Humans v Zombies: 20th Anniversary Game Announced at Goucher College!
July 4, 2025That’s right! The place where HvZ started is hosting an Invitational to celebrate 20 years! As per the announcement:
Humans vs Zombies was started right here on Goucher’s campus in 2005, and we are excited to celebrate its upcoming 20th anniversary. Join us for HVZ20, our 3-day invitational event, from Friday, October 24th, to Sunday, October 26th. Come prepared to enjoy all things HvZ with missions from Goucher and other select schools’ mod teams, as well as Q&A panels and more! Tickets will be available later this month. We look forward to sharing more information with you as we get closer to the event!
In order to fund HvZ’s birthday celebration, we are on the hunt for sponsors! Sponsors are offered two tiers of rewards with benefits including advertisements on the custom bandanas given to all players, advertisements on t-shirts for our moderators and a vendor table on Saturday. If you or your organization are interested or have any questions, please email us at hvz@goucher.edu for more information.
Tickets will be limited…but that still amounts to a few hundred players, so expect a large, great game.
More info coming soon!
Nerf Topbreaker/Cobaltfury/Jadestrike Review
June 30, 2025Like any other brand, Nerf tends to take designs that work and milk them to death. In past years, we saw endless Jolt reskins (via the collectible Microshots line, among other things), for example. For the N Series, the Ward has that current role – as WalcomS7 noted in a video a little while ago, there have been a lot of blasters based on that specific mechanism.
The Nerf Topbreaker (as well as this year’s additional variants) continue that trend. The same basic mechanism is there, with a pullback priming handle and a two-shot smart AR. The major additions are the break-open barrel and (in the case of the Cobaltfury and Jadestrike) new color schemes. Is that enough for the additional price? Probably not. But as always, the power of the impulse buy can be a strong one.
Adventure Force Boxer Pro Appears! Chain-Fed Pro Blasting!
June 26, 2025It’s that time of year again, where the hobbyists post things they find, the rest of us search and find more photos, and we get a better picture of what’s coming. This time, after a post in the Foam News Collective Discord server and then me searching, it appears we’re getting chain-fed pro blasting this fall!
Dart Zone Announces the Adventure Force Brute Pro!
June 25, 2025Dart Zone has been busy with their social media! First, they announced that several Adventure Force blasters would be making their way to Canada, including an unannounced blaster. Later, in a now-edited Instagram video, they showed a previously unseen pistol. Now, we have confirmation!
Available at Walmart this fall, the Adventure Force Brute Pro looks to combine the lessons of previous blasters to get a $25 pistol. We have the form factor of the Dart Zone Pro Mk2, the slanted Talon magazine style and grip of a Venom Pro, and the breech mechanism and barrel attachment from a Nexus Pro X/Aeon Pro X. A proper Instagram announcement also lists 140ft range claims and slamfire. Which isn’t truly necessary for a pistol, but is actually really cool, especially if you have longer, compatible magazines on hand (Venom Pro, Worker Nightingale, etc.). I already have a DZP Mk2.1 that I love and keep at HvZ velocities, especially for games with ammo or magazine limits. But this interests me for slightly faster game types, and the price is just about perfect, even if the paint scheme doesn’t quite speak to me.
More news to come whenever these finally hit shelves!
Nerf Loadout Shadowspeed Recon Review
June 23, 2025Last year saw the debut of the N Series line of blasters from Hasbro. It also saw fierce competition from other blaster brands, resulting in a loss in market share. On top of that, Hasbro has to counterbalance current and potential tariffs by cutting costs, both as a company and in the manufacturing process. Admittedly, the toy industry as a whole is in a rough spot. But when the new generation of blasters starts appearing on Amazon, you buy them anyway and hope for the best.
However, if the Nerf Loadout Shadowspeed Recon is the result, then the outlook is dim.
SCRD 2: More Brightly Colored Tactical Gear! Kickstarter Ending Soon!
June 16, 2025See the Kickstarter page here!
As I try to catch up on news that should’ve been posted a long time ago…let’s highlight an effort that friends are making to produce more gear that’s oriented towards being play-friendly!
Last year, Silverfox Industries and Containment Crew made an effort to get colorful gear produced via Kickstarter. While I personally just use a tool belt from Walmart to carry everything (and not necessarily securely), lots on hobbyists use tactical gear…which typically comes in black or camo. When it’s a public-facing hobby that can occur in parks or campuses…that tends to detract from the image of people playing with toys for obvious reasons. People responded to the effort, funding many of the stretch goals and getting items from magazine bandoliers to belts made in various fun colors.
This year, the Kickstarter is focusing on different (and often larger) items, including hydration packs, slings, patch panels, body harnesses, and chest rigs. It’s already fully funded, so the only question now is how many people sign up to get colored gear, and how many stretch goals get unlocked.
The Kickstarter ends early on Saturday, so get pledges in if you want the gear for cheaper than the later retail prices!
Buzz Bee Updates for Mayhem; Primus Appears, Xshot Interviews, and More!
June 9, 2025We’ve got a lot of updates on upcoming products. Some store appearances, a website refresh, and a long interview covering the toy business in general (tariffs, trade law, etc.) that also features upcoming products.
Links will be featured below, but a special thanks to the Foam News Collective (especially the Discord server and its residents) where people like me trade links to things we’ve spotted both for general awareness and for the biweekly video update. Consider subscribing to them or even supporting them on Ko-Fi. For one thing, they’re able to cover a lot more community designs/3D prints/event news than I’ll ever have time for!
