Nerf Elite "Mega" - Opinion/Rant

With the release of info and a pic of the Nerf Elite Mega line from MLD (link left), numerous thoughts come to mind, and I thought I would document them all in a single huge post.

First thing that comes to mind, the ranges. 100ft flat from a stock blaster is unheard of, because in the past Nerf has been obsessed with minimising mod potential. This sudden change of heart was evident as soon as the Elite line came out. In the N-Strike line, the predominant plunger system is a reverse plunger, which has a large amount of deadspace and small air output, thus severely limiting modded potential. The Elite line features all new internals designs, all with direct plungers, with much less deadspace and larger air output, obviously meaning greater modded potential. While the N-Strike line was advertised to have 35ft ranges (~10m), the Elite line has been advertised to have 75ft ranges for the US versions (~23m). The new Elite Mega Centurion is said to have a 2ft long plunger tube, which is much, much larger than any previously seen plunger tubes (the PT of an LS is less than 15cm/6"), and has advertised ranges of 100ft (~30m). Given the supposed size of the Centurion's plunger tube, I expect 200ft+ ranges from it and the rest of the line.

But why the need for such extreme ranges? Well apparently Nerf is trying to compete with modders, by introducing stock blasters which can compete with modded blasters. I personally think this may potentially backfire, because the nature of the plunger tube in the Centurion (and thus presumably all Mega blasters). As mentioned earlier the plunger tubes are massive, and thus we can expect some serious power from them. The Longshot is capable of 160ft + ranges (50m) and its plunger is a quarter the size, if not less, than the Centurion's. By this then, assuming ranges are directly proportional to air output (which it is not, but anyway), the Centurion modded to use normal sized darts, can get ranges upwards of 600ft. This is outright dangerous. Obviously 600ft ranges are not possible with Nerf darts, but you get the idea, the Centurion can be seriously powerful.

Next we come to the colour scheme, possibly the shortest part of this rant. The Mega line appears to be red. Given that the only other blasters in red were the super rare red series, there will be few accessories which can colour co-ordinate with the Mega line, but no doubt Nerf will make some accessories to match. Nevertheless, the red is cool. TacTag has pointed out that this will make customisations look really strange, given the variety of colour Nerf has given us, but I personally don't care a whole lot because the red is kind of cool.

Which brings us neatly to accessories and attachments. The accessories of the N-Strike line were all yellow and orange to match with the yellow and orange blasters, while the accessories of Elite have blue instead. This means that Nerf will have to make a whole new set of accessories just to colour co-ordinate. This will cause some damage to wallets and bank accounts, but since accessories in general aren't particularly expensive, they won't do a lot of damage. And of course this allows them to make all-new accessories, like a firing attachment that MLD hinted at (which is some kind of underslung grenade launcher/shotgun). But that's for another post.

A main point that comes up when talking about the Mega line's colour is design. From what I can tell, the Centurion largely resembles a Longstrike Longshot hybrid in red. Obviously it's missing a traditional sniper scope, but it does have a bipod (which was featured on the Longshot) with some kind of new tech, and shells are of course all new. It does not appear to have a removable barrel extension, which means that unlike the Longshot and Longstrike, you can't turn it from a sniper rifle into a heavy rifle. This is not much of an issue considering there are other blasters coming out, but it just means the Centurion lacks the same customisability of the Longshot and Longstrike.
The Centurion's general styling is quite similar to the N-Strike and Elite lines, so we can expect the designs to fit right in with their younger and weaker cousins, which is good when it comes to customisation.

There will be several 'Mega' blasters being released this year. One of which is of course the Centurion, presumably the sniper of the line. There will probably be 3 others in the initial wave (in keeping with recent Nerf tradition of 4 blasters per initial wave). I'm going to hazard a guess at an LMG blaster, possibly a Mega Stampede or Vulcan, a huge single shot pistol, and maybe an assault rifle or revolver. Naturally they'll be far larger than their N-Strike/Elite counterparts because the plungers will be far bigger, as will the barrels. Obviously this is baseless guessing, but it's just my opinion and I'm sure you guys will have different ideas.

EDIT: I believe that there are actually 3 Mega blasters in the initial wave, so besides the Centurion I think that a revolver and a rifle, or a rifle and an LMG will be released this year. Next year, who knows?

Now on to the final and in my opinion, biggest talking point. Sure the ranges are awesome and internals huge, but you can home make those from PVC piping and other bits and pieces. Sure the colour is different to Elite, N-Strike and Vortex, but you can always paint over them. In my opinion, the biggest talking point and potential issue is the ammo. The Mega line uses huge darts, supposedly 1 inch by 4 inches, which is drastically larger than an ordinary dart, and going into arrow size territory. The Mega blasters use such huge darts for safety reasons, as Elite darts would cause bruising and potential haemorrhaging, which of course is not good. Additionally these "Mega Darts" are extremely stable and accurate at 100ft ranges. So when it comes to performance and safety, Mega darts are all set. What makes me cringe, however, is the fact that the Mega darts are not the same size as Elite darts, and thus to supply Mega blasters with ammo, Nerfers will have to buy stacks of new Mega darts, Mega Clips (mags) and Drums, and possibly Mega Vests/Bandoliers etc. This means people will have to effectively rebuild their stash, and considering how much money a lot of people spend amassing a heap of Elite darts and clips (mags)/drums, Mega Nerfers will have to spend even more (assuming Mega dart cost > Elite dart cost) on building up a smaller Mega stash. Given that the Elite line universalised everything with the Elite dart, I think it's a bit of a backwards step in compatability with the new Mega darts. It will also make carrying spare ammo a lot harder, because Mega darts are so much bigger, and thus the clips (mags) must be bigger. Current N-Strike/Elite clips (mags) barely fit into a lot of military ammo pouches, and thus the Mega clips (mags) have no chance of such a feat. To fit in said pouches, Nerfers using the Mega line will probably have to stick with 6 MCS clips (mags) (or possibly even not use clips [mags] at all), while Elite and Vortex users can fit 10 disc mags/12 dart clips (mags) or possibly even the 20 disc and 18 dart clips (mags). As a result Mega-Nerfers will be severely handicapped when it comes to capacity.

I personally don't understand why Nerf chose to go so big with their blasters, considering that a lot of countries will probably get downtuned versions (read: Australia), reducing them to the range of US spec Elite blasters or even less potentially. Given the size of the ammo, it is possible that they won't get downtuned, but considering the standpoint on Elite blasters (which are significantly less powerful), they probably will get downtuned. I personally am perfectly fine with current Elite performance and potential. I don't understand why Nerf decided to take on modders, because chances are whatever they make can be modded to be even better. Case in point, assuming the Centurion has a plunger as large as it was stated to be, it will be an absolute modder's heaven with power upgrades.

My opinion is that the Elite Mega line is an interesting move, but I probably won't get many considering how hard I've worked to get a large clip (mag) system blaster, clip (mag)/drum and Streamline/Elite dart stash. Sure they'll probably be loads of fun, but for wars the scarcity of ammo will be a major disadvantage. That and their size. The Centurion is 1.5m long. That's almost as long as I am tall. We can also expect it to be wide to account for the ammo size, probably in the ballpark of Vortex blaster width.

Personally I'll just stick with an Elite AT, Stryfe, direct plungered Longstrike or a brass breeched Longshot.

Feel free to contribute your thoughts in the comments.