Hot August Nerf

I can't believe it's the last week of August already.  The nights have been hot and the nerfing action has been kind of slow. I've seen most of the new blasters on store shelves now and the prices are even starting to come down a little on popular items like the HYPERFIRE. Unfortunately right now  just isn't a good time for me to be buying up a bunch of new NERF gear. It's a mixed blessing because there is so much new stuff, yet a lot of it is disappointing and none of it is inexpensive.
We're all used to paying top dollar for genuine NERF quality blasters... but I remember paying $18.98 for my original RECON CS-6, about the same for my ALPHA TROOPER CS-18, and then shelling out the big money too... $30 for the LONGSHOT and later another $30 for a RAIDER CS-35. Then there was the VULCAN followed by the legendary (and highest priced blaster ever at the time)  STAMPED at 45 and 50 dollars each.
This year the average price for a blaster seems to be about$30 this includes the DOUBLE DEALER, BRAINSAW, LAWBRINGER, and DESOLATOR for examples. There is nothing really exceptional about any of these new models and a few of them are unfortunately rather disappointing. Then there are the "Big Guns". We have the Mega MASTADON at $80, last years RHINOFIRE still at about $100, and maybe the most popular of them all... the HYPERFIRE can now be found for just under $50.

These pretty guns are gonna' cost you a pretty penny!

It sure would be nice to win some shopping spree contest or even better yet, Hasbro could send me some products to review!  Well until then I will keep saving up for that next big new NERF purchase, and before you know it Christmas will be here too...
This doesn't mean that I've had to go altogether cold turkey on blasters, I found a couple of things to satisfy my NERFurge for now but they aren't exactly NERF.

The first New blaster I've added to the arsenal is this  Ultra-Tek SENTINEL from Buzz Bee toys.

Wallymart was clearing these out for 5 dollars so I grabbed one and was not disappointed. This SLINGFIRE look-a-like is almost the same size as the original NERF lever action and is (YAY) compatible with NERF dips and chips. It has a metal handle which can be a little rough on the fingers but I think it needs it because the spring tension is substantial and this blaster does out range the SLINGFIRE right out of the box. This blaster is a good candidate for several upgrade mods. 

Buzz Bee SENTINEL- will use NERF clips and elite darts, cost $5.

Another really affordable and VERY decent blaster was this Buzz Bee Air Max BARON. I picked it up for less than half of what a NERF BIGSHOCK was going for and I think it's at least as good if not a better blaster.

Buzz Bee BARON- Comparable to a BIGSHOCK but fires 2 darts sequentially, cost $3.

    Another little side project I started last weekend as kind of a "chatroom" topic on Google+ The idea was to take this old broken TEK-20 and try to bring it back to life using only parts I could find laying around the house/shop/garage... Well the only interest in this project was one NERFER who suggested that I paint it. I will paint, I swear I will!!!
In fact I've become a little obsessive about this little beat-up, hacked-up blaster. I've found some old parts and junk, and I've come up with a few idea's of my own... I've been working pretty hard on this thing since then.

Broken and battered... what will become of this old blaster?

So I guess that will be my closing teaser... next post I'll have an update as to the progress of this Mod.
Also thanks for the 20 thousand page views, I appreciate it very much! I'm going to try and post a little more often and stop goofing around on that NERF community so much.
Oh! Don't forget to check out the NERF or NOTHING!-Community for more NERF in your life!

                                            NERF ON NERFerS!!!