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We decided to test Alex’s N-Strike Longstrike CS-6 against an N-Strike Raider Rapid Fire CS-35 and an N-Strike Nite Finder EX-3. Nerf claims that the Longstrike has the longest range of any of their guns at 35 feet. Can it shoot a dart 35 feet? Check the video to find out.

To summarize, the Longstrike can shoot over 60 feet, depending on the dart used.

The Raider did pretty good, with some of the darts going past 50 feet and one making it 60.

However, the clear winner at distance was the Nite Finder EX-3. It shot a dart a whopping 85 feet! Unfortunately, the Nite Finder is single shot gun that isn’t much use in a battle situation.

We also did some experimenting with some of the darts. The darts that went very far consistently went very far. While the darts that did poorly consistently did poorly. There must be latent defects in some of the darts which keep them from going the full distance.

Update – April 3, 2010:

We got an unmodified LongStrike to shoot an incredible 85 feet today!

If you own an L-Series John Deere (I own an L-2048 while my dad owns an L-130) you might have noticed that the manual says the transmission is “sealed” and that it is “not user serviceable.” I took that to mean that if anything went wrong with the transmission, you had to replace it because it couldn’t be fixed.

Well, that’s not entirely true. Since last summer my L-2048 had great difficulty going up hills after it warmed up. In searching about the problem online it was definitely related to the transmission and not something cheap and relatively simple like the drive belt. (More on that in a bit.) So I started pricing a new transmission. They’re about $600, not including the installation. Ouch!

However, I came across these instructions on changing the oil in the transmission. Those that have tried it solved their “can’t climb hills” problem. So I decided to give it a try and it worked.

It took me about two+ hours mostly because I was by myself (it would have been awesome to have someone help me drop down and lift up the transmission into the tractor) and because I didn’t really know what I was doing. Now that I’ve done it once, I’d guess the entire job could be done in about an hour. In fact, I’d guess it would be easier than changing the drive belt. Mostly because to change the drive belt you have to disconnect and remove the steering column.
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I saw Transformers on Tuesday with Alex and so far it’s the best action movie of the year.

One of the problems with “action” movies nowadays is the lack of action. Directors either want to make art and receive critical acclaim or hit as many demographics as possible to ensure profitability. Last summer Superman was too busy stalking Lois in to kick any butt. Spider-Man spent way too much time forgiving his enemies as opposed to kicking their butts. The Fantastic Four were so busy squabbling the bad guy had save the day and kick the other bad guy’s butt. And let’s just say that the cast members of 300 spent too much time admiring their butts.

In comparison, one could argue that there was too much action in Transformers. To analogize, I’m imagining the following conversation between two hardcore heavy metal fans coming out of a metal concert:

“Dude, that band rocked too hard. Going to 11 is cool, but 12 is just too high.”

“Yeah dude, they should have rocked a little less hard, taken it down a notch, my ears hurt.”

That’s how I felt after leaving the theater. And I’m not talking about the volume of the movie, although it is quite loud, I’m talking about the action. It was beyond gratuitous. It made my teeth hurt. And my son complained that his feet hurt. While my problem was most likely from clenching my teeth, I have no idea what harm the movie caused my son’s lower appendages. But the harm was palpable.

In those rare breaks in the action it also managed to be quite funny. One of Michael Bay’s problems is that he plays his movies straight, no matter how ridiculous they are. You can’t have a movie about giant intergalactic warrior robots that transform into GM vehicles without some humor. Bay recognizes this and lets us know he considers the source material as funny as we do.

I also wanted to add a bit about how amazing the CGI effects were, but Ben Kuchera over at Ars Technica has already summed it up perfectly:

The bar has been raised for special effects here: the Autobots and Decepticons feel heavy and absolutely real in every frame they’re in. There are long, lingering shots of the models in full light, and I couldn’t find a CGI character that pulled me out of the movie or made me think I was seeing something that wasn’t actually there.

So, if you are into mindless, no… how about mind-numbing action movies, you will not be disappointed with Transformers.

Makes me wish I knew how to weld.

The DVD for Zathura came out this week and Alex and I watched it Tuesday. We also saw it in the theater when it was released. I loved the movie back then and I love it now. There was just something about it, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I finally figured out why: It’s true to its audience.

Most movies nowadays, especially kids’ movies, try to cover as many demographic groups as possible. They’ll have parts that pander to boys, to girls, to teens, to young adults, and to parents. They want to make everyone has happy as possible to increase ticket and DVD sales.

Zathura takes the opposite approach. It’s a movie focused solely on boys age 4 through 16, and on men who want to be that age again. There are no pop-culture references to make parents feel hip. There are no strong female characters to make girls feel good. It’s a high quality movie for boys about boys. I don’t think such a movie has been made since Stand By Me back in 1986.

It also takes an opposite approach when it comes to marketing. It’s a movie about a game, but yet the game in the movie is impossible to make, and thus sell, in the real world. While the game in the book Zathura was merely a run of the mill board game involving dice, the movie version was a complex mechanical game that was actually controlled by several people off camera.

I find this amazing because Disney or Pixar would have taken the greedy approach and made the in-movie game as simple as possible to ensure sales of the game to increase profits. Obviously, the director of Zathura cared more about telling a fantastic story versus creating additional profit. (I should point out that unfortunately, some suit at Sony attempted to create a version of the in-movie game to soak up some profits. But it’s a mere shadow of the real game and was an after thought, not something planned during the movie.)

Anyway, if you have a boy age 4 through 16 do him a favor and rent this movie. He’ll love it.