The Dart Zone Pro had a successful launch, with a slow but steady march to 1000 units sold (plus a few unmarked ones from prototypes and Ragnarocktoberfest prizes). Magazines can now be preordered, and darts are on the way. What’s the next step for the line and what should be done? These are my thoughts and speculation.
Darts. Darts.
The item on the wishlist is admittedly more important than many others. As bizarre as the NIC hype machine may seem (and it did get with the DZP Mk-1 with some people expecting a super-cheap superstock blaster), there is one constant: people want cheap darts. We lose and destroy darts through regular play, making that a necessity. And Dart Zone has good inexpensive ones available for regular blasters, at a dart, if notless (when bought in bulk as Walmarts Adventure Force darts).
Although a new type of dart may be more accurate than the old, it is not worth paying a premium. Even short darts have been around for a long time so there is a reasonable standard price. Worker Gen3 darts (the purple ones with new heads) are pretty accurate and consistent, and go for for 200, last I checked at Out of Darts. (Cheaper can be found, but usually requires much longer shipping times). So per dart.
The dart pack that came with the Mk-1, with 240 darts, was valued at and came with free shipping. If we assume it was to ship a small box of darts (and they all cost the same), thats a dart. Which isacceptable, but hopefully can be lowered more. These darts can be great even when they are pushed to extreme limits. But when push comes to shove, especially when it comes to community dart bins and orders of thousands of darts by NIC members, ammo cost does come into play.
Dart Feed Issues?
When returning the bolt to its original position, the tolerances for the dart gates are so tight that slightly thicker foam could easily become stuck.
This includes things like Adventure Force darts, and some short darts (early generations of Worker darts, for example). It can be rectified with modding, of course, but thats extra cost on top of the platform.
If cheap darts are made available, this point becomes entirely moot. However, if they aren’t affordable, future blasters will have to be better able to handle compatibility with other darts.
It Will Happen: Magazine Compatibility
This is a concern but it’s understandable. Compatibility the other way, however, doesnt appear to be in play, as extra plastic prevents the Dart Zone magazines and adapters from being used in other blasters.
On one hand, this makes a strange bit of sense. Hasbro has changed the mag wells slightly in newer blasters to prevent Buzz Bee magazines from being compatible. Theyre even added smalltabs to newer Rival magazines to prevent further compatibility with Dart Zones own Ballistix Ops/Adventure Force ball blasters. Trying to make your mags matchthe leading brandsstandard turns into a negative if they change the standard slightly, so why try?
Even so, this is already a niche market that Dart Zone has dipped their toe into. It also contains short dart adapters that fit perfectly into Nerf blasters, such as for Talon and Katana magazines. Cross-compatibility is key if you want to push your magazines for both short and regular darts. People are already invested in an ecosystem such as Talon mags, which, with adapter will fit Nerf blasters, and thus the DZP Mk-1), so having a magazine that doesn’t fit your product is not a great incentive.
What Blaster Is Next?
Of course, we can speculate on what we want next. Although Dart Zone may not make their own FDL, a flywheel blaster with high-performance performance would be nice. Thinking back, I still have to feed the bamboo darts through flywheels to compare them with other things. I guess I should get on that!
