Nerf ranks up there with Lego, Hot Wheels, and Barbie, as one of the most recognizable brands in the toy industry, but can you have just as much fun pinging your co-worker with foam ammo fired from one of its competitor’s products? I went hands on with two Nerf alternatives: the Adventure Force Commandfire and…

Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9's weekly round up of all things fun, collectible, and frivolous. San Diego Comic-Con is but a distant memory at this point, but thankfully there’s still plenty of toy news to be had. Lego’s still pumping out new sets, Jell-O’s trying its hand at making edible toys, and we’ve got some fun…

Over-the-top Nerf battles are a fun and (mostly) painless way to determine who in the office has to buy the donuts this week. What’s not so fun is having to hunt down every last missing dart afterwards. Hasbro’s eliminated that hassle with its new Laser Ops Pro blasters; an updated version of laser tag that might feel…

Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9's regular roundup of all things toys. This week, San Diego Comic-Con marches ever closer with even more exclusives, Batman Ninja strikes at your shelf, and Nerf is getting into laser tag. Check it out!

In recent years, Nerf has added some gigantic blasters to its lineup, at times necessitating the need for a shoulder strap. But they still can’t compare to one of YouTube’s Ryan & David’s recent creations: a four-foot long custom-built bazooka that fires oversized darts made from pool noodles.

Some of Adam Savage’s most popular Tested videos in recent years have been his one-day builds in which he mods, hacks, and paints Nerf blasters to improve their capabilities, or just make them look like beautiful scifi props. His latest build includes all of the above, as Adam modifies and upgrades a Nerf Rival…

Benedict Cumberbatch aside, the best part of Marvel’s Doctor Strange movie was the animated spells the magical characters could generate out of thin air. Given our world lacks real magic, a Japanese cosplayer has found a way to simulate the same effect using a modded Nerf blaster and a spinning LED wand.

Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9's weekly roundup of the neatest toys around. This week, Hot Toys gives us a Deadpool with killer footwear, the incredible Batman Ninja gets an equally worthy action figure, and more Harry Potter Lego than you can shake a whomping willow at. Check it out!

Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9's weekly roundup of all the coolest new collectibles we’ve seen this week. We’ve got even more Marvel movie merchandise (only one of which has anything to do with Infinity War!), an X-Files icon, and a very silly Rick and Morty umbrella. Check it out!

There’s no better example of bigger being better than this devastating 1,200-round Nerf blaster made by combining three Rival Nemesis MXVII-10K blasters and a plastic storage container that serves as a massive ammo hopper. The result is a foam-firing Frankenstein that’s so massive and heavy you need a camera tripod to…

After realizing they had an unfair advantage during Nerf battles over a competitor who was missing a hand, the tinkerers at Hackerloop decided to level the battlefield by building Nicholas Huchet a custom Nerf blaster prosthetic that can be automatically fired whenever he contracts his forearm muscles.

Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9's weekly roundup of the best toys you might have missed, but deserve to know about. This week we should all take our red pills for the return of the One, featuring an amazing likeness of Keanu Reeves; a 10-inch version of Arya Stark that we’re almost certain is based on Maisie Williams;…

In New York next month the toymakers of the world will be showing off everything the kids in your life will be begging you for later this year. But ahead of Toy Fair 2018, Nerf has given us a sneak peek at a couple of new blasters it’s introducing, including one that helps solve the most annoying part of waging a dart…

Nerf’s Rival blasters, which can fire small foam balls at speeds of up to 70 miles per hour, already make you a formidable opponent when office battles erupt. But it wasn’t enough for YouTube’s Captain Xavier, who hacked his Nerf Rival into a spinning minigun fed by a 2,000-sh0t backpack.

Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9's weekly roundup of the coolest collectibles around. This week: Star Wars! Sure we just got a whole bunch of them last Friday, but somehow the world managed to make space for even more Star Wars toys. Can you believe it? But there’s more than the galaxy far, far away to tempt your wallet…

Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9's weekly round up of the coolest toys and merchandise floating around the internet. This week, we’ve got a festive Lego set, an obscenely over-the-top Nerf cannon, and yes, a Joker figure just resplendent with different emotions. Take a look, and prepare to hide your wallet somewhere…

They’re fun, but Nerf’s blasters, even the most powerful ones, aren’t known for their impeccable accuracy. So if you find yourself in the heat of battle surrounded by opponents, you’d be much better off with this Nerf grenade in your arsenal, which blasts foam darts in all directions.

Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9's roundup of the merchandise most likely to burn a hole in our wallets this week. Today we’ve got a Boba Fett-inspired Nerf blaster, some retro Batman action figures, a cool way to build your own Lego Transformers, and an alarmingly adorable Xenomorph plushie.

YouTuber Giaco Whatever is on a quest to build a Nerf blaster that will do more than just leave a tiny welt on someone. He’s constructed an air-powered dart cannon that generates 400 PSI of pressure, and when cranked to full power, it can apparently send a Nerf dart flying at Mach 2.3, twice the speed of sound, or…

The most dangerous object in your home isn’t the stove, the clothes iron, or that chainsaw in your garage. It’s your alarm clock’s snooze button that makes it so easy to go back to bed each morning. Silencing that alarm shouldn’t be so easy, so Christopher Guichet built an alarm clock that can only be deactivated with…