Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Rant: Nerf Stampede ECS-50..

Yup. That's Toys R Us prices for ya..
I had an email recently from a reader who has noticed that around the traps in the US, many stores (Such as Walmart, Target etc) are listing the Nerf Stampede as an 'ECS-50'.

At the time of launch, there were lots of crying and whining on the Nerf pages about how "THERE IS NO ECS-50" which, probably made sense given that magic number of "50" didn't actually make sense. Three 18 round clips and a 6 round clip in box doth not maketh 50 rounds?

I went around and had a lil' look see at our stores here in Canberra, and sure enough Toys R Us and K Mart listed their Stampedes as an ECS-50. I wonder why? Speculations, theories and perspectives of mad conspiracies welcome!

17 comments:

  1. ok i dont want to move to australia anymore... 99.99 for a stampede?thats crazy.

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  2. I have seen them for 45 dollars, and consistently at the 79 mark. Which, by US standards is still pretty high.

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  3. Maybe originally they were going to provide it with the 50 round drum, but it proved to be too big/difficult to manufacture so they just decided to provide the stampede with the 3 18 round clips.

    If you think of it, it does seem to be a bit of an afterthought- no other gun comes with that many clips. Its almost like a box stuffer to compensate for the lack of 50 rounds?

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  4. Pre-release versions of the Stampede were marked as "Stampede ECS 50" as seen in the photo here: https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_km53cj4uhRA/TEDnlGJADqI/AAAAAAAAA8A/yCSCj83Q5t8/DSC_0066.JPG

    and a lot of the store listings were probably never updated after a certain point in the production process which is why the 50 remained in print, if not on the release blasters. With the 16x3 + add'l 6 round magazine (that early stampedes had, not just the 18 round mags), it was more "50ish" than 50. I would say nothing to really get too far into moreso than just a typo.

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  5. In the US, Toys R Us has it correct, but Target and Walmart have it marked as "ECS-50" as well, and Target even calls it the N-Force Stampede ECS-50! Well, that last is actually just a mistake by an uninformed employee, but I am beginning to wonder if there is something to this 50-round double drum after all. I'd be glad to see that the Stampede has a number in its designation, and 50 rounds would be nice, but still... don't know if the design of that drum is really a wise decision! :p

    P.S.: The current incarnation of the Stampede has exactly 60 darts in its clips (normal packages, not bonus value packs).

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  6. this obvioulsy means HASBRO LEAKED A DRUM MAG WITH 50 ROUNDS!

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  7. 3(18) + (6) = 60. NOT 50. It should be labeled "Stampede ECS-60) Just sayin. BTW, care if I use the pic?

    Zack - www.jzwt.blogspot.com

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  8. The stampede obviously was originally intended to be used with a 50 round drum magazine. The drum must have proved too bulky/unreliable, so they scrapped it and threw in a bunch of bigger mags. Hasbro had probably let the stores know ahead of actual release, and the stores just didn't get it changed.

    Thought that'd be obvious..

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  9. good job for figuring that out...............

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  10. Yeah, it's just the original pre-release name that the store hasn't corrected. At all. Almost a year after the Stampede was released. How have they not fixed it?

    Also, I have a feeling this blog entry is going to get flooded with " OMFG I WANT THE 50 DART DRUM" comments...

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  11. well think about this, nerf probably knew we had a good clue of what the stampede was going to be so they changed it a little, and the 1st post about it was the stampede and mission kit on amazon or where ever that had the shield and bipod separate, if you think about the 50 dart drum the bipod wouldn't do much because reaching your arm around the drum would really suck.

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  12. OMFG I WANT THE 50 DART DRUM jk =)

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  13. k. so according to recent pictures, i am thinking that there may be an ecs-50 with a drum mag

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  14. The ECS-50 was the original shipping name of the product. I got hold of the Toys R Us Australia shipping list (!!!) 6 months before the release of the Stampede here in Australia and that is how it was listed along with it's SKU code.

    I also got photos here in Australia of the Stampede ticketing in a Kmart store a few weeks before it hit the shelves and it listed as the "ECS-50". Some people in Bali have also reported that their very early releases of the Stampede actually had ECS-50 on the box.

    I believe it is linked to the original intention of shipping with a 50-round drum but that ended up falling through and they went with 18-round clips in the end, which still stuck them at 54 darts and a rough ball park of the 50.

    ECS-50 = Electronic Clip System / 50 Dart Capacity

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  15. The problem with this is ECS means Extended Clip Size and the drum is not a clip but I still think there will be a 50 dart drum mag soon anyway. -nerflizerd from YouTube

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  16. where are you getting "extended clip size"? ECS means electronic clip system, CS means Clip system. this has already been discussed with nerf who said that these are what the abbreviations mean.

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  17. Hey Urban if you out SGnerf's blog he has proof of concept:A double drum mag with 50 dart capacity that was going to come out with the stampede, this may solve your problems with the name "Stampede ECS 50", hope that helped.

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