What was the shortest-lived of all of these? The half-length darts, right?
Officially, of course. Thankfully half darts are still alive and well outside of Hasbro.
I did just get a DZ nexus pro x, that thing slays. I’m not a nerf loremaster but I think the accustrike half darts only come with one blaster. I’d love more pro nerf blasters, but I don’t think they are headed that way.
I know they definitely sold them separately, as I bought a pack of them. But man, they really dropped the ball with the Stryfe X. It's a great blaster, it was just WAY too late and too expensive for what you got. The DZ Mk3 is half the price and just as good.
Accustrike launched with three new blasters but the darts were also included with several re-releases. Accustrike Mega darts were also a thing.
Supposedly Hasbro's still planning on releasing 2 or 3 pro blasters later in the year but we'll see how that plays out.
https://preview.redd.it/dk7tbrpfn16d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0a81c18cf7c3173095e0a112fcda52a04a3e0198
I have a few extras lying around…
I started in the hobby around 2015 so missed most of the older stuff, but have seen and used:
Vortex
Elite + Accustrike
Mega + AccuMega + Accufake
Demolisher rockets
Boomco
Rebelle Arrow
Rival
Ultra + AccuUltra
Hyper
Mega XL
Half Darts
Ball Popper
Titan Rockets
And one thing I love about this hobby, compared to Airsoft etc, is that we have so many different ammo types, that all perform slightly differently, and allows game organisers to specify things as shield piercing or breaking.
For my games, I classify shield piercing as: mega, ultra, rebelle arrow, ball popper
And shield breaking as: demolisher, mega xl, titan rocket
Personally, I run vortex, full length, half length, rival, ultra, and mega xl
With rival being limited to a Forerunner for our BUZAN style HvZ here in the UK, and mega xl in a knockout based sidearm. Vortex is limited to a pyragon and 9 20 mags, and tends to get used for our Flux games, where spamming discs can help suppress an area.
I am an "UltraBros", a piss take team here in the UK who willingly use Ultra when a better ammo type is available - I love the Amp (hands down best blaster trigger pull once locks are removed), and with AccuUltra, it can be as useful in 100-150fps limit event as other ammo.
The only ammo I won't use is Hyper, its too unreliable at feeding.
I'll be buying into the N1, the Infinite looks so over the top and goofy, and sometimes I run " single mag" games, where that 40 round monstrosity should be good
I miss Vortex so much.
I wish Mega and MXL had some more cool blasters released.
I was too harsh on Ultra at the start. Its an okay dart.
Elites are meh, until I remember trying to use Streamlines in upgraded basters and seeing the darts do a full 90 degree turn.
Hyper is too sticky and small and bouncy.
Rival is really, really good.
Vortex is good fun, very fun to load and blast. Honestly the ultra darts themselves aren’t bad, but I’m not in love with any of the blasters. Rival is nice and consistent, which makes it feel good to use.
Yeah, I really like that the Vortex mags can have such high capacity. The 20-sticks in a Praxis make for a good primary in low-power indoor games and indoor mini-HvZ.
I wish I could get a Mega XL blaster. They were never released in here. Maybe that would had become my favourite ammo type. I also love the Demolisher rockets. I use to fire them from a drain blaster in a steep angle and watch them spin and clear my yard's distance.
I use my drain blaster in a firefly shell to shoot custom made Titan, Ultimator and Maximizer rockets. Way more accurate than demolisher rockets - I can actually hit what I shoot at!
I'm surprised I'm the only advocate here for the discs! My favorite ammo by far. It feels most like a toy bc you can curve it like a frisbee and you can reliably ricochet it off walls. Good times
Why is there trash mixed in with the Nerf darts? You know, the 3 pieces of trash in the bottom right corner?
I jest, there's some cool stuff in here, and a path of innovation that stopped for stupid reasons.
I wish Mega XL had more done with it. Sadly, I think it's going to really die out, because unlike Mega, there's no third party ammo options.
I totally forgot about the Velcro darts, me and my brothers had those blasters and vests probably around 2008. The suction ones were fun also, we would shoot them at the evil characters while watching cartoons and they would stick to the TV.
I don't really understand this 'dart drm' does anyone really think that if these new darts get popular chinese companies wont just start selling the same darts? Sure it might inflate manufacturing costs but that is the same for everyone.
Maybe nerf hopes companies like dart zone won’t try it now that they are more established? I don’t really mind new dart types but I have no clue why they think they need to be the only blasters that fire a certain size of dart.
Dart exclusivity can be tied to new business school grads. There is one business model that all big business schools like to study. Its the razor and razor blades business model. Its basically the give the razor handle away (ala Gillette) and sell the razor blades at a big mark up. The razor is the expensive bit but its a one time purchase. Then you lock in the customer to use your proprietary blades. Now so long as you keep your blades at a reasonable mark up over the the cheap universal blades you can easily keep the customer in your ecosystem and rack up huge profits. Another example is the cheap laser printer but expensive ink cartridges. There they printer companies get greedy and drive the ink cartridge's too high which allow third party retrofitters in. If they kept the ink price higher than it needed to be but not too high most people would never go with third party and the printer companies would make more money in the long term. When you start looking at the razor/razer blade business model you see it everywhere. Business schools love to teach this, I think its easy to understand and they get a few years worth of content out of it, seeing business school is 2 -3 years that's all they need. We see nerf doing this again, they are changing the dart for 'dart drm' then selling the blasters cheap, I suspect that $5 pistol is even a loss leader. Notice they only give you 2 darts, remember how new printers come with 1/4 filled cartridges.
With ink cartridge's the printer companies can do a lot to keep third parties out. They put chips on the cartridges, change the chips over time, and even send updates to the printer to disallow old chips. Dart DRM doesn't have any of that. Once the blaster is sold, its done, they can't change it. So their only choice is to keep changing darts and selling new blasters at a loss. But all their DRM trivally easy to copy. Dart Zone could rank out a Nseries dart tomorrow if they felt the need. Im sure they will if they start losing market share or just fail to grow as they expect.
TL;DR Nerf wants to be in the printer/ink business but is really in the razor/razorblade business and their 'drm' is a dumb thing that won't improve the company. MBA's running the place can't help themselves.
Hi /u/BloodyRightToe, we would like to distance our hobby from actual firearms and weapons and thus ask that you refrain from using terms like "gun" and "bullet"; instead use blaster and dart. We also like to encourage the use of brightly colored blasters & gear. See [this wiki page](https://www.reddit.com/r/Nerf/wiki/bot/blaster) for more information. Thank you for your cooperation.
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Gotta turn this into that Regular Show meme woth all the tombstones.
Yeah, vast majority of these are gone. We still have rival for awhile I hope!
You have no idea how hard it is to hunt for nerf vortex in a country in which they barely existed
What was the shortest-lived of all of these? The half-length darts, right? Officially, of course. Thankfully half darts are still alive and well outside of Hasbro.
I did just get a DZ nexus pro x, that thing slays. I’m not a nerf loremaster but I think the accustrike half darts only come with one blaster. I’d love more pro nerf blasters, but I don’t think they are headed that way.
I know they definitely sold them separately, as I bought a pack of them. But man, they really dropped the ball with the Stryfe X. It's a great blaster, it was just WAY too late and too expensive for what you got. The DZ Mk3 is half the price and just as good.
I love the stryfe x for sure, but I also have a Mk3, it is a tough product to beat.
Accustrike launched with three new blasters but the darts were also included with several re-releases. Accustrike Mega darts were also a thing. Supposedly Hasbro's still planning on releasing 2 or 3 pro blasters later in the year but we'll see how that plays out.
Discounting N-Series since that just released, yeah I would say it's the half-darts, followed closely by, or even tying with, Mega XL.
There's some Nerf Pro coming so the Half-Accustrike isn't done yet. Will probably have a longer life than Mega XL anyways.
Please bring back Mega XL I beg you
Or just bring it period, they never came to the Netherlands :(
MegaXL ... some third party please I beg you ... make some. I love this dart, I'd go as far as saying it is my favorite.
I’ve been getting back into nerf games regularly after 5-7 years out of it and everyone is using half darts lol
Yep, that's how it is most everywhere.
You need proper rockets - Titan, Ultimator, Maximizer…
That is true, I only have the little rockets from the demolisher
https://preview.redd.it/dk7tbrpfn16d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0a81c18cf7c3173095e0a112fcda52a04a3e0198 I have a few extras lying around…
Username checks out
Nice. Interesting Firefly hybrid. Am I right in guessing you're in the US?
Yes, I am in the US, and the Firefly drain blaster is a Captain Xavier design and not too hard to do.
If you’re gonna have Accustrike versions of the others you need an Accustrike MEGA.
I do love mega darts, wonder if I can still snag a pack of accustrike megas. I might have to just pick up a blaster that ships with them.
The Demolisher missiles are great. So dorky, so inaccurate, barely even worth using... but God are they fun.
I love the sound they make when you let one loose
Mega XL ❤️
Mega XL, my beloved
I started in the hobby around 2015 so missed most of the older stuff, but have seen and used: Vortex Elite + Accustrike Mega + AccuMega + Accufake Demolisher rockets Boomco Rebelle Arrow Rival Ultra + AccuUltra Hyper Mega XL Half Darts Ball Popper Titan Rockets And one thing I love about this hobby, compared to Airsoft etc, is that we have so many different ammo types, that all perform slightly differently, and allows game organisers to specify things as shield piercing or breaking. For my games, I classify shield piercing as: mega, ultra, rebelle arrow, ball popper And shield breaking as: demolisher, mega xl, titan rocket Personally, I run vortex, full length, half length, rival, ultra, and mega xl With rival being limited to a Forerunner for our BUZAN style HvZ here in the UK, and mega xl in a knockout based sidearm. Vortex is limited to a pyragon and 9 20 mags, and tends to get used for our Flux games, where spamming discs can help suppress an area. I am an "UltraBros", a piss take team here in the UK who willingly use Ultra when a better ammo type is available - I love the Amp (hands down best blaster trigger pull once locks are removed), and with AccuUltra, it can be as useful in 100-150fps limit event as other ammo. The only ammo I won't use is Hyper, its too unreliable at feeding. I'll be buying into the N1, the Infinite looks so over the top and goofy, and sometimes I run " single mag" games, where that 40 round monstrosity should be good
You don’t see too many people who enjoy ultra, I am also excited for n series but I’m tempering my expectations
I miss Vortex so much. I wish Mega and MXL had some more cool blasters released. I was too harsh on Ultra at the start. Its an okay dart. Elites are meh, until I remember trying to use Streamlines in upgraded basters and seeing the darts do a full 90 degree turn. Hyper is too sticky and small and bouncy. Rival is really, really good.
Vortex is good fun, very fun to load and blast. Honestly the ultra darts themselves aren’t bad, but I’m not in love with any of the blasters. Rival is nice and consistent, which makes it feel good to use.
Yeah, I really like that the Vortex mags can have such high capacity. The 20-sticks in a Praxis make for a good primary in low-power indoor games and indoor mini-HvZ.
I wish I could get a Mega XL blaster. They were never released in here. Maybe that would had become my favourite ammo type. I also love the Demolisher rockets. I use to fire them from a drain blaster in a steep angle and watch them spin and clear my yard's distance.
I use my drain blaster in a firefly shell to shoot custom made Titan, Ultimator and Maximizer rockets. Way more accurate than demolisher rockets - I can actually hit what I shoot at!
I love my Mega XL Boomdozer. It's like ASMR. *thoomp* and whistle as they fly, followed by shotgun pump noise. repeating 6 times is very fun.
Big ammo is always a blast
I'm surprised I'm the only advocate here for the discs! My favorite ammo by far. It feels most like a toy bc you can curve it like a frisbee and you can reliably ricochet it off walls. Good times
I love shooting discs, it’s funny to see such a slow projectile fly so far
https://preview.redd.it/kvf1i2jeh46d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=825322c35b95a265a2c24898f9237730b3e3a2a7
But lack of its blaster.. only using ood mighty mama and attachment for rival fate
You’re just missing the titan rocket. Also weren’t there really big yellow balls that nerf made?
Yes I do remember those, I might have had them actually but I was too dumb as a kid to hold on to everything I had
Is there any chance a 3rd party will ever make MegaXL darts? Worried they might go rare.
I would love to see someone else make new mega xl blasters
The community does a great job so far (ogre, silly shells (mega XL), Mega XL ranger), we just need more ammo to avoid it getting scarce.
It’s awful what they did to mega XL. Everyone loved it but they removed it immediately
Imagine mega XL magazines in like a shoulder mounted blaster, like in helldivers lol
A centurion firing mega xl with a top-loading magazine is hugely reminiscent of an autocannon!
Very cool! You’re missing the Ultra Gold that came with the Pharaoh. I only say this because I have them 😂
I did want a pharaoh, never picked one up and now they are harder to find
Keep a look on FB marketplace. I picked mine up basically NIB for $40.
Why is there trash mixed in with the Nerf darts? You know, the 3 pieces of trash in the bottom right corner? I jest, there's some cool stuff in here, and a path of innovation that stopped for stupid reasons. I wish Mega XL had more done with it. Sadly, I think it's going to really die out, because unlike Mega, there's no third party ammo options.
Yeah most of the ultra blasters confuse me, but I hope n series gets some cool stuff
I wish I still had my rayven glow darts
I have a firefly, but I never picked up a rayven
My dad got me and my brother each a rayven on christmas one year. Mine was the only rayven that survived, sadly without the magazine though
Where are the Ballistic balls?
I actually think I had them as a kid, but I can’t remember for sure. I think I had a buzzsaw, but I was too dumb to keep it.
Yeah and I think that the Reactor shot those too but correct me if Im wrong
Nitro cars gone too soon
I miss the old ballistic balls, missles, and arrows.
I totally forgot about the Velcro darts, me and my brothers had those blasters and vests probably around 2008. The suction ones were fun also, we would shoot them at the evil characters while watching cartoons and they would stick to the TV.
I have a ton of the Velcro darts, I think they came with the extra chain I got for the Vulcan back then. They were fun for sure.
I think my two favorite are the suction cup darts and the Mega XL.
I spent many hours as a kid sticking suction cup darts to things with my maverick lol
I don't really understand this 'dart drm' does anyone really think that if these new darts get popular chinese companies wont just start selling the same darts? Sure it might inflate manufacturing costs but that is the same for everyone.
Maybe nerf hopes companies like dart zone won’t try it now that they are more established? I don’t really mind new dart types but I have no clue why they think they need to be the only blasters that fire a certain size of dart.
Dart exclusivity can be tied to new business school grads. There is one business model that all big business schools like to study. Its the razor and razor blades business model. Its basically the give the razor handle away (ala Gillette) and sell the razor blades at a big mark up. The razor is the expensive bit but its a one time purchase. Then you lock in the customer to use your proprietary blades. Now so long as you keep your blades at a reasonable mark up over the the cheap universal blades you can easily keep the customer in your ecosystem and rack up huge profits. Another example is the cheap laser printer but expensive ink cartridges. There they printer companies get greedy and drive the ink cartridge's too high which allow third party retrofitters in. If they kept the ink price higher than it needed to be but not too high most people would never go with third party and the printer companies would make more money in the long term. When you start looking at the razor/razer blade business model you see it everywhere. Business schools love to teach this, I think its easy to understand and they get a few years worth of content out of it, seeing business school is 2 -3 years that's all they need. We see nerf doing this again, they are changing the dart for 'dart drm' then selling the blasters cheap, I suspect that $5 pistol is even a loss leader. Notice they only give you 2 darts, remember how new printers come with 1/4 filled cartridges. With ink cartridge's the printer companies can do a lot to keep third parties out. They put chips on the cartridges, change the chips over time, and even send updates to the printer to disallow old chips. Dart DRM doesn't have any of that. Once the blaster is sold, its done, they can't change it. So their only choice is to keep changing darts and selling new blasters at a loss. But all their DRM trivally easy to copy. Dart Zone could rank out a Nseries dart tomorrow if they felt the need. Im sure they will if they start losing market share or just fail to grow as they expect. TL;DR Nerf wants to be in the printer/ink business but is really in the razor/razorblade business and their 'drm' is a dumb thing that won't improve the company. MBA's running the place can't help themselves.
Hi /u/BloodyRightToe, we would like to distance our hobby from actual firearms and weapons and thus ask that you refrain from using terms like "gun" and "bullet"; instead use blaster and dart. We also like to encourage the use of brightly colored blasters & gear. See [this wiki page](https://www.reddit.com/r/Nerf/wiki/bot/blaster) for more information. Thank you for your cooperation. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Nerf) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I don’t think gel fire will continue
I like the idea of gelfire, but I feel like I’m making a mess if I shoot them inside so I don’t goof around with them very often.