GIJoe Blade of Justice: N-Force by an other name..

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I don't really get into N-Force that much, though I still wait for the day they'll release Nerf N-Force Nunchuks:) Still, the increasing popularity for melee gear from my com padres at the Canberra and Southern NSW Dart Tag crew has had me on the look out for such items. 
While not strictly N-Force, this rather cool looking GI Joe branded "Snake Eyes Blade of Justice" sword IS by Hasbro and does say "From the makers of Nerf" so really, it's just an N-Force sword for all intended purposes. More pics after the jump.


The 'Blade of Justice' is a much better made sword than the original N-Force blades. It's more along the lines of the newer stuff- a more dense foam and some cool details- like the faux woodgrain handle:D

Still no sign of those GI Joe Nunchuks!

It has a nice weight to it and feels good in hand. I was jumping all over my hotel room like the Ninja I'm totally not:P

Length comparison compared to a Range Master

And just as a lil side note, while my call for foam Nunchuks went unanswered, I did find these mad alternatives!

Yeah baby:D

Nerf Fire Vision Sports Football: Hutt Hutt

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My first experiences with Nerf as a child were not with blasters, but actually with Nerf's original roots as soft sporting equipment. Although we were poor and as a kid could never afford them, I always wanted a Nerf football, having a weird fascination with American sports over Australian ones and did when I was old enough to save up my coin, I finally bought myself a Nerf gridiron ball which I took with me everywhere and became the main source of entertainment and pain in the playground from countless games of "Mug ball" :D

Nerf footballs are nothing new; they've been reinvented and refreshed many times over the years, but here Nerf have done something rather new indeed and brought out a new night time specific line called 'Fire Vision'. We've heard of them for a while now, and finally on my travels I decided to revert back to my childhood and pick up another football, only this time, it comes with 'eyewear'..



The Fire Vision line of sporting gear basically works on the proviso of adding reflective strips on the balls that essentially shine/glow when bright LED light is bounced off it- in this case via red or greed LED's that feature on the enclosed head wear (called 'Frames')



In the box, you get the ball and two Fire Vision Frames- one red and one green. The ball is very similar in size to many other Nerf gridiron balls of the past, but what differs are the reflective strips that are stuck in between the grooves of the ball.


The Fire Vision frames basically feel like glasses frames without any lenses. The slip on comfortably, complete with a nose piece just like a pair of glasses. They're quite flexible and fit even my big head.



The Frames have two LED lights, one on each side of the frame that glow quite brightly when switched on on the top left hand side. They're powered by 4 alkaline pen light style batteries that luckily are included.  I personally prefer the green Frame- makes me feel somewhat Splinter-Cell-esque but that's just personal preference it just means you'll see the ball as green rather than red.


Once you don your Frames, it's a matter of waiting till it's dark and then the fun begins. Switching on your Frame will straight away light up your area with your colour. When someone throws the ball to you, it's pretty cool to see this spiraling ball (well if your QB knows how to throw properly.. otherwise it's just a crazy out of control mess) coming at you glowing in either bright green or red (depending on whatever it is you're wearing)

It's hard to really capture the Fire Vision effect in photos :(

I think in theory, this is a cool idea but in practice, we ended up with quite a number of incomplete passes given the lack of clear peripheral vision at the ball. Because you're running around in the dark, there's still that slight sense of apprehension that gets in the way that doesn't allow you to respond as quick as you would in the day time.

Doesn't really do it justice- but only the reflective bits glow red.

That all being said, it's really fun. As a Nerf ball, the Firevision football is top notch- with the right technique it spirals beautifully, is built well and very much reminiscent of the ball I had as a kid. I still enjoyed the glowing effect and while onlookers were wondering what the hell was going on, we still managed a good amount of field time throwing the ball and playing 'Forcings Back'. It's made it across State lines from CA to TX, and I was concerned the reflective tape would peel off but so far so good. I'm quite the fan of Nerf sporting gear, and I like the idea of playing at night. It does take time to get used to, but it was a whole lotta fun.



One of the other things about the Frames is given how bright they are, they actually double up quite nicely as a headlamp for actual Nerf blaster battles. So while they naturally give your position away, they also make for mad crazy fun for night games and adding them with Firefly tech like the Rayven and Lumitron, and it can get pretty nuts:D


Note- although soft, having the ball hit you in the face isn't going to tickle so it's not recommended you 'aim' for anyone's nose- unless that person has hands like Jerry Rice. While Nerf balls originally were supposed to be for indoor use- I'd also suggest this is best NOT used inside, as I quickly found out in my hotel room where an incomplete pass ended up with a knocked over ice bucket all over the television set..


Although I picked mine up in LA, they're readily available everywhere, including in Australia. I got mine for around 12 bucks and I'll update this review when I find out how much they're going for back home. I personally like this sorta thing, so I'd recommend it. Lotsa fun:)

Rant: We're all blaster snobs

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Clearly, she's done this before.. never.

I was standing in the toy gun aisle in a Target the other day while I overheard a conversation a man was having with what I think was his gf/wife about Super Soakers. He picked up a Thunderstorm box and showed it to her and said "I got me two of these, Fully automatic madness. I'm gonna totally own Dan's kids next time we have a water fight"

She seemed suitably impressed and said the customary grown up thing to say of "they look so dangerous, so different to when WE were kids" and thought he was an all round wacky kinda guy.

I just looked at them in horror, quietly shook my head and thought to myself "lightweight":P Are you serious? Water guns when you were a kid would totally destroy two Thunderstorms.

How many times has this happened to you when you hear someone talk about toy blasters like they're an expert but really, they have no clue and you can't help but think they're a total noob? Yup, that's how I felt. And then I realised. Dear god, I am a blaster snob..


Ever been to some sort of regular mixer and some guy is trying to go on about how awesome he is because he bought a Nerf gun and boasts about it being a 6 shooter and you feel the massive desire to just jump in and say "that's a Maverick, it's been around for ages, normally the first gun any 8yo gets in the Nerf range, whatever chump"? Then you're a blaster snob.

If you've ever had some friend of yours who's a parent go on about how their kid has "so many Nerf guns" and you look at their collection and say "yawn, yeah I've got them all but that one isn't very good, you obviously don't love your child very much" then... you're a blaster snob.

Ever had someone come to you to tell you about the "latest Nerf gun" and you say "I have it, that's not new".. then you're a blaster snob.

Do you read websites where mainstream journalists write about toy blasters and obviously have no real idea what they're on about, and the photos they show with them holding one like it's from another planet just make you want to cringe and write a comment under their article letting them know the Nitron is NOT the biggest Nerf blaster out there and they're "holding it by the clip, noob"? Then you're a blaster snob.

If you've ever said "it's a blaster, not a gun" then you're a blaster snob.

If you take pleasure in absolutely outclassing some punk who thinks he's the shiz with his stock Recon with your heavily modded to death Longshot and making it rain foam all over him while telling him exactly WHY his blaster is inferior to yours, even if said punk is only 10 years old and you're old enough to be his dad.. then you're a blaster snob.

If you actually read this blog, and blogs like it.. then you're a blaster snob. Especially if you find inaccuracies in my posts and call me on it. Then you're a pedantic douche of a blaster snob:P (hehe)

And, if you've ever cringed at a mother buying a Cosmic Thruster, you know you're probably a blaster snob too. Although if you throw yourself in front of her and stop her and convince her to buy something else, you're just a good Samaritan :D

Another look at the N-Strike Elite Pinpoint Sight

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Just another image of the rumoured Nerf N-Strike Elite Pinpoint Sight. So far, the majority of rumours we post tend to be true, and I'd suggest this one is gonna happen- it makes sense anyway:) Thanks for the intel Jessie; apparently it was spotted on Chinese forum Baidu and possibly available on Taobao.
Ease down lawyer dudes, learning from my previous experiences with Tao Bao and Pinpoint Sights.. No, I am not going to go after it:P

UPDATE: more pics have been posted on Baidu- you can see them after the jump. Thanks Jason!

Assassin's Creed III

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All Assassins Creed fans: 
 

If you have not noticed jet. Ubisoft revelled cover for just announced AC3 which comes out in October 30^th. From the cover, we can see that it will be placed in America at time of American Revolution which took place in 1775 to 1781. IGN.com suspects that it will happened between 1777 to 1778. There are several clues that suggest that. Like flag in the back and uniforms of the solders. 












I must say, I am very excited for this new chapter of AC. I just love the way this new character looks. There are some strong Native American signs. However, I don’t know how will the gameplay be satisfying. In previous ACs we had lots of building to climb, high towers and so on.  But at this point in the history American colonies were not so populated. There were some cities, however none of them were anything like Venice, Rome or Constantinople.  But we’ll see. I thrust Ubisoft not to disappoint us. 


Today there were also some screen shoots leaked. They do reveal quite some more stuff, but this are still just some speculations. It seems that we will be able to climb threes and hunt. So for that surrounding areas will get stronger position. 
But most importantly, we know now that our targets are British soldiers and influencing figures. And our friend will be George Washington.
Also on Monday,5th of March they shall revel trailer with much more clues. 

MLTA's 7th Summer Season Concludes

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What an awesome way to end the season!  Although Mother Nature still managed to land the hottest day of the week on our game yet again, it's still better than other games we've had this summer.  The extreme heat felt through the midwest certainly fatigued even our most seasoned players, but in the end, it's another successful run that I'm proud to have been a part of.


 Cookout was one of the best we've had, in my honest opinion.  Burgers, hot dogs, Gatorade, chips, cookies, we had all the bases covered. Great turnout too, with 21 people making it out, despite the heat.  We usually see a slight drop in attendance on the last game as some folks are already back into the swing of things with school and such.  Still had a great bunch of folks for the evening's activities.

Games went well, with the exception of one drawn-out "Veterans vs n00bs" game.  6 veterans on a team up against 13 of our newer players looked to be a fun game until everyone decided to hide instead of play the game.  Our last game of the night fixed that problem though, as we unveiled a new rule for our Zombies game.  With the LTXs and LTARs, if you leave the blaster on for too long without any activity (ie, shooting, reloading, taking hits), the blaster automatically turns itself off.  We made a rule for the Humans that traditionally like to stake out a spot and hide the duration of the game that you can only reload/fire when there's actually an enemy present.  While this is a nearly impossible rule to enforce, everyone took it to heart and played a great active game of Humans vs Zombies, lazer tag style!  It came down to the final minutes as the remaining Humans were fighting for their lives against the rest of the zombie horde.  Upon tagging them out in the last minute, we learned there was still one more human left.  By our rules, the humans still won since one of them survived.  It was still a great game though!

And now the MLTA recedes into it's "Off-Season" mode, planning Mod Nights to work on gear and getting the players together occasionally for a game or two as we eagerly await Season 8 in 2013.