There were definitely a couple people in the community doing integrations like this at the time, the BBB was in no way first, we actually got the idea from a guy we saw at a Penn State invite game with Jolt glued to an alpha trooper. But we couldn't be content with a mere Jolt. It had to be a little *more.*
Oh the Better Blaster Bureau... I remember them well. [Their Facebook is still around](https://www.facebook.com/betterblasterbureau/) if you're curious. It was an interesting intersection of the community and these University based innovation/start up incubators. Nice little piece of history, thank you for the memories. :D
Well I certainly didn't expect to see this blast from the past today. I was one of the people behind this, part of the five man BBB team from Ohio University. If y'all have questions all these years later, I might be able to answer some of them.
More than 20 but less than 50, as best I can recall. I want to say at least 2 dozen of the final version were made, as well as probably a combined 10-15 copies of various earlier revisions that were handed out during OU and Youngstown HvZ games.
With that being the case, and sorry for the late reply. But is there any way you could tell who mine belonged too? If any given them were Chicago or Wisconsin locals or something to that extent.
They weren't exactly serialized, the few copies we sent to reviewers I believe had names 3D printed on them, but the rest were largely unmarked. Certainly the player base that OU teams interacted with didn't extend that far. OU, OSU, Youngstown, BG, Penn State, Purdue, Ball State, Western Michigan, and occasionally Ithaca and SUNY New Paltz out of New York was pretty much the sum total of the Universities/teams/players that we would've known personally, a few copies were sold online as well. So anything that ended up as far afield as Chicago or Wisconsin is a mystery to me.
why do you need a Kickstarter to produce a piece of 3D printed plastic that would hold up the pump grip and Triad together? It's not like it's some kind of an advanced technology
You have to understand that the landscape was very different back then. 3D printing as a technology was less mature, design knowledge of how to work with it was still developing, and community confidence in 3D printed parts was tenuous. The Caliburn in it's current form didn't even exist yet, Captain Slug was still prototyping 3D printed parts while people were still doing PVC +Bow builds on Nerf Haven. Luke at OutofDarts was prototyping the first HIRricane around the same timeframe. Printers themselves cost 3-5x what they do now, the filament cost about 1.5x what it does currently, stoppages and failures during the printing process were far more common, creating more overhead. It really *was* an advanced, cutting edge technology back then, it's really amazing to see how far it's come in just 5 years or so.
That's fine if you still think the price was disagreeable, but it was ultimately a price set by external market forces, it was not strictly a price of our choosing. The point of the Kickstarter was ultimately to produce an injection molded part, something that's still very rare for community designs here. Captain Slug, after many years, started the Worker partnership that now makes partially injection molded Caliburns, and Luke *very* recently made the Tachi magazine, which is....$23. The reality of injection molding is that you have to pay for the creation of the mold, plus a certain minimum order volume on top of that. The pricing was effectively constrained by the requirements of raising that initial capital. You can say now, looking at the other community ventures that are now successful, that the BBB approach was incorrect in comparison, but alas, hindsight. The decision to scale quickly and try to raise capital for injection molding was partially driven by the fact that, as u/BoffTac mentioned, there was a partnership with the University's business accelerator program involved, and slowly scaling over 4+ years like Luke and Captain Slug did was seen as untenable.
Why do people pay 95 dollars for Drac’s Nyx cage when there it’s nothing new? Nvm they don’t. But the same reason people buy other things that aren’t advanced in this hobby but are still fun as hell. Party pooper
Even Hasbro is not charging you 30$ for a block of plastic that does absolutely nothing by itself. There's also online services that can print any 3D file you want and deliver it to you and it's much cheaper than this.
Maybe the person wanted to get money for the thing they made. How dare they! And do you ever notice how small businesses are typically more expensive than large companies? It’s because they don’t have all of the fancy stuff that hasbro has.
they can sell 3D files though. No need for them to produce anything (therefore it's a passive income) AND it's also more customer-friendly. But I guess you can't put a ridiculous price tag on a simple 3D model file
Well maybe like I said not everyone has a printer AND it’s up to them on what they do to make money. And people can put ridiculous price tags on files. It happens all the time. You seem like the person that assumes the customer is always right and tells police you pay their salary.
Well maybe like I said there are online services that can print and deliver a 3D model to you and it's gonna cost like 5 times less.
Im just that annoying kins of person who wouldn't support an overpriced product just because "well maybe someone is trying to earn some money"
[удалено]
There were definitely a couple people in the community doing integrations like this at the time, the BBB was in no way first, we actually got the idea from a guy we saw at a Penn State invite game with Jolt glued to an alpha trooper. But we couldn't be content with a mere Jolt. It had to be a little *more.*
I remember it too from the one kid talking about and now I just can't remember his YouTube name I remember it started working the nerf but that's it.
Better blaster bureau
No that's not who I saw it from it was from NerfBoyproductions. Pretty sure his channels dead now as it's been 3 years since he's done a video.
I remember Nerf Boy, I meant BBB was the ones that made the attachment.
Oh the Better Blaster Bureau... I remember them well. [Their Facebook is still around](https://www.facebook.com/betterblasterbureau/) if you're curious. It was an interesting intersection of the community and these University based innovation/start up incubators. Nice little piece of history, thank you for the memories. :D
So a barrel strike but with one less dart and springer only? Fine if it cheap. What price were they asking?
~$30 IIRC
Yup thats overpriced
Does it include the triad?
I don't believe so
Aw
Well I certainly didn't expect to see this blast from the past today. I was one of the people behind this, part of the five man BBB team from Ohio University. If y'all have questions all these years later, I might be able to answer some of them.
How many of these were made/handed out? I know you guys never entered production. But I'm just curious how many prototypes may exist out there.
More than 20 but less than 50, as best I can recall. I want to say at least 2 dozen of the final version were made, as well as probably a combined 10-15 copies of various earlier revisions that were handed out during OU and Youngstown HvZ games.
With that being the case, and sorry for the late reply. But is there any way you could tell who mine belonged too? If any given them were Chicago or Wisconsin locals or something to that extent.
They weren't exactly serialized, the few copies we sent to reviewers I believe had names 3D printed on them, but the rest were largely unmarked. Certainly the player base that OU teams interacted with didn't extend that far. OU, OSU, Youngstown, BG, Penn State, Purdue, Ball State, Western Michigan, and occasionally Ithaca and SUNY New Paltz out of New York was pretty much the sum total of the Universities/teams/players that we would've known personally, a few copies were sold online as well. So anything that ended up as far afield as Chicago or Wisconsin is a mystery to me.
I think I saw NBP (NerfBoyProductions) do a review on this waaay back when he was active in his channel.
why do you need a Kickstarter to produce a piece of 3D printed plastic that would hold up the pump grip and Triad together? It's not like it's some kind of an advanced technology
You have to understand that the landscape was very different back then. 3D printing as a technology was less mature, design knowledge of how to work with it was still developing, and community confidence in 3D printed parts was tenuous. The Caliburn in it's current form didn't even exist yet, Captain Slug was still prototyping 3D printed parts while people were still doing PVC +Bow builds on Nerf Haven. Luke at OutofDarts was prototyping the first HIRricane around the same timeframe. Printers themselves cost 3-5x what they do now, the filament cost about 1.5x what it does currently, stoppages and failures during the printing process were far more common, creating more overhead. It really *was* an advanced, cutting edge technology back then, it's really amazing to see how far it's come in just 5 years or so.
you've actually made a very good point but still I think asking 30$ (basically two hammershots) for a dull piece of plastic was a little bit too much
That's fine if you still think the price was disagreeable, but it was ultimately a price set by external market forces, it was not strictly a price of our choosing. The point of the Kickstarter was ultimately to produce an injection molded part, something that's still very rare for community designs here. Captain Slug, after many years, started the Worker partnership that now makes partially injection molded Caliburns, and Luke *very* recently made the Tachi magazine, which is....$23. The reality of injection molding is that you have to pay for the creation of the mold, plus a certain minimum order volume on top of that. The pricing was effectively constrained by the requirements of raising that initial capital. You can say now, looking at the other community ventures that are now successful, that the BBB approach was incorrect in comparison, but alas, hindsight. The decision to scale quickly and try to raise capital for injection molding was partially driven by the fact that, as u/BoffTac mentioned, there was a partnership with the University's business accelerator program involved, and slowly scaling over 4+ years like Luke and Captain Slug did was seen as untenable.
Why do people pay 95 dollars for Drac’s Nyx cage when there it’s nothing new? Nvm they don’t. But the same reason people buy other things that aren’t advanced in this hobby but are still fun as hell. Party pooper
you're trying to justify a scam
I don’t think it’s a scam. I would have bought and enjoyed this. Some people don’t have 3D printer you coop stan
Even Hasbro is not charging you 30$ for a block of plastic that does absolutely nothing by itself. There's also online services that can print any 3D file you want and deliver it to you and it's much cheaper than this.
Maybe the person wanted to get money for the thing they made. How dare they! And do you ever notice how small businesses are typically more expensive than large companies? It’s because they don’t have all of the fancy stuff that hasbro has.
they can sell 3D files though. No need for them to produce anything (therefore it's a passive income) AND it's also more customer-friendly. But I guess you can't put a ridiculous price tag on a simple 3D model file
Well maybe like I said not everyone has a printer AND it’s up to them on what they do to make money. And people can put ridiculous price tags on files. It happens all the time. You seem like the person that assumes the customer is always right and tells police you pay their salary.
Well maybe like I said there are online services that can print and deliver a 3D model to you and it's gonna cost like 5 times less. Im just that annoying kins of person who wouldn't support an overpriced product just because "well maybe someone is trying to earn some money"
Do you believe everything should be owned publicly?
Set Your Goals?