Toy Fair 2025: Peeking at the Hasbro Booth!
March 4, 2025Early on Monday, I got the chance to go through Hasbro’s Toy Fair showroom – and admittedly, there were lots of fun things besides Nerf. I’ll post the Nerf parts first, of course, but we can get to the rest at the end.
So, N Series Loadout. What’s up with that?
Pretty in Package!
The Loadout series admittedly looks AMAZING in packaging. Some of the blasters, like the Galactic Commander, are fully exposed (with some accessories not mounted on the blaster to make the packaging smaller). Others, like the two Fusion blasters, are fully in box. That part of the sale, at least, is on point.
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The Galactic Commander, as the flagship, was naturally out for trying. On paper, a lot of the things do check off the boxes I’d want from an N Series flywheel blaster. Two 18-dart magazines (full compatibility with the previous mags), attachments all around (barrel, scope, stock), and an additional stock mounting point within the grip? Those are nice. Select fire? It’s there, it works, and we haven’t seen it from Hasbro since the Regulator. Everything is big and usable? Check. From a comfortable grip and mag release to a large select fire dial (instead of a small switch), kids and adults can manipulate everything easily.
That being said, I can definitely feel the delay in firing. To be completely fair, I’m absolutely spoiled by the modded and pro blasters in my collection having fast response times. But I would not be surprised if this is literally the Regulator’s electronic system inside the Galactic Commander, just used for a standard pusher instead of a belt system.
My initial experience was good, but I’ll have to wait until the blaster actually comes out before a final judgement. Kid me would have been excited, though!
As for the rest, I’m a bit torn. The “sniper” of the group, the Arctic Zerostriker, is at least reasonably different enough to be its own experience, between the bolt action and the six dart internal magazine. The other four, though, are the same blaster, just with different paint schemes and attachments. If you’re a more practical person, you might not care to collect them all. If you want the chance to swap things out to your liking, you might be ecstatic. Heck, there’s even a new attachment point at the bottom of the grips for some types of stocks!
Maybe, at the end of the day, I’m just standing here in the middle of a bunch of blasters, yelling “HOW DO YOU DO, FELLOW KIDS?”. We’ll have to wait and see once July rolls around.
Nerf Pro Gelfire
As for the Pro lines, nothing was announced for half darts, though there were a Sender and a Torrent on display. Gelfire, however, featured both the Pronto and the Warp Speed.
The Pronto is easy to operate, with a large trigger that primes and fires the blaster all in one motion. The reservoir for darts also extends into the stock, so you can just tip the blaster forward to let balls flow into the breech area. It’s neat, and if you’re into gel, probably justifiable at $20.
The Warp Speed, however…I was completely shocked. I definitely said “Holy crap!” after firing something that does 20 balls per second. Whether you need that high a rate of fire is irrelevant, because the fact you can do it is just so much fun. If only I had more opportunities for actual gel games!
The Rest of the Tour
There were plenty of other Nerf things on display, from their partnership with Franklin Sports to Super Soakers to Minecraft blasters. Some of these I’ve already reviewed (Mini Dunk Fill, Power Drench XL, Minecraft Pillager’s Crossbow, etc.), but the *slightly* older blasters are still relevant, especially with the upcoming Minecraft movie. And both old and new Franklin Sports products are part of Hasbro’s push to make Nerf about everything active, not just blasters.
There were also some fun things in the other sections of the tour, including a Dungeons and Dragons starter kit for easily getting back into it for multiple adventures before grabbing the handbooks (I haven’t played since 3rd Edition), more “serious” board games like Life in Reterra, and whatever the newest Monopoly variation is (let’s be fair, there’s ALWAYs another Monopoly coming out). I’ll leave things like Peppa Pig to the relevant influencers.
