Taffy-Pull

Okay, so if you haven't been here for this whole Urban Taggers thing, catch up here and here and read on.

More Good News

Say what you like about the Nitron- you know, about it being analogous to garbage- but this morning it was the source of some powerful Nerf satisfaction.

Sweet Release: An Eventual Double Entendre

Moments ago I hit a major milestone in the development of the Document, completing the chapter on melee combat and thereby wrapping up the writing for all of the rules set's principle concepts.

...and Lucy Gives Him One More Shot

So yeah, a bit rapid fire on the posts today, but just got an email from Orange Mod Works about the very issue that plagued my Alpha Trooper kit.  To keep it short, they're taking action to correct the catch problems that the AT and Raider kits are giving some of their customers like me.  This is a guarantee for new orders, and they're also requesting contact from those who may have already purchased the kit.  This sounds like a pretty square shake to me.  Keep reading for a full transcript of the email, and be sure to let them know if you have problems of your own.

Not in the Face! Okay....Maybe in the Face

It was good to see Nerf Mods & Reviews get confirmation through a Nerf rep that the claimed 75ft ranges of the Elite line are legitimate, clearing up some confusion caused by a pair of oddly disparate promo videos. Just moments ago, however, I caught a similar video promoting the Rampage courtesy of a post by imodify, and now I've got a whole new reason to be irked and confused: there's no shield.

Charlie Brown Misses the Football...

Bazookafied over at Tactical Tag recently posted on the improvements he noted to the priming action of his Longstike now that Orange Mod Works has shipped him a 5kg spring and new bolt sled. This got me to thinking about my own OMW woes. I've been fighting the Unleashed kit for my Alpha Trooper recently, trying to get the catch to engage on account of the metal priming rod being generally lame. My own stupidity shares the blame here, but all the trial and error has put some seriously unnecessary wear on this ordinarily wonderful blaster. Now that priming bar is likely ruined; weakened and warped from all of my violent pleas demanding that the stupid thing go ahead and catch (+swear words). The original spring is now a no-go as well, leaving me with little more than plastic garbage and some rarely useful spare parts. Wonderful that this would happen to my only Alpha Trooper just as soon as they have all but vanished from our consumer universe.

It would be nice, I think, if every OMW product was made to work out-of-the-box in otherwise unmodified blasters. In the case of the Alpha Trooper, all these problems would never have existed at all if the catch block on the plunger tube was molded even 1/4" back from its original position- all without sacrificing the use of their blessed 6kg springs. This seems like a pretty natural adaptation to solve a problem they already knew existed. I'm sure there are nuances to the manufacturing process that I am unaware of that would make this sort of alteration to the original dimensions of the Nerf molds troublesome. Overcoming these kinds of engineering issues with design is, however, exactly what bringing this sort of product to market is all about. Whatever extra effort that would be required of them is absolutely warranted. It's not as though they would be making some unforgivable concession that would leave them buried under the competition. Bazookafied's observations on the relative maintenance of firing power in his Longstrike despite the downgraded spring is proof enough of that- just look at that grin.

This Time, It's Okay to Open the Box

I have been interested in using magnets to create a variable blaster storage solution for some time now. The original fantasy involved a rear-mounted shoulder harness capable of holding onto full sized blasters such as the Longstrike or Deploy. The prospect of making an unimpeded grab for a weapon directly off my back a la Commander Shepard or Marcus Fenix and laying waste to my enemies was tantalizing to say the least.

Unfortunately, after lots of conceptualizing and pondering, that idea just didn't have much of a chance of panning out. Magnets of a strength capable of holding onto that kind of weight amidst all the jostling of combat are pretty expensive- certainly too costly for the trial and error such a project would certainly require. With magnets that strong hanging around, I also had concerns over metal blaster internals being affected in unexpected and unfortunate ways.

Having thrown out the over-the-shoulder idea, my thoughts on magnets resulted instead in the creation of the Pandora holster, so named because all sorts of scary things can pop out of it and kill you. Take a look at the Documentary below or click on the image of the holster above for more insight into its construction and function.