Guide to Thrifting

Things I've Found in the Past Week for About $11 Total

If you're a Nerfer on a budget, then the cheapest way for you to build up a collection outside of someone just giving you blasters is through thrifting. It is possible to get blasters for a fraction of a price they'd go for in retail stores. This is a general guide to make thrifting easier for everyone.

First, you need to understand the hidden cost to thrifting; gas. In essence, you pay your gas cost for the chance to get something for cheap. With gas prices where they are, a thrift store only 15 minutes away could cost $1-2 per trip. That doesn't sound like much, but if you go every day for a week, that's possibly $10 you're spending just for the chance to find something. Finding a Nitefinder for $1 doesn't seem so great when you spent $10 to get it.

Costs are relative, however, and there are plenty of ways you can cut yours down. The best way is to find a grouping of thrift stores. Hitting multiple thrift stores within a five mile radius of each other not only increases your chances of finding something, it also decreases the relative cost of gas to go to each one.

Finding a grouping can be tough and there may not be one all that close to where you live. In that case, plan to visit your grouping when other errands take you to the area. Making a five mile detour while your already out is cheaper than driving the 20 miles it would take to drive out there and back.

When you find your grouping and visit it for the first time, you may want to consider rating your thrift stores. You may find that your grouping consists of too many thrift stores than your time would allow, or they may be spread out intermittently over a large area. In any case, you'll probably want to rule out some thrift stores and skip them on your next run. Some things to consider are:

How large is the Toy Section?
Almost every thrift store has a section for toys and you can judge the relative probability of finding something based on how much space they devote to them. Thrifting is a numbers game at its core and the more stuff that comes through, the greater chance there is that some of it is Nerf.

Have you had Success Before?
While not necessarily a great indicator, finding something once means that the store definitely does get those kinds of donations. I have two Goodwills near me; both get about the same number of donations, but one almost always has something while the other rarely has anything.

Is it Close to the Others?
You might find that in your grouping, there is one store that is further away from the others or that it's located in a place that makes it awkward to get to. You might decide to skip it totally or maybe just to go less frequently.

Remember, just because you haven't found anything doesn't mean they won't get anything and just because you found something once doesn't mean that they'll always have something. Again, thrifting is a numbers game; you can stack the probabilities in your favor, but at the end of the day it's mostly dumb luck.

N-Strike Elite Speculation

While Nerf has released some information about the upcoming N-Strike Elite series, there is still a lot we don't know. I figured it was time for speculation.

First is the rumor that is the Pyrogon. The Pyrogon is supposedly a Vortex-version Elite in the form of an updated Praxis, complete with a 40 round drum. While it hasn't been officially confirmed by Nerf, it does come from the same source that gave us information on the other Elite blasters and a Vortex Elite seems like a logical step. I'm going to say the Pyrogon is highly probable.

A rumor I've heard a lot is that the Elite series is an attempt by Nerf to shut down Orange Mod Works and other similar third party companies. At first, this makes sense, as both the Elite series and the Mod Works kits boast similar ranges and Nerf has a history of making internal changes in an effort to discourage modding rather than straight up denying it. And while I wouldn't be surprised if competing with Orange Mod Works was a goal of the Elite series, I think the reasoning behind the Elite series is much greater than that.

More specifically, I think that Nerf is releasing the Elite series in response to the relative success of the Xploders and Max Force lines. Both boast ranges up in the 60-100 feet margin and neither has managed to run into any legal trouble (that I know of). I believe that Nerf has been considering something like Elite for some time, but since other toy companies have already successfully tested the waters, Nerf has decided that it's time to act. They might have chosen the ranges they did in an effort to also beat out Orange Mod Works, but I don't think it's the sole reason for releasing Elite.

Lastly, I'm going to speculate on price point. It would seem obvious that the target audience is older kids, but I think that it branches out much more than that, even up to buisnessmen who have office wars. In either case, I definitely think that the Elite series will be the most expensive series to date. I'd estimate $35 on the Retaliator, $40 on the Rampage, and $50-55 on the Hail Fire. This is essentially a $10 increase on comparable N-Strike models, with an additional $5 increase for the Retaliator so that it doesn't conflicting with the Raider, Raven, and Lumitron.

Let me know if you guys have any other questions about Elite.

N-Strike Elite

It's definitely official; Nerf is planning to release the Elite series later this year. The major draw are the advertised 75 feet ranges for each blaster. So far there have been three blasters confirmed; the Retaliator, the Rampage, and the Hail Fire.
The Retaliator and Ramage are updates of the Recon and Raider respectively, while the Hail Fire is an entirely new blaster all together.

All of the remakes will come with something new other than the increased range. The Retaliator is getting a new stock, foregrip, and a larger capacity clip (I would guess either 10 or 12 darts). The Rampage is getting a new 25 dart drum.

The Hail Fire doesn't seem like it's getting any special accessories, but it looks like it's a flywheel blaster with a rotating clip selector that appears to hold 4 clips.

In addition to the blasters, the series will feature a new Elite dart for each blaster to fire. It is similar in shape to a streamline or clip system dart, but it is supposed to have a whistler head. These darts will most likely be made of a denser foam and may lack the back post hole.

The first of the series is supposed to release on 8.1.12 and ending with the Hail Fire's release on the traditional 9.9.12.


Retaliator

Rampage

 Hail Fire

Elite Dart

You can view the official commercial here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/nerf?feature=watch#p/u/6/uGzXEdkU5Q8

New to the NIC?

Almost everyone has at least some experience with Nerf or other off-brand products. Whether you own your own blaster or just have a friend that does, chances are you've played with a Nerf product at some point in your life.

Stock and even slightly modified-class Nerf wars are very low range events; in general no blaster will exceed 50 feet in range. Nerf Internet Community or NIC wars, however, are very different in how they play out; they are more similar to airsoft than they are to a stock class war. As such, there are a few things to consider before you attend your first NIC war.

First, you need to have at least two different blasters; one primary and one pistol. A primary can be any blaster at all and a pistol is usually a small, single-shot, spring powered-blaster. Primaries can be anything, but as a general rule you want to aim to hit 100 feet or the century mark. Rules for pistols vary greatly depending on the host, so make sure you read up on the rules for the event you plan to attend.

You will also need darts and even modified stock darts are generally very poor substitutes. You might want to consider purchasing darts from a respected member of the community, as stephans take a lot of practice. If you purchase darts from someone who isn't local, make sure that the darts conform with the war host's regulations.

Making a primary can be anywhere from a simple to an incredibly complex task, however there are a variety of guides on the internet which can make the task much easier. There are a few common rules to for you to keep in mind:

     Range is the most important feature at least up until about 100 feet. Most wars will ban things that shoot more than 140 feet and several wars cap ranges even lower than that. Ranges are always measured by how far a blaster shoots when the barrel is parallel to the ground.

     Rate of Fire or RoF becomes increasingly important once the blaster shoots at least 100 feet. A reasonable RoF would be about one dart fired every three seconds.

     More ammo capacity is almost always better; as long as it doesn't become too bulky.

Make sure you read up on all the rules and as many gametypes as possible. If you don't understand a gametype, ask questions about it. It's better to ask a lot of questions and know the rules than to not ask questions and break rules.

Don't show up to your first war assuming that you will be one of the best players on the field; chances are that you'll be lucky to fall in the middle of the pack. Don't get discouraged; you'll do better at every war you attend. If you work on improving yourself and your blasters for each war, you'll quickly become a competitive player.

Buzz Bee Ultimate Missile Blast Review

If you don't count the numerous Berserker re-shells, the Buzz Bee Ultimate Missile Blast is the newest of the Buzz Bee air blasters. It was part of the Ultimate series of blasters which could clip together. Unfortunately, it didn't stay on the shelves for very long as it was replaced by the next generation of combining blasters.

The BBUMB is capable of connecting to other Ultimate series blasters, although connecting to other blasters generally only makes it bulkier without giving any serious advantages. Perhaps most usefully, the BBUMB is capable of connecting to other BBUMBs, although the usefulness of this is up for debate. The BBUMB was also the first blaster to include glow missiles. They are not significantly different from the original Buzz Bee missiles except that they light up when fired.


The box claims that the BBUMB is capable of 30ft ranges. In my experience, the BBUMB is capable of 30ft ranges, but it is wildly inconsistent among shots and among other BBUMBs. In practice, a BBUMB will take anywhere from 5-9 pumps to fill and will fire its missiles anywhere from 25-35ft. This seems to be an issue with manufacturing tolerances more than anything else.


As a missile blaster, the BBUMB isn't very good, but it has the potential to be a very powerful NIC primary. The BBUMB has the second largest air tank of any legal NIC blaster, it is only smaller than the Big Blast and its variants. The most common mod is to simply plug the pump and attach a coupler in place of the missile post.

Blog Opening and Mission Statement

This is the official opening of the Hellsing Arms nerf blog. My name is Mired Thoughts or sometimes EocDragon, and I will be running the day to day functions of this blog. Along with Drac, I will be posting reviews of blasters, modification guides and exciting news in the nerf community. It is our hope to create a blog that is both informative and user-friendly. We hope you enjoy your stay.

Mired Thoughts