Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Rant: Nerf Series

If you are much of a fan of Nerf, you would probably know that there are far too many series around. Sonic series, Clear Series, Gear Up and now Whiteout- the list goes on and on. There are generally the same blasters in each collection, too. This has left some Nerf fans outraged and feeling ripped off, while others just keep drooling for more. Me? Well, I’m somewhere in the middle.

To start with, there were the Clear series blasters.  These signified a bit of turning point for Nerf. The era of many series had begun. I don’t think anyone could foresee the huge amount of money this would rake in for Nerf. To me, from when my local Target got in Clear Mavericks and Kmart got Clear Raiders, I was in awe. And I only managed to pick the aforementioned two, but I’m still after the Deploy, Recon and Nitefinder. They’re just awesome.

By the time the Sonic Series came around everyone had got over the “oh my god- it’s clear” bit and started to get a bit annoyed that Nerf were still capitalizing on old designs  in clear and tinted shells to  bring in the cash, but some still bought them. But the real annoyance was the fact that the Deploy was released in 3 different color schemes in one year.

Now we are starting to see the Whiteout series appear in certain regions (eg. Singapore). To me, these look AWESOME! Now they are not just a single tone clear or tinted shell, but a well painted sharp and effective color scheme that looks nice. Good on Nerf for this one!

Looking into the future, the Gear Up series is coming out soon, which looks cool and even includes a Vortex ammo disk. I’m not sure I’m in this one though- it’s back to two tone paintjobs and they are the same type of lineup- not much to write home about.

Finally, in my opinion, the Nerf series are a bit of fun, but if I was to get a full collection of each, I just would be out of money for everything else. Choose the ones you like, buy a few or a whole set and enjoy them. Just mix purchases of them with some others and don’t become one sided. That’s my opinion, but how about yours? Post a comment below on your opinion, or anything you like, really.

Dylan