"Obama" joins the NERF militia

I went to the NERF site to look for a basketball set for my first grader. Not only is the NERF brand now mostly about pretending you are in an elite special forces unit (protecting NERF Nation, no less), they have drafted President Obama into their non-expanding recreational foam militia. (Yes, I know it's not really him. But the resemblance is striking!)

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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hymenopterid

Soft socialism.
http://2012diaries.blogspot.com/ tristan eldritch

“ZAP!”

“Mr President, please – coordinating drone attacks is not a game on the Wii.”
- malindrome
  
  Beat me to the drone strike joke. Still, how long can it be before they release the nerf quadcopter?
Cowicide

Sekrit service?
- seyo
  
  I’m guessing that’s supposed to be Joe Biden. As imagined by Joe Biden, when he looks in the mirror while brushing his teeth in the morning.
  - Cowicide
    
    With a super-soaker full of vodka, no doubt.
Mike Guerrero

I hear legislation is pending on making these illegal…

http://www.hasbrotoyshop.com/Files_AltB/FB25D3FB19B9F369102239D6C3D53AFE.jpg
http://twitter.com/sirkowski Sirkowski

Obama is obviously selling those Nerf guns to Mexico in a conspiracy to ban Nerf from America!
CognitiveDissident

How long has the militarization of the toy aisle been going on, since WWII at least.
But I think that they’re ramped it up since 9/11, in the toy aisle, on TV, at the theatre etc etc.
I’m the first to admit that war video games are fun, but call me fuddy-duddy, I don’t think the developing mind should playing (literally) bloody war games, save it for adulthood. I know, yada-yada-yada freedom of speech blah-blah-blah, all I can think of is that interactive war games are very useful propaganda tools.
(Gotta keep that production line of authoritarians going full steam.)
(And yes, I don’t think the resemblance to Obama is an accident at all.)
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  How long has the militarization of the toy aisle been going on, since WWII at least.
  
  Do you know the etymology of Caligula?
Jorpho

If I had Nerf armaments as a young’un, I suspect I’d spend most of the time frantically trying to pick up all the scattered ammo, whining when I couldn’t find some of the ammo, and begging to get new ammo. But I suppose it encourages exercise, right?

(I do recall advertisements for motorized squirt guns that fired colored fluid that would “disappear”. And Laser Tag, of course – including the Saturday morning cartoon!)
- Cocomaan
  
  That’s exactly what happens. You spend 20-30 fun seconds shooting the nerf guns, and 10 minutes trying, usually unsuccessfully, to find all the darts.
teapot

1) Nerf guns are much more awesome when you put overpowered rechargeable batteries in them. You can easily double or triple the range using this simple hack:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk48DAhuScg

2) You can buy 100 darts from ebay for $15+. At that price you’ll be annoyed that they’re everywhere before you’re annoyed you can’t find them.

3) Sega Lock-On was the best simulated war game evah!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Lock-On