Thursday 11 April 2013

Elite Distance. Elite Dart. Elite Design. Elite Names? Apparently, Not Always.

Name that Tune. (hint, its the same as the last one.)


I have never been fishing. So I have no idea what a can of worms look like, let alone seen an open one. However, it seems I have done exactly that, opened a can of worms (just in case you didn't get the metaphor).



I did not go out and buy a Nerf Elite Alpha Trooper CS-12, and probably never will. Instead I was given one to handle and test, write a review and give back. I constructed, what I believe, to be a fair review on an excellent blaster. But in doing so, it raised a very odd (or if your a pessimist like me, worrying) discovery.

With the Elite Alpha Trooper, nothing was changed but the internals to give us extra power, added a smaller clip and gave it a paint job. This is not the first time this sort of thing has happened.

With the Elite range, Nerf have been changing and improving its best selling lines. The Barricade became the Stockade, the Recon became the Retailator, and the Raider became the Rampage. All three had new, improved internals, new clips as standard etc but more importantly, all had a name change. (note: I have purposely left out the Maverick to Strongarm and the Nite-Finder to FireStrike changes as I feel that they are now totally different blasters.)

 
Yet the AT stayed an AT
Why?
If the Elite is new and better than ever, why keep the name when everything before it changed?

Maybe Nerf liked the name?
Maybe it was more cost effective to keep it the same?
Maybe the head of Nerf's name is in fact 'Mr Al Pha-Trooper?'
Who knows.





But whats in a name anyway? Unless you're a human, not a lot really.

Pokemon would probably still be as popular if it had gone by its Japanese name of Pocket Monsters. Because the game was so good. Not by the name on the box. On the flip side, Justin Beiber would sound just as awful if his name was Whiny McSicklyface. But I digress.

It is not the box or the name we buy and enjoy. It is the blaster. To explain my earlier comment, the reason I will not be buying an EAT is not because I am outraged that Hasbro did not change it's name. I will not be buying one because they could have done so much more with the blaster itself.

We WILL see blasters in the future that have aspects and even names of their predecessors. This is because Hasbro are a smart company, and have armies of people testing, analysing and market researching their sales on a daily basis. The reason why we have an Elite AT and an Elite Rayven in the first place is because they sold brilliantly. And now with the Elite dart system, Nerf theorises it will sell brilliantly again. Are you or I going to stop them? Of course not.

But. Something completely new. A new design. New Name. Never before seen before blaster would not go amiss either. (Mega Centurion anyone?)

Well, here's hoping.

MerryUnBirthday.
  

4 comments:

  1. They basically fussed the maverick and spectre together to get the strongarm, i didn't understand why they didn't do that with the rampage, I would have loved a vertical mag well rampage using the pump grip instead of the uncomfortable handle on the AT.

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  2. am i the only one commenting on this site?

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  3. If Nerf can combine the Maverick and Spectre, surely they can combine the Alpha Trooper and Raider???

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