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!

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!

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!

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.

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!