The Best Nerf Gun Ever (The Nerf Crossbow)

It's Christmas time, and that signals one of the few times a year I get to browse the toy aisles with a legitimate excuse.  I have a 9-year-old cousin to shop for, so that means Nerf guns.  I went to Target and was a little dismayed to see some of the new designs that shoot discs instead of darts or arrows (call me a traditionalist).  Supposedly they actually shoot very well, but I have yet to try one.  I ended up picking out the Raider Rapid-Fire, which resembles a Tommy Gun with the large drum barrell.  Seems like the 30-shot capacity would serve him well in a firefight.

All of the shopping got me to thinking about my personal favorite Nerf gun, the Nerf Crossbow.

This purple monster was the first Nerf gun to fire both arrows and darts, which was great because you could use any ammo you found.  It also had a pretty good kick compared to the other Nerf products at the time, and a very practical design.  In fact, it has become the gun most sought after by collectors and modders alike.  If you remove the "bow" part of the toy, it becomes a cool-looking shotgun.  Sadly, mine was lost in a move, and a replacement has been too hard and too costly to find.  But it will always hold a special place in my heart.

Lego Minifig Barcode Decoder

So my cousin recently had a birthday and on his list of wanted items were a bunch of LEGO Minifigures. To that point I hadn't heard of them, but after checking them out I have to say they are pretty awesome. Little individual LEGO people with unique accessories following different themes. LEGO has made two different series of figures with 16 different characters in each.

The big problem for me was that my cousin of course wanted specific figures, and they are only sold in blind packages so you can't tell which is which. Now I can see how this is a nice marketing strategy by LEGO to promote trading among kids etc. However, I can imagine it getting really frustrating when you're trying to complete a set and end up with 4 Pop Singers, but can't find that lone Spartan Warrior to save your life.

Lo and behold, a hole in LEGO's strategy... each blind package has a unique barcode corresponding to a specific figure. Check out this handy chart:
Pretty cool litte trick to find those ones you are looking for. I managed to find some of the figures he was looking for, and picked out 3 for myself. The only other problem was finding them in stock in stores. They seemed to be pretty much sold out everywhere, that is until Target started stocking them in their Halloween section.

Enjoy the decoder now though, rumor has it that series 3 of the figures due out in January 2011 will have fixed the barcode loophole.

Happy Hunting