Nerf Herders

We had that "Happy Nerf Year" game before 2013 was up.  Got some more pictures from the event from another camera.  Thought I'd share more from that awesome set of games!

If it wasn't already obvious, we had a pretty crazy night of games.  Used a buncha different blasters, old and new, modded and stock.  It's not every day you see such a mixture of blasters in full force, and this is one of the larger indoor Nerf games I've been to.  Good times!

LTAR-AR Combat Testing

So we had that Frozen Fortress game today (which was 12 different kinds of AWESOME, by the way) and I took the LTAR-AR out for a spin.  It's currently fitted with the lens arrangement once found on the LTX EF5, a Super Soaker stock, and a new addition: a weaver rail mount with a Red/Green Dot sight!

The picture to the right shows the LTAR-AR fitted with all three of these in-development accessories next to our fully-equipped CTDYNE LTX.  It's actually about the same size, somehow.

We've already done quite a bit of testing on the lens adapter.  It was the first accessory completed for the LTAR.  The Stock adapter is new, as I completed it last week at our Mod Night.  Didn't really notice the stock the entire game until I realized "Holy cow.  I made something that hasn't broken!"  It's solid.  SUPER solid, and feels like part of the blaster.  Granted the stock does dip down a little more into the grip than most would like, but using some gloves will make it unnoticeable.  I need to tweak the design of the newest addition: that Weaver Rail accessory.  The Plast-Aid (same material used on the removable stock adapter) didn't settle straight, so the rail isn't level.  We couldn't adjust the sight enough to compensate, so my accuracy was a bit off.

There's something I really enjoyed about the CTDYNE LTX and that's how solid of a rifle-feel you got fro a modified pistol.  That's just how the LTAR-AR, fitted with all our prototype parts we've designed for the LTAR so far, felt.  Much of that great solid feel of the CTDYNE LTX is because... well... I didn't build it.  My hero, Mike Yates of Custom Tag Dynamics, built the Combo Mount that is mostly responsible for it's great solid design.  So, almost two years after it's design, have I finally gotten good enough at fabricating parts to rival that of this masterful piece of gear built by an icon in the Laser Tag Modding world?

I'll leave that up to you guys to decide.  And you can decide that one we get the prototyping done and start releasing these add-on parts for the LTAR.  That's the eventual plan, with the -AR at the heart of it's development.

Not only was the game a complete blast (I'll have more on that later), but I can honestly say that I didn't expect so much satisfaction from a rifle built around a pistol.  Aside from the adjustment to the Weaver Rail design, these designs are moving along much faster than I thought.  It's a good thing, both for our group as we approach our next Summer Season of Laser Tag, and for anyone else in the world who wants to easily modify their LTAR.  Exceedingly proud of this development!

Nerf Mods & Reviews: My Story

Nerf Mods & Reviews.  2009 to 2014.  I've still got mixed feelings about this, but it still seems like the right decision.  Yesterday, a giant in the Nerf Blog world closed up shop.  I'd say it was the decision of it's long list of authors... but since those contributors had since gone AWOL, it actually came down to a decision that I made.  Nothing against Psyk, Coop, RS09, or the countless other authors that I have a great amount of respect for, but when a Laser Tag/Nerf guy named Bazookafied is the only one left running the show, it's a tough call to make.  Here's my story on the tail end of one of the best blogs in the community.

How do I Improve?

Greetings loyal readers!  We're a couple days into 2014 and I figured, after reviewing readership statistics over the past few years that I think I'm in need of some advice from YOU.  Essentially, Tactical Tag had a gradual climb in pageviews from the time we started (April of 2011) until February of 2012.  You'll recall, that month, that I covered the Pyragon sighting at the Toy Fair.  Things kind of exploded after that, but since that time, the average has stuck around 26k-27k pageviews per month.

I've had a lot of changes in my life since starting the blog.  New Car, new Job, getting engaged (and soon to be married), getting a house, I've certainly gotten more busy over the past few years.  However, things keep chugging along here at the blog.  In that time, we've seen a lot of blogs and contributors to the community come and go, but I've manged (or at least tried) to stay consistent and keep at it.

While I do attempt to report the news (which seems to get the most attention if you're "First"), Tactical Tag has always focused on what projects are on the workbench for me and the events I've attended.  Sometimes there's more of a Nerf Focus, sometimes there's more of a Laser Tag focus.  It really just depends on what I'm up to.  However, with the seemingly flatlined performance, I wondered if there was either more I could do to better serve the community or if I should face the fact that this is where the blog will be without much further growth to be expected.  I'm really okay with either, but I figured I'd ask YOU, since reader input has always been important to me and a major driving force to this blog.

TWS Update #1

Most folks interested in Costume building are interested mostly with screen accuracy and getting all the details right.  While I'm certainly picky when it comes to that stuff, the work I did on previous costumes for Captain America were important to keep usability in mind for games.  There is, especially in this case, a tactical element to this build.  I'm literally using BDU-style clothing to build the rest of this uniform off of.

If you've missed it, I'm aiming for the latest version of Captain America's costume seen in The Winter Soldier, coming out in April.  While initially, the goal is to have the costume ready for the premier, I need to keep the Halloween Laser Tag game in mind as it will get used again then.

It's fun blending the art of costume building with the practical approach to have this latest rendition work FOR me, not against me.  First up in this build is getting the shield harness together.  It mounts to the back of a modified leather shoulder holster.  Normally, the belts would connect to a belt.  Instead, Cap has it set up to go underneath the arms and meet back in the middle of the back to mount the shield.  While the bracket at the back isn't the metal belt system (which would probably be pretty uncomfortable in actual application) it does mount the shield on my back, as seen in the previews.

The rest of the pieces are on the way already.  The uniform will be built based off of a Rapid Assault Combat Shirt made by 511 Tactical.  There's also combat pants in the same Navy Blue as the shirt.  Not only will it be an excellent match for the colors needed for this build, but this is essentially the same kind of gear I run with for our outdoor laser tag games.  Both my Desert and Woodland MARPAT camouflage setups have a combat shirt base and they're incredibly comfortable.  My "Avengers" version focused on being lightweight and it was nice to use indoors and outdoors, but it was pretty much impossible to hide with, tough to carry much of anything with me.  No spare batteries, no screwdriver, not even a phone.  This new version is already darker (which should make me a little less obvious) and gives me the ability to store the shield on my back.  It can easily get out of my way when I don't want the flag on my shield to give me away.  Not only that, but I won't be limited to using a single-hand use blaster for the games.  With two hands free and the shield on my back, I can use a rifle like I normally do.  The LTAR-AR that I have in the works now should be more than complete by the time this game comes around!  I'll likely combat test the uniform before the Halloween Game anyways!

I really think that's what I'm most excited about with this one.  The ability to build a great costume but also to have it work a little more WITH me than simply serving the purpose of an iconic badass superhero.

Not-So-Frozen Fortress?

So last week we rescheduled our "Frozen Fortress" game because it was an icy 12° outside (without wind chill).  This week, it's quite the opposite.  Weather forecasts for Sunday show a high of 47°, more than ample for our batteries to hold through the combat.  I'm a bit bummed since I do enjoy battling the elements every now and then and usually we do one game a year with less-than-desirable weather conditions.

It's part of what I enjoy about Laser Tag in general.  Going outdoors, conquering the terrain, using the cover to outmaneuver your opponent's team, it's just a lot more fun when it's not just "Who has the better blaster", you know?  Anyone can build a super mega awesome blaster of doom (like this guy to the left).  Okay... maybe not ANYONE, but still there's the skills necessary to navigate your way through the field, take up a good position, and lead your team to glorious victory that gives you the thrill that has me hooked on outdoor laser tag.

Adding weather-related elements to the mix makes it even more difficult, and in these Off-Season games, that's the kind of challenge I look forward to.  During our regular season games, the weather is warm, the parks are nice, and it's a more casual setting usually.  Once we go into Off-Season mode, I start digging into the mods and planning more challenging events to satisfy our veterans sweet tooth for these rigorous games.  Having snow, or battling the cold just adds to it.  Sure 47° isn't super warm, but it's a heatwave compared to the wintry weather we're used to this time of year.

OJ Stryfe. Dangit...

It coulda been GRAND... but no.  Nerf had to take an awesome idea and toss it into the trash.  It would've looked so good so easily with the accessories out there, and perfect for wintry snowy conditions, too!  Oh, well I suppose I should let you know where this ranting started, huh?  Tough to figure out what all my complaints are about if there's no context, right?  Well, none other than the Orange Stryfe!  Or "OJ Stryfe" as I've seen it called once or twice.

Folks have been reporting on this recolor for awhile.  Almost as long as they've been reporting on the White RoughCut 2x4, which almost makes this scenario more irritating for me.  If you haven't noticed, I like keeping my Nerf blasters exteriors looking stock.  Paint just gets chipped or wears off and the beating my blasters take... they'd look awful if I painted 'em all.  So when Nerf comes out with a cool recolor, I'm happy.  Like the Whiteout Series, arguably one of the best looking recolor jobs Nerf has ever done.  So that White RoughCut 2x4 looked pretty sweet too!  Unfortunately, there's not really any accessories you can use on it aside from the tactical rail, so you're not able to use the accessories from the other Whiteout Series blasters on it to make different variants.  SO, if this Stryfe had followed suit, we could've had a White Stryfe with a Longstrike barrel and a SuperSoaker stock on it to make it look all sorts of cool!  Instead, we've got this Orange Juice Stryfe... which I'm not a fan of the Gear Up look anyways.

Perhaps I'm just bummed because I'm still drooling over that repainted Stryfe at XVC.  Granted, it's all sorts of repainted... but it makes me wish the Stryfe was white so I could do something LIKE it.  If I weren't so opposed to painting my blasters just to get 'em all scuffed up, I'd probably pursue a repaint like this.  I'm just too lazy I guess, and need Nerf to do the painting for me.  End rant.  Move along folks.  Nothing to see here.