2010 Nerf Awards!

I have decided to make a segment each year on this blog, to highlight the best blasters of the year. Since this  blog has only been running for less than one year, this is a first for me. As I'm a purist, I only like Nerf branded products. Also, please understand that these award are based on are my opinions only, so please don't flame me if your's differ.

Best pistol of 2010
This year there was actually tough competition in the best pistol category. The previous best sidearm, the Maverick REV-6, had to compete with the new boys on the block, the Spectre and Barricade. All these blasters are excellent choices for sidearms. So did the Maverick, which was coming back to defend it's title win. Sadly, no. I believe that the best pistol of 2010 is the Barricade RV-10. It tops the Maverick in every way, dude to the fact that it has batter ranges, looks cool, is easily modable and it is semi-auto for intensely high rate of fire.

Best Rifle of 2010

Once again the competition was intense in this category, but with my previous favourite blaster, the Longshot, discontinued, I had to choose elsewhere. This meant I had to choose from new vs. old, which is rather difficult. But I have decided to go back to basics and choose the Raider. It has high rate of fire, and can hold 35 darts. It has been and always will be awesome!

Best Value for Money Blaster of 2010

All Nerf blasters are pretty good value, but one blaster stood out in being very good and also very cheap. If you have been following the Nerf new releases, you probably already knew I would pick the Alpha-Trooper CS-18. I love the idea of the 18-dart mini-drum and high rate of fire for such a low price! This is a great blaster!

Breakout Blaster of 2010

Ever since Nerf released the 9-9-10 project idea, people were speculating. And then people started to get hold of the breakout blaster of 2010. The Nerf N-Strike Stampede ECS! Awesome firepower and cool accessories and looks combine to make this a formidable force against all competitors. There is no more to say- this blaster is pure awesomeness!

So there you have it, the 2010 Nerf awards. The best of the best Nerf blasters from 2010!

Nerf N-Strike Barricade RV-10 What's up with new releases?

Ever since SGNerf and Urban Taggers got hold of some of these new semi-auto Nerf pistol concepts, people have been speculating about if they are real or not. But now they have been spotted in stores by numerous people (including myself!) in many countries. But so far no-one in the US has them. They look awesome, and the only thing stopping me from buying 2 is that I have set myself a goal to save some money until the new year. And I have promised myself I will go on a spending spree, in the after Christmas sales! But I still can't help but wonder- why are Nerf abandoning their prime customers in the US and releasing them in other countries (like Australia!) first?

Introducing Nerf As a Hobby

I have a lot of friends that have Nerf N-Strike blasters. If they ask me how many I have and I say that I have how ever many I have at the time, they look at me as if I'm bonkers! If I ask them if they modify their blasters, most of them will ask me what it means. It is peculiar how many people have these blasters and have never looked into them to see how people modify and rate them. At first I found a Maverick at a toy store. I bought it and looked at other Nerf blasters on the Internet. I then found some mods and other things.

Nerf is not just a brand that is almost always used in the same sentence as fun, but it can also be called a hobby. For those who practise the modification processes outlined out by other Nerfers, they look at modifications as a way of expressing their own personal style in the colours and performance of their blasters. These modifiers can spend up to 8 hours on a single paint-job. It may sound daft to the people who aren't right into modifying their blasters, but the modification process is an art.

I happen to be one of these people who look at the box art of a new release and go- that has a reverse plunger, similar internals to a Recon and not much mod potential. But I am trying to think up some other ideas to persuade other friends into modifying their blasters and having big wars with them. To me a modified pistol round is the most fun out of any war.

I personally like to show my friends who look interested some of my blasters and then if they seem to like them, I invite them to have a war with me. I will always win of course, and I always show off the waesome fire-power of my modified blasters. Currently I have one friend that loves my blasters, and wants to get his own and another friend who already has some, one of which I modified for him.

Do you have some cool ways to persuade your friends into being Nerfers? If so feel free to post them below!

My Nerf Arsenal- UPDATE

Since I last uploaded my tiny arsenal, it has changed a lot. I got  a new Recon, stuffed up my second Maverick (long story) and have my Switchshot EX-3 disassembled and primed ready to paint khaki. I just thought I would post an update. I didn't want to make another video, as the last one took 2 hours to produce on my slow little laptop. So here's the pic- pretty self explanatory.

Battle Rifle Nerf Recon CS-6

Since I got the Nerf Recon, I have been fiddling around with all the Nerf N-Strike bits and bobs that can be attached on the tactical rails, to the barrel, different stocks and also the clip capacity. I wanted to cram as much of the accessories on as possible, so it would look totally awesome. I ended up with the base Recon pistol, Recon stock with spare clip, Element scope, flip-up sight, 35-dart drum mag, Recon barrel and finally the tac. light. It adds a lot of dead weight and makes the blaster excessively hard to prime, but it looks awesome- see pics!! 

Nerf Recon CS-6- Review

I finally managed to get my hands on a Nerf Recon CS-6. I Pretty much guessed I was going to get it for my birthday, and I did. I was expecting it to be pretty good, but it just blew my away. Some people complain about constant jamming and bad range, but mine shoots very well.

From what I have heard about reverse plunger blasters, I thought they were going to shoot like 10 feet or something, but then I got the Recon, and mine proves everyone on the Internet who hates it, is the sort of person who wakes up one morning thinking they're an ape. Mine shoots around 35 feet- no joke. It's interchangeable components make it a blast to use and I would highly recommend this blaster.

Shout-out to some of the best Nerfers ever!

I just wanted to take the time to send a shout out to 2 really good Nerfers from Youtube, who's videos I have enjoyed immensely. They are Coop772 (www.youtube.com/coop772) and Uin13 (aka ICE) (www.youtube.com/uin13). Check out their quality channels and you won't regret it. Their videos are great for any Nerfer.

What's the go with Camo Ammo?

Since the Nerf camo ammo was announced, I thought it looked awesome. But although it hasn't even been spotted in any Australian stores yet- hence the fact that I don't already have one of each pouch set, I am starting to see some practicality issues with them.

My main concern is that you're going to loose a lot more darts during outdoor wars than if you use standard darts. I usually have a pretty low collection rate at the best of times, but with these the darts will be like trying to pick a specific ant out of a whole nest of the things. This is absolutely stupid. But despite the major practicality issue, I am still going to stock up on these. There is just some kind of need for them. I can't put my finger on exactly what it is. You just keep making excuses for them, like: "I guess these would be okay in indoor wars" or "If you look hard enough you could find them". It's just awesome. What more can I say?

My Bandolier Kit Loadout

Since I purchased the Nerf Bandolier Kit, I wanted to know what the best way to use it would be. I tried with just the strap, clips and darts, but I found the strap moved way to much, and wasn't worth it's weight during a war. But since I have invented my new way to carry it, I have changed my mind drastically. I thought I would share this with you to save you some trial and error in using this great piece of gear.

My current Bandolier loadout( just the strap and the components attached to it) consists of:

• 1 Nitefinder (modded of course)
• 12 Suction Micro Darts
• Up to 3 Clips
• A Secret Strike to be drawn over the shoulder (not seen in the picture)