Tek Recon Kickstarter/Pre Production Things

EDIT: This post is being used for archival purposes for everything before Tek Recon's official retail launch.

A lot of you will already have heard of Tek Recon, but some of you might not have. Basically they are super awesome looking and functional rubber band blasters. Like those ones you used in primary school (possibly secondary school and even Uni), except far cooler looking and far more functional.

EDIT 4/6/13: Tek Recon is fully funded!

Pictures of their first two blasters, the Hammerhead (pistol) and the Havok (rifle).

The ammo itself is a small, round rubber (?) like piece which is much, much smaller than a Nerf dart. They are called 'NRG' rounds (Non-marking, Reusable, Gaming), and as named, they do not leave marks on walls, obstacles and people, are reusable numerous times, and are intended for outdoor video games, so to speak. The retail version of the NRG rounds will be orange, as you can see further below.

Functionality wise the blasters are both semi auto (shot per trigger pull) AND slam-fire (pull pump back to fire). In this way if your trigger finger gets tired or you need to fire very quickly, you can use the pump and rest your trigger finger. Ranges are advertised to be 75ft+, so they'll easily compete with Elite and Vortex blasters.

A feature that sets Tek Recon apart from all other projectile blasters is the smartphone functionality. By using the camera on a device such as the iPhone and iPod Touch, you get some awesome functions, like the following:

Fancy semi-functional reticle with the camera, with digital zoom!

Heat vision (night vision as well)

And coolest of all, scannable flags! (scannable powerups and other things to come too)

Besides those functions, there's also a team chat function, team setting functions, and all the other features you'd expect from a team FPS game. Except of course instead of stabbing away at keys and a mouse, you're running around and firing the blasters yourself. Tek Recon themselves describe it as an outdoor video game, idea for kids/teens/kidults who can't get enough of video games, and parents who are fed up of kids constantly staring at a computer screen rapidly pressing buttons.

Some videos Tek Recon has made.


I just love this vid, so much awesomeness. Recoil, awesome looking blasters, awesome firing, what's not to love?

Anyway, they're running a Kickstarter project (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/graemebissett/tek-recon-the-first-real-life-video-game)
(FB Page too: https://www.facebook.com/TekRecon?fref=ts)
Their target is $50,000 (USD), and with 16 days remaining, have already gotten $32,137 USD pledged! (64%)
If you agree that these blasters looks awesome and should be made into retail products, support Tek Recon! The more you pledge, the more awesome blasters you get, and you can get some really awesome paintschemes too!

Why am I personally excited for it? Well it's the first new blaster line to come out recently that uses triggers and reusable ammo that isn't a foam dart (at least that I'm aware of). That and their incredibly awesome designs. 72 round capacity in their generic assault rifle blaster? Who knows just how much they'll fit in a hypothetical LMG....

Below are some of the rewards they offer for certain pledge levels.

So what are you waiting for? If you want these awesome blasters to get to mass production for retail, go ahead and pledge!

EDIT: Just for future reference I'm moving the Beta App showcase into this post.

Tek Recon has uploaded a video of the Beta version of their App.
 
Important features of note:
-Armoury which has several 'loadouts', containing a blaster, a reticle, firing sound and powerup. This lets you customise your HUD to whatever you want, and lets the ammo counter work.
-HUD - has reticle, a radar indicating position of other players, ammo counter specific to your blaster, vision type changes (normal - night vision - infrared - x-ray) and possibly other things I've missed

Besides the ammo counter, you could very well use the Tek Recon app on Nerf blasters, such as using the upcoming Mission Kit that holds an iPhone, or something like my homemade iPod Touch holder (which was made over a year before said Mission Kit was revealed).

Remember to keep supporting Tek Recon! They're closing in on their goal of $50,000 (USD), but need a final push to get over the line.

EDIT 2: Tek Recon is fully funded!

That's right people, Tek Recon has passed their goal of $50,000 with 7 days to go! Congrats guys!

What does this mean? Well it means that we will get to see the awesome Tek Recon blasters and other accessories go into production, as well as see some awesome products for the future.
Thanks to everyone who backed Tek Recon, allowing them to get the kickstart they need to turn their awesome concept into a reality!
Right now Tek Recon are on the brink of $60k!

EDIT 3:
Tek Recon Kickstarter over, with $59,298 USD! Congrats!

EDIT 4:
Tek Recon threw up a quick range test video, with flowers marking 10ft marks, and two girls (who are rare in a blaster hobby, especially ads and all that).
Ranges seem to be 60-70ft on a normal shot, with freak shots up to 90ft. For stock blasters with our current range of blasters, this is pretty good, competing with Elites as well as the Mega stuff (assuming Centurion range tests are to be believed). Tek Recon's looking better and better!



Go Like their FB page for updates and all that. 
Good news for those who wanted to support Tek Recon's Kickstarter but either didn't have the money or didn't find out in time! Also a show of the semi auto mechanism with the trigger, and the recoil mech.

EDIT 5:
This from the Tek Recon FB page:
"
Hey TRibe!

We know that many of your were disappointed when you couldn’t pledge for multiple tiers on our KickStarter campaign. We also have heard there are some people found out about our campaign after the deadline passed. We’ve had such a positive response from the Tek Recon community that we wanted to find a solution to bring more Tek Recon to the TRibe! We are happy to announce that we will be doing a very special ADD-ON campaign!

This is the opportunity to purchase additional Tek Recon products without the limitations of a Pledge Tier. You can pick what products you’d like to have shipped to you and we’ll make it happen. Limited quantities are available so make sure to get in on this ASAP. All product is subject to availability at the time of order. Campaign ends July 31st, 2013 midnight EST.

Product
We will be offering the following:

HammerHeads ($25 each)
Havoks ($40 each)
Battle Packs ($50 each)
Packs of 25 NRG ($5 each)
Exploding Targets ($10 for a pack of 3)
Tek Recon Flags ($10 for a pack of 2)
Hammer Head Replacement magazines with 25 NRG rounds ($15 each)
Havok Replacement Cartridges with 72 NRG rounds ($20 each)

Ordering:
Send us an e-mail at tekreconcommand@gmail.com and let us know the following:
→Name
→KickStarter Backer Name (if applicable)
→Product(s) you’d like
→Shipping Information

Payment:
We will send you an invoice via paypal once we receive your e-mail order. Once you pay that invoice we will send you a confirmation e-mail to let you know that we’ll be shipping your order once it’s ready!

Shipping:
US & Canada: FREE!
International KickStarter Backers: FREE shipping on NRG, Targets, Flags, Cartridges. $15 shipping for blasters.
New International Backers: $15 shipping & handling for all products.
"

And now for that rapid fire vid:

As far as I can tell, trigger pull looks/sounds really easy on rapid fire mode, although the recoil mech might ruin your aim slightly. As for the max ROF, we'll have to see when we get our hands on it, but assuming the pump action thing is as easy or easier than Nerf's slam fire, a ROF of 6rps or more is certainly possible.