Hasta La Gadget!

When was the last time you had plenty of fun around the office with your colleagues, or at home in your own backyard with the kids? Surely getting a set of NERF guns to play with would help lighten up the seriousness of a particular situation, and it is great at building bridges in a safe and healthy manner. Well, assuming you are the type who feel it is best to take the enemy “out” before he or she is able to reach you, then the $9.99 NERF Triad Elite 3-Dart Mini Blaster would seem to be the ideal weapon of choice.

After all, the NERF Triad Elite 3-Dart Mini Blaster is capable of firing three shots at a range of 75 feet away. 75 feet! That’s really far, and it shoots three darts, not simultaneously, but one at a time, from that great a distance. The smart technology involved here will let the NERF Triad Elite 3-Dart Mini Blaster know just which barrels are loaded, hence directing air to those barrels only without you going through the motions of a misfire. Surely it is never too early to prepare for a summer that is filled with fun, right?

[ NERF Triad Elite 3-Dart Mini Blaster copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Look, we loved what Hasbro did with Lazer Tag last year. But, let’s be honest, that thing was pure testosterone. We’re not saying the ladies couldn’t get down, but the alien-blasting AR solo games weren’t exactly designed with little girls in mind. Rebelle ditches the lasers for NERF arrows and slaps a supposedly female-friendly coat of purple and pink paint on the whole thing. While the blasters still operate without the optional Mission Central App cradle ($15), it’s once you get the whole kit together that things really start to fall into place. The attachment lets you drop in an iPhone (4, 4S or 5) and fire up the free companion app. (And don’t worry Google fans, an Android version of the app along with a universal mount are also in the works.) Rather than focus on solo games and individual competition, the Rebelle Mission Central app encourages kids to form squads and compete not just for supremacy over their friends but also for in-game perks, like accessories for their avatars. Those virtual personas can be completely customized, allowing girls to fully embrace their secret agent fantasies.Of course, you can also document your foam-arrow battles and share them.

The blasters themselves are pretty standard NERF fare and all some basic variation on a crossbow design. The rotating barrel Crossbow ($25) has a pump-action and a rail for installing the cradle, a feature that’s not on some of the smaller models like the pocketable, single-shot Sneak Attackers. The other model currently slated for cradle compatibility is the Heartbreaker Bow ($20), which sticks with a more traditional bow and arrow design and has a dash more wickedness to the design than some of the other blasters. The whole Rebelle line is expected to hit shelves in the fall — so little brothers beware.

Edgar Alvarez contributed to this report.

Filed under: Software, Mobile

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If you’ve ever read any of the Elseworlds trade paperbacks from the DC Universe, then you have seen your favorite heroes in “What if” scenarios – like Superman being a hero in Gotham while Batman is in Metropolis, or Batman in the Civil War – that sort of thing. Well, if you like your Batman from the Victorian era, check out this Steampunk Batman gun.

We’ve seen plenty of Steampunk weapons before, but I have never seen one specifically made for the Caped Crusader. This gun was originally a Mattel Triple Barrel Grapnel Gun, which can fire soft projectiles, a la Nerf.

It was painted up with copper and given some Bat decorations by Nerfenstein. I love the detail and now I want to see some Elseworlds stories on the big screen. We can start with Batman in Victorian London, packing this gun.

[via Urbantaggers via Obvious Winner]

If you need a new piece of steampunk weaponry, check this out. It’s an awesome streampunk Nerf crossbow made by Gabe Genway. The next time you organize a victorian big game hunt take note. If you make one half as good as Gabe, you will be the steampunk king.

Sadly, it has already been bought from Gabe’s Etsy store, but he has some other fine assorted steampunk pistols and grenades for gentlemen to lob at each other. Just like on this crossbow, the details are really nice on all of his pieces.

I know one thing for sure, if he ever offers up another crossbow like this one, it will be gone very quickly.

[via IHeartChaos via Obvious Winner]

With a transportation themed episode, it only seemed natural to take the Engadget Show out of our traditional digs — it was also a great excuse to visit one of our favorite cities in the world: Portland, Oregon. We drove Mitsubishi’s i-MiEV EV around the Northwestern green mecca, stopping at some great PDX spots along the way, including the amazing Ground Kontrol arcade, Hand-Eye Supply and the hackerspace, Brain Silo. We also took the time to speak to some PDX residents, including Core77 co-founder Eric Ludlum and some local modders showing off their homebrew projects.

Also, Brian travels out to Boston to ride along with a gang of bike hackers, Myriam takes the Tesla Model S for a spin around the streets of San Francisco and Michael does his best not to fall off the DTV Shredder in the California desert. And, as always, we got a pile of the month’s latest and greatest gadgets, including the Google Nexus 7, Hasbro’s new Lazer Tag guns and a quick trip around OS X Mountain Lion. Also: comic books, donuts and plenty of EV road trip shenanigans. Click through the break to tune in!

Continue reading The Engadget Show 35: EVs in Portland, hacked bicycles and a Tesla Model S test drive

Filed under: Transportation

The Engadget Show 35: EVs in Portland, hacked bicycles and a Tesla Model S test drive originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Aug 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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