Nerf N-Series: Nerf’s darts or nothing for these cool new blasters

When I was a child, “It’s either Nerf or nothing” This means you can’t get a better dart blaster than this. Starting today, this means if you buy a Hasbro blaster for your kids, you’ll have to buy Hasbro’s own expensive darts.

The company today is unveiling its new Nerf N-Series lineup and a new “N1” dart, which it’s calling the “future” of the Nerf brand — a future in which Hasbro blasters for kids ages 8 to 14 will fire only Hasbro darts, which cost three to five times more than competitors. Lost the dart? It’ll be 25 cents, because only the official dart has it Patent Nub That gets the safety net out of the way.

Blasters are good in themselves, but is it Nerf ridicules Ultra againNo, for three important reasons.

First, while the new blasters for today’s kids won’t support any existing darts or magazines, the company says the Nerf Pro brand — which does — will continue. “We’re expanding [age] 14+ blaster lines we launched Strife X“Nerf product design manager John Falkowski confirmed when I asked. “I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by what you see when those items are announced.”

Second – see gallery above – the new N-Series blasters are bigger, bolder, mostly satisfying designs that shoot darts noticeably farther than Hasbro’s previous kid-friendly options! By making the new N1 darts shorter, wider, and squishier, Nerf can now fire them at speeds of up to 90 feet per second, compared to 70fps for the Elite darts, without increasing the weight of the darts (still 1 gram) or their impact on a child.

I measured four new blasters with my chronograph, and they All 90fps on average – except for the secondary barrel of the two-shot Ward pistol, which hits at 83-84fps. Darts still fly off target with the slightest crosswind, I notice right away, but many fly fairly straight without it.

There is security Falkowski explains that Nerf is ending compatibility with Elite darts that were more than a decade old. The new dart is wider and shorter, so it can be softer and safer, and the proprietary nub is meant to “maintain the integrity of the Nerf brand” by guaranteeing a certain amount of safety at that speed. As a result, Hasbro will not ship safety glasses with these blasters.

Patrick Schneider, Nerf’s global marketing director, admits that “there are always pros and cons to a closed system,” and he hinted that I should look for new blasters this fall that appeal to an older age group.

The third reason this isn’t a rehash of the Ultra is the prices – they’re not outrageous for these new blasters. While it seems a little ridiculous to ship a two-shot blaster with just two darts (if you lose one you need to buy more!), $40 for the flagship Infinity, which comes with 80 darts, is more compelling for kids than Nerf has offered at this price in quite a while. The derided Ultra line shipped with a much less interesting blaster for $50.

This doesn’t mean that Hasbro will outcompete the competition: rival companies have proven that you are better than them. No Breaking compatibility with Elite-sized darts required over a decade of development to increase range and accuracy while still meeting safety requirements. While Hasbro says these darts are better than its own Elites in every way, that’s an incredibly low bar, and the team dodged my question about how they stack up compared to rival darts that cost a lot less.

But I can’t deny that these blasters look and feel great – except for the occasional jam on my Infinity review unit, I have no idea what’s going on there – and I would have enjoyed these when I was a kid.

In the US, Target will get two additional exclusive blasters: the $25 pump-action shotgun-like Strikeback, which has a six-dart internal clip and side panels that pivot forward to provide a feel of recoil when fired; and the $30 Shadow Storm, a top-priming pistol with an eight-dart internal clip that comes with an attached barrel, stock, and sight.

Walmart will have the $30 Sprinter, the only motorized blaster in the line that takes six AA batteries and features a 16-dart detachable magazine and semi-automatic firing.

The first N-Series blasters will arrive in June and July.

Photography: Sean Hollister / The Verge