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Friday, February 28, 2014

Dorm Labs - Red Dot Sight

Whilst browsing Facetube and Youbook, I watched a great review by Bobololo about the Dorm Labs Red Dot (Pinpoint) Sight.  I had seen this product mentioned before and thought "Man, that looks an awful lot like the NcSTAR Red Dot DP sight that I've been using for awhile".  His review showed everything that it came with, including a little bag of goodies that nailed down my suspicion.  To wrap up his review, Bobo said the price was a bit steep, as Dorm Labs was listing this Red Dot for $24.99 on their website.  So I went back to Amazon.com where I originally purchased a handful of the NcSTAR sights for my Laser Tagging group to use to check on the price.  List price is $12.99 with a sale price of $9.65 on the link I used.

Somewhere between getting rid of the gold "NcSTAR" logo on the top of the sight and redeveloping a clamp specifically designed for a Nerf Tactical Rail that worked just fine straight out of the box in the first place, Dorm Labs has doubled the price on a plastic red dot sight for Tacti-cool Nerfers to purchase.  I'm all for folks making "aftermarket" Nerf Accessories.  Folks like SlyDev, Orange Mod Works, Xplorer, and a handful of other guys have been making great products.  Dorm Labs have made other great products before, but I know this product they're selling... and I know that it already works without modification in my own personal experience.  I made a review of this versatile accessory back in July of 2012, so it's not like this is "new" at all.  It just kinda bugs me that Nerfers who need a Red Dot sight could get their kicks for 10 bucks instead of the one that Dorm Labs "made".  Did I miss something, or could Bobo have gotten his Red Dot sight for half the price?  Polishing cloth and all.

Didn't take long for a response to this.  Seems like a reasonable explanation.
 Hey guys, 

Wanted to take a second to post an official response to this. A lot of our products are derived from airsoft components, we've said that from the beginning. In this specific case, the red dot base assembly that we use is very likely made by NcStar or at least in one of their factories. We're not 100% sure since we purchase them through a separate distributor, but it sure looks like it based on your article. 

When we were testing the red dot sights in the very beginning, before we even started selling them, we thought we weren't even going to have to make an adapter, which would have been great. However, there are a few problems with this. As Owen mentioned above regular clamps fit most, but not all Nerf rails securely. Certain blasters it would fit really snug, and other ones it would pop right off. You can't sell something that is guaranteed to fit on Nerf blasters, and then have it only fit on 75% of them. That was the main reason for designing and printing an adapter. Furthermore, we found out it would be violating some very serious firearm export laws if we were to ship them anywhere outside of the US as they are normally sold. The adapter makes them only compatible for Nerf blasters and therefore, no harm done by shipping them overseas.

If anyone has any other questions on this please feel free to contact us. We're not trying to rip anyone off, we're trying to bring cool unique products to the Nerf community that were previously not easily accessible or didn't exist at all.

Best Regards,
Dorm Labs

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Sledge-Slingin'

Love the NERF SledgeFire?  Me too!  Except when you're reloading whilst a horde of Zombies drag their lifeless limbs ever-closer... that can get you in trouble.  Fear not!  There's a quick, effective, and dart-slinging-ly cool way (if I do say so myself) to burn through those 3-Round shells faster than before!

While you're at it, be on the lookout for SledgeFire Refill Packs.  These will come in handy with this burn-through-your-ammo strategy and help you defend your stronghold from the legions of the undead.

Learn the trick after the jump!

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Affiliation Nation

Turns out people like what Tactical Tag has been doing.  Who am I to stop them from spreading the word to millions of others?!?  That's why I've been working with My Last Dart recently and there's some cool stuff in the works between us.  You'll notice the MLD logo on the right side of the blog listed as an Affiliate, and I'm pretty proud of that new development!  In the ever-changing world of bloggers, it's good to have some solid friends to rub shoulders with.


I know it probably sounds silly, but if you haven't checked out his blog, head there now.  Go on!  Use that fancy new button on the right>

Monday, February 24, 2014

SledgeFire Mod Planning

So I love my ZombieStrike SledgeFire.  Sure it might take a quick second to reload and it only comes with 3 shells, but it's awesome nonetheless.  I've done nothing to mine but take out the Air Restrictors and the raw power, even with the stock spring, is quite impressive.  However, I had to replace mine since it's priming mechanism sorta stopped working.  Luckily, I have use for that awesome shell as a Laser Tag blaster, but since I'm such a fan of this blaster, I picked up another one... so now I've got 6 shells and 1 unmodified blaster.  But only for now!

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

NERF - Dude Panda Shot

It's another totally hip Dude Perfect commercial... with a gigantic Panda running along with his fellow "dudes", much to the delight of Texas A&M Fans.  This one's a new commercial for the N-Strike Elite MEGA Magnus doing the "Hold the Mustard" shot.  While I do actually love the Magnus... I still find it hilarious that all these "Perfect Shots" had dozens of takes to get it right.  Even they Dude Perfect guys themselves have admitted "it takes multiple attempts when filming before successfully converting the final shots."  The commercial, however, is obviously trying to show off accuracy and implying that it takes one shot for you, surrounded by all your home-dawgs, to slice through that stream of Mustard and ruin that guy's corporate barbecue.

Laser Dart Nerf Tag?

Laser Dart Nerf Tag!  Or is it Nerf Laser Tag Dart?  Maybe it's Dart Nerf Tag Laser.  Yeah, that's gotta be it.  What's this I'm talking about?  Oh just the "TekStrike Storm Shield" that surprised us at Toy Fair 2014.  Remember that tinted shield we saw on the Rampage nearly two years ago that never made it as an accessory?  Yeah, it's kinda like that... but it's a lot more than a simple blast shield.  It's a whole battle system that combines the Foam Dart goodness of Nerf with the electronic scoring and Smartphone integration of Laser Tag for a super-cool nifty awesome way to play!  ...or is it?  Yup.  Time to be a skeptic!

Monday, February 17, 2014

Color-swappin Elites

Nerf fans with OCD might want to sit out 2014.  One look at the Wall-O-Nerf at Toy Fair 2014 would make any matchmaker cringe.  White with orange, white with blue, orange with white, blue with white, and a nice loud green Firefly Tech magazine to really screw with ya.  It's all over the board... literally.

For me, this is a bit of a pain in the arse after being so happy with the Elite lineup finally unifying the designs and colors to get all matchy matchy with themselves when they came out in 2012.  Well, 2 years later, looks like that's all blown out of the water.  There's some new recolors we can spot in this shot like the Firestrike, Retaliator, even a Strongarm over in the corner.  Somehow, Nerf managed to steal the white-striped RapidStrike from Basic Nerf, too... which technically makes things with the older accessories match better (in contrast to the rest of the new stuff).  Long story short... I'm feeling very conflicted with all my beloved Blue blasters getting phased out and mismatched.  I am, however, looking forward to folks making use of that white RoughCut 2x4 with the Retaliator barrel to go all Masterkey on us!

Secrets & Shot-Bots

At first, when news started to flow in from Toy Fair 2014 I was like "Okay, we already know about this stuff" but thanks to the super-sleuth fanatics that have been poking around, there's still some new stuff in the background for us to sink our teeth into.  Sure there's a bunch more Elite repaints on the Firestrike, Triad, and other previously blue blasters, but there's a new side-line for Rebelle and some evil minion robots inbound!

Tactical Tag already sort of reported on the "Secrets & Spies" bit while investigating some copyright stuff, but I honestly didn't expect it to be a Rebelle line addition.  Looks like there are super-cool-awesome messenger darts with hidden messages you can write on 'em fired from these pretty-in-pink blasters.  Turns out Rebelle has been doing quite well... probably because there's really no direct competitors in a Dart Blasters for Girls market that Hasbro essentially created.  It's working well!

Then there's my favorite bit of news: ROBOTS.  Yeah, I'll be the first to admit that long before I got into Nerf and Laser Tag, I was a robot guy.  Transformers, Robotech (Macross), and Gundam had me hooked when I was younger, so having these arachnid assault units crawling around the battlefield will certainly be fun.  Gotta hope they're capable of handling what I have in store for them, but regardless it's neat to see these Automatons slinging foam darts.  I know they're called "Combat Creatures", but I'm not sold on that name.  Battle Bots, Automatons, some kinda Sentry name... I dunno.  Anything but Combat Creatures!

Friday, February 14, 2014

Toy Fair 2014

The 2014 Toy Fair hasn't exactly brought diehard Nerf Fans anything new, since most of us who have been following along already knew about the Thunder Bow, Cam ECS-12, and Demolisher.  Kinda makes it a "downer" for me since they're reporting new stuff that's more... um... newish.

What we might gain from it is a new angle of the Demolisher 2-in-1, an old photo of the Cam ECS-12, and an excited kid with the Thunder Bow.  If we look closer at other photos, we'll also notice that the new Super Soakers have moved away from being tacti-cool with Nerf-able accessories and more of those wonky "These are colors we can use on a water blaster" looks to 'em.  I actually think this is good since the Soaker Wars angle and tactical rail stuff really wasn't a selling point for a water blaster.  They've continued the Bow-design trend with a functional "spray water in 3 directions" bit with the collapsible folding crossbow arms.

There's also an interesting bit (to me at least) about the ZombieStrike lineup.  The SledgeFire was previously a Target-Exclusive blaster, but we see it here heralding in the "Global Roll-out" for ZombieStrike.  Also, check out the coloration on the illustration.  While I'm not going to call marketing slide-show goodies the most accurate source of information, all of the other photos of the SledgeFire in it's "Animated" look have shown it with the sky-blue shell.  This version shows it with a noticeably darker blue.  Sure, I may be reading in to it too much, but I LOVE the SledgeFire!  It'd be awesome to have the color tweaked just a little darker (yeah sure, I like my Elite colors.  Leave me be!) but regardless a Global release of ZombieStrike means 2 things.  The first being that our friends across the pond can enjoy these nifty blasters as we have.  The second... the infection must be spreading!

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Basic Nerf Goes PRO

Some time ago I had a giveaway thing with the Facebook Group for Tactical Tag for the N-Strike Elite RapidStrike CS-18 that I had painted a white stripe on earlier last year.  In a recent set of war videos and reviews from Basic Nerf, the white-striped RapidStrike made its first YouTube appearance and it was nice to see this blaster get some screen time with one of my favorite bloggers!

He's volt-modded it and used it alongside an awesome MOLLE system he's arranged specifically for Nerf Wars, of which there are now several videos of his latest excursions in foam.  He's put together the footage quite well thanks to his Go Pro HERO strapped to his forehead!  Plus some of his gametypes are things I'd like to try out at one our our next games, too!  Check out his Facebook Page, while you're out and about on the Interwebs today.

Monday, February 10, 2014

The Tactical Tag Way

As I prepare a few things for Tactical Tag's 3-year anniversary, I thought I'd tackle a common question I've had through the years: why I do what I do here.  Views have changed, shifted, and realigned things over this blog's short history... and there are PLENTY of writings that explain where I'm at with these hobbies, but I thought I'd take a moment to reflect on what got this blog where it is and where it's going.

I started off being an Laser Tag enthusiast and was active in organizing local outdoor games.  It wasn't until I got into "recasings", where the guts of a laser tag blaster are transplanted into a different toy gun shell, that I discovered Nerf.  Things started off by making trips to thrift stores, picking up second-hand blasters, and converting them into Laser Tag blasters.  In looking for more information on how the internals were laid out, my internet searches came across a vast community swirling around the Nerf topic, so I thought I'd look into it more.  Once I picked up some darts on sale, I started messing around with the dart blasters.  Laser Tag was still my focus as I enjoyed working on electronics, but Nerf was a completely different element with springs, sealed plunger tubes, and the process of hurling foam darts further by enhancing those bits.  As a result, the tinkerer in me became interested in both.

There's not much of a Laser Tag or Nerf scene here in the Heartland of America, but the games I've been able to organize with both have always been fun and successful.  I mainly organized outdoor laser tag games, but slowly started to have Nerf games pop up every now and then.  As a result, my focus on modifications still centered around Laser Tag with a helping of Nerf on the side.  However, I always found that Nerf players didn't really know much about Laser Tag and, when they'd attend one of my outdoor games, they ended up getting hooked on it.  The whole goal of organizing my big outdoor laser tag games was not only to have fun, but to also promote the little-known game that I started off loving.  Thus, the whole basis of "Tactical Tag" started off.  By showcasing Laser Tag, Nerf, and the crossovers I've had with them, I wanted to dip into the obviously larger following of Nerf and shed some light on Laser Tag in the process.  It also doubled as a unique way to pitch the blog in the never-ending sea of Nerf blogs that come and go with the tide.

You'll notice there's no other authors on here, just me.  You'll also notice that the URL for the blog is "Bazookafied", not "Tactical Tag".  It's just that: what I do and what I find interesting when it comes to Nerf and Laser Tag.  It's been the idea this whole time... and what it'll continue to be.  The "Durango", pictured to the left, is pretty much Tactical Tag wrapped up in a Red Strike series Longshot: Nerf, Laser Tag, modifications, all tucked inside a nice pretty shell.  I've always cared about presenting things in a professional manner, always done whatever the heck I wanna do, and then shared it here.  While I'm not sure how many folks I've converted over to Laser Tag through luring them in with Nerf-ness, it's a side-effect of what I do here.  It's a rewarding side-effect that does seem to keep fueling the fire with these hobbies: the community that seems to have gotten behind it!

I do Nerf indoors.  I do Laser Tag outdoors.  Sometimes I blur the lines a little.  That's what started Tactical Tag, and that's what'll keep me going in the future, too!

Friday, February 7, 2014

Revisiting the ELV2

Wait, what?  Nobody knows what an ELV2 is!  Ah, yes but it's like how we call the Alpha Trooper the AT.  This is the Elite Longshot Version 2... and I haven't revisited this project seriously since last year.  However, I've got a couple of questions as I return this fella to the workbench.  The FIRST... I'm having one heckofuh time trying to figure out an "Elite" paintjob for this.  With the Xplorer grip on there, I want to cover up that bare metal and tie this thing together to make it look like it's part of the design.  That being said, as I try to plot things out... especially considering how BIG the ELV2 is going to be (since it WILL include the Front Gun) it's a bit bothersome.  I want the lines to work with the other Elite accessories for a front barrel, so it'll need a white stripe up top.  Now then, I know there's several of you out there who are a whiz at Photoshop and such, so I challenge you to take this image and give me some "Elite" lines to follow with it.

The second is revisiting the internals.  Part of why this project sort of stopped in the middle is... well...this thing kind of shot it's self up on the inside.  The Spring was a bit much, the "plumbing" wasn't nearly tight enough to properly put all that power where it needed to be and... with the Front Gun in the mix... it probably needs to be rebarreled somehow.  SO, I've essentially got a need for two kinds of Nerf Modders: the exterior Vanity Club folks and the interior pipe-dream engineers.  Hopefully this Blog has garnered enough attention to get some great input on this!

Now this doesn't mean I'm giving up exploring my own options... I just want YOURS while I'm at it!

Thursday, February 6, 2014

"Gear Up!" Again?


So, it's early 2014.  That NERF N-Strike Elite Demolisher is going to be coming out, and it's all decked out in obnoxious Orange Juice Orange.  The Stryfe is also getting Orange treatment.  Other blasters in the Elite lineup are sure to follow suit if Nerf is going to go the Orange/White route for their next round of blasters.  Now I've recognized two big glaring issues all of a sudden.  The first being that I've spent the better part of two years on-board with the Elite Blue and white-striped paint jobs on the latest blasters tracking down accessories to deck them out with.  The second: I scoffed at the "Gear Up!" blasters decked out in gaudy orange back in the summer of 2011 while we waited for the Nerf Vortex lineup to come out and didn't bother picking any up.  Why is this a problem?  Well... now it looks like Orange will be the next "thing" for Nerf... and now suddenly all my accessories that I love so dearly won't match the next wave at all!

Now then, not all is lost.  You'll also notice that there's some inverted versions, too.  The Rough Cut has been found in a white with orange stripe format and the new NERF N-Strike Elite Cam ECS-12 looks to be white, too.  That means the beloved Whiteout Series of blasters should work well with that half of the coin, as evidenced by
Andu Mijomee's wonderful work with his Longstrike.  That also means that some of the white Super Soaker accessories should look good, with 'em, too.

Now honestly none of this stuff is "earth shattering news", but for the accessory nut... it might be a bit annoying.  Not only do we have to start all over again, but now the existing accessories out there that COULD match up are incredibly hard to find.  Unless you happened to pick up a Gear Up Recon or Raider, you've got nothing to spice up the Demolisher.  That being said, I figured "oh well that means prices on eBay for the Gear Up stuff will shoot sky high"... but apparently since those were hard enough to find, they're already quite expensive.  I've seen Gear Up! Raiders being sold for $75 and a Gear Up! Recon going for over $100.  I'm an accessories nut... but I'm not stupid.  Plus, the "Orange" used on the new Stryfe doesn't look like it's an exact match for the old Gear Up! colors anyways... and I'm a stickler for that sort of thing.  I'm pretty much fretting about nothing of much importance here in a bit of an informational rant-like manner.

Long Story Short: Nerf keeps changing colors and it drives me batty.

TWS: Update #2

With the latest commercial for Captain America: The Winter Soldier airing during the superbowl, I was reminded that I now have a short 2 months left to complete this costume project in time for the movie premiere on April 4th.  If you've missed it, I already started putting a few bits together with components I'm re-using from previous costumes.  I also started building a harness for the shield to fit on my back.  Recently, more pieces to this costume have been coming together and I'm pretty happy with how things have been turning out so far.

The picture to the right isn't exactly accurate.  I've cleverly "Photoshopped" the stars and stripes from another photo onto my 511 Shirt to try to get an idea of placement and sizing for these bits.  The Rapid Assault Shirt and matching pants are quite comfortable and should lend themselves well to this project.

 One snag I ran into was the "Browns" matching up.  The combat belt that's being re-used from my older costume isn't the same brown as the straps for the shield or the darker fingerless gloves that I found.  They're all very different materials, so I don't know if I can dye them to match or if I have to go out and find better matches.  This is the part of the show where it would've been better to MAKE these 3 items with the same material so they'd match up easily.  I didn't anticipate such trouble finding the right shade of brown!

The other picture to the left shows the 511 Rapid Assault Shirt with a T-Shirt placed over it that has the design printed on it from the new movie.  I got this shirt from a guy on The RPF Forum and I'll be using it as a guide for building parts of the star and stripes on the chest.  Getting the sizing and placement right on these parts is crucial, so it's nice to actually have something I can lay over the shirt to start lining things up.

Monday, February 3, 2014

Doublestrike Dankeschön

Thanks to my buddies in German Land, we've got footage of the latest Nerf Blaster for the ZombieStrike lineup: the DoubleShot!  It's a hammer-primed double-barreled pistol thing!!  Tiny tactical rail mount on top of two front-loaded barrels for a lethal little handgun.

There's also video of the SlingFire, which is looking bigger and more hefty every time I see a new angle of it.

You can see more in this video from dartblaster.de

Centurion Abandoned?

If all these signs are true, then Nerf has actually flip-flopped on the N-Strike Elite MEGA Centurion in less than a year.  A quick look at the trademark information regarding "Centurion" is just another piece to the puzzle with the information released earlier indicating that this blaster is going the way of the Dodo.

http://www.trademarkia.com/centurion-86019442.html

Abandonment Notice! On Thursday, January 23, 2014, status on the CENTURION trademark changed to ABANDONED - AFTER PUBLICATIONApply Now for this name starting at $159!
CAUTION: Although federal registration for this particular filing is inactive, the mark may still enjoy common law rights, or may have been applied for again in a separate application. Further research may be warranted to determine where this mark is truly abandoned in commerce.
Status Update! On Thursday, January 23, 2014, status on the CENTURION trademark changed to ABANDONED - AFTER PUBLICATION.
On Thursday, July 25, 2013, a U.S. federal trademark registration was filed for CENTURION by Hasbro, Inc., Pawtucket, RI 02861. The USPTO has given the CENTURION trademark serial number of 86019442. The current federal status of this trademark filing is ABANDONED - AFTER PUBLICATION. The correspondent listed for CENTURION is HASBRO, INC.of HASBRO, INC., 1027 NEWPORT AVE, PAWTUCKET, RI 02861-2500 . The CENTURION trademark is filed in the category of Toys and Sporting Goods Products . The description provided to the USPTO for CENTURION is Toy dart shooters and foam toy darts for use therewith.
Additionally, using that same Trademark site, we might have a clue (literally) about another new lineup for Nerf called "Secrets & Spies". It's listed as "Toy sporting equipment, namely, toy dart shooters and toy darts for use therewith, toy ball shooters and toy balls for use therewith; toy crossbows and toy arrows for use therewith."  You read that right.  Crossbows with arrows (unlike the ZombieStrike Crossfire Bow) and Ball Shooters as part of a secret agent-type lineup for Nerf are potentially in the works.

http://www.trademarkia.com/secrets--spies-86106364.html

Fun fun fun!!  Just two years after Nerf made "Universal Ammo" with the Elite Dart their thing, we've now potentially got two more kinds of ammo to rekindle with the brand.  What are your thoughts on this new info?

700k Pageviews!

It's still amazing to me that this blog is just under 3 years old, and yet it's still got a great following.  Most folks wouldn't bother with a Lazer Tag / Nerf maniac, but it's incredibly flattering not to mention pride-inducing to see how many folks have tuned in to see what Tactical Tag is about.  700,000 Pageviews later, the posts are still coming and the support is still strong!  Thanks so much to everyone who have contributed to this blog so far!  No plans to stop anytime soon, so don't get worried if you've got "abandonment issues".  I'm not through with the internet just yet!

That being said, I do have something in the works for the 3-year Anniversary of Tactical Tag, which has been fun putting together for a few months now.  In the meantime, it's business as usual here on the blog, Facebook Page, and YouTube Channel.  Thanks for spreading the word and sticking with me thus far!

Saturday, February 1, 2014

UK Discontinued Blasters - Centurion?

Got this info from a reliable source (they used to send Urban Taggers a lot of info when Pocket was posting).  Take a read, especially if you're in the United Kingdom.
In the past, UK toy distributor AB Gee has a pretty large database (open to everyone by the way) about what toys (including Hasbro brands) they can send to stores across that country. But they also list discontinued products in the database.  
Everything I'm going to list is marked *** Obsolete Product *** in the product listings. Pretty much all of the Vortex line included recent releases of the Revonix, Pyragon and Diatron have been marked as obsolete. This confirms that the Vortex line (not sure about the Zombiestrike offshoots) are effectively dead in the UK. The Stockade is dead too.
Here's the real surprise of the bunch. This distributor has marked the Centurion as a 'Obsolete Product'. For a product that only has been out for less than half of a year to be marked this raises quite a few questions. 
Here's a few links
AB Gee's Hasbro list page- http://www.abgee.co.uk/BrandDetail.aspx?BrandID=20
The Centurion's page on AB Gee- http://www.abgee.co.uk/productv3.aspx?ProdCode=285%20A3700
So what do you guys think?  The information seems pretty clear, so is Nerf canning Vortex?  ... and the Centurion, too?

UPDATE:  Upon further investigation, there is another listing for the Centurion on that page. (http://www.abgee.co.uk/productv3.aspx?ProdCode=285+A6288).  The Listing Code on the "obsolete" one is A3700 but then has A4288 in parentheses.  It's also listed as a 2013 product.  Then the 2014 one listed just has the A4288 model listed and has a star, indicating it's a new blaster.  Is this just a listing code update?  Or... better yet... is it a sign that the Centurion has gotten upgraded or tweaked somehow?