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    A pre-make of Disarmed?

    Posted by TagFerret Email on August 5, 2005, 11:42 pm, in reply to "Another Spy Gear Masterpiece, More LC, and Blue IRTs at Target"
    24.23.232.198 | Message modified by user TagFerret August 6, 2005, 3:07 pm

    I couldn't resist, had to go buy a set to see what the compettition is up to...

    They are 100% interchangeable with Disarmed, all signals are identical and perform identical functions. Even the sounds are identical. My bet is they have exactly the same processors in them.

    Appearently actually PRE-DATE the disarmed sets. The battery panels say "(C) 2000, TOYMAX" -- no mention of JAKKS Pacific at all. The box and instructions say "(C) 2005 Toymax, a subsidiary of JAKKS Pacific"

    My bet is that when Toymax stopped producing LC gear shortly before JP bought them, these had already been designed and in all likelihood produced in limitted quantities and paid for, and have been sitting in a warehouse ever since. Its not an uncommon thing to happen in the toy biz.

    At first the use of the term "NEUTRALIZED" struck me as copycat-ism, like the fairly blatant change of packaging style on the new "DISARMED" sets which appears to be nothing but an attempt to look like LTTO's packaging. But the little special-function button on the back is engraved "N" (just as the one on the DISARMED set is engraced "D") and it is unlikely they would have made a new button and done all the dissassembly/parts-change/reassembly for a product name change. So I guess they planned on calling it NEUTRALIZED from the beginning but never brought it to market until now. I wonder what the internal story is behind NEUTRALIZED versus DISARMED, why the two different styles and names for the same internal product? The two were probably intended for different markets or something, but who knows...

    Anyway, the new gear looks kind of cool, even if inside it is just the same old stuff. It is slightly more "realistic" looking, if the term can be used for LC -- it's really stretching it IMO. It has some nice blast-effect decoration similar to that on the old Star Wars models of Tiger Lazer Tag, adds a nice "battle-tested" look to it. Cool looking or not, though, the sights are still worse than the ones on an LTTO Deluxe (if such a thing is possible...), as you have to sight along a CURVED rib which forms the top "spine" of a CURVED surface, and they are definitely scaled for little kids' hands.

    Anyway, it is good to see Target carrying the Drones as well as the Deluxes. That tells me they are expecting a big upswing in LTTO sales -- Hasbro must be planning a big marketing push (lets hope so!).

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