Last week, the National Toy Hall of Fame announced its 2023 inductees: baseball cards, Cabbage Patch Kids, the Fisher-Price Corn Popper, and Nerf!
Nerf balls were invented by Reyn Guyer (who also invented Twister) in 1969. He and Minnesota Vikings kicker Fred Cox went to Parker Brothers with a football game that was safe for indoor play. After careful consideration, Parker Brothers decided to get rid of everything but the foam ball. The first 4-inch polyurethane Nerf Ball was introduced in 1970 and was marketed as the “world’s first official indoor ball”. It was a huge hit, and by the end of the year more than 4 million Nerf balls had been sold.
The name Nerf comes from the world of drag racing. In the 60s, foam-covered bars, often called “nerf bars” were used on the front of trucks that pushed drag racers to the starting line. This was to protect the car from any damage. In 1972, a basketball game called “Nerfoop” and a Nerf football were added to the lineup. Some of the first TV commercials were joint promotions with Kool-Aid, and showed members of the Monkees playing with nerf balls on a living room soundstage. Marketing slogans promised that you could “throw it indoors; you can’t damage lamps or break windows. You can’t hurt babies or old people!”.
Their best-known toys are the Nerf blaster dart guns, introduced in 1992. A community has developed around Nerf blasters, with competitive and casual Nerf wars. There is also a significant modding community, made up of people who try to improve the performance and accuracy of Nerf blasters with upgraded parts and different dart or ammo types. In 2021, Michael Pick from Huntsville, Alabama set the Guinness World Record for the largest Nerf gun. It’s 12 1/2 feet long and shoots 12″ darts that reach speeds of 50 mph!
Every year, Nerf makes more than 445 million darts. Today, annual revenue for the Nerf brand is around $400 million. Learn more here.