Glad to see more people talking about overconsumption. In my area we have a lot of people collecting beyond their means, I even know someone who went bankrupt and now homeless because they SEVERLY mismanaged their excessive Nerf collection. So many people think that something is worth buying or keeping, even to sell. I have to remind myself not to feed into the collection mentality when I see so many people posting pics of massive collections, full of toys that nobody has touched in years... Saving money by not thrifting and buying all the new releases enabled me to buy some Bambu printers, and now I can build way cooler stuff when I see something that catches my eye, among all the other uses I've found for 3d printing.
This is exactly how I felt about the Stryker 2.0. I already had the OG Stryker and a tomcat. Didn't feel like I needed the 2.0. Thank you for the video and your thoughts. Take care.
Brett, I feel like you’ve ascended from “that goofy RUclipsr” to a legitimate scholar of the hobby. The idea of starting over is tempting, especially since I haven’t been able to make it to more than a couple events in this past year, and I haven’t used 90% of my arsenal like ever. When I first got into this hobby as a lil 15 year old I would get my mom to take me to every goodwill we found and buy every blaster that interested me in the least. (Looking back, I realize that I had really attached to being a “Nerf enthusiast “ as a core part of my identity…) If I did start over now, I probably would only buy a solid, workable primary like a Nexus X and some smaller flywheeler to fit that need if it arises. I also used to attach more value to “custom” blasters, with personalized designs and cool paint jobs, again because I associated these blasters with my identity and how cool they made me appear. TL;DR: Brett is cool, I would act less materialistic, and the spring thunder is awesome but not super practical for me. ✌️
Back in the day you would need an understanding of how blasters work to make a hobby grade build, whereas now you can buy the best of the best online from some company. That effort in customisation is what built the attachment to the blaster for me but I can't bring myself to start a project with how often "better" blasters are being released.
If i were to start over again, i definitely wouldn't have as many blasters. Im not sure if i even would start collecting again. My collection is purely based on what I think looks cool. I dont go for certain lines or time periods, if its currently available and looks cool i get it. I got nstike blasters as a kid, elite blasters a bit during high school, but after i graduated and got a job, i went and bought blasters i missed out on. But now, less things seem interesting to me. I love gimmicky blasters regardless of performance, but they seem to have died. What i find cool now are the hobby grade blasters weve been seeing from dart zone lately, but even as you mentioned, you dont need a bunch of mag fed half dart springers. And with no local clubs, its hard to justify getting anything else. And ive got interested in other hobbies now. One day i may downsize my collection to a few sentimental blasters, but for now its definitely not growing at the rate it once was
"Your whole collection- dust." Looking around, I'd say a very large percentage of my "collection" is already basically dust. Or at least veeery small pieces. Seriously though, it's a compelling thought, indeed. I'm actually planning to sort through and eliminate a lot of stuff this fall. Many nerfers in my area were avid thrifters in the past and are now thinning their collection as well. I've noticed the topic is becoming more common throughout the hobby. I think the community is entering a very curious and uncertain season. It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out. And I'd totally take that Brett Blaster, by the way. No foolin'.
Yeah, I have only been in the hobby about 1-2 years, so I have the benefit of everyone else's experience to learn from without "too much" nostalgia for all the blasters of the past. Despite that, I still have too many blasters, accessories, targets, gear, etc... I feel like I could trim 25% of it, but the cold truth is that I could probably stand to cut it down by 50 or even 75%. They're so cool though!
I've recently been paring down my collection so I've had a lot of opportunity to think about this. If I had to start over, I'd rebuild mostly with things things in my current collection that I decided to keep. As a springer main, an Orion Blasters Lynx, Gavinfuzzy SBL, or Worker Harrier will cover most bases. I'd prefer the Lynx but would be happy with any of those. Toss in whatever the latest and greatest flywheeler is since my current one is an ancient FDL 3 and I have not kept up with flywheel tech at all. Finish it off with a few fun plinkers like the X-Shot Lock Blaster and Modulus Longstrike and that's probably all I need.
I wanted one blaster, but after find so many cool, rare, or unique blasters, "one" eventually became an arsenal, which then became a cluttered mess. Ive proceeded to donate all the extra blasters i had lying around despite not making money back on them. Usually if i can find them for a few bucks, I'm not too concerned on making money back on them.
Worth throwing a nerf war and bringing the extras out as loaners and then afterward saying “you just want that? you can have it. You are doing me a favor.”
I only just started building a collection, so it's still small. That said the thrift stores around me don't really carry toys at all and I'm hesitant to buy new blasters at full price, so it's not growing particularly fast. I also mostly lean towards 3d printed blasters, and those tend to be pricier even though I'm only going for hardware kits and doing the printing and assembly myself. I may have bought almost all of LeedleDynamics' designs because stringers are fun and don't require hardware kits.
I reccomend you dont pursue 3d printed blasters any further. Ive had a ton and they all have tons of issues. What id reccomend is a nice reliable blaster like an seagull, harrier, or aeb platform and a pistol, so a nightingale, zinc, lepus, whatever ya feel suits how you play. Tldr pick a blaster and train with it.
@@thefogiscomingthef0giscoming Nah. I've had zero problems with my Caliburn 4, Yeethammers, WIldstyle, or any of my LeedleDynamics stringers. Worst case scenario is a part cracks and I have to reprint it, which is an incredibly minor thing.
hasbro has certainly made it easier. being they only produce something worth buying once in a blue moon anymore. dart zone is getting to be the one that's filling my shelves. i think i'd go with a complete loadout, pump action springer/sniper, cqb flywheeler, side arm, and backup. likely something like a nexus pro x, maxim, DZP mk2, Aeon pro x, and the solo pro. as cool as they are, i don't think i'd miss my mk1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 3, or mk4. my 1.1 isn't as reliable as my npx, the 1.2 is a meme, the 2.1 is cool but a bit too bulky, the mk3 is not as comfy as the maxim or even the omnia, (though the omnia is also a meme), the mk4 i don't think has a direct replacement in the AF or DZ lines, so maybe just hold on to that until a more sniperesque one comes along. as far as hasbro stuff, i think i'd just want my modded longshot and stryfe, a retaliator, and maybe a hammershot and a jolt. xshot would be the longshot pro, turbo advance, hurricane, and kickback. likely stay away from rival and other ball blasters, mod everything to be short dart only. but then sitting here looking at my collection, i see things that i would definitely like to keep around, like the roughcut, villianator, conquest pro, and a mess of others. this is hard man.
I just started college and now I finally realize I got an opportunity like this. I can't take everything but I shouldn't take nothing. I settled on only two because I knew I would have limited space. (I settled on a SBL mega I bought from foamdemic and a spring thunder I wanted to work on more.) Now I don't have a secondary, or even a half dart blaster. I'm happy you made me appreciate this moment more.
I had to sell off a lot of my blasters after highschool, didnt have the space to store or work on them once i was out on my own. I kept most of the heavily modified stuff and ditched anything that wouldve required a garage full of tools to make viable, If i were you i would never sell that fancy X-Shot, thats special to you. theres nothing wrong with downsizing your collection but personally i wouldnt ditch any favorite projects or anything with easily tapped potential.
I make it an exercise to have a top ten I would keep. Some for fun, some for nostalgia. It’s tough, but I’ve been thinking of scaling back as well. Your videos are a great breath of fresh air.
I have a collection that is too large - of 1-buck blasters. Seriously. Almost all my blasters come from our local "solidary store", which always puts Nerf blasters at 1 euro apiece (well, but for the very last one I bought, which was 3 bucks). Either that, of the really special ones - a Sentinel, a "Longxhot", and two, count'em, two BuzzBee Flintlocks. Everything else was bought for cheap, and I would have no worry selling it for cheap again (well, but for the 1-euro Vulcan. That one is bragging rights). EDIT: No, the M41A Pulse Rifle does not count as a Nerf blaster. It counts as a personal friend of mine.
I don't thick I could bring myself to get rid of my best mods. I've put probably 100's of hours into Siren (the mostly printed 3 barrel fly wheeler using a demolisher as a base) , and unless it was a truly absurd amount of money I don't think I could be convinced to sell it. It's the kind of thing that I couldn't even rebuild if I wanted to. Dragonfly (manta double dealer) was a much easier mod by comparison but it has a lot of sentimental value since it was my first big mod and got featured on Drac's channel. Everything else is relatively simple mods, 3d printed blasters, and common to rare stock stuff that I would miss but could rebuy or rebuild. If I had to truly restart from scratch I'd probably buy a brushless flywheeler, koda mags, and a 3d printed springer like an alchemist or a SBL 1 or 2. That would give me 2 blasters that I would be able to use at pretty much any game I went to.
Personalized mods, creations, and homemades definitely have strong sentimental value. That's why in my case I really don't have as much to worry about.
When I played paintball, I had one marker and one mask that I used for years.. I played for the games more than the collection. When I got into foam flinging I had a bit of nostalgia and collected stuff from fb marketplace and thrift stores... but then I realized I was accumulating stuff, amd only using 4 blasters (Nexus Pro, Dictator, Hades and a rotation of rival pistols) in my games. I am really into the games more than collecting stuff again... but now I have so much stuff, but I have also learned a lot. If I had to throw it all away and start over I would buy an Aeon Pro X(barrel mod,worker ak stock), 8 talon mags and a venom pro (and a few nightingale 15 rounders)... with all of this amd a pile of worker heavies, I could be happy for 90% of my Foam Flinging activities
As someone who is trying to seriously slim down their collection, i have thought about it a lot. I ended up with my SBF, Inverted Scales, SBL and diana for my serious blasters. And then the jury, wingchester and firefly for gimmick blasters. And then i have a spamf and gryphon for my larp setup. And thats out of the 30-40 custom built blasters, and the buckets of modded nerf stuff i have around
i will add to this that ive slowed down on collecting until i finish some projects, though i recently picked up a rare obscure blaster for my collection that im very happy about
I've been thinking about a similar question with some of my friends and a local HVZ club being directly affected by hurricane Helene. If I could only save so much from being destroyed by floodwaters, what would it be? At this point, I wouldn't choose to start over, but if I did, my first buy would probably be a Venom Pro. That's a great example of what you were talking about, because I already have a nightingale 1.0 and the Venom fills the same role. But I'd be giving everything to rebuild my GNK-200 Manatee or Anoid Meowser first!
As someone who helps run games for a nerf club, if I could start over, I'd focus more on the logistics side of things. Building barriers for the games, creating interesting game modes, being the referee in the games. That kind of stuff. Doing all of that leaves me very little room to actually fight in the nerf wars. And I think I'm starting to like the idea. Running the games is a whole new experience.
This was started sounding like a Retro Bird video! (which is a good comparison). I agree 100%. At one point I had over 150 blasters, but after slowly downsizing plus getting rid of an entire bin this summer, I'm down to 72. (60 if you don't count the Jolts) There's even a few more that could be on their way out. Just the other day while thrifting I saw a Nemesis, Artemis, Helios and Kronos, all $5 USD each that I would have absolutely snagged six years ago. But not now, I'm content with what I have.
This is a very compelling video, I have started to "thin the heard" myself. I find myself seeing the newest blasters in review videos and wondering if its better than what I have and of that what I like to run.
That is essentially what I did. I played with Nerf a lot back in the days, but I stopped even looking at it in the late 90's to early 2000s (I moved after graduating and toys weren't exactly high priority). None of my old collection exists, other than maaaaaybe a Secret shot buried in a tote with a bunch of Lego and a Reflex/Jolt which were purchased a while after that... which I have no idea if I still have those. I didn't really look at Nerf (or Dart Zone, etc) till 2019, and one of the first things I bought after all that time, was an off-brand single-shot front loader (it looked cool) and an N-Strike Elite Disrupter... which was brand new from Amazon and did not work upon delivery. Had to send that back. I don't do competitions so it's more for plinking or... "other" activities. That Reflex/Jolt? Those had spring upgrades and a modified dart semi-permanently attached into the barrel. Basically a Bug-A-Salt made from a Nerf blaster before I made a $2 slingshot which did the job 100x better and promptly lost track of them or may have accidentally thrown them out. I've made some bad purchases since then. I've made some really fun purchases since then. I've wasted money on things that are meant for competing but I don't (See the issue here lol?) I've bought things to mod then never do. It's been a bit since I purchased something Dart-Flinging related. I'm starting to slip back into that "It's not worth buying if I'm not going to be using the heck out of it" mindset, which is not a bad thing. Yeah, I've done this. I may just do it again in the future.
I would probably have just gotten a Harrier with saber aftermarket internals, and 2 fullauto nightingales, and a couple somethings that fling mega or demolisher rockets. I would probably be able to store the blasters I actually use together in a large suit case. I feel like for the plinking I like to do and the tag hope to play one day hopefully regularly when those days come those would cover my style of play. Outside of practice and tagging I would probably want somethings to fill out specific mechanisms of operation, like a bolt action blaster and a primary sized select fire blaster. I have largely stopped collecting because of bloat, I want to eventually either do large projects to combine shells or modify elite series that I collected.
I decieded a long time ago that quality over quantity is what I wanted. I only have so much space and blasters that don't get used is just money being wasted. If I find something rare, take a picture of it for the archives then sell it off to someone who actually wants it. Momentum gets used at every event, my Lynx and TC have almost been retired at this point. If I had to start over, probably get a spirit, a more affordable brushless flywheeler. Just the spirit, some kodas, some darts, and Im all set.
I kinda started over. Lost the ability to mod, after a motorcycle accident left me handicapped in one hand. Sold all my old projects. Commissioned Valtek Armory to build me new stuff, that works out of the box. Got 15 blasters now, and use almost all of them regularly. It's a different hobby, not modding but just playing.
I had NO idea about that and it surely was not obvious when we played together two weeks ago. So for next years 'unoffical Euro Foam gathering' at TnT: End play at 8pm and make common story time at campfire/bbq for most mandatory where we can talk about this aspect of the hobby!
@Hoeni2000 next year we will be able to play until 10pm on the Saturday, we have already bought a bunch of extra strong lights to accommodate that😁👍 We had a bbq on the Friday evening. If you could join us next year on the Friday, we plan on doing it again
i came into nerf later and oddly i went after old neat stuff. I was never into the new hotness just the old weirdness so yes i should cut back a bit but i would still go for weird fun stuff like vortex, b-balls and boomco. Its weird but its fun to be weird sometimes :)
Ive said this a lot. All you need is your tac gear, a good, reliable rifle platform and a pistol that works for you. You dont need 50 different blasters and whatever new thing dart zone makes.
I am trying to thin down my 300+ collection, I decided to just have 1 or 2 guns in each ammo type and get rid of all the rest. The problem is just gave them away or sell them at pennies on the dollar, or both.
500+ blasters... If I got rid of them all, Id' be really really sad. I'd feel 'free' in the same way you feel free if you were lost in the woods, naked, with nothing. I think I'd just give up nerfing and concentrate on flying FPV drones and planes again, and turn back into a loaner.
if i could just restart i probably wouldn't bother past getting the couple blasters i've enjoyed plinking with the sledgefire, nerf rival saturn and the fortnite heavy sniper rifle. my friends all decided they wanted to play airsoft and i followed suit. while i'm having fun playing with them at the end of the day when i head back home i'm just left with a small hoard of random dart blasters that i haven't done much of anything with and don't really have the budget to do stuff with since nerf and airsoft are both pretty expensive hobbies. i'd like to sell them but i really have no idea who would buy any of them.
I've been feeling the same way. Every time a new blaster is released, I'm very tempted to buy it, just because it is new. But then I have to stop to consider ... do I really need that??
I don't think I could start over. It would mean giving up my roughcuts and my rayvens, both of which are extremely hard to find for a fair price these days
it would be horrible for me because of the price... my colection is 2 of every blaster so that teams are balanced... I have 2: strykers, tomcats, dictators, mk1.2s, mk2s, mk2.1s, mk3s, solos, omnias, boomdozers, a single mk4 and I have 8 outlaws... starting over would absolutely suck...
I'm pretty disgusted with how eBay went from a way to buy used goods for an affordable price to price gouging on discontinued blasters. Like no. Your used Nexus pro with half the attachments missing is NOT worth 70 or more dollars it's USED and it's an obsolete blaster.
My first purchase would have been a AF Spectrum. I would have avoided 99% of Nerf products. Nerf brand has been a great training ground for how to mod, but basically everything is superior to it.
@@beretnarf I think I’d start from when the stryfe released, maybe a little before so I could experience all the fully homemade blasters, that would be fun
I did just start. I was in the toy section looking for a toy for my 6 year old and now I ended up with 3 zurus and a seagull but I'm wanting to buy a 3d printer 🤪
Yeah I can see where you're going with this you know if I had to start over that's fine I would have way less blasters and what I have now because I would only buy what I know to be very good quality Basically I would get rid of all my stock has Hasbro blasters I would keep basically my modified stuff and the hobby grade blasters I have
Glad to see more people talking about overconsumption. In my area we have a lot of people collecting beyond their means, I even know someone who went bankrupt and now homeless because they SEVERLY mismanaged their excessive Nerf collection. So many people think that something is worth buying or keeping, even to sell. I have to remind myself not to feed into the collection mentality when I see so many people posting pics of massive collections, full of toys that nobody has touched in years... Saving money by not thrifting and buying all the new releases enabled me to buy some Bambu printers, and now I can build way cooler stuff when I see something that catches my eye, among all the other uses I've found for 3d printing.
I think that is very true, once your collection is larger than the blasters you use is a problem
This is exactly how I felt about the Stryker 2.0. I already had the OG Stryker and a tomcat. Didn't feel like I needed the 2.0. Thank you for the video and your thoughts. Take care.
Brett, I feel like you’ve ascended from “that goofy RUclipsr” to a legitimate scholar of the hobby.
The idea of starting over is tempting, especially since I haven’t been able to make it to more than a couple events in this past year, and I haven’t used 90% of my arsenal like ever. When I first got into this hobby as a lil 15 year old I would get my mom to take me to every goodwill we found and buy every blaster that interested me in the least. (Looking back, I realize that I had really attached to being a “Nerf enthusiast “ as a core part of my identity…)
If I did start over now, I probably would only buy a solid, workable primary like a Nexus X and some smaller flywheeler to fit that need if it arises. I also used to attach more value to “custom” blasters, with personalized designs and cool paint jobs, again because I associated these blasters with my identity and how cool they made me appear.
TL;DR: Brett is cool, I would act less materialistic, and the spring thunder is awesome but not super practical for me. ✌️
Still a little goofy, but I've been in this hobby long enough now that I want to share my experiences to best inform newer folks.
Back in the day you would need an understanding of how blasters work to make a hobby grade build, whereas now you can buy the best of the best online from some company. That effort in customisation is what built the attachment to the blaster for me but I can't bring myself to start a project with how often "better" blasters are being released.
If i were to start over again, i definitely wouldn't have as many blasters. Im not sure if i even would start collecting again. My collection is purely based on what I think looks cool. I dont go for certain lines or time periods, if its currently available and looks cool i get it. I got nstike blasters as a kid, elite blasters a bit during high school, but after i graduated and got a job, i went and bought blasters i missed out on. But now, less things seem interesting to me. I love gimmicky blasters regardless of performance, but they seem to have died. What i find cool now are the hobby grade blasters weve been seeing from dart zone lately, but even as you mentioned, you dont need a bunch of mag fed half dart springers. And with no local clubs, its hard to justify getting anything else. And ive got interested in other hobbies now. One day i may downsize my collection to a few sentimental blasters, but for now its definitely not growing at the rate it once was
"Your whole collection- dust."
Looking around, I'd say a very large percentage of my "collection" is already basically dust. Or at least veeery small pieces.
Seriously though, it's a compelling thought, indeed. I'm actually planning to sort through and eliminate a lot of stuff this fall. Many nerfers in my area were avid thrifters in the past and are now thinning their collection as well. I've noticed the topic is becoming more common throughout the hobby.
I think the community is entering a very curious and uncertain season. It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out.
And I'd totally take that Brett Blaster, by the way. No foolin'.
That's the neat part
Yeah, I have only been in the hobby about 1-2 years, so I have the benefit of everyone else's experience to learn from without "too much" nostalgia for all the blasters of the past. Despite that, I still have too many blasters, accessories, targets, gear, etc...
I feel like I could trim 25% of it, but the cold truth is that I could probably stand to cut it down by 50 or even 75%. They're so cool though!
"they're so cool though" truly is the double edged sword...hey they made a nerf sword with two sides I should buy that
I've recently been paring down my collection so I've had a lot of opportunity to think about this. If I had to start over, I'd rebuild mostly with things things in my current collection that I decided to keep. As a springer main, an Orion Blasters Lynx, Gavinfuzzy SBL, or Worker Harrier will cover most bases. I'd prefer the Lynx but would be happy with any of those. Toss in whatever the latest and greatest flywheeler is since my current one is an ancient FDL 3 and I have not kept up with flywheel tech at all. Finish it off with a few fun plinkers like the X-Shot Lock Blaster and Modulus Longstrike and that's probably all I need.
I wanted one blaster, but after find so many cool, rare, or unique blasters, "one" eventually became an arsenal, which then became a cluttered mess. Ive proceeded to donate all the extra blasters i had lying around despite not making money back on them. Usually if i can find them for a few bucks, I'm not too concerned on making money back on them.
Worth throwing a nerf war and bringing the extras out as loaners and then afterward saying “you just want that? you can have it. You are doing me a favor.”
I only just started building a collection, so it's still small. That said the thrift stores around me don't really carry toys at all and I'm hesitant to buy new blasters at full price, so it's not growing particularly fast. I also mostly lean towards 3d printed blasters, and those tend to be pricier even though I'm only going for hardware kits and doing the printing and assembly myself.
I may have bought almost all of LeedleDynamics' designs because stringers are fun and don't require hardware kits.
I reccomend you dont pursue 3d printed blasters any further. Ive had a ton and they all have tons of issues. What id reccomend is a nice reliable blaster like an seagull, harrier, or aeb platform and a pistol, so a nightingale, zinc, lepus, whatever ya feel suits how you play.
Tldr pick a blaster and train with it.
@@thefogiscomingthef0giscoming Nah. I've had zero problems with my Caliburn 4, Yeethammers, WIldstyle, or any of my LeedleDynamics stringers. Worst case scenario is a part cracks and I have to reprint it, which is an incredibly minor thing.
hasbro has certainly made it easier. being they only produce something worth buying once in a blue moon anymore. dart zone is getting to be the one that's filling my shelves. i think i'd go with a complete loadout, pump action springer/sniper, cqb flywheeler, side arm, and backup. likely something like a nexus pro x, maxim, DZP mk2, Aeon pro x, and the solo pro. as cool as they are, i don't think i'd miss my mk1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 3, or mk4. my 1.1 isn't as reliable as my npx, the 1.2 is a meme, the 2.1 is cool but a bit too bulky, the mk3 is not as comfy as the maxim or even the omnia, (though the omnia is also a meme), the mk4 i don't think has a direct replacement in the AF or DZ lines, so maybe just hold on to that until a more sniperesque one comes along. as far as hasbro stuff, i think i'd just want my modded longshot and stryfe, a retaliator, and maybe a hammershot and a jolt. xshot would be the longshot pro, turbo advance, hurricane, and kickback. likely stay away from rival and other ball blasters, mod everything to be short dart only. but then sitting here looking at my collection, i see things that i would definitely like to keep around, like the roughcut, villianator, conquest pro, and a mess of others. this is hard man.
I just started college and now I finally realize I got an opportunity like this. I can't take everything but I shouldn't take nothing. I settled on only two because I knew I would have limited space. (I settled on a SBL mega I bought from foamdemic and a spring thunder I wanted to work on more.) Now I don't have a secondary, or even a half dart blaster. I'm happy you made me appreciate this moment more.
I should share what I brought to college upon first moving out
I had to sell off a lot of my blasters after highschool, didnt have the space to store or work on them once i was out on my own. I kept most of the heavily modified stuff and ditched anything that wouldve required a garage full of tools to make viable, If i were you i would never sell that fancy X-Shot, thats special to you. theres nothing wrong with downsizing your collection but personally i wouldnt ditch any favorite projects or anything with easily tapped potential.
I make it an exercise to have a top ten I would keep. Some for fun, some for nostalgia. It’s tough, but I’ve been thinking of scaling back as well. Your videos are a great breath of fresh air.
Oh top 10 is a good idea.
@@beretnarfpotential video idea! What’s Beret’s Top 10 blasters he would keep?
As a person who's getting to the point where I don't feel like I need much else, if I started over, I'd focus more on community made blasters.
1:00 you scared me there a little for a second. don’t ever do that again Bert.
SamIAm.
I have a collection that is too large - of 1-buck blasters. Seriously. Almost all my blasters come from our local "solidary store", which always puts Nerf blasters at 1 euro apiece (well, but for the very last one I bought, which was 3 bucks). Either that, of the really special ones - a Sentinel, a "Longxhot", and two, count'em, two BuzzBee Flintlocks. Everything else was bought for cheap, and I would have no worry selling it for cheap again (well, but for the 1-euro Vulcan. That one is bragging rights).
EDIT: No, the M41A Pulse Rifle does not count as a Nerf blaster. It counts as a personal friend of mine.
I don't thick I could bring myself to get rid of my best mods. I've put probably 100's of hours into Siren
(the mostly printed 3 barrel fly wheeler using a demolisher as a base) , and unless it was a truly absurd amount of money I don't think I could be convinced to sell it. It's the kind of thing that I couldn't even rebuild if I wanted to. Dragonfly (manta double dealer) was a much easier mod by comparison but it has a lot of sentimental value since it was my first big mod and got featured on Drac's channel. Everything else is relatively simple mods, 3d printed blasters, and common to rare stock stuff that I would miss but could rebuy or rebuild.
If I had to truly restart from scratch I'd probably buy a brushless flywheeler, koda mags, and a 3d printed springer like an alchemist or a SBL 1 or 2. That would give me 2 blasters that I would be able to use at pretty much any game I went to.
Personalized mods, creations, and homemades definitely have strong sentimental value. That's why in my case I really don't have as much to worry about.
When I played paintball, I had one marker and one mask that I used for years.. I played for the games more than the collection. When I got into foam flinging I had a bit of nostalgia and collected stuff from fb marketplace and thrift stores... but then I realized I was accumulating stuff, amd only using 4 blasters (Nexus Pro, Dictator, Hades and a rotation of rival pistols) in my games. I am really into the games more than collecting stuff again... but now I have so much stuff, but I have also learned a lot.
If I had to throw it all away and start over I would buy an Aeon Pro X(barrel mod,worker ak stock), 8 talon mags and a venom pro (and a few nightingale 15 rounders)... with all of this amd a pile of worker heavies, I could be happy for 90% of my Foam Flinging activities
It's such a different interest, really does become "toy collecting" above all else
As someone who is trying to seriously slim down their collection, i have thought about it a lot.
I ended up with my SBF, Inverted Scales, SBL and diana for my serious blasters.
And then the jury, wingchester and firefly for gimmick blasters.
And then i have a spamf and gryphon for my larp setup.
And thats out of the 30-40 custom built blasters, and the buckets of modded nerf stuff i have around
Funny how much more difficult this gets when you throw in custom built and homemade stuff
0:53 YOU FREAKING SCARED THE CRAP OUTTA ME
Also I was about to say "I call dibs on the Panther" 😅
honestly the bulk of my collection is projects i just haven't gotten to, a decent portion is collecting for collecting sake though.
i will add to this that
ive slowed down on collecting until i finish some projects, though i recently picked up a rare obscure blaster for my collection that im very happy about
I've been thinking about a similar question with some of my friends and a local HVZ club being directly affected by hurricane Helene. If I could only save so much from being destroyed by floodwaters, what would it be?
At this point, I wouldn't choose to start over, but if I did, my first buy would probably be a Venom Pro. That's a great example of what you were talking about, because I already have a nightingale 1.0 and the Venom fills the same role. But I'd be giving everything to rebuild my GNK-200 Manatee or Anoid Meowser first!
Definitely prefer the choice to start over vs serious life events taking everything away
All the retro stuff up until Nstrike or the weird sublines/special color varients
As someone who helps run games for a nerf club, if I could start over, I'd focus more on the logistics side of things. Building barriers for the games, creating interesting game modes, being the referee in the games. That kind of stuff. Doing all of that leaves me very little room to actually fight in the nerf wars. And I think I'm starting to like the idea. Running the games is a whole new experience.
One thing is for certain: the Viper Strike is safe.
In this economy, nothing is safe
This was started sounding like a Retro Bird video! (which is a good comparison). I agree 100%. At one point I had over 150 blasters, but after slowly downsizing plus getting rid of an entire bin this summer, I'm down to 72. (60 if you don't count the Jolts) There's even a few more that could be on their way out.
Just the other day while thrifting I saw a Nemesis, Artemis, Helios and Kronos, all $5 USD each that I would have absolutely snagged six years ago. But not now, I'm content with what I have.
This is a very compelling video, I have started to "thin the heard" myself. I find myself seeing the newest blasters in review videos and wondering if its better than what I have and of that what I like to run.
That is essentially what I did. I played with Nerf a lot back in the days, but I stopped even looking at it in the late 90's to early 2000s (I moved after graduating and toys weren't exactly high priority). None of my old collection exists, other than maaaaaybe a Secret shot buried in a tote with a bunch of Lego and a Reflex/Jolt which were purchased a while after that... which I have no idea if I still have those.
I didn't really look at Nerf (or Dart Zone, etc) till 2019, and one of the first things I bought after all that time, was an off-brand single-shot front loader (it looked cool) and an N-Strike Elite Disrupter... which was brand new from Amazon and did not work upon delivery. Had to send that back.
I don't do competitions so it's more for plinking or... "other" activities. That Reflex/Jolt? Those had spring upgrades and a modified dart semi-permanently attached into the barrel. Basically a Bug-A-Salt made from a Nerf blaster before I made a $2 slingshot which did the job 100x better and promptly lost track of them or may have accidentally thrown them out.
I've made some bad purchases since then. I've made some really fun purchases since then. I've wasted money on things that are meant for competing but I don't (See the issue here lol?) I've bought things to mod then never do. It's been a bit since I purchased something Dart-Flinging related. I'm starting to slip back into that "It's not worth buying if I'm not going to be using the heck out of it" mindset, which is not a bad thing.
Yeah, I've done this. I may just do it again in the future.
id love to start over, then my first blaster wouldn't have been the elite 2.0 commander
I would probably have just gotten a Harrier with saber aftermarket internals, and 2 fullauto nightingales, and a couple somethings that fling mega or demolisher rockets. I would probably be able to store the blasters I actually use together in a large suit case.
I feel like for the plinking I like to do and the tag hope to play one day hopefully regularly when those days come those would cover my style of play.
Outside of practice and tagging I would probably want somethings to fill out specific mechanisms of operation, like a bolt action blaster and a primary sized select fire blaster.
I have largely stopped collecting because of bloat, I want to eventually either do large projects to combine shells or modify elite series that I collected.
I think the Stryker 2.0 is were I would start from scratch and it’s what I would recommend to people getting into the hobby
Why start over? If you are happy with your collection then keep it.
But then again,I only have one blaster that I am attached to so...
I decieded a long time ago that quality over quantity is what I wanted. I only have so much space and blasters that don't get used is just money being wasted. If I find something rare, take a picture of it for the archives then sell it off to someone who actually wants it. Momentum gets used at every event, my Lynx and TC have almost been retired at this point. If I had to start over, probably get a spirit, a more affordable brushless flywheeler. Just the spirit, some kodas, some darts, and Im all set.
One reason this comes up now is that we do have offerings that offer significant quality compared to years ago.
"Someone got excited." I genuinely have no idea how to take that. 😂
haters gonna hate
I kinda started over. Lost the ability to mod, after a motorcycle accident left me handicapped in one hand. Sold all my old projects. Commissioned Valtek Armory to build me new stuff, that works out of the box. Got 15 blasters now, and use almost all of them regularly. It's a different hobby, not modding but just playing.
I had NO idea about that and it surely was not obvious when we played together two weeks ago. So for next years 'unoffical Euro Foam gathering' at TnT: End play at 8pm and make common story time at campfire/bbq for most mandatory where we can talk about this aspect of the hobby!
@Hoeni2000 next year we will be able to play until 10pm on the Saturday, we have already bought a bunch of extra strong lights to accommodate that😁👍
We had a bbq on the Friday evening.
If you could join us next year on the Friday, we plan on doing it again
i came into nerf later and oddly i went after old neat stuff. I was never into the new hotness just the old weirdness so yes i should cut back a bit but i would still go for weird fun stuff like vortex, b-balls and boomco. Its weird but its fun to be weird sometimes :)
Ive said this a lot. All you need is your tac gear, a good, reliable rifle platform and a pistol that works for you. You dont need 50 different blasters and whatever new thing dart zone makes.
Tactical corgi training
I am trying to thin down my 300+ collection, I decided to just have 1 or 2 guns in each ammo type and get rid of all the rest. The problem is just gave them away or sell them at pennies on the dollar, or both.
500+ blasters... If I got rid of them all, Id' be really really sad. I'd feel 'free' in the same way you feel free if you were lost in the woods, naked, with nothing.
I think I'd just give up nerfing and concentrate on flying FPV drones and planes again, and turn back into a loaner.
Definitely wouldn’t have bought the mk1.1 if I could start over but it’s cool to own.
if i could just restart i probably wouldn't bother past getting the couple blasters i've enjoyed plinking with the sledgefire, nerf rival saturn and the fortnite heavy sniper rifle. my friends all decided they wanted to play airsoft and i followed suit. while i'm having fun playing with them at the end of the day when i head back home i'm just left with a small hoard of random dart blasters that i haven't done much of anything with and don't really have the budget to do stuff with since nerf and airsoft are both pretty expensive hobbies. i'd like to sell them but i really have no idea who would buy any of them.
I've been feeling the same way. Every time a new blaster is released, I'm very tempted to buy it, just because it is new. But then I have to stop to consider ... do I really need that??
Hmmmm, good question...
I don't think I could start over. It would mean giving up my roughcuts and my rayvens, both of which are extremely hard to find for a fair price these days
it would be horrible for me because of the price... my colection is 2 of every blaster so that teams are balanced...
I have 2: strykers, tomcats, dictators, mk1.2s, mk2s, mk2.1s, mk3s, solos, omnias, boomdozers, a single mk4 and I have 8 outlaws... starting over would absolutely suck...
I'm pretty disgusted with how eBay went from a way to buy used goods for an affordable price to price gouging on discontinued blasters. Like no. Your used Nexus pro with half the attachments missing is NOT worth 70 or more dollars it's USED and it's an obsolete blaster.
honestly id get a maxim a desperado and buy another drain blaster
My first purchase would have been a AF Spectrum. I would have avoided 99% of Nerf products. Nerf brand has been a great training ground for how to mod, but basically everything is superior to it.
OH SHIT HE DIDN'T PULL A COOP
yay
Pilot.
... Yes. Fuck it. I need to pare it down anyways. I'm just gonna start giving away or donating it at some point.
You almost pulled a coop on us. How could you?
From what time? Right now, back when I started, or even before that?
yes
@@beretnarf I think I’d start from when the stryfe released, maybe a little before so I could experience all the fully homemade blasters, that would be fun
I did just start. I was in the toy section looking for a toy for my 6 year old and now I ended up with 3 zurus and a seagull but I'm wanting to buy a 3d printer 🤪
The printer is how it really starts haha
😂
Yeah I can see where you're going with this you know if I had to start over that's fine I would have way less blasters and what I have now because I would only buy what I know to be very good quality
Basically I would get rid of all my stock has Hasbro blasters I would keep basically my modified stuff and the hobby grade blasters I have
If i bring you 50 star caps can I have it?
Second viewer!
Im like the 24th viewer. Very cool