Todays most popular nerf items are definitely a little less tame than the original “indoor ball” but they are still safe for kids to play with. My how far the ball has bounced from the …uh. Interesting company history! HAHA “can’t hurt babies or old people” – sounds like a “CHALLENGE ACCEPTED” to me lol. Over the years, Nerf has continued to expand the line, adding new looks to existing products, with its current line of NERF products ranging from sport balls and foam dart blasters to video games and accessories.
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Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, the Nerf brand served under the subsidiaries OddzOn and Larami before Hasbro took full control of the brand. The company continued to add to the NERF line until they handed control to Kenner Products, a sister company, in 1991, when Hasbro acquired the Nerf line through the acquisition of the Tonka Corporation. Shortly after, in 1972, a basketball game called “Nerfoop” and the Nerf football joined the family, with the latter quickly becoming NERF’s most popular ball. The four-inch (102 mm) ball was followed closely by a large version called “Super Nerf Ball”. You can’t hurt babies or old people.” The ball filled a strong consumer need and by the year’s end, more than four million Nerf balls had been sold. Marketing slogans promised that one can “Throw it indoors you can’t damage lamps or break windows. In 1970, the Nerf ball was introduced as the “world’s first official indoor ball”, the name “Nerf” being a slang term for the foam padding used in off-road racing. In 1969, Reyn Guyer, a Minnesota-based games inventor, came to the company with a volleyball game that was safe for indoor play, and after studying it carefully, Parker Brothers decided to eliminate everything but the foam ball. Parker Brothers originally developed Nerf, beginning with a four-inch (102 mm) polyurethane foam ball. It is this gas that creates open pockets within the polyurethane that, in turn, make the material soft and light. To produce it, polyester resin reacts with another compound in the presence of CO2 from another reaction. Nerf foam is made from a solid, spongy cellular material. The slogan frequently used from the 1990s advertising until now is “It’s Nerf or nothin’!”. Since many such items were released throughout the 1970s, Nerf products often feature bright neon colors and soft textures similar to the flagship Nerf ball. The most notable of the toys are the dart guns (referred to by Hasbro as “blasters”) that shoot ammunition made from Nerf foam. Most of the toys are a variety of foam-based weaponry, but there are also several different types of Nerf toys, such as balls for sports like football, basketball, and others. Nerf (trademarked in capitals as NERF) is a toy brand created by Parker Brothers and currently owned by Hasbro. Lets take a look at the history behind the company that churned out these classic childhood memory creators! Whether you had a foam ball as a kid, or a dart gun, or knew someone who had these things – you probably were touched by a nerf product or two (maybe not so gently, in the head haha) in your lifetime.
Nerf has definitely come a long way since the early days of 1969 (when they first came out) – and even since my childhood years in the 90’s! Not only have the guns gotten cooler looking but they are just a lot higher quality all around these days, which definitely helped the DIY movement grab a hold of them! Lets take a step back and examine the history of these awesome toys we have all grown to love (especially around the office! haha).
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But those days are not over it seems, Rejoice! For these plastic masterpieces are more popular in the past few years than ever with the help of DIY geeks around the internet modding and posting their own brilliant hacked versions of the guns – showing off everything from LED lights to larger dart carrying capacities to even farther shooting ranges! Custom foam dart blasters really have taken on a community of their own of people doing diy hacks and mods to the guns and toys for fun (or for profit! You can actually buy a lot of these on sites like ebay, or contact individual artisans for custom jobs!). Many an hour was spent playing nerf war with friends in the backyard (and cleaning up all those little foam darts we left behind). As I look back on my fond childhood memories, easily one of the best were being outside (or inside) playing with toy guns, squirt guns, nerf guns, rubber band guns, fake laser guns that made noise, whatever kind of gun, I loved them.