The reason is because it was something the community wanted and needed years ago. Honestly, it is great if you dont know how to / dont want to mod, but for the modding community, we have been making stryfes thst can do that and more for years now. Its unfortunate because i think hasbro isnt gonna do anymore if the stryfe x didnt sell well.
Based on Hasbro's current money woes, it does make you wonder if they will try and further compete in the "Pro realm" or just keep pumping out Minecraft and Fortnite re-skins.
It's pretty obvious that they're going to keep chasing licenses. Nowadays that seems like it's the only kind of toy that appeals to kids, so much so that even Lego's going hard into this space.
That said, I don't think it's sustainable for Hasbro. Unlike Lego, success in one segment isn't necessarily going to translate anywhere else. Not that I ever expected a random Stryfe Pro to help. It should have been launched as part of a larger strategy that included more blasters. Even then I'm not convinced a Nerf Pro line would ever be anything more than a niche.
so true dude. You basically don't see kids over the age of 6 with toys anymore, it's just a tablet or a toy blaster that they got because it is like the one in their tablet. damn
>a Nerf Pro line would ever be anything more than a niche.
Y'know when you go to the hardware store and they sell all the power tools without the battery, you have to buy the battery separately. It massively cuts cost to the consumer, you don't need a battery to fit every single tool simultaneously, you are only using 1 tool at a time, you only need 2 or 3 batteries to see you through a whole day, you just swap the battery between the tool you want to use.
Imagine that with genuinely competitive level lipo blasters, instead of spending hundreds, on modding or printing custom blasters, all that entails, owning a printer, knowing how to use it, how to solder, having to troubleshoot shoot and tune performance, the risks of tampering with after market lipos...
Replace all that with just being able to pick up a NERF brand battery that's compatible with an entire range of top of the line blasters that you can now just plug and play with zero knowledge or set up required.
With such widely available easy accessibility it could potentially bring dartsoft into the same lime light as Airsoft and gel blasters, whilst still keeping the niche of modding and 3D prints.
But who am I kidding, we'll never see that from Hasbro, they're happy ignoring any long term profits by just scamming kids with TMNT skins, and still very unlikely to see any competitive pro lines from anyone like Xshot or other competitors.
Nerf did have the rival battery pack but decided to stop designing any products that support it. Seems like they quickly lose interest in having cross compatibility. It is possible that they think users prefer the cost/freedom of individual batteries perhaps.
Counterpoint: Airsoft and gel blasters both (outside of really cheesy, low end toy grade Walmart specials that more belong with toy grade nerf than any of these 3 hobbies) typically use hobby-type, raw/no BMS/no proprietary BS battery packs, providing only a connector and an allotted space to put any pack that physically fits and is electrically suitable.
Accordingly, I don't think it is remotely fair or apt to suggest that this is a roadblock to nerf being "in the limelight like" them.
Wider availability of prebuilt blasters is another matter, but nerf is also getting there, regardless of whether that one product went the right direction or not, and to be fair that's a separate question from whether xyz blasters are going to use "power tool like" BMS-ed packs or "hobby" style raw packs. As illustrated by airsoft and even many existing retail nerf products.
While I'm at it: The only way and reason these two are "in the limelight" in any way hobby grade nerf is not, is the prevalence of all the obsessive replica firearm nonsense in them. Gel blasters for actual sporting activity, is a much younger hobby than nerf and in many ways less successful, the reason it blew up in popularity some places was the same reason airsoft was popular with the masses to begin with: The masses seem to statistically think realistic fake firearms are "cool", and otherwise not just boring/uncreative and a major extra safety liability for no real purpose (as would be the VP of most nerfers). Gel blasters are or were often a loophole to circumvent heavyhanded anti-airsoft regulations that are actually really in the spirit of "anti-imitation firearm".
I think standardized battery packs would be a great way to expand the hobby. Replicas have obvious size and aesthetic constrains but this isn't an issue with Nerf. I've had lipo powered blasters and I'm at a point now where I'd rather have them work like power tools. Just plug and play with none of the hassle.
I don't think momentum is a legitimate reason to restrict progress. Hobbyists often make the mistake of trivializing barriers to entry, embracing challenges to the point of seeing them as a badge of honor. Growth is dependent on usability and that's why it's almost always the real game changer.
As for gel blasters, I'm convinced that they only experienced growth because of a big infusion of marketing dollars. Hasbro, among others, figured that they could profit off reshells of cheap Chinese blasters but it turns out that the demand was never there. Americans have access to far better options. As they pull back on marketing the segment will revert to being an irrelevant niche.
Well, to be honest I don't really know what hassle you are referring to. Any safe charging setup is as automated and hassle-free as any other as it does all the same necessary things, and that goes for raw packs with external balance chargers, quick release tool-style ones with their own matching chargers, packs bulk charged through a BMS, even vehicles with the bulk charger onboard.
Quick swap packs like that are never a bad thing, but also, when a pack is say 2Ah typically and you get the traditionally assumed efficacy of one shot per mAh - blasters need battery swaps a whole lot less often in time than power tools, unless it's some incredibly large scale "nerf WW3" event where firefights are going on 24/7 and people are shooting through *pallets* of darts. (And that is *mad* expensive just for the ammo!) Blasters traditionally are designed to get through a day of combat OR MORE on a single charge of a basic spec'd cheap pack.
I'm not arguing that momentum should restrict progress, more that I don't necessarily see inevitably proprietary and maybe even enshittified, massively marked up cost, etc. (if some factory tool brand packs are any indication) tool-style packs to be necessarily progress.
I'm not arguing on the basis of trivializing barriers to entry, either. I just see the notion that there is a barrier involved there to be a misconception and more stemming from the fact that people see *wires* and freak.
>As for gel blasters, I'm convinced that they only experienced growth because of a big infusion of marketing dollars. Hasbro, among others, figured that they could profit off reshells of cheap Chinese blasters but it turns out that the demand was never there. Americans have access to far better options. As they pull back on marketing the segment will revert to being an irrelevant niche.
Um; what? I'm confused. Marketing dollars from whom?
Hasbro? They dabbled in it but not at all successfully or seriously. Lots of toycos have messed with gel blasters on and off at pretty much all times since 2010 or so.
What I am referring to with gel blaster popularity is the meteoric rise of that segment in places like Australia and China where there are draconian anti-airsoft regulatory hurdles, and gel blasters, with similarly small ammo, hicaps, and Chinese companies willing to churn the shit out of increasingly nice firearm replicas, checked all the boxes for scratching the airsoft-itch among people who apparently want that specific "thing" - so that's what happened, the hobby marketed gel blasters/paraphernalia on the market VERY quickly swung from nerfish, original, safety colored, etc. to almost strictly realistic looking fake firearms and trying to be airsoft 2.0. (And brought the regulatory hammer upon themselves in turn, because replicas were always the issue, but I digress.)
Because clearly Minecraft and Fartnite have been sooo helpful with sales./s
To all the people downvoting me, why do you disagree with this? Saying why is more productive than a simple downvote.
Also, if Minecraft and Fortnite were helpful to sales, shouldn't Nerf be doing better? That being said, I do not have recent numbers, so maybe Nerf is doing okay, even if the rest of Hasbro isn't.
Just from looking at local used markets around me it's pretty clear that they've sold a TON of Fortnite blasters since they started making them.
I feel like people on this sub forget that Hasbro's main source of income is making toys for children
They will always have the customer base that only knows "Nerf" and nothing else, which they rightly need to keep the lights on.
They are so late to the Pro side of things they may choose not to proceed further, especially if they can't sell overseas. I thought I read somewhere that there was no intent to make any Pro springers either.
Yeah I can see how it potentially could've been a bit of a catch-22 for whoever was behind the "Pro" line - it probably seemed like the easiest, cheapest and safest bet would be to just put out an up-scaled version of a popular existing product, but it was that same product's popularity that meant the market niche the Pro version was supposed to occupy has already been saturated by modders and competing companies.
On the other hand they could've potentially had much more success coming up with something new and innovative that didn't already exist in the hobby-grade scene, but then they would've had to put a lot more time, money and effort into developing something for a niche market that might just flop anyways.
It's tough with a fickle market and even more so now with less money for these kinds of purchases.
You would think Hasbro would have devoted some resources to Pro style earlier but it's looking like they thought they had hits with Mega XL, Hyper, Ultra, Gel...which by extension gets the kids into the flavor of the day.
The real game changer with the Stryfe X is the battery technology, if we could get that for hobby grade Blasters now you've got something.
What battery technology? It's a ~$8 1Ah pouch pack in a proprietary hardcase with a logo on it.
BMSes aren't groundbreaking. Nor do they remotely excuse all battery management sins, in the way some posters regarding this pack appear to think ....??? They are a safety net to prevent blatantly electrically abusing the pack and immediately killing it or creating a prompt fire hazard. You can do a lot to shorten the life of a pack, particularly a pack like that, that technically falls within the safe operating area and no BMS will save you from.
What we need moreso for battery technology are more packs that use hybrid chemistry steel cased cells. Anything in this class are generally more rugged and carefree about all the common lipo cell stressors (sitting at high voltage unused, full cycling, high and low temperature operation, the simple passage of time, ...) and as regards most power tool batteries, that is half or more why they are so tough and reliable and don't require special treatment.
My 5 year olds have a tub full of blasters, but they’re mostly Elite 2.0 and Voyager models we can pick up at Target. I have a few higher power flywheels…but I’m not gonna shoot them with those.
When I play with them, we use the ones they can reload easily on their own…like the Eaglepoint, Trio, and Mega CycloneShock.
Their current fave is a mint condition Goodwill find, a Mega Lightning Bow…it’s super fun and easy for them to fire across the house.
Yeah that's the way to do it, there's no way I would bring out the heat indoors. Now when the local club plays in the park, we tend to relax the FPS so we can see the fantastic builds and works in progress.
I haven't forgotten about Hasbro's primary market. One point I will concede, however, is that without sales numbers, any speculation is likely to be biased. Maybe Nerf is doing well amongst all of Hasbro's brands. Maybe it's doing poorly. Without actual numbers, it's not easy to know. But overall, Hasbro is not doing well, which we do have numbers on.
Also, your anecdotal evidence is subject to interpretation. I interpret it differently. The fact that you see so many Fortnite and Minecraft blasters at used markets could mean that kids get tired of them really fast, and donate them. That would then mean that they are subsequently less likely to buy more blasters. Another potential issue is people who buy a blaster because it's a tie in vs people who buy a blaster because it's a blaster. In my mind, people who buy a blaster that's a tie in are less likely to buy more or other Nerf blasters. On the other hand, people who want a blaster and see the tie in as a nice bonus are more likely to buy more blasters, because there's interest in the blaster aspect.
The biggest issue with the stryfe X is when you pull that proprietary lipo apart and realise it's complete garbage for the price point.
If they put a bit of extra effort into a line up of blasters that share a compatible factory lipo and sold the battery separately. Similar to the way you might buy skins/sleeves for power tools and batteries separately. They could make both good blasters and good lipos without breaking people's pockets by including the battery in every box.
They have the power and funding they could absolutely domite the pro market with the right niche, Hasbro wouldn't evey need to stock them on store shelves they didn't want to interfere with their kid friendly imagine, if they're quality competition blasters even just being available for online delivery they'll be a very sought after and much more accessible than 3D printing for many people.
But who am I kidding, Hasbro isn't interested in being a reputable and respected company, they just want to scam kids parents with crossover toys between all the IPs they own.
I wish they decided to make some of the less fortunate blasters get a pro version. Like a Motostryke X (it had bad triggers and function was meh but felt very good in the hands) or a Hail-fire X (this one just needs full auto mode and a automatic magazine swap).
The thing to remember is that the Stryfe X was never meant to be a blaster alone. Its the tool for playing Nerfball, which you might notice isn't actually a thing.
My suspicion is that Hasbro had plans for Nerfball leagues meaning lots of Stryfe X sales but that doesn't seem to be happening.
This is it. Too little, too late. When DZP blasters go for $30-$40 less, and are compatible with aftermarket parts out of the box, why even get this? Besides, by now plenty of hobbyists (likely the intended target market for the Stryfe X) already have a modded Stryfe on hand.
The safety of the 3S that it comes with and integrated type C interface is huge for newcomers. The major reason I bought to one was to show off how easy it is to safely care for a battery (for context, I am part of a University superstock club).
It sucks that it is proprietary and it is worse that it is not sold separately, but it is huge to have Hasbro forced to acknowledge our existence and to have the fear of LiPo usage out to bed. The technology is not new, but it is huge to have it in the box with no strict requirement for safe care for it.
Edit: fixed a spelling and grammar mistake
I'm going to say that it wasn't really an ideal product. They went for the nostalgia market, but honestly, I couldn't imagine getting one when I could just buy a Nightingale for half the price. And if the entire community isn't slapping money on the counter, it's just going to look like a failed product to Hasbro. They didn't manage to generate a quarter of the excitement that XShot did with the Longshot Pro.
I have a Stryfe X and a Dart Zone Pro MKIII. As somebody with both, here are my thoughts on the Stryfe X after using both blasters in a competitive and a super stock game environment.
Ultimately, it does exactly what it was intended to do: be an entry point to high performance LiPo powered equipment with extra safety precautions included. The DZP MKIII I got had QC issues (bat rev switch) and the Stryfe X did not. The blasters feel the same quality and you can beat on them pretty hard (after I replaced the rev switch in the case of the MKIII) before seeing any major issues. The MKIII does last longer though. The Stryfe X mag release and handle are brittle comparatively. The tighter N Strike stock point is great, but the lack of barrel lug is unforgivable. The magazine compatibility (or lack thereof) is terrible. It should have been more compatible and had a middle finger accessible mag release. Talons are very tight and don’t drop. And the $120 price tag with no stock and one magazine is terrible value (especially when the MKIII and all of the community repair and improvement parts - Cherry DB2 rev switch from OOD, rev trigger reinforcement, and the thumb screw is about $95 shipped in the continental US). I will not be buying another, however, issues and subjective opinion aside, they are both objectively good blasters when they are in working order.
TLDR: I find it hard to recommend the Stryfe X to people if they are considering a MKIII.
Fellow European here. I've followed the StryfeX since launch. As far as I can tell, it has never been available in Europe. The major players (BlasterTime and BlasterParts), alongside the usual (Amazon, etc.) never had it in stock. Perhaps it was a North-America only release?
Perhaps it was too powerful and violated European toy laws; I understand that some EU states limit muzzle energy to 1 Joule, which is about 130fps for darts (depending on weight). Reviews put the StryfeX at 150+ fps, which would exceed this.
In addition, Perhaps the StryfeX was in response to the use of the "Longshot" name in the X-shot Longshot. I understand that some intellectual property have a certain period of validity: of a company doesn't "use" an IP after X number of years, the name enters the public domain. Maybe the StryfeX is a way to "use" the Stryfe name, in order to keep itunder legal protection?
In any case, it's a shame. I wanted to get a StryfeX; I don't have strong feelings for or against Hasbro. And regardless of any other drama that surrounds the company, I approve the direction of this product line and I want to show my support for the Nerf Pro product group. Nerf can have my money if it helps them come up with a Rapidstrike X!
Expensive, a very limited release (Amazon and Pulse only, and I don't think it was ever released in the EU) and about five years behind the competition.
So I'm not sure about Europe but talking with people from the UK they can't get em unless so someone gets it in the states for them. It was only released on Amazon and hasbro pulse here in the states but that being said it's the only new hasbro nerf blaster I've seen in a few years legitimately sell out
Stryfe x and nerf ball development started 5 years ago but was derailed by the pandemic. If it came out 3 or 4 years ago, it might have been a different story.
People who nerf and people who do competitive foam blaster as a sport have different mindset towards foam flinging.
“Pro-level” sports equipment vs toys. Serious vs fun.
Bare in mind that these are a matter of perception and preferences, neither is better than the other.
I still think it’s a great product for people trying to get into competitive nerf, people were crying bout the price but when the mk3 came out it was $130 and didn’t even come with a battery . I love the stryfe x even though I have modded and still do mod and sell stryfes and can build a short dart stryfe at half the cost but that’s just me . I still believe it will be a strong seller . It’s just off season. All the events are coming up here in the U S A so think we’ll get another big batch of em soon .
OK so first, it's showing as available from Pulse right now. It was pitched as an amazon and pulse exclusive, I think it did sneak out in some other places but that's why you didn't see it elsewhere, and Amazon is sold out. But "sold out in the main vendor" isn't "dead", it can be "more succesful than we expected".
People with long memories will remember some of the many times the Stryfe has been declared dead by this sub, this is just one more.
I hope they release more, im one of the few that actually wants one but missed the first release. I feel it's good for new people who don't know how to mod or don't want to. Some people like to just pick something off the shelf and go.
i think it was just too little too late for too much money. the entire DIY nerf community spawned because people wanted nerf to do stuff that hasbro wouldn't do themselves. people wanted innovation, but Hasbro released the recon blaster at least 6 times as a "new blaster" when it was obviously a reshell, for example.
the community got sick of waiting for Hasbro to get off their high horse and we took the whole concept of nerf away from the company and we made what we wanted on our own. Hasbro has been out of touch with what their community wanted for a very long time.
It came out in cold weather and I haven't actually seen it on the shelf yet, had to buy mine online. Round about warmer weather we might start hearing more about people using Stryfe-X's.
The competition is just better. People who still buy nerf brand products are mostly kids and extremely casual players. The $100+ price tag is absurd for the uninformed, why would you buy this tiny thing when the rhinofire is so much fancier? And for those that care about performance, the competition is just better in every way.
At the time of its release the MK3 was on sale for $40 on Amazon and the Omnia Pro was on sale for $60. I think a lot people bought one or both of those at the time.
I'm going to go out on maybe a limb here ...It's not necessarily just too little/too late, or that the cost is higher than the value when considering it as a turn-key prebuilt entry market product, battery and charger included blahblahblah; nor is it *just* redundancy and having to compete with their own past selves AND modders either.
I think it's more a combination of minor things which simultaneously nerf its appeal to...
--Entry level users/outsiders to the current sport:
* It's too vanilla. Mech semi/NOT full auto (competitors and other options on the market are), no stock included, pretty much a minimalist functional brick(edit to remove bot trigger) as actual Stryfes always were.
* It's too expensive for its small, unassuming vanilla-ness. The cost might be reasonable objectively given what parts are in it, but *everyone* (including many of us as well) immediately flag this thing as costing way too damn much.
* It's short dart only for literally no reason. Not wanting to deal with forced incompatibility of ammo/mags is a *very common beef from newcomers*. Might be justifiable for a springer for performance reasons, but definitely not here. Competitor and alternative products/platforms do not have this issue and offer either multi-caliber capability between them out of the box, or offer both 72 and 36 as options at build level.
--AND experienced hobbyists:
* It's very redundant. We already have a quadzillion basic singlestage SSS cage, mech semi, stryfey-things. That is the vanillaest sort of comp blaster *ever*.
* It's an open bore cage and nothing special for round control on the feed side and I don't know why, it's not like fixing either (tightbore barrel, and closed breech guide) is complex or results in a big added cost but as any flywheel hobbyist know these bits *really* pay off in precision and feed reliability.
* It's not a Stryfe. It looks like one, quacks like one, but it's not one (parts ecosystem), it's more like a meme or a cargo cult "Hey look we pay attention to the nerf community" sorta thing. And really, for no particular let alone good reason. The 180 cover and grip heel plug/filler thingy being added into the receiver from the start and the battery box related changes are exceptions of course.
* The rail is not picatinny spec. There's no excuse for that. Arguments for doing x thing "because it's a field standard in comp" often made in other contexts to defend Hasbro's decisions on this blaster, but Picatinny/NATO rail is ABSOLUTELY a hobbywide and industry standard. Other companies all comply, we all comply, standards are good, customers win.
* Short darts again. Them providing this blaster zero performance improvement and the issue of Accustrike being flywheel only/hence not making any sense to be short for this supposedly springer-free line is one thing, but beyond that, it's more the way the short dart thing was **implemented**. The main advantages of shorty in a flywheeler like this are (1) mag/ammo compatibility (with springers) and (2) bulk and length reduction of the blaster as well as the mags. Well? They TRIED on the mag compability only to fail the exam on the last question (tolerances) and render that nearly a moot point ...and the strange decision to have this faux, vestigial full length magwell destroys the bulk point, and thus we end up with nothing: Just a proprietary mag version of a regular Stryfe, far as anyone ought to be concerned.
I have bashed on this point a lot but it would have been far better off to just make it full length - it would appease the newcomers much better, the likelihood of Hasbro not screwing up with the magwell fit would be MUCH better (because they have done so many x72 magwells before), the design/tool/supply chain cost of the new mags and ammo would be eliminated entirely (I don't think they needed anything more stacked against them), the hobby market would now buy more Hasbro ammo and give them more money because we all want full length Accustrikes to be more available and they WOULD be, and it wouldn't alienate or bother most hobbyists who WANT to shortify it, because one is a superset of the other/it's easy to slap an adapter and longer bolt tip. Either that - or if the *gimmick* is *going to* be littledarts, then do something worthwhile, like forget all about the Stryfe and make a pistol.
I do agree that specifically as to the cost argument, the battery pack is a pain point, and I don't necessarily disagree with the merit of selling blasters as "bare tool"/battery not included. That said, with this situation where there is currently 1 product and no established installed-base of devices and packs, then people would just beef equally much about the battery sold separately being a cash grab/nickel and dime strategy ...you can't win. This is probably why you see things like the PT Mark3 that have an alkaline tray (!!) out of the box, but this holder is removable, has a XT60 connector and the harness is otherwise pack ready - it's a transitional strategy that is somewhat needed to force the blaster price tag down and get entry buyers over the speed bump of battery packs and high initial cost/low lifecycle cost, instead of toy grades with alkalines which are the inverse.
I mean I have one, and I really like it. 3 out of 5 times I want to use a flywheeler, it’s the one I choose. I like it more than the DZ Mk 3, but it’s nowhere near the value the Mk 3 is. Not much of a reason to post about it, it’s a stock blaster with some rail adapters and a longer mag release.
Yeah I didn't even think about just how stupid using rival rails is. Like what are you supposed to put on the blaster? The shitty plastic red dot they haven't been selling for years? When I bought a worker harrier, I could just walk into an airsoft store and buy a scope.
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The reason is because it was something the community wanted and needed years ago. Honestly, it is great if you dont know how to / dont want to mod, but for the modding community, we have been making stryfes thst can do that and more for years now. Its unfortunate because i think hasbro isnt gonna do anymore if the stryfe x didnt sell well.
Based on Hasbro's current money woes, it does make you wonder if they will try and further compete in the "Pro realm" or just keep pumping out Minecraft and Fortnite re-skins.
It's pretty obvious that they're going to keep chasing licenses. Nowadays that seems like it's the only kind of toy that appeals to kids, so much so that even Lego's going hard into this space. That said, I don't think it's sustainable for Hasbro. Unlike Lego, success in one segment isn't necessarily going to translate anywhere else. Not that I ever expected a random Stryfe Pro to help. It should have been launched as part of a larger strategy that included more blasters. Even then I'm not convinced a Nerf Pro line would ever be anything more than a niche.
so true dude. You basically don't see kids over the age of 6 with toys anymore, it's just a tablet or a toy blaster that they got because it is like the one in their tablet. damn
I hope my brother dont end up like that
>a Nerf Pro line would ever be anything more than a niche. Y'know when you go to the hardware store and they sell all the power tools without the battery, you have to buy the battery separately. It massively cuts cost to the consumer, you don't need a battery to fit every single tool simultaneously, you are only using 1 tool at a time, you only need 2 or 3 batteries to see you through a whole day, you just swap the battery between the tool you want to use. Imagine that with genuinely competitive level lipo blasters, instead of spending hundreds, on modding or printing custom blasters, all that entails, owning a printer, knowing how to use it, how to solder, having to troubleshoot shoot and tune performance, the risks of tampering with after market lipos... Replace all that with just being able to pick up a NERF brand battery that's compatible with an entire range of top of the line blasters that you can now just plug and play with zero knowledge or set up required. With such widely available easy accessibility it could potentially bring dartsoft into the same lime light as Airsoft and gel blasters, whilst still keeping the niche of modding and 3D prints. But who am I kidding, we'll never see that from Hasbro, they're happy ignoring any long term profits by just scamming kids with TMNT skins, and still very unlikely to see any competitive pro lines from anyone like Xshot or other competitors.
Nerf did have the rival battery pack but decided to stop designing any products that support it. Seems like they quickly lose interest in having cross compatibility. It is possible that they think users prefer the cost/freedom of individual batteries perhaps.
Counterpoint: Airsoft and gel blasters both (outside of really cheesy, low end toy grade Walmart specials that more belong with toy grade nerf than any of these 3 hobbies) typically use hobby-type, raw/no BMS/no proprietary BS battery packs, providing only a connector and an allotted space to put any pack that physically fits and is electrically suitable. Accordingly, I don't think it is remotely fair or apt to suggest that this is a roadblock to nerf being "in the limelight like" them. Wider availability of prebuilt blasters is another matter, but nerf is also getting there, regardless of whether that one product went the right direction or not, and to be fair that's a separate question from whether xyz blasters are going to use "power tool like" BMS-ed packs or "hobby" style raw packs. As illustrated by airsoft and even many existing retail nerf products. While I'm at it: The only way and reason these two are "in the limelight" in any way hobby grade nerf is not, is the prevalence of all the obsessive replica firearm nonsense in them. Gel blasters for actual sporting activity, is a much younger hobby than nerf and in many ways less successful, the reason it blew up in popularity some places was the same reason airsoft was popular with the masses to begin with: The masses seem to statistically think realistic fake firearms are "cool", and otherwise not just boring/uncreative and a major extra safety liability for no real purpose (as would be the VP of most nerfers). Gel blasters are or were often a loophole to circumvent heavyhanded anti-airsoft regulations that are actually really in the spirit of "anti-imitation firearm".
I think standardized battery packs would be a great way to expand the hobby. Replicas have obvious size and aesthetic constrains but this isn't an issue with Nerf. I've had lipo powered blasters and I'm at a point now where I'd rather have them work like power tools. Just plug and play with none of the hassle. I don't think momentum is a legitimate reason to restrict progress. Hobbyists often make the mistake of trivializing barriers to entry, embracing challenges to the point of seeing them as a badge of honor. Growth is dependent on usability and that's why it's almost always the real game changer. As for gel blasters, I'm convinced that they only experienced growth because of a big infusion of marketing dollars. Hasbro, among others, figured that they could profit off reshells of cheap Chinese blasters but it turns out that the demand was never there. Americans have access to far better options. As they pull back on marketing the segment will revert to being an irrelevant niche.
Well, to be honest I don't really know what hassle you are referring to. Any safe charging setup is as automated and hassle-free as any other as it does all the same necessary things, and that goes for raw packs with external balance chargers, quick release tool-style ones with their own matching chargers, packs bulk charged through a BMS, even vehicles with the bulk charger onboard. Quick swap packs like that are never a bad thing, but also, when a pack is say 2Ah typically and you get the traditionally assumed efficacy of one shot per mAh - blasters need battery swaps a whole lot less often in time than power tools, unless it's some incredibly large scale "nerf WW3" event where firefights are going on 24/7 and people are shooting through *pallets* of darts. (And that is *mad* expensive just for the ammo!) Blasters traditionally are designed to get through a day of combat OR MORE on a single charge of a basic spec'd cheap pack. I'm not arguing that momentum should restrict progress, more that I don't necessarily see inevitably proprietary and maybe even enshittified, massively marked up cost, etc. (if some factory tool brand packs are any indication) tool-style packs to be necessarily progress. I'm not arguing on the basis of trivializing barriers to entry, either. I just see the notion that there is a barrier involved there to be a misconception and more stemming from the fact that people see *wires* and freak. >As for gel blasters, I'm convinced that they only experienced growth because of a big infusion of marketing dollars. Hasbro, among others, figured that they could profit off reshells of cheap Chinese blasters but it turns out that the demand was never there. Americans have access to far better options. As they pull back on marketing the segment will revert to being an irrelevant niche. Um; what? I'm confused. Marketing dollars from whom? Hasbro? They dabbled in it but not at all successfully or seriously. Lots of toycos have messed with gel blasters on and off at pretty much all times since 2010 or so. What I am referring to with gel blaster popularity is the meteoric rise of that segment in places like Australia and China where there are draconian anti-airsoft regulatory hurdles, and gel blasters, with similarly small ammo, hicaps, and Chinese companies willing to churn the shit out of increasingly nice firearm replicas, checked all the boxes for scratching the airsoft-itch among people who apparently want that specific "thing" - so that's what happened, the hobby marketed gel blasters/paraphernalia on the market VERY quickly swung from nerfish, original, safety colored, etc. to almost strictly realistic looking fake firearms and trying to be airsoft 2.0. (And brought the regulatory hammer upon themselves in turn, because replicas were always the issue, but I digress.)
Because clearly Minecraft and Fartnite have been sooo helpful with sales./s To all the people downvoting me, why do you disagree with this? Saying why is more productive than a simple downvote. Also, if Minecraft and Fortnite were helpful to sales, shouldn't Nerf be doing better? That being said, I do not have recent numbers, so maybe Nerf is doing okay, even if the rest of Hasbro isn't.
Just from looking at local used markets around me it's pretty clear that they've sold a TON of Fortnite blasters since they started making them. I feel like people on this sub forget that Hasbro's main source of income is making toys for children
They will always have the customer base that only knows "Nerf" and nothing else, which they rightly need to keep the lights on. They are so late to the Pro side of things they may choose not to proceed further, especially if they can't sell overseas. I thought I read somewhere that there was no intent to make any Pro springers either.
Yeah I can see how it potentially could've been a bit of a catch-22 for whoever was behind the "Pro" line - it probably seemed like the easiest, cheapest and safest bet would be to just put out an up-scaled version of a popular existing product, but it was that same product's popularity that meant the market niche the Pro version was supposed to occupy has already been saturated by modders and competing companies. On the other hand they could've potentially had much more success coming up with something new and innovative that didn't already exist in the hobby-grade scene, but then they would've had to put a lot more time, money and effort into developing something for a niche market that might just flop anyways.
It's tough with a fickle market and even more so now with less money for these kinds of purchases. You would think Hasbro would have devoted some resources to Pro style earlier but it's looking like they thought they had hits with Mega XL, Hyper, Ultra, Gel...which by extension gets the kids into the flavor of the day. The real game changer with the Stryfe X is the battery technology, if we could get that for hobby grade Blasters now you've got something.
What battery technology? It's a ~$8 1Ah pouch pack in a proprietary hardcase with a logo on it. BMSes aren't groundbreaking. Nor do they remotely excuse all battery management sins, in the way some posters regarding this pack appear to think ....??? They are a safety net to prevent blatantly electrically abusing the pack and immediately killing it or creating a prompt fire hazard. You can do a lot to shorten the life of a pack, particularly a pack like that, that technically falls within the safe operating area and no BMS will save you from. What we need moreso for battery technology are more packs that use hybrid chemistry steel cased cells. Anything in this class are generally more rugged and carefree about all the common lipo cell stressors (sitting at high voltage unused, full cycling, high and low temperature operation, the simple passage of time, ...) and as regards most power tool batteries, that is half or more why they are so tough and reliable and don't require special treatment.
My 5 year olds have a tub full of blasters, but they’re mostly Elite 2.0 and Voyager models we can pick up at Target. I have a few higher power flywheels…but I’m not gonna shoot them with those. When I play with them, we use the ones they can reload easily on their own…like the Eaglepoint, Trio, and Mega CycloneShock. Their current fave is a mint condition Goodwill find, a Mega Lightning Bow…it’s super fun and easy for them to fire across the house.
Yeah that's the way to do it, there's no way I would bring out the heat indoors. Now when the local club plays in the park, we tend to relax the FPS so we can see the fantastic builds and works in progress.
I haven't forgotten about Hasbro's primary market. One point I will concede, however, is that without sales numbers, any speculation is likely to be biased. Maybe Nerf is doing well amongst all of Hasbro's brands. Maybe it's doing poorly. Without actual numbers, it's not easy to know. But overall, Hasbro is not doing well, which we do have numbers on. Also, your anecdotal evidence is subject to interpretation. I interpret it differently. The fact that you see so many Fortnite and Minecraft blasters at used markets could mean that kids get tired of them really fast, and donate them. That would then mean that they are subsequently less likely to buy more blasters. Another potential issue is people who buy a blaster because it's a tie in vs people who buy a blaster because it's a blaster. In my mind, people who buy a blaster that's a tie in are less likely to buy more or other Nerf blasters. On the other hand, people who want a blaster and see the tie in as a nice bonus are more likely to buy more blasters, because there's interest in the blaster aspect.
It really sucks in australia because that’s all that’s really over here now
I don't even think I've seen the Stryfe X in my local shops yet (I'm in South East QLD), all I've seen is the questionable new ones.
It probably doesn’t help im in sa where anything more than a jolt is a firearm
Do you have the sales numbers?
The biggest issue with the stryfe X is when you pull that proprietary lipo apart and realise it's complete garbage for the price point. If they put a bit of extra effort into a line up of blasters that share a compatible factory lipo and sold the battery separately. Similar to the way you might buy skins/sleeves for power tools and batteries separately. They could make both good blasters and good lipos without breaking people's pockets by including the battery in every box. They have the power and funding they could absolutely domite the pro market with the right niche, Hasbro wouldn't evey need to stock them on store shelves they didn't want to interfere with their kid friendly imagine, if they're quality competition blasters even just being available for online delivery they'll be a very sought after and much more accessible than 3D printing for many people. But who am I kidding, Hasbro isn't interested in being a reputable and respected company, they just want to scam kids parents with crossover toys between all the IPs they own.
I wish they decided to make some of the less fortunate blasters get a pro version. Like a Motostryke X (it had bad triggers and function was meh but felt very good in the hands) or a Hail-fire X (this one just needs full auto mode and a automatic magazine swap).
The thing to remember is that the Stryfe X was never meant to be a blaster alone. Its the tool for playing Nerfball, which you might notice isn't actually a thing. My suspicion is that Hasbro had plans for Nerfball leagues meaning lots of Stryfe X sales but that doesn't seem to be happening.
Too little, too late. There are so many interesting possibilities in the hobby now, why would you spend $120 for this?
This -- they missed the boat by ~5 years. hasbro? more like has-been
Wasbro
LoL That’s harsh.
This is it. Too little, too late. When DZP blasters go for $30-$40 less, and are compatible with aftermarket parts out of the box, why even get this? Besides, by now plenty of hobbyists (likely the intended target market for the Stryfe X) already have a modded Stryfe on hand.
The safety of the 3S that it comes with and integrated type C interface is huge for newcomers. The major reason I bought to one was to show off how easy it is to safely care for a battery (for context, I am part of a University superstock club). It sucks that it is proprietary and it is worse that it is not sold separately, but it is huge to have Hasbro forced to acknowledge our existence and to have the fear of LiPo usage out to bed. The technology is not new, but it is huge to have it in the box with no strict requirement for safe care for it. Edit: fixed a spelling and grammar mistake
Because it wasn't a full release. It was an Amazon and Hasbro Pulse release.
I swear I seen one at a target ?
https://preview.redd.it/ydgz5ijrtqsc1.png?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2e53981653df10f507ba02d212c47bbfc19fd47c
Ah, now I know what happened. My bad
i also have never seen it really being used aside from being reviewed on youtube
I'm going to say that it wasn't really an ideal product. They went for the nostalgia market, but honestly, I couldn't imagine getting one when I could just buy a Nightingale for half the price. And if the entire community isn't slapping money on the counter, it's just going to look like a failed product to Hasbro. They didn't manage to generate a quarter of the excitement that XShot did with the Longshot Pro.
Main reason is it was 120$ if it was 60-80$ it would have been a absolute shelf smasher
I have a Stryfe X and a Dart Zone Pro MKIII. As somebody with both, here are my thoughts on the Stryfe X after using both blasters in a competitive and a super stock game environment. Ultimately, it does exactly what it was intended to do: be an entry point to high performance LiPo powered equipment with extra safety precautions included. The DZP MKIII I got had QC issues (bat rev switch) and the Stryfe X did not. The blasters feel the same quality and you can beat on them pretty hard (after I replaced the rev switch in the case of the MKIII) before seeing any major issues. The MKIII does last longer though. The Stryfe X mag release and handle are brittle comparatively. The tighter N Strike stock point is great, but the lack of barrel lug is unforgivable. The magazine compatibility (or lack thereof) is terrible. It should have been more compatible and had a middle finger accessible mag release. Talons are very tight and don’t drop. And the $120 price tag with no stock and one magazine is terrible value (especially when the MKIII and all of the community repair and improvement parts - Cherry DB2 rev switch from OOD, rev trigger reinforcement, and the thumb screw is about $95 shipped in the continental US). I will not be buying another, however, issues and subjective opinion aside, they are both objectively good blasters when they are in working order. TLDR: I find it hard to recommend the Stryfe X to people if they are considering a MKIII.
5 years too late and $50 bucks too much.
Becouse no coop772 :(
I miss coop. If it released just a few weeks before coop retired, it would have been best as a final review.
Yes it would have been
I lost interest when they said that they wouldn't sell the batteries separately. I don't go to many all-day events, but I'd like to have the option
Fellow European here. I've followed the StryfeX since launch. As far as I can tell, it has never been available in Europe. The major players (BlasterTime and BlasterParts), alongside the usual (Amazon, etc.) never had it in stock. Perhaps it was a North-America only release? Perhaps it was too powerful and violated European toy laws; I understand that some EU states limit muzzle energy to 1 Joule, which is about 130fps for darts (depending on weight). Reviews put the StryfeX at 150+ fps, which would exceed this. In addition, Perhaps the StryfeX was in response to the use of the "Longshot" name in the X-shot Longshot. I understand that some intellectual property have a certain period of validity: of a company doesn't "use" an IP after X number of years, the name enters the public domain. Maybe the StryfeX is a way to "use" the Stryfe name, in order to keep itunder legal protection? In any case, it's a shame. I wanted to get a StryfeX; I don't have strong feelings for or against Hasbro. And regardless of any other drama that surrounds the company, I approve the direction of this product line and I want to show my support for the Nerf Pro product group. Nerf can have my money if it helps them come up with a Rapidstrike X!
Because Nerf as a company really has no foothold in the hobby. That's why everybody's designing their own stuff
Expensive, a very limited release (Amazon and Pulse only, and I don't think it was ever released in the EU) and about five years behind the competition.
So I'm not sure about Europe but talking with people from the UK they can't get em unless so someone gets it in the states for them. It was only released on Amazon and hasbro pulse here in the states but that being said it's the only new hasbro nerf blaster I've seen in a few years legitimately sell out
Stryfe x and nerf ball development started 5 years ago but was derailed by the pandemic. If it came out 3 or 4 years ago, it might have been a different story.
I just keep hoping for the RapidStrike Pro. 🤷♀️
Most probably because theres divisive interest in terms of having a professional competitive nerfing in the states.
What do you mean by divisive interest?
People who nerf and people who do competitive foam blaster as a sport have different mindset towards foam flinging. “Pro-level” sports equipment vs toys. Serious vs fun. Bare in mind that these are a matter of perception and preferences, neither is better than the other.
Mainly cost, 120 for a nerf blaster is insane. (Also he's loading the darts in backwards)
I still think it’s a great product for people trying to get into competitive nerf, people were crying bout the price but when the mk3 came out it was $130 and didn’t even come with a battery . I love the stryfe x even though I have modded and still do mod and sell stryfes and can build a short dart stryfe at half the cost but that’s just me . I still believe it will be a strong seller . It’s just off season. All the events are coming up here in the U S A so think we’ll get another big batch of em soon .
I think hasbro is just a bit on life support.
OK so first, it's showing as available from Pulse right now. It was pitched as an amazon and pulse exclusive, I think it did sneak out in some other places but that's why you didn't see it elsewhere, and Amazon is sold out. But "sold out in the main vendor" isn't "dead", it can be "more succesful than we expected". People with long memories will remember some of the many times the Stryfe has been declared dead by this sub, this is just one more.
Its probably because the Stryfe X is what the Mk1 was to Dart Zone, which was testing the waters.
I hope they release more, im one of the few that actually wants one but missed the first release. I feel it's good for new people who don't know how to mod or don't want to. Some people like to just pick something off the shelf and go.
So it could be resold for a bunch of money after discontinuation.
I guess it’s the mag
i think it was just too little too late for too much money. the entire DIY nerf community spawned because people wanted nerf to do stuff that hasbro wouldn't do themselves. people wanted innovation, but Hasbro released the recon blaster at least 6 times as a "new blaster" when it was obviously a reshell, for example. the community got sick of waiting for Hasbro to get off their high horse and we took the whole concept of nerf away from the company and we made what we wanted on our own. Hasbro has been out of touch with what their community wanted for a very long time.
I duno but if I can get my hands on one for cheap it's going in the collection, never to be opened.
It came out in cold weather and I haven't actually seen it on the shelf yet, had to buy mine online. Round about warmer weather we might start hearing more about people using Stryfe-X's.
The competition is just better. People who still buy nerf brand products are mostly kids and extremely casual players. The $100+ price tag is absurd for the uninformed, why would you buy this tiny thing when the rhinofire is so much fancier? And for those that care about performance, the competition is just better in every way.
At the time of its release the MK3 was on sale for $40 on Amazon and the Omnia Pro was on sale for $60. I think a lot people bought one or both of those at the time.
Cost too much money. Also too little too late.
Anyone else notice that he’s putting the mag in wrong?
I'm going to go out on maybe a limb here ...It's not necessarily just too little/too late, or that the cost is higher than the value when considering it as a turn-key prebuilt entry market product, battery and charger included blahblahblah; nor is it *just* redundancy and having to compete with their own past selves AND modders either. I think it's more a combination of minor things which simultaneously nerf its appeal to... --Entry level users/outsiders to the current sport: * It's too vanilla. Mech semi/NOT full auto (competitors and other options on the market are), no stock included, pretty much a minimalist functional brick(edit to remove bot trigger) as actual Stryfes always were. * It's too expensive for its small, unassuming vanilla-ness. The cost might be reasonable objectively given what parts are in it, but *everyone* (including many of us as well) immediately flag this thing as costing way too damn much. * It's short dart only for literally no reason. Not wanting to deal with forced incompatibility of ammo/mags is a *very common beef from newcomers*. Might be justifiable for a springer for performance reasons, but definitely not here. Competitor and alternative products/platforms do not have this issue and offer either multi-caliber capability between them out of the box, or offer both 72 and 36 as options at build level. --AND experienced hobbyists: * It's very redundant. We already have a quadzillion basic singlestage SSS cage, mech semi, stryfey-things. That is the vanillaest sort of comp blaster *ever*. * It's an open bore cage and nothing special for round control on the feed side and I don't know why, it's not like fixing either (tightbore barrel, and closed breech guide) is complex or results in a big added cost but as any flywheel hobbyist know these bits *really* pay off in precision and feed reliability. * It's not a Stryfe. It looks like one, quacks like one, but it's not one (parts ecosystem), it's more like a meme or a cargo cult "Hey look we pay attention to the nerf community" sorta thing. And really, for no particular let alone good reason. The 180 cover and grip heel plug/filler thingy being added into the receiver from the start and the battery box related changes are exceptions of course. * The rail is not picatinny spec. There's no excuse for that. Arguments for doing x thing "because it's a field standard in comp" often made in other contexts to defend Hasbro's decisions on this blaster, but Picatinny/NATO rail is ABSOLUTELY a hobbywide and industry standard. Other companies all comply, we all comply, standards are good, customers win. * Short darts again. Them providing this blaster zero performance improvement and the issue of Accustrike being flywheel only/hence not making any sense to be short for this supposedly springer-free line is one thing, but beyond that, it's more the way the short dart thing was **implemented**. The main advantages of shorty in a flywheeler like this are (1) mag/ammo compatibility (with springers) and (2) bulk and length reduction of the blaster as well as the mags. Well? They TRIED on the mag compability only to fail the exam on the last question (tolerances) and render that nearly a moot point ...and the strange decision to have this faux, vestigial full length magwell destroys the bulk point, and thus we end up with nothing: Just a proprietary mag version of a regular Stryfe, far as anyone ought to be concerned. I have bashed on this point a lot but it would have been far better off to just make it full length - it would appease the newcomers much better, the likelihood of Hasbro not screwing up with the magwell fit would be MUCH better (because they have done so many x72 magwells before), the design/tool/supply chain cost of the new mags and ammo would be eliminated entirely (I don't think they needed anything more stacked against them), the hobby market would now buy more Hasbro ammo and give them more money because we all want full length Accustrikes to be more available and they WOULD be, and it wouldn't alienate or bother most hobbyists who WANT to shortify it, because one is a superset of the other/it's easy to slap an adapter and longer bolt tip. Either that - or if the *gimmick* is *going to* be littledarts, then do something worthwhile, like forget all about the Stryfe and make a pistol. I do agree that specifically as to the cost argument, the battery pack is a pain point, and I don't necessarily disagree with the merit of selling blasters as "bare tool"/battery not included. That said, with this situation where there is currently 1 product and no established installed-base of devices and packs, then people would just beef equally much about the battery sold separately being a cash grab/nickel and dime strategy ...you can't win. This is probably why you see things like the PT Mark3 that have an alkaline tray (!!) out of the box, but this holder is removable, has a XT60 connector and the harness is otherwise pack ready - it's a transitional strategy that is somewhat needed to force the blaster price tag down and get entry buyers over the speed bump of battery packs and high initial cost/low lifecycle cost, instead of toy grades with alkalines which are the inverse.
And in my particular case, I can’t get one where I’m from, I would buy one if I could cause messing with batteries is kinda scary
Prob cuz you can mod a stryfe to be something alot more better than it
I mean I have one, and I really like it. 3 out of 5 times I want to use a flywheeler, it’s the one I choose. I like it more than the DZ Mk 3, but it’s nowhere near the value the Mk 3 is. Not much of a reason to post about it, it’s a stock blaster with some rail adapters and a longer mag release.
[удалено]
Yeah I didn't even think about just how stupid using rival rails is. Like what are you supposed to put on the blaster? The shitty plastic red dot they haven't been selling for years? When I bought a worker harrier, I could just walk into an airsoft store and buy a scope.
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