Bryan and Brandon have hosted the Blaster Chat series at Dart Zone® since the start, and they’re here to introduce the next generation of Dart Blasters in their latest episode. The hobby-grade MK line brought incredible accuracy and range to the market in 2023. Hitting the scene in April 2024, the Adventure Force Nexus Pro X and Aeon Pro X foam blasters will deliver even greater results when they launch in thousands of Walmart stores. Get updated on these advanced features and designs with the transcript and episode recap for our value-packed blasters.
Meet the Next Gen Adventure Force Blasters
Brandon covers the upgraded design of the Nexus Pro X with a built-in storage compartment on the rear of the stock. On top of being able to take out the foam darts whenever you like and easier priming, the skinny pusher system for this $50 blaster cuts back on air loss for a range of up to 200 feet. The additional SCAR and BCAR set lets you customize your textured blaster for fine-tuned accuracy, and the included grip can be replaced by standard handle options on the market.
Bryan talks about the Aeon Pro X Adventure Force Pro Blasters for $25. With 150 feet per second (FPS) before any extra accessory kits, it’s a value-driven design for anything from new hobbyists to blaster tournament professionals. Learn all about the internals, optional accessories, and coupon offers for these Dart Zone Pro® blasters with the full transcript or by watching the episode.
Video Transcript
Brandon:
What’s up, guys? Welcome to another episode in a new location. A new year.
Bryan:
A new year. A new year.
Brandon:
Yes. How are you doing?
Bryan:
I’m doing great. 2024 is off to a good start.
Brandon:
It really is, man.
Bryan:
I’m glad we have our new setup here so we can bring some more content to you guys on a regular basis. If you’ve not followed us before, we’re Blaster Chat. I’m Bryan with Dart Zone®.
Brandon:
I am Brandon with Dart Zone®. Hello, guys.
Bryan:
We have finished 2023, and we started the year thinking about where do we want to kick off? I think the best kick-off news is we’re going to talk in-depth today about the Nexus Pro X and the Aeon Pro X. If you haven’t heard, they are the new Blasters coming to Walmart under the Adventure Force Tactical Strike line. We debuted them in Nuremberg.
Brandon:
Yeah, man. How was Nuremberg?
Bryan:
It was pretty cool. Second year I’ve been able to go to the show. Nuremberg is an international toy show. You have all the major toy manufacturers and brands there. We’re meeting people from all across the world. Met people from Asia, Europe, South America. Even some African countries.
Brandon:
Always good. Yeah.
Bryan:
I think our booth was really cool this year. We had a full setup with a shooting gallery.
Brandon:
Yes, yes, yes. It was all online, a lot of stuff on social.
Bryan:
It’s kind of like what we have done before, but I think Dart Zone®, for being our first full presentation at that show, we had a lot of people coming up. As I watched them gravitate towards the product, they said they see the stuff that they’re most familiar with, like the full-length Blasters that were on display there. Then there’s just this curiosity of what is this cool stuff over here, on the right? That’s where we had all of our Dart Zone Max® and our Dart Zone Pro®, and our new Nexus product line on display there.
I appreciate anybody that came by. If you’re following us, welcome back. We got a great story to tell and we’re off to a good start.
Brandon:
Yeah, man. Well, I’m beyond stoked. We have a lot of stuff cooking. But this one has been really cool because, well the Nexus and the Aeon, for the general person who maybe has no clue what we’re talking about, this is the next iteration of something that really helped us, helped put us on the map for Pro Blasters. But also, really helped to form what mass market Pro Blasters look like in the industry.
You and I have been working on this for a really long time. But I, man, I have just been … I’ve been so impressed with what our entire team has been able to do over the years. I think this is no different.
Bryan:
It’s our five-year anniversary almost.
Brandon:
Which yes, happy anniversary.
Bryan:
Yeah. 2019, we introduced the Dart Zone Pro® MK line.
Brandon:
Yeah.
Bryan:
It was the MK-1. The following year, we had an opportunity with Walmart to bring that type of form factor, which would be a hobby-grade, or a high-performance plaster that uses half-length darts. Half-length darts are darts that are half the size of standard darts, and they’re really designed for accuracy and they’re designed for being able to shoot higher distances. We’re talking 150 feet plus. We got that opportunity and I think it changed the category and expectations from a consumer standpoint.
Brandon:
Really, yeah.
Bryan:
We went back into with Walmart last year, 2023 and said to them, “We have to upgrade your two items that have been the benchmarks of the Tactical Strike line. Let’s do it early, let’s not wait until Christmas. Let’s do this in April.” These two items that we have here are going to be on the shelves in April. They’re going to be in over 3000 Walmart stores. I think that is what we’re really excited about our partnership with Walmart again, is to reset the expectations of the consumer of what you’re going to get from a Pro Blaster.
Brandon:
Especially at the price point. We really, really have jammed every single ounce of value we possibly could into these boxes for those price points.
Bryan:
Yeah. You’re going to get something that may, if you bought it in all components and tried to build your own Blaster, you’re talking a couple hundred dollars. If it’s a 3D-printed Blaster, you’re definitely $100 or more. But basically, right now, all the features, and we’ll go into this a little bit here, are all designed to give you the most exciting package of products-
Brandon:
Yes.
Bryan:
That you could get from a Pro line, that you’re able to pick up at your own Walmart stores.
Brandon:
Yeah.
Bryan:
I think that’s really what we’re here to be excited about, is that you get all these features. It’s feature-rich.
Brandon:
Yeah, absolutely. Well, I want to go ahead and dive into them just a little bit. We’re going to have demo videos and a bunch of other stuff socially that’s going to pop up over time. But we’re just going to hit you with the highlights here, because I think that there’s a lot to unpack. I think we can unpack it at a high level for you guys really quick.
But, the Nexus Pro X. What we’ve got here right in front of me, you’ve got the box over here, off to the side. But what we’ve got here is what we have come to realize is the most accurate mass-market Blaster that is on the shelves, period. There are a lot of things that make up what makes that the case.
Bryan:
Yeah. Basically, it’s the form factor, it’s the internals.
Brandon:
Yeah.
Bryan:
And it’s the accessories.
Brandon:
Yes, absolutely. Let’s talk a little bit about the internals. If you guys are familiar with Skinny Pushers, mass market audiences, maybe you’re not, but ultimately all that means is that you’re able to remove the magazine while the Blaster is either primed or de-primed. That literally just means at any point, you can just remove the magazine. Now the previous iterations of our Blasters, even some other Blasters, you would have to prime this all the way back before you could remove the magazine. Well, now we have circumvented that.
The reason I bring up the Skinny Pusher is that that is something that’s been in the market for a while. It’s certainly a great execution of allowing for the magazine to freely be released. But the internals of the Nexus and the Aeon actually don’t have a Skinny Pusher. We have a new plunger system that’s patent-pending, that allows for this to basically be removed at any time. We don’t have a pusher rod in here. What that means is that it really doesn’t matter whether you’re primed or de-primed.
Now, you may see Skinny Pusher stuff out there from us in other Blasters at certain points, or something like that. But for the time being, what we have done here, really the reason behind doing this is that we wanted to create a system that almost eliminates air loss.
Bryan:
Yeah.
Brandon:
The Skinny Pusher, there is inevitable air loss. With a pusher rod, there’s inevitable air loss. Because we have circumvented that and created this new system, which I know that there are going to be those of you that are going to take this apart and really have a great time really figuring out what we’re talking about, and I’m really excited for that. Please, go buy one, rip it apart and film a video. Really, I want you to nerd out about it because it’s been a lot of fun to create. But this is an almost air-lossless system.
Bryan:
That’s a weird word, air lossless.
Brandon:
Air lossless, right? Yeah.
Bryan:
What Brandon’s saying here is that the Nexus Pro allows you to … You’re going to get up to 200 feet of distance at 200 FPS.
Brandon:
Yeah.
Bryan:
Basically, with the same priming force that you had previously in the Nexus Pro original one, which only went up to about 150 FPS.
Brandon:
Yeah.
Bryan:
Basically you’re getting 50 more FPS without having to have any more additional loading force for priming the Blaster.
Brandon:
Yeah.
Bryan:
That makes it if you’re playing for multiple shots over time, it allows you to reload faster and be prepared on the battlefield of foam battlefield, for sure.
Brandon:
Yeah, absolutely.
Bryan:
That’s one feature.
Brandon:
Yeah.
Bryan:
What’s another feature? We talked about the new internal system. But we’ve got the thing on the front that’s been catching everybody’s eyes.
Brandon:
Yes.
Bryan:
A new scar system.
Brandon:
Yes, absolutely. We really wanted you to be able to fully customize this to your liking. Not only did we give you one scar … What a scar is, it is this little barrel right here on the front. What you’ll notice is that it actually has spiraled rifling in it. What that does is it takes the dart and it spins it on the way out. That means that it’s going to make your dart more accurate. Now not only did we give you this, which is an extruded, threaded scar barrel, but we also went ahead and included a bearing scar, which people would call a B Car. Ultimately, what that means is that the dart, instead of hitting these rifling bridges on the inside, it’s actually going to hit bearings.
It’s a use-case thing, it’s really a preference. If you’re going to push this Blaster as far as it possibly goes, you’re going to notice that maybe one of these works better than the other. But it’s really a dealer’s choices. We’ve given you the opportunity to use this Blaster with nothing, which is still incredibly accurate. With the rifled, threaded scar. Or, with the B Car, the bearing scar.
Bryan:
Yeah, we call it the accuracy boost roller scar, or accuracy boost threaded scar, if you check out it on the package.
Brandon:
Yeah, absolutely.
Bryan:
What we have seen here is that we’re talking about features, and thinking about trying to … For $50, which is retail, US retail, you’re getting the Blaster, the magazine, the dart refills, the stock, and you’re getting a set of scar barrels that usually is about $20 or more US retail, in some cases 25 or even higher. We’re talking about value.
Brandon:
At every single turn.
Bryan:
That’s what Walmart has truly challenged us too, is to basically be the leader in performance and value to the consumer. I think we want to give them credit for giving us the opportunity to launch this program again with them, and start over, and resetting the consumers’ expectations on what you’re going to get in a Blaster.
Brandon:
Yeah.
Bryan:
We’re off to a good start there, with two things.
Brandon:
We’ve got about three more things that we just want to highlight really quick. Let’s say four. But we’ll keep it quick.
We’ve got your normal buffer tube that you’re used to with the Nexus, but we have a storage compartment on the back of the stock for you.
Bryan:
Yeah.
Brandon:
And the spring change is actually just one screw on the back, and you’re going to twist that cap, screw for safety. The handle is actually a bring your own handle situation. We’re really confident in our ergonomics, however we have set it up to work with standard handles out there in the market, if you have those.
You’ll also notice, if you’re in a store and you’re flipping up that box, you’re going to be like, “Wow, that’s a lot of really cool texture on the side.” Well, we have decided to use basically, instead of just your typical printing on the side of the plastic, we’re using more or less a next-gen 3D stacked printing. This texture that you’re feeling is actually not part of the mold or the tooling, it’s actually just layers stacked on top of each other. It gives us the opportunity to do a lot of really cool stuff from a tactile perspective.
Then last but not least, the one that, for those of you that are in the know and in the hobby, we are aware that the Worker Talon is something that everyone is using in their 3D-printed Blasters. We’re listening. What we wanted to do was our take on that. We understand that that is the standard, in a lot of places. We took that, we took the form factor, the silhouette that you guys like, and we put a little Dart Zone® spin on it, gave you a little bit of tactile feel, you know what I mean?
Bryan:
Yeah.
Brandon:
You’re going to feel very familiar when using these. It just is good. It’s just a clean, smooth execution of it.
Bryan:
One of the things about building a whole ecosystem of Blasters is we’re making our accessories available from the get-go when the product launches in April.
Brandon:
Which is kind of a first.
Bryan:
Yeah.
Brandon:
At this scale.
Bryan:
We focus on our retail partners and our general marketing campaign, but a lot of things right now, you’ll see from our website, is we’re doing a lot more directly on our website. If you haven’t subscribed to your Dart Zone® Vault, our email subscription, you get great coupons there now that we’re offering for people who subscribe or the first purchase. I think that’s one of the things we also are really working on, is trying to make Dart Zone® Blasters a destination for all your accessories, too.
Brandon:
Yeah.
Bryan:
The final thing, I think we didn’t mention, but you’ll see it within the Nexus Pro design, is you have the long, uninterrupted Picatinny rail.
Brandon:
Yes, which is definitely not something that was there on the first one.
Bryan:
Yeah, it wasn’t on the first Nexus Pro, so we made that adaptation. It’s a sexy-looking Blaster because we are building upon a little bit of the original DNA of the Nexus Pro with, we call it the purple camo, urban camo. It’s the funky design that’s out there in the store. Walmart wanted to make sure that we pay homage to that and keep that going. This is our iteration for that.
But with the printing process now there, and the 3D texture printing, we can do design updates and upgrades a little bit easier than we did before. That’s the intention with the whole Nexus Pro, it’s going to become a standard, and then we have options for variants and specials when the time arises. When the time comes around.
Brandon:
Yeah.
Bryan:
I think this is going to be your expectation of what you’re going to see in stores.
Brandon:
Yeah, absolutely. One last thing, and I almost forgot, we talk about the priming force and everything being a little bit easier. What you’ll notice is, right here at the back of the priming handle, we’ve actually included a little roller. Instead of when you’re pulling that priming handle back, instead of that rubbing plastic to plastic, we’ve added a little bit of a roller just to help with that. It’s just another way that we were thinking about that priming force.
I really want to get into the FPS, because it has part of the accessories that we are adding to the website. Not only do you have the stock spring, but we are also going to be selling a strong spring and a lower-powered spring. More of an event standard spring.
Bryan:
Yeah.
Brandon:
On the site as well.
Quick numbers for you. Out of the box, you’re looking at right around 200 FPS.
Bryan:
Correct.
Brandon:
The event is standard spring, you’re looking at sub-130. That is something that we didn’t have for the original Nexus, which honestly, we made it too powerful to be used at certain events. We have come up with a solution for that. For those of you that just really, really, really want to push this Blaster-
Bryan:
Those FPS chasers we know.
Brandon:
Absolutely. We have included a stronger spring in the kit. If you go to our website, you’re not going to have to buy a stronger spring and the event standard spring, you’re going to get both of those.
Bryan:
Together.
Brandon:
If you use the stronger spring with an eight millimeter spacer, which is included, you’re going to be hitting 250.
Bryan:
Yeah.
Brandon:
Which is really awesome, because you could not do that with the Nexus Pro based on the stuff that we were selling.
That’s Nexus Pro X, in a box. That’s the gist of this beautiful work of art.
Bryan:
This recap highlight will be chopped up and you can do a little more deeper dives on all the other highlights of it. But basically, out of the box, this is what you’re going to see. The box there is on the side of the screen. We want to give everybody a chance to get an early look from us.
We appreciate anyone’s whose done videos who was at Nuremberg already. I know Drack did a good video, and then also Crime with Blaster Time.
Brandon:
Yeah.
Bryan:
Shout out to both of them for getting this all started. It’s our video here to give you a little more of a deeper dive on what was going on and how did we end up at these two new products we’re really excited about.
That was where I’ll transition to think about the Aeon Pro.
Brandon:
Absolutely.
Bryan:
You have the Nexus Pro at $50. The Aeon Pro is going to be on store shelves at $25. It’ll be side by side.
Currently in stores, if you look at the original Aeon Pro, it’s orange. The Nexus Pro right now is purple with the purple camo. Walmart wanted us to keep those two color schemes going because they were working.
Brandon:
Yeah.
Bryan:
That’s what you’ll see in store now this year, it’s this orange with this purple printed deco in laser print.
Brandon:
The urban camo.
Bryan:
If you saw something online, you saw the purple Nexus Pro, that was an early iteration. That may be available elsewhere in the worldwide market. But for now, when you go to Walmart, you’re going to see the orange Aeon Pro. It comes with the same magazine that’s swappable with the Nexus Pro, but it’s got a purple tint. We have the same internal mechanisms. You’re going to get, out of the box, about 150 FPS. You’re also going to have a swappable spring system, which will allow you to get up to about 200 FPS with the upgraded spring, or below 130 for those people who want to play at events as well.
Then the other thing here is that we’ve seen some 3D-printed accessory kits after market. Now we have a standard stock attachment to the back of the Aeon Pro. I think that’s going to be nice for those who want to have a top prime primary. Then the other thing is, because you may have a little shorter stroke, a little different loading force, we have this little buffer here in the back to make it a little easier for you to prime it back on the go. I think that, together, they make a great tandem. They are the next gen of the Pro line Blasters that reset the category.
That’s the quick highlight video from us today.
Brandon:
Yeah.
Bryan:
About the Nexus Pro and the Aeon Pro that are coming out in April. We will be excited to see what else people have to say about them when they get their hands on them.
I think the other one promo we want to show people is that there’s a couple new things coming to the stores right now. If you’re looking in stores, you’ve seen our upgraded magazines, our upgraded dart refills.
Brandon:
Yeah.
Bryan:
With this standard carrying case. That’s going to be universal from half-length darts and full-length darts, coming this spring. You should be able to check those out and look for those in store. Same retail, but you get a little easier way for you to keep some darts on the go.
Brandon:
Absolutely.
Bryan:
The last thing I’ll tease and share with people is that the Spectrum’s coming back to the stores. Spectrum was a very classic Blaster that we introduced in 2019. Let me grab it here real quick. The Spectrum. Full-length darts. Semi-auto motorized Blaster. We’re going to bring it back to stores for $20 retail.
Back to basics-
Brandon:
Absolutely.
Bryan:
On many things in 2024. Why not bring back one of the classics and the favorites for people who are … If you know, you know. People were breaking these Blasters and turning them into pro Blasters, with some modifications. But we think that this item is a great every day value item for those who are looking for a full-length dart high-performance Blaster. You’re going to get about 95 to 100 FPS right out of the box out of this.
Brandon:
Sick.
Bryan:
Great item.
Brandon:
Absolutely. I think we also went ahead and upgraded the carrying case for the standard darts as well, which is pretty sick. I think you have that over there, right? Yeah, there you go, man.
Bryan:
These are in stores now. For $10, you’re going to get the waffle-tipped darts with the standard carrying case. We know that you may not take the time to put all these darts back in the line officially, but grab them during your dart sweep, drop them in the bucket and you’re able to go on the fly.
A lot of updates coming, and refreshments planned. I think it’s going to be fun to be on the road and showcase our products, because that’s what we’re going to be doing. I’ll let you know now, we’re going to be at Awesome Con.
Brandon:
In March.
Bryan:
In March. And some other events are coming, too. We were out in Orlando at MEGACON. If you come to those events, check us out. You get a chance to demo stuff, and play with stuff, and buy stuff at the events, too. We’re basically making it a full consumer experience.
Brandon:
Yeah. That is also something that we hadn’t done in the past, that we’re really excited about. You used to be able to come to the events if we had events and just test everything out, but now you can buy boxed stuff right there and take it home with you. Which is really good, because sometimes you’re just having a good time, and you don’t want it to stop, and you just want to go ahead and just make that move. We are officially taking it on the road. You’re going to see us at quite a few cons. That is something that we’re really excited about because it’s an opportunity to reach a new audience, and to bring more people into this wonderful hobby. But also, to give us an organized place that we can all come to.
For those of you that are in the hobby, if you’re just looking to say hello, Derek’s always on the road. If you know Derek, he’ll be the one manning the booth. Come by any of the cons across the United States that we happen to be going to and say hello.
Bryan:
Yeah.
Brandon:
He’s definitely always willing to say hello. He’s happy to see you.
Bryan:
I think he’s doing a great job. I think one of the things we, at Dart Zone®, wanted to really make an effort this year, is that if you’re in the know, we love your support. We’re going to continue to make great Blasters for you. But if you’re a first time in the hobby, we want you to be able to have a quick education, quick opportunity to get caught up on why this is the Blaster you should be playing if you’re doing this type of event, or this type of gameplay. I think that’s the next horizon here because we have a lot of people who love Blasters and modding them, but don’t really know where to go and where to play.
A final thing before we sign off here is that we’ve got a new events page coming to our website.
Brandon:
Yeah, yeah. If you go to our website right now and look for our events, you will see all the cons that we’re going to. But also, we’re going to be adding any international events that we happen to be doing. Stuff on out in Singapore, maybe stuff out in the UAE. There’s a lot of stuff that we have going global, and we are going to be doing a much better job of just letting you guys know what’s going on and where Dart Zone® really is, because we have a lot of fun talking to you guys in the US, but really the Dart Zone® family is much, much larger than just the US. We want to bring us all together.
Bryan:
We’ve got a lot of great brand ambassadors out there and doing great things. Their hard work needs to be shared with everybody.
Brandon:
Absolutely.
Bryan:
I think from here, in our bunker, our headquarters, we’re just going to come to you quickly, do quick touch bases in 2024. We’ve got our studio, we can just pop it up. Continue to follow, and if you haven’t hit the subscribe button, please do so.
Brandon:
Yes. Please sign up for our SMS, our SMS list as well.
Bryan:
Yeah.
Brandon:
If you go to the website, you’re going to be prompted. Really, that’s just going to give you the opportunity to make sure that it doesn’t go to junk mail and to make sure you get those coupons.
Bryan:
Correct.
Brandon:
Because we’ve got coupons coming this year.
Bryan:
Yeah.
Brandon:
Really, really want you guys tuned into that.
Bryan:
Yeah. Get a chance to get some special deals, and find out first looks, and I think that’s where you should be. If you’re not, we want you to have that opportunity. Go to our website, find us wherever you are getting your content and we’ll be back here soon with more content from Blaster Chat.
Brandon:
Yeah.
Bryan:
I think we’re ready to sign off?
Brandon:
Yeah. Man, I think this has been a lot of fun. It’s a nice kick-off to the beginning of this year. Guys, there’s a lot coming so just get excited, because we’re excited. We have a lot of content coming for you.
Bryan:
We’ll see you soon.
Brandon:
See you soon, guys. Thanks.
Bryan:
Thank you. Bye
