Looking Forward into 2015

Whilst most of us are nursing a sore head after the new year festivities, many are looking at 2014 and reflecting on another great year of NERFing. We've seen an unprecedented number of new blasters this year but more importantly, it has been a great year for the British community.

Looking forward into 2015, not only do I want to think about the shiny new blasters that we are going to see, but I want to talk about making 2015 an even better year for NERFing in the UK.

New Blasters.

I'd be lying to say that I'm not excited about this year's releases. Even though most of us already know what to expect, I'm sure the good people at Hasbro have a couple of surprises up their sleeves. Whether or not they'll blow our socks off remains to be seen but I am expecting some great new releases on all fronts. With MEGA, Elite, Zombiestrike and Rebelle now thriving (notice I didn't include Vortex in that statement), I had wondered if the NERF brand had been spread too thinly but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

I am also hoping to see a variety of accessories this year. Who knows what they will be but my spidey sense has been tingling about this for a while.

Community First.

My aim and the purpose of this blog has always been to support the hobby here in the UK. When I first started NERFing some 8 years ago, there was nothing here in the UK in terms of support. I felt I was a lone nerd playing with kids toys like I'd seen other communities do from afar. Now there is the BritNerf forum, a thriving and friendly community of like-minded people, most of whom are right here in the UK.

The BritNerf forum is the backbone of the hobby in the United Kingdom. Without it there would be no way for us to organise wars on a national scale. No way to share offers on blasters and new materials to fuel the modifications. Most importantly of all, without the forum I would not have met some of the brilliant people who are active there. Especially those who I have come to know as friends. I was glad to find the forum when I did and I was honoured to have been appointed admin shortly afterwords. Nearly 3 years later, the forum is going from strength to strength and growing at an unexpected rate.

Above all else, I hope that the community will continue to thrive in 2015. It is already looking like we'll have a record number of wars this year and I am certain that we'll see some new faces there.

But that's enough sentiment from me. I'm sure you're all reaching for your buckets by now.

I think I'll close by simply saying thank you to the members of the forum for posting some excellent topics and hosting some awesome wars. Thank you to Hasbro for supplying me with blasters to review. Thank you also to Blasterparts and Blastersmiths UK for making some awesome products and going to the expense of sending some to me for review.

Lastly, I owe the biggest thanks to all of my readers. Each and every one of you are awesome and I wish I could give you all a hug. You guys are what make the late nights worth it.

Have a great 2015 everyone.

Kevin