A Look Into Nerf Guns (or our office downstairs)

So everyone knows about the arsenal of Nerf guns that we have downstairs. But has anyone ever taken a good,long look at one? I guess, analyzed it for its design and function? Well after messing around and throwing darts at the wall for a study break, I decided to sit down and actually learn how to operate one of those things downstairs. I was actually throwing the darts because I find it more accurate to do so, and I don't really know how to use the actual gun.

Take a look at the pictures on the right. I have included one that is fully assembled and then taken apart. There are a lot of parts! Five parts are included when assembling the gun, AND you are supposed to load tons of arrows into the magazine chamber. When I look at this, I think it has been designed this way for 2 reasons. 1) This is the actual mental model and design for real guns and 2) kids love things that can be assembled together, so why not make it fun in more ways than one? The fact that these things are made to fit the actual mental models of real guns is actually pretty scary.

Anyway, let us move onto the actual assembly of the gun. I actually like the gun a lot more now that I know how to use it. After taking it apart, putting it back together, taking it apart, putting it back together, and messing with it, I found a lot of interesting functions of the gun. They are all mechanical functions running the operation of the gun. I think my favorite is the ability to use the gun without the front ends (4&5) . It still functions perfectly well with just the magazine and the integral part of the gun. This is extremely useful in the toy market being that kids tend to lose everything they own. Next, I love the forcing functions you encounter when inserting any of the detachable parts. The scope on top (1) slides in the matching rails that force it in in the correct direction. Same with the bottom scope (4). The additional gun chamber located at the front of the gun (5) locks in beautifully by means of a match, twist, lock function. The magazine is actually a little tricky. If you were to look at it individually, it would be hard to decipher if it is perfectly symmetrical. It isn't. As you can see in the picture below, Nerf has marked the magazine with an arrow indicating which way the bullets have to face and how the magazine should be entered.

Now that we have learned how to assemble the gun, lets learn how to use it. This was an even trickier task for me. Once the gun is fully assembled you have to perform certain tasks to get it armed and ready to fire. Looking at the first picture above, you must pull the gray slider shell toward the back of the gun. This then gives a great confirmation that the gun is armed. See next picture on the right. It shoots out an orange tube with the word "ARMED" embedded in it. Excellent way to notify the user that its armed. Okay, so now you think you're ready for an intense foam arrow shootout. Not quite. As you attempt to pull the trigger, you feel that it is locked in place. This would put you in a really sticky situation if in the middle of a battle. I played and played around with the gun to try to figure it out. Finally, I found that you have to push the gray slider back into its original position to begin firing. Ahhh, now we're in business. BUT, there's one more thing. You have to repeat the pumping of the gray slider every time you want to fire a bullet, if not, you're left to a one shot miracle.

So that's it for the Nerf gun. I believe its the RS-C50 model for those of you who are curious. Hope the next time you're down in the office and want to have some Nerf battles, you'll remember this article and get a heads up on your opponent. Happy foam arrow shooting!