In this special edition of Blaster Chat, Branon and Bryan discuss an exciting project that has been under wraps until now: the collaboration between Netflix’s Stranger Things and our line of Adventure Force™ dart blasters. Adventure Force™ blasters are available exclusively at Walmart, and you can soon find our Stranger Things toy blasters at Walmart stores and online.
The Adventure Force™ line by Dart Zone® is designed to provide top performance and great value for all your backyard battles. Past collaborations have included our Jurassic World Dominion dart blasters. Now, the Duffer Brothers’ much-loved series Stranger Things is brought to life with two new Stranger Things dart toys: Steve’s Babysitter Bat and the Demogorgon Tracker.
Watch this video to get your first look at these Stranger Things blasters and learn about their awesome features. Both are cleverly designed to look like they’re right out of the show, but they provide the same high performance as all of our Adventure Force™ standard-length blasters and are compatible with all Adventure Force™ darts. Bryan and Branon discuss why it was important to base the blasters’ designs on the unique world and story of Stranger Things, why they are a great choice for both dart play and Stranger Things cosplay and what the Duffer Brothers themselves think of these Stranger Things toys.
Keep an eye on the Dart Zone® website for upcoming pre-order opportunities and more information about these blasters’ arrival at Walmart later this fall. Stay tuned for details about a special promotion coming to Walmart stores that will be centered around Stranger Things Day on November 6. Adventure Force™ will be a proud partner in this celebration.
You can also subscribe to the Blaster Chat podcast to stay on top of the latest news about our Stranger Things dart blaster collaboration and much more.
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:40 Babysitter Bat
4:29 Demogorgon Tracker
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Video: Blaster Chat, Episode 9 (7/18)
Bryan:
Hi, I am really excited today. I’m Bryan and, with my friend here, Branon –
Branon:
Hey.
Bryan:
… for a new series of Blaster Chats. Let’s call it: A Very Strange Edition.
Branon:
I like it.
Bryan:
Alright. Puns, we’ll stop today. But we’re really excited here to debut a new collaboration with Adventure Force. We have got two new products in the Adventure Force and Stranger Things series. So we feel very honored to be selected to work on these custom projects, design them from the ground up. And we’re kind of here just to highlight and talk you through them. So Branon, what you got in your hand right there?
Branon:
Yeah, man. So this one I’m extremely excited about. I guess you guys have already seen it right here, but this is Steve’s Babysitter Bat. However, it’s Steve’s Babysitter Bat plus it’s a Dart Blaster.
Bryan:
Ah, sweet.
Branon:
Yeah. So you just prime that handle back, push it forward, and we’ve got a little yellow button right here that’s just going to let you fire it. It is so much fun. I’ve even seen somebody, kind of while we were playing around with it, swing it like a bat and hit the little trigger at the exact same time and I mean, you can lob a dart much further even than –
Bryan:
Awesome.
Branon:
… it would’ve gone. It’s so fun. Yeah. I mean, it’s different. It’s completely different than any other dart blaster that we’ve ever worked on. And what I think is really neat here is that we’ve got obviously some Easter eggs here on the product for you guys to discover yourselves, but we have the silhouettes. We’ve got the nails that you associate with Steve’s Babysitter Bat, but what’s really cool –
Bryan:
Always the Babysitter.
Branon:
Uh, yeah. But what’s always cool is that with these nails, you would expect that maybe you’re hanging out or something and maybe one day you look down because you’ve used this a lot or played with a lot and maybe a nail has fallen out, not going to happen here. And that’s because all of these individual nails are adhered to a piece of material that’s made of the exact same materials as these flexy nails, which means that you’re not getting these nails out.
Bryan:
Awesome.
Branon:
So you’re going to be able to keep this beautiful silhouette forever. This is a soft material around the actual bat. This is a harder material down here, so it kind of maintains the structural integrity of it. But the pommel of the bat is soft. And this is soft as well, along with the nails. And then if you look right here, this is kind of where the dart actually comes out of. So you’re just going to load a dart in once again, pull it back, push it forward and fire.
Bryan:
What kind of darts does it use?
Branon:
Well, it’s actually got your Adventure Force waffle tip darts, but it’s actually got something a little bit different here as well. So actually, I went ahead and fired the red one.
Bryan:
I’ll give you that one right there.
Branon:
Yeah, thank you. So what you’ll notice, and we’ve done this with both of them, is that we have three different dart-head colors. And what we thought was really neat is that this was kind of our opportunity. We had three darts that we could include, so this was our opportunity to pay homage to the rainbow room.
Bryan:
Ah, that’s cool.
Branon:
Yeah, so we’ve got one of your typical waffle tip darts, but then we’ve got a yellow-tipped waffle tip dart and also a red-tipped waffle tip dart. And you can only get these with these two blasters.
Bryan:
That’s very cool because I think one of the things that we were working with the Netflix team that helped bring this project to the market was how do we incorporate the story?
Branon:
Yes.
Bryan:
And really the Stranger Things fandom is built around the story. So with Walmart and Stranger Things and Netflix, there’s going to be a big promotion coming up and it’s going to be maybe probably from Halloween through 11/11. And it’s also going to be centered around Stranger Things Day, which is November 6, which is the day in the story that Will Byers is abducted. So part of this is going to be a big push by Walmart and Adventure Force and Netflix to have a really exciting experience in stores for all those fans of Netflix, of Stranger Things, and we’re going to be part of that. So we’re really excited for that invitation.
The bat, Babysitter’s Bat, has been recently released. The Duffer Brothers, who are @strangerwriters on Twitter, actually posted a photo for it and kind of said, “it’s real and it’s fantastic;” I think they were saying. So I think for us, we want to appreciate them kind of taking that opportunity to bring that product and that announcement that way, because I think it’s a good way to integrate people that are really into dart blasters and toys and in collecting anything and everything in the Stranger Things franchise, it’s a good way to bring them to the market. So hopefully we’ve got some new fans for dart blasters too.
Branon:
Yeah, I completely agree. Well, I’ve talked about the bat.
Bryan:
Yeah.
Branon:
I know you got something in your hand. Here is your red dart back.
Bryan:
All right. My red dart back, so I’ll load this up here. What we have here is called the Demogorgon Tracker. So it is a branded Hawkins National Laboratory design. So think of this is a hodgepodge buildup in the lab to find and track Demogorgons. The star of the show from the original, all the way through. So what we’ve got here is you’ve got a little combination of a toy blaster that’s auto-advanced with a little bit of a fidget toy. So right here, if you just pull the trigger halfway back, you’re going to get the mouth of the Demogorgon firing open. Of course, “Hey, friendly Demogorgon, come here, come here, come here.” And then if you want to track them and hunt them down, you can just pull back and then you give a full trigger pull and it sends the dart flying. And you can do it again as well. And I’ll do it one more time.
So yeah, so this is going to be here in this package you see here. So these are all standard-length blaster, a standard-length dart, so you come to expect the standard performance that you are from standard full-length darts. And they’re compatible with all the other darts that Adventure Force makes. So we’ve got in here, in the package, the Stranger Things. It’s going to come actually with these little two pop-up stands that you cut out of the box and I think they’re kind of nice little targets for you to play with as well. So you got two of those in the box, you get the Demogorgon Tracker, three darts. That’s going to be about a $15 retail. And then the bat along with the three darts is going to be about $22 retail. I think sometimes it may be $20, but we’ll see.
So these two items are going to be in stores say around October 1. Some pre-order options are going to be online before then. But I think it’s really just a really cool opportunity just to say that Adventure Force is growing as a brand. It’s got some great partners and I think it’s a sign of what’s to come on this. We’re really excited to see what people want to see in the series next. So I was telling Branon that if you got any comments about what you would love to see is your next Stranger Thing series blaster, let us know.
Branon:
Yeah.
Bryan:
What’s (sic) your thoughts? What’s (sic) your thoughts about what you see here?
Branon:
Man, I am extremely excited. I know we’ve been kind of cooking on this one for a while.
Bryan:
We’ve kept it under the covers too.
Branon:
Yeah.
Bryan:
We didn’t talk about it to date.
Branon:
Yeah, which has been extremely cool. I think that people are going to find that these are two of the coolest blasters that have been released in a really long time. And also that these have infinite cosplay and HVZ opportunities. I’m really excited to see some of the costumes that people put together with these blasters. Ultimately, I really think that this is an opportunity for blasters to kind of be more than just a blaster. And I think that these are extremely good, especially the bat. I mean, I think the bat is one that I think people, even if you have no experience with blasters at all, I think people would pick this up. And I think that the actual play pattern of this is fundamentally different, I think, than any blaster that’s been on the market. And also different than any bat that’s on the market as well, so it was a fun-
Bryan:
These are toys, man.
Branon:
Yeah.
Bryan:
So I think that’s the thing about it, these are fun, affordable. Available at Walmart, so they’re going to be available anywhere you shop in America. And then it’s got just great stories to tell.
Branon:
Yeah, I love the story.
Bryan:
So we’re of course excited to see where Stranger Things 5 goes. And we’re all fans, just like everybody else we’re waiting to see. But for now, I think everybody who’s a dart blaster fan, Adventure Force fan, and a fan of our Blaster Chats, you need to put these on your Christmas list. And we will be back soon with another series of Blaster Chats to talk about all things dart blasters.
Branon:
Yeah, man. Before we go, here, go ahead and load that up. I’m going to go ahead and do this one, too.
Bryan:
Oh, yeah. We’re going to (muffled).
Branon:
Yeah, why not? We’re already here, so I’m just going to set these up. And we’ll make sure that we can get them on camera. They’re fun. They stand right up and these are actually right out of the package. They’d stand up better if I wasn’t shaking my hands a whole lot.
Bryan:
Ah, no problem.
Branon:
Here you go, man.
Bryan:
Well, we’re going to take them down.
Branon:
Yeah.
Bryan:
One. Oh, that one flew off.
Branon:
That’s what I’m talking about, man.
Bryan:
So again, thanks for joining us and we’ll be back soon. This is Blaster Chat. Peace.
Branon:
Thank you so much guys. Talk to you soon.
Bryan:
Talk to you soon. Bye.
