Board Thread:Questions and answers/@comment-30049823-20200212202706/@comment-45033946-20200213144624

Elliottw wrote: This is the backstory as far as I know it. Feel free to chime in if anyone has more/better info.

The 1992 original release of the Sharphooter came with orange tip yellow SharpShooter Darts that had black fins. These are the original SharpShooter Darts.

The 1993 rerelease (or second production run because the first was so wildly successful) came with orange tip yellow Mega Darts without fins. This version would ultimately become the standard Mega Dart. So I guess technically they could be called "Type 2 SharpShooter Darts". However, they're physically identical to all the other Mega Darts, so everyone in the NIC just lumps them together as Mega Darts. But as far as I know, those orange tip finless yellow Mega Darts were only packaged with the SharpShooter rerelease, so they're unique in that way.

Later in 1993, Kenner introduced the black tip red Mega Dart. It was the standard Nerf dart up until 1999. To complicate things, there were two variants of Mega Darts called Type1 and Type 2. I don't pretend to know how to tell them apart, but apparently the design change was necessitated by the introduction of compression rings. It might be related to the bias of the foam, or the density of the foam itself. But apparently the Type 2s weren't as good. Don't know the specifics.

In any event, Type 2 SharpShooter darts are the same as Type 1 Mega Darts. And both should work in the original SharpShooter as well as the rerelease.

With respect to Rskm's question, I'm not aware of any Nerf brand solid/non-hollow darts. As far as I know, every blaster since the Rip Rockets had a dart post(s). As to AttnDef's question, there were a couple red tipped Mega Dart variants. But I'm not sure I understand your original question:


 * "The darts that came with my Sharpshooter have red suction cups, but no fins.  Based on the wiki, this was a later model.  That makes sense as a bought it with the Arrowstorm and that came out a year later apparently.  However, these are still not standard mega darts because those do not work with the Sharpshooter.  The opening on the red tipped darts is much larger."

If they didn't have fins, then clearly it was the latter SharpShooter rerelease. But if the red suction cup darts "came with the SharpShooter", how could they "not work with the Sharpshooter" ?

Let us know AttnDef. We're really curious now 🙂 You can call me ADD. Here's what I can tell you based on the three blasters I bought as a kid that used darts. They were the Sharpshooter, Sneak Shot and Rattler.

First off, yes, my Sharpshooter came with finless, red suction cup darts. These have a much wider opening than what I would call "standard mega darts" as that's what my Sneak Shot and Rattler used. Those standard mega darts have a narrower opening and therefore are too snug around the plastic bit inside the Sharpshooter and will not fire properly. Follow me?

It has been years since I've busted out my old Nerf blasters as they are at my parents' house, but as I recall, the Sneak Shot darts and the Rattler darts were the same save for the coloring. And were cross compatible. I could be misremembering that part.

As far as I know, there were never any solid Nerf darts. I have no experience with other non-Nerf brands.

I can also say that the Sharpshooter darts were squishier than the darts for my other two blasters mainly BECAUSE of the larger opening they have. Less foam means less firm. So, it's possible that what the wiki is calling type 1 mega darts are in fact, Sharpshooter darts and the type 2 mega darts are the darts that came with every other 90s blaster.

Edit: I forgot about my Crossbow. Totally forgot that shot darts. If I remember right, these were identical to the Sneak Shot darts.