Toy Fair Update: Dart Zone Debuts the Primus and More!

March 1, 2025

Here at Toy Fair, the best booths are the ones that interact with the public. To that end, Dart Zone is on top of their game, as always.

This year’s announcements have been a mix of blaster recolors, new products, and items that are on the bubble for becoming an official Dart Zone offering. Let’s take a peek, shall we?

Primus: Direct Descendent of the Mk3

The biggest announcement, in my opinion, was the Primus. It’s a $40 flywheel blaster that features both semi and full auto blasting, along with plenty of attachments. Peeking down inside the magazine well shows off what is essentially the firing mechanism from the Dart Zone Pro Mk3 – which brings the possibility of this being compatible with half darts, as long as you provide the adapter and magazine. There’s also a bipod, adjustable stock, extended barrel, and a sight tube that mounts at an angle behind the vertical magazine. It advertises four darts per second, but given the gravity assist for feeding darts and fresh batteries, you can most likely get more.

To be clear, the Primus I was shown was the working prototype, not the final product. So features from color scheme to half-dart compatibility still have an asterisk(*) for now. While the blaster has lots of interest, its final store destination has yet to be determined for the fall. But Dart Zone does want more blasters like the Primus that can use a long pusher to fire both dart types. After all, it would be neat if your blaster can grow up with you – or at least be used against you by the older sibling or parent.

Here’s a short video firing it!

Recolors Galore!

While there have been a few recolor leaks, the new Nitroshot Outlaws and the blue Venom Pro were officially shown off today, and they’re available to purchase in about two weeks from this posting. For now they’re limited supply, but as with all things…if people buy enough, more will come.

Flintlock Blasters Update

The Renegade and Buccaneer were both on hand for firing. If you hadn’t already seen Captain Xavier’s video, they’ve been out in Australia for a bit, and will be stateside. Expect MSRPs of $15 and $25 for the pistol and the rifle, respectively.

I’m glad not everything has to be “Pro”. Having blasters I can goof off with (and that kids can use easily) is always a good thing.

Accessories! More Accessories! And DIY Solos!

There were several other things on hand at the booth, the result of community feedback/trends and Dart Zone staff trying some new things. Kudos to them for experimenting with customization.

There are a bunch of future products here, all being shown off but largely with prices TBD. They do already have website entries, though:

The last one is intriguing, seeing as charms are a thing in games for achievements and customization, and that has translated to airsoft and other shooting sports. But it also leads into one of the booth’s main features!

Here at Toy Fair, they had an entire table dedicated to people coming and making their own Solos – there were three skins available, and seven charms on hand. They also had a choice of barrel to come with the blaster – either the regular Solo metal barrel, or a 3d printed shotgun attachment. If there’s enough interest in doing custom Solos through the website, they’ll end up looking at getting those shotgun barrels injection molded.

The blasters came in DIY packages, with shell halves in a bag, internals in another bag, and screws in a third. That way, they could just toss in the chosen barrel and charm and it’s ready for assembly (there were screwdrivers on site, and you could assemble yourself or have them do it for you).

The charms themselves are cute and rubbery (no real worries about them hitting and damaging the blaster), and I took the T-Rex. I personally think it’d be cool if some charms were small rubber models or flat rubber patch-type tags of the blasters. Have a Solo on your Solo, for example.

Or they might start off with a higher price for a single charm, but give a discount for buying more of them. We’ll find out later. There’s a reason I’m not in marketing!