ZS Longshot: Fact-finding

Image courtesy of Basic Nerf

With great news comes great doubt!  Lots of fans have been putting the announcement of the ZombieStrike Longshot CS-12 under the microscope trying to find things that make it "phony", but I'm actually not a skeptic this time around.  Normally, I'm right up there with the doubters and non-believers.

My buddy over at Basic Nerf has a great close-up of one of the main perpetrators of this news: the Box Art.  Apparently, Gas-Mask Asian Man has the blaster all wrong.  Put aside the fact that he's holding it all goofy-like and there's proportions off with the art.  However, the proportions are the only thing that's off with this.  The Bi-Pod-less front, the top-mounted Tactical Rail, the orange-beyond-doubt scope, it's all "technically" correct... which is the best kind of correct!  If we go by the Sidestrike box art, there shouldn't be a Nerf Logo printed on the bottom of the shell... but the blaster does have this detail.  Long story short: the box art isn't a photo of the product.  It's a cartoon drawing by some guy in a cubicle.  Not exactly an information bible if you ask me!

The next bit I've seen is the worry that "There's no range claim!" but there really haven't been with newer ZombieStrike blasters.  I think we can all expect a "75 ft range claim" as standard performance from a Nerf blaster now.  After all, the N-Strike Elite lineup has been out for nearly two years now, so leaving that bit out on a box isn't really important anymore.  The new Cam ECS goes on to brag about 85 feet, so there's obviously a little more of a push for folks to pick up this new piece of hardware over the other flywheel blasters on the market, another reason why I think we're not seeing range claims posted.  It's better to think "Wow, this thing can shoot 85 feet" and then look at the others and not see a range claim at all.  It makes that 10 extra feet seem like a lot more to the buyer if they're not in-the-loop about the 75 ft bit.  Not EVERYONE is a detail freak like the rest of us! ;)

The other bit I've noticed is that the ZombieStrike logo is a little different.  There's definitely more of an outline to it instead of the filled-in look the other releases have featured... but I don't think it's a sign of phony-ness.  Let's not forget all the changes we've seen with badges for a logo refresh halfway through the lineup.  The N-Strike logo that's still sitting on the back of the Longshot is a testament to that, as things have changed since 2006.

There's also a dispute about darts.  The decorative markings on these darts is similar to concept art we saw on a "Hammer 5" concept some time ago.  "Deco Pack" ZombieStrike dart sets have been out for awhile now anyways, so I'm not sure why it's earth-shattering to see a different style come out.  Since the logo featured on the Longshot is a little different from what's on the current Deco darts, it makes sense that they'd change that.

The rest of the signs look legit.  There's a promo image with a white background that's spot-on for Hasbro.  The box is consistent with the newer ZombieStrike stuff that we've seen with the blue Nerf logo in the corner.  Sure I love the Longshot, so I could be biased up the wazoo... but there's too many facts that point to the right side of things for me to question it's legitimacy.