BATTLE-KATA BLASTER
G.I. JOE: RETALLIATION (HASBRO)
“G.I. Joe is the world’s greatest special-ops fighting force with top-secret ninja training from the toughest of masters. Led by ultimate ninja commando Roadblock, these elite heroes defend the globe from the evil forces of Cobra. Fight your way to protect the innocent and defeat the guilty with the G.I. Joe Battle-Kata Blaster Toy! The adventures you imagine will sometimes call for a blade and sometimes for a blaster. This Battle-Kata Blaster toy is a 2-in-1 battle combo! In blaster mode, fire the included darts when the battle calls for marksmanship. But when your enemies move in close, switch to blade mode! You’ll be double trouble for evil with the Battle-Kata Blaster toy!”
Since its inception in 1964, the G.I. Joe brand has been subject to all sorts of changes over the years. They were basic soldiers, peace-loving adventurers, an anti-terrorist organization full of colorful characters, ’90s action heroes, and movie stars. And, apparently, also a gun? Weird. So, how about a look at some merch from the best live-action G.I. Joe movie starring the Rock, G.I. Joe: Retaliation!
THE FIGURE ITSELF
The Battle-Kata Blaster figure was released in 2012, as part of the mass product drop for G.I. Joe: Retaliation. This means that, like all of the other products for Retaliation, the Blaster was on shelves almost a year before the film it was meant to tie-in to. Yay for proper coordination of movie makers and merchandisers! As you would expect from toyline that’s the original source of the term “action figure”, this blaster that is not at all a figure was the undisputed centerpiece of the product line. And how could it not be? Check out this poster! This bad boy’s front and center! It was going to be a star! An up and comer! So, how’d this thing turn out in toy form? Well, it stands 5 1/2 inches tall and it’s got…ummm, like some movement, I guess. It’s hard to classify it as articulation. Like, the little latch at the top moves back and forth. And I guess the trigger counts as some movement too, though it can’t really hold any poses beyond “waiting to be pulled.” The point is, you won’t really be getting poses beyond what you see here. The Battle-Kata Blaster was sporting a brand new, totally unique sculpt, based on its appearance in the film…more or less. It’s supposed to be a Colt 1911/Kriss Vector mash-up with some stuff tacked on it, and there’s kind of this brass-knuckles set-up around the grip. It’s reasonably well-sculpted, though obviously a little softer on the details than the look from the film. Can’t imagine why they wouldn’t want 100% accuracy on something like this. The right side is definitely 
this thing’s “hero” side; the left has all manner of screws and what not visible for all to see. The Battle-Kata definitely has some stability issues. Keeping it upright under its own power is very difficult. Just getting it to stay up for the photos seen here was quite a bit of trouble. It’s going to definitely need some assistance. As far as paint goes, there’s not really much for the Battle-Kata Blaster, since it goes for the molded plastic color approach. Said molded plastic mostly orange and green, which everyone knows is just the most aesthetically-pleasing color scheme of all time. But, if they don’t do it for you, Hasbro’s been kind enough to also throw in some pale grey. You know, for kids. Hands down, the best piece of the paint, though, is that “Caution” warning you not to swing this thing at people or animals. Because the last thing you want a weapon to do is to harm anyone. That’s just outlandish. There are two action features built into the Battle-Kata. The first is a missile launching feature, which works in conjunction with that weird trigger movement thing that was going on. The missiles don’t go particularly far, but I guess it’s a neat gimmick. Plus you can store the extra missiles in the two ports on the face of the blaster. There’s also a slight transforming gimmick (because Hasbro is just all about that cross over), where you can unhook the handle from the gun and connect it to the front. One good pull later and, boom, it’s a knife…a really warped and slightly scratched up knife. There’s not really any way for it to like hold the knife or anything, but you can kind of rest them up against each other. Not the best display option, but I guess it works.
THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION
The Retaliation product was all sort of a strange beast, but no stranger than this one. Movie accuracy really isn’t there and the gimmick is kind of strange. It doesn’t scale with any of the other product either, making it an all around odd offering. I mean, it can’t even stand on its own. What’s it good for? I don’t really know, but there it is nevertheless.
You know how sometimes in the design process, if something has a series of iterative improvements, those iterations are labeled “Mark [number]?”
The Scout Mk.II was released in 2019 as part of the N-Strike Elite series. It features a 4-round revolving cylinder and a prime bar sticking out the back. Actually, it’s mechanically identical to the Quadrant from the Accustrike line, just in a more triangular shell. I’m hesitant to call it “sleeker” because, while the lines do flow a little better than on the Quadrant, it adds a big section as a sort of angled fore-grip, if that made any kind of sense on a pistol. This, paired with the enclosed finger guard means that going for a tactical two-hand grip pretty much forces you to use the angled front section which again, just feels weird on a pistol. I suppose all of this isn’t a problem if you’re shooting one-handed like a true gentleman and officer, but that kind of 
went out of style after Crimea. The shell of the blaster does have an attachment rail, and a front sight sort of, but not really any rear sight. You know what they say, foresight is a blessing, but hindsight is just straight-up missing.
Nails. We all love them. Spikes what spike stuff together. Either that or the scratchy bits on the ends of your fingers, or even a band from the 90s that wants to do stuff like an animal. What does this all have to do with Nerf though? Well think about it, if you had to grab a makeshift weapon to use against zombies, wouldn’t you go for a nail gun?
The Nailbiter was released in 2019 as part of the Zombie Strike line. It features a double-action trigger, like the Voidcaster from the Alien Menace series, but instead of just a smart AR, the Nailbiter uses an 8 round, vertical ratcheting clip, reminiscent of how, say, a nail gun would feed. I don’t know why Nerf seems to be on such a ratcheting clip kick lately with the Thunderhawk and Rukkus in addition, but it does seem like they’re slowly improving upon the system each time. People hated the Thunderhawk’s clip cuz it stuck out to the side and made it virtually impossible to store the blaster with space efficiency in mind. The Rukkus was a little better but you couldn’t access the whole clip from a single position for 
reloading. Now with the Nailbiter, not only does the clip fit entirely within the silhouette of the blaster, but when it’s ratcheted all the way up, you can reload all 8 barrels. At this rate, in a few more iterations, it’ll hold 200 rounds and have 30% critical chance. Nerf, I’m serious, pick up the Warframe license. I’ll buy everything. Anyway, being a double-action blaster, pulling the trigger not only primes and fires in a single stroke, now it also advances the clip. This makes rapidly firing very easy, especially while dual weighing which I highly recommend if you can manage it. The Nailbiter is fairly large for a pistol. It was certainly bigger than I was expecting. On the plus side, that larger size means that it was big enough to include a stock and barrel attachment point. There’s also a rail on the bottom for… something, Australian scopes?
People that know me know that I spend more than a fair bit of time playing Warframe. And if, like me, you too play more Warframe than you should, you probably know that the Soma rifle from the game is a boss and I’ll fight you if you don’t like it.
The Rukkus ICS-8 was released right at the end of 2018 as part of the N-Strike Elite series of blasters. It is yet another entry into the list of ratcheting clip-fed blasters like the Battlescout but this time the clip feeds vertically rather than horizontally. Additionally the clip on the Rukkus is curved slightly and is not removable from the blaster. It holds 8 rounds and is capable of slam-fire. The blaster also uses a top priming slide rather than a pump grip or bolt. This isn’t unusual for a smaller Nerf blaster at all but it does play into my next bit so sit tight. If recent news has told us anything, it’s that Nerf is not shy about license deals with upcoming products for both Overwatch and Fortnite. At this point, I would like to submit for consideration, Nerf Warframe. Just extend the clip, put a stock and proper barrel with maybe a pump grip, and you have a decent analog for the Soma, at least in form. Hasbro, if you’re listening, just think about it. Anyway, the Rukkus has no 
attachment rails or lugs of any sort so, sadly, your options for customization are essentially nil without getting into mods. Personally I start with a Hornet Strike and Pistol Gambit to boost the critical- wait… different mods, sorry. The ergonomics of the Rukkus are decent, nothing really remarkable but it’s all comfortable and functional. Likewise, performance is solid without being mindblowing. There are some shots that feel like they don’t hit quite as hard as others but it’s not consistent so it’s hard to nail down what the cause is.
Knife-wrench: its a knife and wrench, mostly wrench. And then he accidentally stabs himself in the leg and we all have a good chuckle. That reminds me of this week’s blaster. No, not the stabbing part, but being a weird combination of two things, namely being a rifle and a pistol. Now that I’m thinking about it that’s hardly a unique design feature for this blaster, but I made a Scrubs reference, what do you want?
The Spectre was released in 2010 as part of the original N-Strike line, then again in 2013 as the Elite version. I do own both versions, but I didn’t have the Elite model on hand when I was taking photos, so just keep that in mind. Most stuff I’ll touch on applies to both blasters but I’ll point out any differences. The Spectre is a 5 shot revolver style blaster similar to the Maverick or Strongarm, but with slightly lower capacity. The shell of the original was all new and the only changes to the Elite version besides color are the slots in the sides of the body for the slide to interface with the internals. The cylinder swings out to the left side of the blaster, which, itself, sports a barrel lug, a stock lug, and an accessory rail. At the time of its initial release, what set the Spectre apart from other pistols was its ability to accept barrel extensions and stocks, like those included, to transform it into more of a rifle type blaster. As I recall, the 
accessories that came with the Spectre were perhaps more highly sought after than the actual blaster. First off, the stock, while kinda flimsy, was the first example of a side folding stock to hit the market, so that was cool. Also, the barrel had the double distinction of having a bore wide enough that it wouldn’t affect performance, and it looked like a cool suppressor. The ergonomics of the blaster are pretty standard, functional but not mind blowing, though having both attachments on does make it feel like some sort of covert scout rifle, which is fun. Performance on the Elite version is substantially improved over the original but neither version is all that great, to be honest.
Everyone agrees that its way cooler and easier to read when you replace words or letters in tex with numbers that approximate their shape or phonetic pronunciation.
The 4 Victory was released in 2015 in the Rebelle line of blasters.
Since its inception, the MEGA series of Nerf blasters has lent itself well to oversized, chunky blasters.
The MEGA Tri-Break was released in 2018, unsurprisingly as part of the MEGA subset of the N-Strike Elite line.
It’s always exciting to see new and innovative systems and mechanisms in Nerf blasters, whether they actually work or not.
The Sharp Shot was released in 2011 for the newly revamped Dart Tag line and then again the following year with allegedly improved internals, denoted by a blue trigger.
Just about everyone has at least heard of the Stryfe or the RapidStrike or Modulus ECS-10.
The Barricade RV-10 was released in 2010 as part of the N-Strike line, kind of the only line Nerf had going at the time.
variant- I mean, the Elite version, which came with a stock and was renamed the Stockade.
The Figure In Question 