the pond as a wedding gift.  I'm excited to work on it and turn this E-5 Battle Droid blaster (the bottom one pictured) into a fully functional LTX blaster.  More details in the video below of this series of laser tag blasters.

 

MILES in Training

A friend linked me this on the new Tactical Tag Facebook Page.  This soldier is a British Paratrooper wearing a Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System or MILES, for the purpose of an Anglo-French exercise. MILES gear is being used with British paratroopers and French airborne cavalry on a joint exercise to develop their urban fighting skills.  The sensor coverage on this soldier is EXCELLENT, better than any other setup I've seen thus far.  Military sensor coverage usually isn't this extensive, but the fact that this guy is essentially covered in sensors (they're those black domes all over his uniform and helmet) tells me that there's someone involved with their training program that's good with designing modular gear.  While the sensor systems we hope to build won't be this extensive, it is great to see the MILES gear still being utilized to this day, and to great effect!

To view the full article, visit Strike-Hold!

Urban Taggers: Law & Order

The more I look at that logo from Urban Taggers, the more it seems like that dart on that head was fired from the fellas at Hasbro.  For several weeks, their doors on the blog have been closed, roped off by the Nerf Police who stand guard with their Elite Blasters.  I'm not trying to paint a stupid picture, but rather point out that whatever Urban Taggers has been showing us is already a product-to-be.  I don't understand what all the hoopla is about UT getting the inside scoop on new blasters and creating a lot of POSITIVE hype for them.  Nerf's advertising fellas haven't exactly delivered in terms of getting us news on blasters, as evidenced by products getting on shelves long before any sort of commercials are released or news from their "Nerf Nation" Facebook Page.

Pause has already reported on Urban Tagger's latest insight to their legal dilemma with Hasbro, which just makes me more frustrated.  I've dealt with folks in the legal realm and it's nothing to get excited about.  Quite the contrary.  Even if UT does manage to reopen the blog, there will likely still be a close eye on them that they'll have to consider.  Working under that sort of pressure could take the fun out of it which is, lets face it, the whole reason anyone has a blog or is in this hobby.  It's fun!  It's also fun giving back to the community, something UT has done so well over their 18 month trek so far.

This whole ordeal has had me thinking "Well, I broke the news about the Pyragon.  Why haven't I been maliciously attacked by Hasbro?"  First, my thinking is that I found the information legitimately off of Hasbro's website.  Secondly, when I released the information, I sourced where I got it from and didn't put my name on the photos I released.  Urban Taggers has always put their "Stamp" on their news and, while it has likely gotten them a lot of attention and kept folks from claiming the information as their own.  In doing this, ALL of the leaked information that Hasbro has their panties in a twist about has a direct line back to Urban Taggers.  In gaining popularity like that, they also made themselves very easy targets.

When I released info on the Pyragon, most of the folks who got the info that knew me or knew of this blog gave me credit.  There are other sites out there that have just taken off and run with the images that I posted about that.  At first, I kind of regretted not putting some kind of label on them to claim them as information from this blog, as it would've been great PR.  In light of this series of events, I'm kind of glad I didn't.  I'm not trying to make an example of Urban Taggers at all or to say that labeling their information was wrong/came back to bite them in the rear, but rather learning from this situation so other hobbyists and blog owners like myself don't get burned in the future.

I really do hope that UT escapes this without any major problems.  However, I'm having a tough time imagining that things will return to normal in the wake of Hasbro's legal team.  It's likely that one of the best sources of Nerf News out there could get snuffed, which is a shame.  Hasbro should be PAYING Urban Taggers for all the great work and reviews and PR they've gotten for their gear, not punishing them.  If we had decent news from Nerf about upcoming stuff, things would be different.  But they don't fill us in on upcoming blasters until it's pretty much already out there.  I hope, regardless of what happens after this settles down, that Hasbro realizes the support Urban Taggers gave them.

Facebook Page Launched!

Social Media is becoming increasingly effective to reach people these days.  I of all people should know this, since the Omaha Laser Challenge Association (a group that I've been running for 6 years now) utilizes Facebook to spread the word about events that we host.  That page reaches over 100 members who are automatically notified of games that are hosted by the OLCA.

So, to better reach Nerf and Laser Tag enthusiasts, I've launched a Facebook Page to promote the blog through this.  I'll be posting my bigger articles on this blog but I'll be using the FB Page to do smaller updates like "Shelf News" and other smaller stories.

Go check out the page!  Hope you enjoy it!

Massacred Internals

So I was trying out that neat way to prime the Longstrike with a Massacre kit installed that I saw on The Document.  It was working out great... until the polycarbonate parts failed.

The video in this post explains all that has happened.  I've been very light in my usage of this kit, only testing it out for ranges and performance so far (as seen in my Longstrike vs Longshot vid).  It's been less than a week that this kit has been installed and after all that testing that Orange Mod Works did with their Massacre kits before releasing them, this is probably just as frustrating for me as it is for them.

It broke right at the point where the bolt sled meets the plunger tube.  This is very disappointing to say the least, but I blame the 6kg spring more than I blame a poor quality product, even WITH the warping issues the bolt sled still had (as evidenced in my previous video).  That spring is just unnecessarily overpowered for something like this.  Now I get to see this quick customer service that I've read so much about when other folks have had failing kits.  I've seen stuff replaced by OMW really quickly, so I'm hoping I have a similar experience.



Looks like I'm not the only one with this problem either.  Wira SevenSeven posted a similar image.

They call it the Tag Master Blaster

This is less of a "review" of this legendary Laser Tag blaster and more of it's involvement in the laser tag group that I've been running.  Before I got into Nerf, I had been an avid and active fan of laser tag, starting a group called the Omaha Laser Challenge Association in 2006 to plan and organize games.  I had been tagging long before that too, but it was mostly casual get-together with friends.  Like the group's namesake, we used Laser Challenge-brand gear.  Even with the Lazer Tag Team Ops gear on the market at that time, we chose to stick with our older seasoned Laser Challenge equipment for our games.

We knew that Lazer Tag Team Ops and Laser Challenge weren't directly compatible, but we did learn of a way to integrate the systems together.  That's about the time that my friend picked up one of the most coveted LTTO blasters: The Tag Master Blaster.  By disabling a beacon that all LTTO blasters emit, we were able to use the Tag Master Blaster in Laser Challenge games.  It's "hit signal" was able to land tags on our Laser Challenge gear, so we were able to utilize it just by disabling that beacon (which would normally hit Laser Challenge gear and will essentially "kill" the user holding it).

Still, the TMB was super accurate, able to hit folks from hundreds of feet away (max range that I saw it used was around 800-900 feet).  The tricky thing about the TMB is it's how tight of a beam of light you have to work with.  You have to be VERY accurate with this blaster at just about any range, as there is almost no spread to it's shot.  This means that if you're running around the park with it, trying to one-hand fire, you'll probably miss every time.  This is why, despite it's size, the TMB is very much considered a "Sniper rifle" or "DMR" when it comes to laser tag.

The other neat thing about this blaster is it's rocket.  Much like a Nerf Titan, you pump the handle in the stock of the blaster to fill up an air tank that fires a foam rocket that has 4 IR LEDs mounted in it.  Upon firing this rocket, it sends out a "hit" signal in a 360 degree radius that can be very handy in clearing out opponents that are closer to you.  It can also be thrown instead of fired, to be used much like a grenade would be in a game.

The first LTTO/LTX game with the OLCA

For several years, the TMBs in our group were used for Laser Challenge games but after we got our hands on enough LTTO and LTX gear, we  decided to try something the OLCA never had before: a full Lazer Tag-brand game.  It took all the gear we had to run this game and we enjoyed it enough to continue pursuing the purchase of more LTTO and LTX gear.  The TMB was able to fully realize it's power in these matches as they became more frequent.

The only problem with the TMB is that because it's an LTTO blaster, it has to be "Hosted" to use teams settings, unlike the grab-n-go nature of the LTX.  With our arsenal of LTXs at our disposal, the TMB is used less frequently because of this Hosting requirement.  Usually the TMBs are only used in games large enough that we need to tap into our smaller collection of LTTO gear to use them.

Regardless, the TMB has been a sought-after blaster for ages because of it's comfortable desin, accurate nature, unique rocket launcher (only laser tag blaster to have one), and reliability.  They're tough to come by these days but they're still compatible with the LTX and the new LTAR system coming out in Summer of 2012.  This means you can still expect to see this legendary laser tag blaster making appearances at games for years to come!

Talos: My rant

Screenshot from Massacre 5

I've seen this blaster show up a few times before and it always made me cringe.  In watching some videos of Massacre games (Massacre 5 to be exact) I saw this blaster in action and it kinda resurfaced my distaste for it.  From a Nerf modder's standpoint, there's absolutely nothing wrong with the Talos.  It's got excellent range, performance, and looks great!  What's not to like, right?

Cue my rant.  Follow the jump to read on.

theDocument: OMW Longstrike Priming Ideas

What'd I tell ya?  Keep an eye on that Document blog I talked about a little while ago, right?  Well, if you've been keeping tabs on them like I have, you've seen their Orange Mod Works Longstrike Massacre kit priming solutions that have me grinning up a storm.  Shoutouts aside, it's great to see some simple ingenuity applied to a problem that can plague bolt-action blasters that have really tough springs, namely the Longstrike.  In general, I also appreciate his extreme professionalism and care he shows to the hobby of Nerf, what with his impressive armory, workstation, and insightful ideas that he applies to stuff.  Check out his blog and his YouTube channel and subscribe/follow this guy.  This is no flash-in-the-pan blog and I'm excited to see what's in store next!!

OMW: Website Facelift

For those that were itching for it to go back online, Orange Mod Works has their new spifferiffic website up again.  Updated graphics, a better menu/side bar as well as an integrated shopping cart option bring functionality back to their site.  They've also revamped a lot of their product descriptions too with helpful info like FPS readings and estimated ranges from said upgrades.  The whole thing just looks nice and is pretty seamless to navigate.  Go check it out!

The Age Old Question got an Upgrade

We've seen it thousands of times on the Nerf Nation Facebook Page.  "What's better?  Longs.  trike or Longshot?".  We've seen the answer thousands of times too.  "Longshot is better."  Recently, I've been working with a 1st Generation Longshot that performs great with some basic modifications to it.  With the Orange Mod Works Massacre series finally out, I decided to take this age-old question out for a spin with some modifications.

The Best Laid Last-Minute Plans

New Car's first time being "The Armory".  Did a nice job!

This past Saturday I was faced with a dilemma:  I had no plans for the evening and it was a sunny day with temperatures in the upper 70s.  I was trying to figure out how to best enjoy this weather and the option I kept coming back to was a Laser Tag game... but that would mean less than an hour to plan.  Before we organized the OLCA, we used to just call whomever we could up and get a game together for the evening, so I thought maybe after 7 years I could still pull together a game like that.

More after the jump!

Indoor Tagging!

After about 2½ hours of Nerf, we switched to Lazer Tag with the Phoenix LTX.  For our Nerf games, we had only been using the main floor and having timed matches with tally sheets recording the respawns.  Our Laser Tag game ran differently, in that we used the entire building and had 25 hits each for a Team Elimination Game.  This is pretty standard for laser tag.  These games were smaller, as a few folks had to go home/were exhausted from the Nerf games held before, but we still had a great time!

Game Summary 3/17

So I had been bothering my friend who had taken photos during the games we held indoors on my college campus.  Well, not only do I have the photos now, but we also managed to play an outdoor game today.  I've got pictures from both last week's event AND this week's.  While there has been quite a bit of a lull in my usual activity, what with my life taking a bit more of my time than it usually does, I'm hoping pictures and details of these two games will keep you occupied until I can resume my normal activity that you've come to expect.

OMW: Massacre Kit Shipped!

Yesterday I was delighted to receive notice that my long-awaited Longstrike Massacre kit would be arriving this week.  I can't wait to get this kit into a blaster and witness it's power first hand!  Jerm has done some excellent reviews of these kits before, but it's just something you need to have yourself to really test it out.  Expect an update as soon as I get that kit in!

I apologize for the lack of updates the past few days.  I need to bug Sundawg for pictures from Saturday's game and get a review written up on that.  I've mainly been focused on my new car that I purchased late last week and just got behind the wheel on Tuesday.  She's a '12 Impreza Hatchback and I couldn't be more excited to own this great car!  Got plenty of room for hauling all my gear and equipment, which was getting to be a pain in my smaller sports car.  Anyways, I'll get back to my usual activity soon!

WAR!!!

Today, we have a Nerf / Laser Tag game inside the music building on campus with students / friends I have rallied together.  As usual, I am the arms dealer.  Pictured is but a fraction of what I own but will get loaned out to players for today's 5-hour time slot.

In the crates at the bottom are 18 Phoenix LTX Lazer Tag blasters as well as a backup LTTO Deluxe.  Above them, in two duffel bags, is an assortment of Nerf Blasters including a Maverick REV-6, Firefly REV-8, Barricade RV-10, Longstrike CS-6, Rayven CS-18, Raider CS-35, Stampede ECS, Barrel Break IX-2, Scout IX-3, NiteFinder EX-3, Vulcan EBF-25, Vortex Vigilon, and a Vortex Praxis.  My Longshot CS-6 and BBB are set aside from this general armory.  There's also two boxes full of ammo, clips, and Vulcan belts.

Our battlefield today is the same place we held the N-Strike vs Vortex game and should also have many of the same players from that.  I'll have pictures up of our adventures for both Nerf and Lazer Tag on Sunday, Monday the latest.  I may even try to get some video of how the game plays out.

Triangle wins... Again?!? Taking a break with the Giveaways

In an odd deja-vu moment, the randomly selected winner is Triangle!  This was bound to happen with a random giveaway, but I didn't expect it to happen this soon.  Anyways, Triangle (who now works with me on publishing user-submitted works at NM&R) is the proud new owner of a Stampede Shield!  Triangle also won my Sonic Series Nitefinder that I installed LEDs inside of so it glows back when the Giveaway first started out in fall of 2011.

That being said, I have fallen behind in getting stuff sent out and, with Spring Break for me scheduled for next week, I figured I could use this time to get things back in order.  What with the middle of the semester here, a new car that I purchased, a game on the 17th, extra work hours, and just general "Spring Cleaning" things that need to happen, I've gotta take some time to get things in order again.  Spring break is kinda my time to recharge, so I'll do just that.  The Weekly Giveaway will resume... when it can!  Shouldn't be longer than a week or two off, but I will let you know when it's back.  In the meantime, if you're still waiting on a prize from me, I apologize for the wait and my goal is to get them all sent out before I resume the giveaway.  Thanks for understanding.  Besides, free stuff is free stuff, right?  Whether you get it today or next week seems irrelevant to me!

In any case, I'll have updates tomorrow with our indoor Nerf/Laser Tag game, so expect pictures from that!

Elite Longshot Progress Update 1

It's fun returning to my roots.  The Longshot is the blaster that got me back into Nerf and really started my love for Laser Tag recasings as well.  It only makes sense that I'm using it as a primary again!  With the Orange Mod Works Longshot Immortal kit promised back in November of 2011, I jumped at the chance to get the legendary power of an OMW in this iconic Nerf Blaster.  Due to delays with the Massacre kits, the Immortal kit release date has been pushed back to late April-ish, and with a game coming up this weekend, I didn't want to waste any time waiting for that.

 Most of my Armory is ready to go, but I set aside this Longshot  in the hopes of making some mods to it that would be decent for the indoor game scheduled for Saturday in the Music Building on campus.  Modifications include standard removed Air Restrictor, dead space and lock removal, padded plunger head, and, driving it all is a spring from a Big Bad Bow.  I didn't double spring it since I still want to be able to one-hand prime this with the bolt-action I love so much.

Also, to make it sturdy under the pressure of that strong prime, I blocked the stock with a cut-to-fit piece of wood.  The block can be removed easily by simply removing the screws in the back.  It's super solid and prevents the common issue of having the stock retract under pressure (especially with a strong spring in there).

Other plans for this project, after I get the kit in, are to make this blaster look "Elite".  I'm a big fan of blue blasters, but I want this Longshot to remind this generation of players that an Elite blaster already existed before the Retaliator, Rampage, and Hailfire.  Plus, I think the white stripes on the Elite blasters just look cool, as I've got a soft spot for blue blasters in the first place.


The video should be ready to play by ~5pm Central Standard Time

Universal Nerf merges with Nerf Mods & Reviews!

While this doesn't directly effect Tactical Tag, it does direct my Affiliate: Nerf Mods & Reviews.  One of the blogs that I run, Universal Nerf, is now merging with Nerf Mods & Reviews!  This means that the user-submitted content that was the backbone of UN is now going to be featured on one of the largest Nerf blogs of all time!  I'm excited to be part of this and hope that the community takes this opportunity to learn and grow from eachother through this great ideology.

Just as things haven't changed for me here at Tactical Tag when I was a Modmin at Universal Nerf, so does that mean that my move to working alongside NM&R will change much either.  I'll still post my own personal stuff here while helping publish articles for other's works to be featured on Nerf Mods & Review alongside the rest of the fantastic staff that we have there.  Go check out the new NM&R and submit your blasters to be featured on this excellent blog!

LTAR: Video of the App!

This just in from Windjammer!  He's found a video on YouTube showing the demonstration of the blasters along with background video that shows how gameplay looks!  You should take note that the iPod images are basically marketing hype for the demo. It's likely that the final game for the iOS will look different. Windjammer notes that you can see what the marketing department is "aiming" for (pun intended).  You can see in the lower left corner some type of directional radar.  Neato!

Superfuntime!

I figured in the wake of a new blog opening that I wouldn't see much activity at the T³ Chatroll... but I couldn't be more wrong!

Thanks to everyone who makes this chat worth checking!  If you haven't stopped by yet, feel free to join us!  Though I can't guarantee there's room at this rate!

N-Strike Elite "Seeker"

This is the all New N-Strike Elite "Seeker"!

Naw, just kidding.  It's an old blue Nite Finder circa 2003 that predates the N-Strike Lineup (you can tell because it doesn't have the Tactical Rail on top yet).  I thought it was odd that we haven't seen anything in pistol-format for the N-Strike Elite lineup, but I suppose it's easier for them to engineer larger blasters to fire further than to crank out extra range of a smaller blaster.

However, I DID add white stripes to this old Nite Finder to make it look like part of the N-Strike Elite series.  This guy is "Elite" since it's got an Orange Mod Works 2.5 strength spring in it, so it packs a wallop!  I used white  Scotch-brand Decorate & Repair Tape (plastic tape) and cut it so that it looked like the Elite stripes on the Retaliator and Rampage.  It's a pretty simple process that I just wanted to test out on a smaller blaster before I try it out on something like my Longshot.  The plan is to actually use this same method on my Blue Longshot after the OMW Immortal kit gets here.  It's a smooth, glossy finish tape that won't rub off like paint will.

I was trying to think of a name to call this NiteFinder that would sound like an "Elite" blaster name, and the Seeker was all I could come up with.  If you've got a better suggestion, lemme know and I might just rename this fella!

The Firefly Tech Clip goes to Buster! Need a Shield?

Buster has won the Firefly Tech Clip from last week's giveaway!  I was kinda surprised to see a new face win so quickly, but hey!  That's the beauty of the good ol-fashioned random selection for this!  As a plug, if you're a Lego fan, I would check out his Flickr photostream.  I'm a bit of a Lego fan myself, so it was fun to go through and see what he had cooked up!

Anywho, here's the question for this week.  Recently, there have been a lot of accessories made for the N-Strike Rail that protect the user.  Shields have been making their way onto blasters in many shapes and sizes.  Whether it's the LightningStorm's transparent shield or maybe even those unconfirmed ones spotted on the Nitron and Rampage, what's your take on this protective accessory?  Do you like 'em?  Do you think they'll make more?  Heck, there are even some groups that don't allow the shield to be used, so there MUST be an opinion about their use out there!

the Document: Tactics by Design

I check up on what the followers of this blog are up to every now and then and boy am I glad I paid attention today!  A member by the name of "a Gray House" has started up a blog that looks to have some impressive stuff in the future.  His work has already been featured (and VERY much enjoyed) at Universal Nerf, so I'm keeping tabs on his new blog, the Document.  I get the feeling this will be a blog to watch!

The Longshot Discrepancy

So the golden rule of Longshots has always been "Blue is better than Yellow", right?  What if I were to tell you that wasn't always the case?  I've got hard evidence suggesting that not all Blue Longshots are as powerful as this generalization claims.  Check out the video below to see what I'm talking about.

Modified Big Bad Bow

This is a BBB I recently finished modifying.  It's a popular blaster to mod for getting insane ranges, and for good reason.  The Big Bad Bow has a Direct plunger system similar to that of the Longshot but has a very strong stock spring.  I double sprung mine, made it accept N-Strike Darts, and made a few other exterior modifications.

While it may look like any other BBB design, the portion I'm most happy with is the integrated dart holder on the bottom where the lower bow portion used to be.  It can accept any N-Strike accessory, but the most useful one is obviously the dart holder from the Barrel Break IX-2.  It works great to quickly reload this blaster from the front.  I also removed the upper Arrow holders and streamlined the look a bit.  I'm pleased with how it turned out and, at 70 feet flat, I'm psyched to see how it does in a game!

If the video isn't working, wait until about 5pm CST, as it is still loading and I'm on my way out the door!  Wanted to have this published to show you!

OMW: Massacre Kits, Roll out!

The Orange Mod Works Massacre kits have been going through RIGOROUS testing to ensure that no problems arise when they are released.  If you've been following their Facebook, like I have, you've witnessed the intense work (and fun) they've been having with this.

Orange Mod Works has answered my question from last week about the release dates for the Massacre kits.  Here's a direct quote from their Facebook Page:

"ALL parts for Alpha Trooper, Raider, and Longstrike are approved, and the OFFICIAL release date is set for March 15, with all orders expected to ship no later than March 19." 

There you have it!  Within the month, I'm hoping to have my Longstrike one installed!!  This is GREAT news!!  Hopefully this means good things for the Immortal Longshot kit too!  The test fit is good, so they're getting some sample parts to start working on.  I'm hoping these can be ready to roll before the summer is upon us!

Combat Bow, coming together

So that Big Bad Bow I was working on earlier got some quick progress today already.  Since I did simple range testing on this thing's power, I kind of dug in a little faster than I had originally anticipated.  Wanted to show you a few of the minor changes I've made to it.

First, I integrated an actual barrel into the BBB's original housing.  It's pretty flawless-looking, so I'm a fan of how it turned out.  It'll fit any N-Strike dart.  Like I said earlier in the video, it's shooting 60 feet flat.  Because the tip is almost identical to the original, it can still fire normal Arrows too.

Here I've taken the lower bow piece and modified it so that N-Strike Rail accessories fit onto it.  While it doesn't seem like anything useful could go there because of the angle, the intent is to have a dart holder from the Barrel Break so that way dart storage is close to the front barrel and can easily be loaded during a game.  Because of the plastic used, I wasn't able to get a clean finish on it, but it'll be covered by the accessory anyways.

I also removed the top sight/arrow holder that used to secure the upper bow portion.  I sanded off the excess and contoured the parts to the rest of the design on top.  Then I covered the hole left over with plastic tape, lightly sanded the whole section, and repainted it in a hammered metallic gray.  I originally thought to just paint it over in black again, but I thought it might look neat with this color instead.  I am pleased with the refined look of this blaster.

I'll likely be finishing this one up quickly and I'll have a video and full pictures up of it once it's done.  There are a few scratches from this being a used blaster before with random stripes of other colors from banging up against other blasters/toys that I'll clean up to prepare it for it's finalized pictures.  If you haven't noticed, these changes aren't really all that ground-breaking, but I've never been a fan of dowsing blasters in CPVC, Hot Glue, PETG, Duct Tape, and Hoppers to make a overpowered beast.  As it is, this blaster functions great for the indoor game settings that it'll no doubt be used for here and I've always been more of a fan of simple mods.  Keep it here for the finalized pictures and video for this blaster!

Projects Projects Projects!

I've had a lot going on as far as the Nerf side of my interests go recently.  Mainly, my focus has been here because of a recent game we've planned that's coming up in a few weeks.  As such, I've got 3 projects I'm focusing on to get ready for this.  The First project you've already seen, my Alpha Trooper Pistol.  I'll be resuming work on that this week.  The other two are a result of a recent deal I nabbed on eBay that includes a Big Bad Bow and a Longshot.

There are 3 main goals for each of these blasters.  The Alpha Trooper Pistol is to be a compact rapid-fire blaster that's small enough that it could be holstered as a sidearm or backup.  It's SlamFire capabilities make it great for those "do or die" situations.  The Longshot CS-6 is obviously a main battle rifle with it's heft and size.  I'll be working on this a little bit, but this blaster will likely see some basic mods until the Immortal Longshot kit can get here, in which case this blaster will likely be the recipient.  I hope to paint my Immortal Longshot to look like the Elite Blasters with a white stripe on it.  The Big Bad Bow is being redesigned for use in games, so it'll be using N-Strike darts instead of arrows.  It's a powerful blaster and I plan to make use of dart holders on the blaster so that it can easily be loaded.  Mounting the dart holder near the front will make it easier for the hand on the forward grip to load new darts quickly.  Here's a quick video I shot of it with a few internal modifications as well as being adapted to use N-Strike Darts.

OMW: TBA TTYL MIA?

It's acronym time!  Most of the time acronyms are helpful in shortening overused phrases.  Heck, the texting era has ushered in all kinds of "helpful" acronyms, so what's not to like?  The dreaded "TBA", or "to be announced".  From what was looking like promising progress towards the Massacre kits and the Immortal Longshot kit from Orange Mod Works is now up in the air once again.  However, not all is lost!

First, the facts:  Orange Mod Works has been taking extra care to make sure that they are producing quality kits for their customers.  In trying to rush previous projects, they ended up getting themselves in a bit of trouble with customers because the products were not working like they should.  They have also been having trouble with accuracy of the kits they send to be replicated by their production companies, which is not their fault at all, so much of this frustration, though fans may be frustrated directly with OMW, should instead be aimed at the production of these parts that is out of their hands.

The Massacre Kits for the Longstrike, Alpha Trooper, and Raider all had an estimated release date between February 12th-28th as a result of the first big delay in their production.  The Immortal Longshot kit also had an estimated release date of between March 1st-14th.  Both of these products have now been changed to "TBA" for their estimated release dates.

Luckily, OMW already foresaw some griping on their forums and cleared a few things up.  These are direct quotes from OMW Administrators on their Forum.

The Recon Massacre is fully stocked and ready to ship out immediately. We only had it on back order for about 48 hours because we ran out of bolt sleds at the US offices and were waiting on the new shipment to come in from Taiwan. 
As far as Alpha Trooper / Raider / Longstrike go, it really is tough to say when the actual date will be right now. 
Jun has been testing the new polycarb parts extensively, dry-firing 200-300 times a day to see how they hold up. The reason for the vagueness is we simply don't know yet how the new parts are going to hold up over time and we want to make sure that everyone is going to get the absolute highest quality parts. 
We have learned our lesson with rushing our preordered items, it is better to wait until everything is right then to attempt to appease everyone by rushing the kits out when they haven't been thoroughly tested. 
As soon as we are confident all the parts are good, we'll be posting an update with the new expect release dates. Until then we ask for a little more patience. We understand the delays are frustrating, but we simply will not ship out inferior products.

This was posted in reference to the Massacre Kits.  I have yet to find anything about the Immortal Longshot kit, but I would assume that it is simply pushed back because of the focus on getting the Massacre kits ready and out the door.  I hope they're not experiencing the same problems with this kit, as having headaches for 4 different kits would be extremely stressful!

She wants more ammo!

Threatened over Facetime

So I got my girlfriend a Nerf Jolt to mess around with at her apartment.  Thanks to her crazy-go-nuts boyfriend, she's no stranger to Nerf and Laser Tag, surprising me with a cunning move here and there at games.  She's had this Jolt for awhile and occasionally, if I let my guard down, I get a Sonic Dart to the temple from across the living room.

What does she ask me today?

"Get me more darts."

She's a keeper!

Just wanted to unofficially thank her (since I don't think she reads this blog) for not only accepting my silly hobbies, but for enjoying them too, even when that means I get attacked every now and then!

BullsEyeNerf got it this week? Will you "Light it Up" next?

This modded Tech Target will serve his name well, as the blaster is super accurate!  BullsEyeNerf is our winner this time!  Congrats to him!!  And, as always, thanks to everyone who take part in these Giveaway posts!  I look forward to Friday every week because this is a lot of fun for me, reading through the entries, putting all the names in my Red Sox hat, and picking one at random.  Thanks for all your support!

This week's question is regarding Firefly Tech.  The N-Strike Clip and Vortex Magazine that can fire glow-in-the-dark darts out of any Clip or Magazine fed blaster are pretty cool and have been getting a lot of attention since Nerf's "Light it Up" commercials... regardless of how poorly scripted those may or may not be!  Justin Bieber Abercrombie & Fitch models aside, what's your take on the Firefly Tech?