Awesome Nerf

Mark Rober’s CrunchLabs engineered a unique mini crossbow that shoots NERF darts. To prove the scalability of its design, they created a super-sized version that fires massive mega-NERF projectiles using bungee cords. Mark tested its destructive capabilities with the help of guest host Jesser. The mini version is available through CrunchLabs’ Build Box subscription.

James from The Hacksmith hopped time-traveled back to 2007 for his latest build. The assignment – replicate the Level 2 Sentry Turret from Team Fortress 2. The finished weapon has dual, chain-fed miniguns, face tracking tech, and can fire over 200 rounds of NERF darts per minute. A pair of X-Shot motorized dart guns certainly gave him a head start.

This crazy NERF Elite 2.0 blaster has 32 single-dart barrels – 16 that face forward and 16 that face backward. It fires 1 or 2 darts at a time depending on how far you pull its trigger. When you’ve shot half your ammo, pull the handle to flip the barrels to load up the rest. Now, someone needs to mod this to launch 16 darts at once.

We’ve seen some pretty fast and powerful NERF blasters, but as far as we know, none could shoot darts faster than the speed of sound. That’s what maker Mike Shake set out to do with his supersonic blaster. It took a lot of time, money, and experimentation to create a high-speed NERF gun that runs on compressed air and rapidly releases its pressure.

The fastest production NERF blasters fire around 15 darts per second. It’ll Probably Work set his sights a little higher when he built a spring-loaded NERF weapon that can blast out hundreds of projectiles at once. By switching from foam darts to balls, he packed in 6x as much ammo. Fully loaded, it’ll hold up to 288 balls and launch them all in about a second.

This long-nosed NERF blaster uses a pump-action mechanism to fire five soft gel rounds at a time. Its hopper holds up to 800 rounds, which you saturate with water so they burst when they hit a target. No batteries are required, and you don’t have to worry about electronics getting wet. Includes 10,000 NERF Pro Gelfire rounds plus eye protection.

A little while back, Mark Rober engineered a tiny NERF gun using a compliant mechanism. The design has spawned numerous other builds, including this neat-looking blaster Matt Esltea made from wood. It’s not made from a single part like Rober’s NERF weapon, but it’s built with a similarly springy launching mechanism. It’s a beautiful build, but will it work?

Mark Rober and his pals made one of the largest NERF guns ever. This time, he went in the opposite direction, putting the popular toy through the shrink ray so many times it’s only visible with an atomic force microscope. After using a compliant mechanism to engineer a simplified version that can fire a dart, he worked with scientists to make NERF guns from DNA.

The NERF HyperFire can launch about 300 darts per minute. Michael Pick built a custom NERF weapon that can (theoretically) fire 2560 darts in the same amount of time. It’s powered by a dozen motors and has four 15-round magazines. We’d love to see how many darts it could fire with a larger magazine setup.

After engineering NERF darts that can fire themselves, Joel Creates thought he’d try the same with those larger NERF missiles. Typically launched with a pump-action weapon, Joel’s capacitor- and flash cotton-powered missile launchers are self-contained and launch with the push of a button. Those wrist-mounted launchers look super cool too.

NERF makes some cool blasters, but the custom community is always outdoing Hasbro’s factory toys. WalcomS7 shows off the world’s fastest NERF blaster, Gatling Tommy’s M134 minigun. The full-auto blaster has a 500-round capacity and fires 58 darts per second. It’s fed by a belt mechanism and an ammo backpack attached via a massive 3D-printed chain.

NERF darts typically require a blaster if you want to shoot them across the room. Joel Creates and his brother engineered a NERF dart that can fire itself right from your hand. After playing with compressed air, explosives, and springs, the final design relies on an electric ignition and a magician’s gimmick.

DanCreator is back with another cardboard NERF gun. This time, he created a Fortnite-inspired sniper rifle that can shoot foam darts. He built it almost entirely from cardboard and hot glue, with a handful of dowel rods and some stiffly bent wire for its springs. It uses a pair of small motors to accelerate and fire each dart.

The Rival Khaos is one of the coolest toys that NERF has ever made. The $200 shooter has a 40-round magazine and a quick-firing motorized mechanism. YouTuber Amr MCI shows off a fully-functional replica of the toy gun that he made mostly from cardboard, fiberboard, and glue, along with motors and springs to make it fire.

The NERF Ultra Speed blaster fires up to seven darts per second, barraging your opponents with foam projectiles. The fully-motorized blaster comes with two 12-dart magazines and 24 AccuStrike Ultra darts. A built-in drop-grip helps with stability and accuracy, and a top handle lets you carry it briefcase-style.

Recently, NERF revealed its new mascot, Murph. This goofball kind of looks like a walking Koosh ball because their hairy body is made up of hundreds of NERF darts. They look pretty awesome just standing still, but the real magic comes when Murph gets their groove on. Follow Murph’s adventures on the NERF TikTok channel.