Shelf Watch: Nerf suction micro darts, Bonus Rumors!

A short one...

Back in the mid 2012 era, there was a lot of speculation about Hasbro's big shift from N-Strike to N-Strike Elite, and part of that included darts. Some early leaked presentation slides hinted at older types of micro darts being dropped with the introduction of Elite darts.

Well, fast forward to now, and that's just what has happened. Sonics and Streamlines are no more, and New Dart Tag has gone exclusive-distribution in the US and taken the associated Taggers along with. That leaves nothing but them newfangled 1.0g streamlines on the shelves at the vast majority of retailers.

With one exception.

I guess Hasbro felt people would miss the classic Suction Micro. After all, that novelty of having darts stick to targets, walls, doors, glass, even people, is uniquely nerf. So they have soldiered on unchanged, still with orange foam, still in a 16-round bag, with a new Elite-scheme cardboard closure (note the non-elite N-Strike logo).

You knew this? You knew these darts were still in production? Yeah, I expected that. The real reason I posted was that these darts are W-code and have the same old high-density foam that you would expect from W-codes circa 2011. Cool. I haven't polled all of the stores within reach to determine if anything else is out there, but I think it's reasonable to assume all of these are W-code.

Speaking of those blasted tip codes, no one really knows what they come from or mean, only that all darts since about 2007 have them, and the darts are clearly not of the same origins by their minute details. And, sometimes, not so minute details (though Elite standardization efforts that were disclosed to Wired Magazine are definitely a thing, and have leveled the playing field a bit). The best speculation seems to be different plants that Hasbro employs to manufacture darts. I figure that Plant W had their process really down to a science for the old "Non-Elite" Nerf micro foam and thus was the chosen one to keep rolling on these older darts.


Now for those bonus rumors...

Super Soaker Freezefire on Target.com!

What have we here?

A quick search turned up nothing but Target site hits. Interesting. Has Hasbro sneaked this one all the way to retail without us noticing?

And what is it? Another triggerless syringe gun. With an ice tank. Meh.