The Zing Air ZoomZooka 4-in-1 Air & Water Blaster Can Be Played With Year Round

Thank you to Zing Toys for providing a complimentary sample ZoomZooka toy gun for us to base this review upon. All opinions expressed are my own.

Water guns are fun for any kids and the Zing Air ZoomZooka is an extra fun one because it’s not only a water gun, but also an air gun! The air gun can launch the included plane, rockets, and suction darts more than 50 feet, which would make it a great gun all in itself. But, stick that gun into water and you get rocket powered water that shoots 50 feet as well! This gun is really a blast indoors and out and can be played with year round no matter the weather.

My kids have literally had hours of fun with the ZoomZooka. They both love it most as an air gun, but the water play is fun too. We’ve had unseasonably cool weather and tons of rain, so their outdoor play with it has been limited, but once we get a few nice days, they’ll probably change their minds. They have contests to see who can launch the bullets the furthest and they really love chasing my poor, defenseless dogs with them too. This is one of their favorite air guns and I don’t think they’ll be growing tired of it any time soon.

The ZoomZooka 4-in-1 Air + Water Blaster can be purchased at many major retailers such as Walmart, Target, Toys”R”Us, and Amazon.com. It retails for approximately $15.  It's currently on sale on Amazon for just $11.48 with Free Super Saver Shipping.

To learn more about this and other Zing Air toys, visit ZingToys.com.

The Air Storm Z-Curve Bow and Z-X Crossbow from Zing Toys Make Fun Outdoor Toys

Ever since my days of watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer on television, I always thought it would be so cool to be able to say, "I call crossbow!" . . . Well, now I can.

I actually wanted to try these toy bows and crossbows for awhile, but our children were just too young.  If you play online games as an archer, you must wonder what it is actually like to use one.  I was a bit curious, but I never was curious enough to actually sign up for archery lessons.  Since our son turned 8 this year, I felt he was old enough to use a projectile toy such as the Air Storm Z-Curve Bow and the Z-X Crossbow under strict supervision.  Our 5 year old twins, however, are barely old enough to even be around someone using these toys.  They needed to be reminded constantly to stand off to the side or behind the person holding the bow.

I chose the Z-Curve Bow because it looked like an easy-to-use long range bow.  It also comes with both 2 foam-tipped Z-Arrows and one suction cup-tipped Zartz arrow . . .

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My husband, who is the strongest among us, thought that the Air Storm Z-Curve Bow had quite a lot of resistance.  Of course, it depends on how far back you want to pull the arrow in order to make it go further.

My husband actually much preferred the Air Storm Z-X Crossbow, which comes with 3 suction cup Zartz arrows.  It is handy that it has places to store the two extra arrows underneath when they are not in use.

The crossbow works with a trigger mechanism that has a safety.  The safety is automatically turned on when you cock an arrow.  One thing we wished was different is that, after you release the safety, you cannot turn it back on.  You would need to shoot the arrow if you are worried about the crossbow accidentally being triggered if you needed to put it down or leave it unattended.

Please watch our short video demonstrating both toys . . . 

For the video, we had set up cups as targets on a park bench.  Although I did not capture it on video, there were a few times that the suction cup arrows missed the cups, hit the back of the bench, and stayed where they hit.  I was astonished at how well they attached themselves to a painted wooden surface.

Surprisingly, our 8 year old son preferred the Curve Bow over the Crossbow.  He found the crossbow to be very difficult to load.  It really does take a lot of muscle.  He also found that the crossbow had a kick to it when he triggered it.  He thought the Curve Bow was easy to load and, although he could not pull the arrow back as far as an adult, he could pull it back enough to make the arrow travel quite far.

To learn more about the new Air Storm product line from Zing Toys, visit ZingToys.com.  We have been seeing Air Storm toys everywhere in recent weeks, including our local Walmart, Toys "R" Us, and Target stores.

Thank you to Zing Toys for providing complimentary product samples for us to base this review upon.

Review: Nerf N-Strike BARRICADE RV-10 Blaster Gun

My husband and I are both wary when it comes to projectile toys.  Our 7 year old son so very much wanted a Nerf gun after playing with them at his friends' houses.  We decided he was responsible and mature enough to own a Nerf N-Strike BARRICADE RV-10 Blaster, which is recommended for ages 6 and up, as long as he agreed to follow the rules we set for using it.

This blaster is battery-operated and runs on 3 "AA" batteries.  I did not know what to expect when I saw that it was motorized.  It turns out that the barrel only revolves once with each pull of the trigger, which is much better than a stream of continuous shooting from this parent's point of view.  The gun comes with 10 "Whistler" darts.  You can purchase additional darts, but you will need to make sure you buy the exact ones that are compatible with this model.  There are also other attachments and accessories that can be purchased separately.

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There are some safety features that I like very much about this gun.  First of all the darts are foam with cushioned rubber tips.  The second thing I like is that there is a "Jam Clearing Door" that slides open and shut at the top of the gun.  When this door is not clicked shut, the motor will not turn on even if the switch is in the "On" position.  The trigger cannot be depressed and the gun will not fire without the motor being on.

The rules we have set for our 7 year old to use this Nerf gun are as follows . . .

• He is not allowed to use it when his 4 year old brother and sister are around.  We tried it and they are just not disciplined enough to remember to not move too close to the targets.
• He is not allowed to shoot at anything except pre-approved targets.  There is no aiming at people, pets, the television, walls, or anything.
• Turn the gun off when he is not actively shooting it.  This will help prevent him from absent-mindedly pointing the gun at something else while talking and accidentally shooting off a dart.

So far, I think this is a fun toy for our 7 year old son.  He is able to manually load the darts into the revolving barrel, which he thinks is pretty darn cool.  I have found that the only time the gun seems to jam is when he does not push the darts all the way into the barrel.  Our 4 year old twins are definitely not mature enough for this toy.  Even with close adult supervision, they would constantly be distracted and be pointing the powered-on gun in all different directions.

To learn more about the Nerf N-Strike BARRICADE Dart Blaster, visit Hasbro.com.  This toy retails for approximately $16.99 by itself, but you may be able to find it specially packaged with extra darts or accessories for a different price.  You can look for it most places where Nerf products are sold, including HasbroToyShop.com, Toys "R" Us, Amazon.com, Target, and more.


Thank you to Nerf for providing a complimentary product sample for us to base this review upon.