Emma Nelk

Prof. Newcomb

ENG170_41: Writing and Rhetoric

25 Mar. 2022

Nerf Guns

            It all started with a small foam ball for kids to toss around in the house without getting into trouble with their parents. Then a small plastic tube-like gun was created to shoot those foam balls. According to an article titled, “The History of Nerf”, written by Thomas D. on a website called Blaster Central, the original Nerf gun was called the Blast-a-Ball. Toys have developed a lot since the first Nerf gun and gun culture has also changed a lot throughout the years. Games are no longer as simple as they used to be. It used to be that a group of kids would gather around and arm themselves with the plastic guns and play a war game. Nowadays, kids don’t play much like older generations because of video games, or they don’t find it as interesting as their phones and tablets.

The article from Blaster Central talks about the history of Nerf and how it developed into such a hugely popular company admired by many children who enjoy playing with plastic toy guns. The article gives parents and Nerf fans a run-down of how long Nerf has been around and how the company got to where it is now. According to the article, a man named Reyn Guyer is the person who came up with the idea in 1969 of a small foam indoor ball for kids to play with. Guyer was also known for creating a game called Twister around that same time. It’s the classic and simple games that matched the level of developed technology that was around at that time that makes today’s games feel too complicated. It’s the simple games that are the most fun because there shouldn’t be so many rules and regulations to structure having a good time. This says that childhood has grown more structured and has more rules that need to be followed to be perfect. However, childhood is not something that can be tied down by rules because that’s not how life works for anyone. Childhood for most children is defined as a carefree and happy time. Adults can do what they can to give their child a sense of freedom and happiness, but they will still include structure and rules. There has to be time where children can make decisions of their own, like what they want to play with and how they want to play.

To entertain many young kids, Nerf has had to imagine new ways to keep the younger generation of kids interested to want to buy the next new model of toys. According to the article, the company was handed over to Hasbro, who eventually took over Tonka; a company that took over the parent company of the Nerf owners. In that time, new toys were put out known as the Bow ‘N Arrow and a couple years later the Sharpshooter as the first Nerf blaster to shoot what is now the iconic foam darts.

In the article, the author uses his research to support his findings of Nerf’s history. Those findings include brief details about how the company paired up with someone who was a US Air Force engineer and a worker at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to create a water gun nostalgically known as the Super Soaker; a water gun that every kid wanted to have in order to win water gun fights with just one spray to the body or the face. These instances bring the readers in just like the introduction paragraph that set up the whole article. The author pulls us in with the feeling of nostalgia of having fun with our friends and family growing up. There are a couple of times that I can remember my cousins coming over to my house and taking my brothers’ Nerf guns and having a free-for-all in the house. We would move furniture around to be used as cover and obstacles. Afterward there would be Nerf darts all around the house, and you would still be finding the darts around the house months later. Near the end of the article, there is mention of a couple of popular brands that most kids today can understand, as well as the older people who have known those brands, and that brings in interest from a large group of people who share a liking to brands including Nerf.

The article is very straightforward in how it presents itself. The title says exactly what will be discussed in the article when mentioning history. The history of Nerf is laid out and easy to follow with the facts and bits of nostalgia sprinkled in. The author even mentions numeric evidence by researching Nerf’s revenue from 2011 to state how powerful the brand has become. A lot more has happened than initially thought with a simple, small brand that transformed into a major brand that many generations from the past, present and future kids will still go crazy about and want a Nerf gun of their own.

When people think of childhood, they think of their past experiences and the nostalgia that went along with it. The nostalgia of a child playing outside in the dirt and goofing off with a bunch of friends is a major part of what defines childhood. The Nerf section on Reyn Guyer’s website discusses his story in how he and his fellow inventors came up with the foam ball that had “…broken the parental rule [of] no throwing balls in the house” and the creation of the name Nerf (Guyer). The way Guyer is so personal in his article by speaking in the first person and how he describes his inventing experiences as if he were a man but a child at heart tossing foam balls around with his friends makes him feel relatable and trustworthy. Everyone likes to break the rules and take those fun safe risks and be a child again when they have the time because they long for the simpler days of playing with friends. Childhood is a time many people now long for to return to because there was a lack of carefree responsibility and freedom that came with it.

It’s amazing how such a small singular product can later be blown up into a much bigger company that manufactures multiple products sold to millions. Children had the freedom to make up games with their friends to play and enjoy inside or outdoors. It was stated in the article “The History of Nerf”, that Reyn Guyer partnered with Parker Brothers in the creation of most of these products. No matter who officially owned Nerf, the brand Nerf didn’t change that much and instead developed in a productive direction.

A Nerf gun, just a simple toy that was made for fun and engaging children’s creativity. Some people may misconstrue the look of guns for violence. Some people believe kids may get into gun usage later in life by first owning a Nerf gun. Nerf guns don’t define childhood as a start of violence or a preparation of future violent abuse of guns. To grow up playing with toy guns or not? Having those toys doesn’t mean that a child will eventually turn to gun violence because a different part of that topic has to do with parenting. Some people could even buy and resell the guns for personal profit because the Nerf guns are a popular product with young kids.

In the beginning of Nerf, it could have been said that Nerf is subjective to a specific gender and more tailored to the wants of young boys. However, that isn’t the truth in present days as Nerf can’t be definitively defined for one specific gender group. Granted, Nerf is probably mostly used by boys, but that’s not to say that girls can’t play with toy guns as well. There have been a series of Nerf guns for girls in which the guns are colored pink and/or purple for a more feminine look. In a research journal written by Whitney Johnson titled, “Rebelling Against Femininity”, they talk about how the Rebelle Nerf campaign challenges and instills gender norms. Nerf has many campaigns that show off the numerous types of toy guns they came out with. The campaigns basically represent a bunch of themes that most boys find cool and interesting. However, “the use of weapons for play for girls is outside the norm and may challenge dominant masculinity” (Johnson). Nowadays people are redefining what masculine and feminine mean in their own way. Nerf is challenging the definition of feminine play. Anyone can choose what and who they want to play with, girls are no exception. If a girl wants to pick up Nerf gun and join the boys for a free-for-all, she can do that. The definition of what girls want to do when it comes to sports and games is slowly changing and integrating with the masculine version.

Nerf defines childhood by letting children use their imagination to find adventure and create their own rules. The initial inventor, Reyn Guyer, created a product that flew much further than he thought and was one of his most popular inventions. Nerf was a major part of childhood that brought kids together to create whatever game they could using their imagination and their own rules, such as capture the flag. Such a creative and adventurous outlet for kids who crave to be outside all the time is what is needed for the kids of today who don’t always want to play outside to have fun.

 

Work Cited

D, Thomas, “The History of Nerf (From Foam Ball to Billion Dollar Brand).” Blaster Central, 8 Feb 2022, https://www.blastercentral.com/nerf-history/, accessed 10 Feb 2022.

Guyer, Reyn, “Nerf Story”, Reyn Guyer, 2016, http://www.reynguyer.com/nerf.htm, accessed 26 February 2022.

Johnson, Whitney, “Rebelling Against Femininity: A Rhetorical Critique on the Nerf Rebelle Campaign”, Rebelling Against Femininity, University of Colorado at Boulder, 2014, accessed 2022.