Stock Blaster Predictions for 2012

[isoaker]

Well, we've had a glimpse of what is coming from Hasbro's Nerf Super Soaker line with the finding of the Lightning Storm. We also know that Buzz Bee Toys is barred from making any CPS/rubber-bladder-technology for the time being, making air, piston, and spring its current options. There are, of course, other brands like Banzai that may opt to release some new blasters next year.

That said, what are your predictions on stock water blaster models for the 2012 season?

This thread will remain open until the actual information for given lines are determined.

[cantab]

Well, we know SS are sticking with the same line. Expect the Hydro Cannon and a number of the others to continue, however, there may be tweaked versions with the drum magazine. Expect the drum to be hard to get separately, based on precedent with the Overload's Aquapack. The Lightning Storm and HC will be joined by a few piston pumpers, there won't be any air pressure blasters better than the Point Break. There'll also be some movie tie-ins that aren't related to the main line; these could be recolours of older blasters, and could be arguably the best ones. (The Iron Man 2 recoloured Arctic Blast was arguably the best SS last year, and the XP215 - one of my faves for its compactness - got a movie branding.)

Buzz Bee, on the other hand, will bring out new medium and large air pressure designs. I doubt the 'Ultimate' feature will see a second year. I can see some old designs getting out again (albeit re-engineered for air pressure), like the Blazer/Expedition. They may copy SS in going for styling, but if they do they'll retain good power.

[martianshark]

The Lightning Storm is probably the T-Storm's replacement. Or maybe the T-Storm will also be available. The drum mag will probably be exclusive to a few guns. They'll release a few of last year's guns and add a few more bad ones. Possibly one decent one.

Now that BBT is more prepared than last year, they'll be improving on the air pressure system and hopefully re release the Gorgon or something similar. Maybe they'll start making Pulse guns again.

[marauder]

Well... if there was a year to be gone from soakerdome I suppose this'd be the year; but then again, with all the great stuff the community is doing, that's probably not true.

I predict more of the same from both parties. The drum clip is a very good idea for what they're doing, but it's poorly executed. If the magazines were CPS pressure chambers that you could charge on a hose, then attach to the soaker as a clip it'd be pretty cool. Hopefully they rerelease some old guns. It's absolutely pathetic that the highly touted Lightning Storm (love the name though) advertises a max range of 25 feet. If someone had shown up at the community war with a Lightning Storm they would have been crushed and absolutely outclassed. Even in the airpressure only battle, we had XP 150s, Explorer, Max D 6000, XXP 275, SS 100 mk2, XP 270, XP 110 - all of which shoot 8 - 12 feet further. And if you had used that thing in the other battles, where we had CPS 2000s, the best analogy I can think of would be like showing up to a noncompetitive paintball tournament with a pump Talon, while everyone else is shooting Angels.

As for Water Warriors, I also expect more of the same. Functionality will be good, and I expect them to retain the design feature of having the pistol grip located at the back of the gun, perpendicular to the rest of the gun. This is a design feature I do not like, as it makes the weight balanced completely forward of the pistol grip, making it awkward to one hand medium-large weapons. I would absolutely love the Vindicator if it had a normal Super Soaker style pistol grip.

[SEAL]

Wow, I totally missed this! Well, forgive me for being late, but it's not like we've seen all the new blasters for this year yet.

So for Hasbro, we've already seen what they're offering this year, and I'm pretty doubtful that any more blasters are in the pipeline. Of course, they'll probably re-release a few of this year's blasters, possibly replacing the T-Storm with the Lightning Storm, and offering "Value Packs", with older blasters like the Tornado Strike sold with those drum mags.

BBT however, would be in a pretty good position right now to take the market away from Super Soaker, seeing as all the new SSs are little baby blasters with terrible power, if BBT could come out with some big, powerful, and at least somewhat cool-looking air pressure blasters, with a big push in the marketing department (With cool commercials and such.), then maybe more people will turn to them.
Unfortunately, BBT seems to only release new lines of blasters every other year, so I'm predicting that they'll only come out with 2 or 3 new blasters, probably a new Ultimate blaster, and one or two other blasters. Unfortunately, 2012 may be one of the worst years ever for new stock blasters. But maybe BBT will surprise us...