Return of the Vertical Foregrip Handles

MkI old breakable foregrips!

A great Nerfer once said "Do not accept the limitations of your materials at face value, if you want to do something, find the best thing for the job and do it" (Or words to that effect). We couldn't agree more!

We built some prototype grip handles using our 3D printer a couple of weeks back. We were ready to abandon the project when we ran into stress fractures and other nasties that posed serious problems. While we could get a game or two out of our handles, the fact the plastic mounts would fail resulted in the near mothballing of the project.

It was then another intrepid Nerfer
contacted us with an idea. Just use a better material. Initially hesitant, I put out feelers and commissioned a set of replacement rail grips for our 3D printed handles. This is the result:

New and improved fore-grips that don't break!

That Rapidstrike is held by my single hand at arms length with nothing but the grip holding it in place. I've just spent 20 minutes swinging it around my head in the hallway and generally stress testing it. The whole assembly has just looked at me and gone "nope.avi". It's wonderful. Granted, it's not slide on, you have to clamp it in place with screws but trying to twist it off sees the Rapidstrike's body fail before the plastic and aluminium used here.

This is obviously a prototype but we'll start selling black units (black anodised aluminium to match the plastic) later in the month. Orange and other colours will follow in the future. In the meantime, we'll open a register of interest for people to start forming an orderly queue. No money will change hands until we have these in stock, the register will just be a way to gauge interest and to ensure we are able to produce at the quantities needed to avoid disappointment.

Current price projections place these around £10-12 for UK/EU customers (includes VAT @ 20%) and £8-10 for non EU customers (though local sales taxes may apply). Once the initial order queue is cleared, we'll operate a stock policy - i.e. no lead times but you'll only be able to order if they're in stock. We'll get some video of how the prototype holds up in the next couple of days.


Please note, if you are great Nerfer who we badly paraphrased earlier, thank you for your pearls of wisdom and apologies for such terrible lexical butchery!

First Look: MkI 'Juliet' Tactical Vest

It's been a long time coming but this is a pre-production version of the MkI Blastersmiths UK Nerf compatible Tactical Vest. Codenamed Juliet, it represents the top end of our carriage solutions. Why Juliet? Well, I threw a dart at all 26 letters of the alphabet and came up with J (Juliet is the NATO radio alphabet for J.)

This is a pre-production in University of Bristol colours for a BUZAN member who asked us really, really nicely. Production versions will be in black on black with black

Inspired by the IOTV and other plate carriers, our MkI vests will be tailored to each individual customer (we'll ask for your measurements on ordering). Available both singly and as part of a series of bundles, this vest offers our largest area for carriage to date.

The Juliet arose from the need for a physical representation of armour in Live Action Role Play (LARP) systems.  LARPers require a great deal of flexibility in their equipment as they may see several different characters die in the course of a weekend event. The MkI vest was developed with this in mind. There are a number of add ons including water pouches, back mounted sword sheaths and padded under arm panels for those cold winter months. We're also working on ballistic collar inserts to provide a little more coverage and warmth in winter.

Extra padded chest sections are something we are also considering for the release version. The upper chest area is a little thin on the ground so we're looking to beef it out a little. We'll certainly be expanding that Velcro loop tape to allow people to attach larger sized morale patches and the like to their rigs. It'll also add a nice space to aim for in Dart Tag games!

The version above is shown without its matching tactical belt which expands carrying capacity even further to allow the rig to be worn in combination with other elements including our range of drop-leg holsters.

More pictures and details will be forthcoming. The MkI Vest will be available from our web store from 27th November 2013.