NERF Swords

Has anyone had a gander to see if these are any good for larping purposes?

fishpond.co.nz/Toys/General/ … words=nerf

Sure they’re a little brightly coloured (but that can be fixed), and the blades aren’t that thick (the one I saw at Farmers seemed pretty soft though, and seemed moderately rigid in terms of staying straight) … but they’re cheap, you can buy them at Farmers, and being “kids” toys are probably designed to be fairly safe.

No idea if they’d be useful/safe/durable enough, but one never knows, so I thought I’d link it up for those with some experience/knowledge to comment upon …

I wish they were good, but they’re not. I wouldn’t allow them at a game I ran.

For some reason Nerf has used a hollow plastic pipe core, with hardly any foam over it. When you get hit with one, you can feel the plastic core. I gave myself a few gentle whacks and it was immediately clear they’re not larp safe.

I would be unhappy about kids hitting each other with them too… they appear to be designed for waving, not hitting. If I wanted cheap swords for young kids, I’d buy the ones that have foam blades with no core inside them. Those are too floppy and damage-prone for larp though.

So much for “kids toys” huh? The safety regulations applied to the toy industry always seem rather inconsistent.

I think the Nerd sword instructions state you shouldn’t hit people with them, and none of their advertising shows people being hit. So they can’t be held accountable if customers “misuse” their foam-covered swords by hitting people with them. :wink:

Since NERF sells two types of sword, and a battle axe, what purpose do those products serve if not to hit people with them? Then again, the blasters probably say that you should never ever shoot them at another person or somesuch … although their dart tag products would have to be an exception to that, I suppose.

Ah … what a wonderful world we live in.

[size=70][Edited to preserve Ryan’s spelling credentials][/size]

Mistype or Freudian slip, I wonder? :blush:

Heh.

Since NERF sells two types of sword, and a battle axe, what purpose do those products serve if not to hit people with them? Then again, the blasters probably say that you should never ever shoot them at another person or somesuch … although their dart tag products would have to be an exception to that, I suppose.

Ah … what a wonderful world we live in.

[size=70][Edited to preserve Ryan’s spelling credentials][/size][/quote]

I too lamented that the Nerf swords don’t make good larp weapons. Otherwise a quick recolour and we’d all have some basic swords for $15 a pop. Ahh no. They also have a nasty seam on the blade edge which ain’t too friendly.

The warnings for Nerf products are typically printed on the back of the brightly coloured packaging, in black. They’re bold print but I don’t think theres a kid in the world who would read them.

And the Dart Tag guns come with packaged amber glasses. In reality, eyes are the only place you can really injure someone with a dart tag. I know, I’ve shot my kids A LOT. Heads get shot A LOT. Hell, I own more nerf products than they do (I’d say thats true of a fair portion of the larp community).

As it should be …

I’ve just been browsing (extra-early prep for Zombie Larp) and came across this site with good discounts of nerf weapons, as well as clips, refills, scopes, lights, ammo cases etc… for them.

fishpond.co.nz/Toys/advanced … er=24hours

I’ve brrn looking at TradeMe - some good bargains there, but uncertain.

That site has the Recon (clip-fed assault rifle thing) at $30 (i.e. 40% off), which looks pretty sweet.

I’m pretty sure I paid less than that at Farmers… 2x6 shot clips with a connector which joins them bottom to bottom. I’m sure it was only $25.