You don’t need to be a nipper to find toyshops a strange and magical place. Especially when that toyshop is Hamleys, Britain’s largest. And especially when you happen to be there after opening hours. Clutching a big toy blaster. Running around shooting zombies. As PR stunts go, this is pretty awesome...

We’re here to mark the launch of Hasbro’s NERF Raider, the latest addition to their range of toy blasters that pump out foam bullets at targets. The blasters have been appropriated into a range of NERF war games, which play out a bit like paintball without the bruising (or the visions of P.J. being blinded in Byker Grove). And it’s great fun.

Today we’re going to engage in a bout of ‘Humans Vs Zombies’, a twist on classic tag games using NERF blasters (and, in its original form, socks), which evolved from the Goucher College campus phenomenon (visit humansvszombies.org for more info).

First up, our three-man team heads to a shooting gallery/Hamleys stockroom for some much-needed target practice. We’re handed our weapons by a hard-nosed drill sergeant (well, OK, a smiley PR guy in a T-shirt), before blasting bullets at targets fixed to the wall. It’s impossible not to pull various action hero poses as we fire away, though whether Rambo could have defeated an enemy platoon armed with just a NERF blaster is debatable.

By the time we finish our practice session, we’re waist-deep in foam bullets. It’s been a bit like the first half of Full Metal Jacket when the soldiers are put through a rigorous training regime (but without the murder and suicide). We’re proper soldiers now, and ready to enter the field of combat…

Our mission: To blast targets placed across two floors of Hamleys in the quickest time possible. To slow us down, there’ll be lurching zombies leaping out from behind lines of Bratz dolls and Mr Potato Heads. We earn extra points for wasting zombies. However, we lose points if they touch us – though at least we won’t lose our braaaaaaaaaaaains….


After psyching ourselves up (by mumbling “Die zombie scum!” under our breath), we approach the start line.

“OK, GO!” yells a NERF-Umpire (probably not his official job title), and we leap down the metal stairs straight into a pit of THOUSANDS OF FLESH-HUNGRY ZOMBIES! OK, so there’s actually about six of them, but in the heat of battle it feels like more…

We run. We shoot. We reload. We shoot some more. I rescue a team-mate from a zombie touch. He doesn’t do the same for me. We lose 10 valuable seconds.

After completing the circuit and destroying the targets, we race up the stairs to the finish line, where we throw ourselves onto the NERF cushion.

So how did we do? “You did OK,” the NERF Umpire informs us at the end of the evening. And did we win? “You came somewhere in the middle.” Oh.

In zombie-busting terms, then, we’re merely mediocre. But we reassure ourselves with the fact that when the zombie apocalypse arrives, we’ve got a head-start over most people. As long as we’ve got a ready supply of NERF blasters to hand…

For more information on NERF visit: www.hasbro.com/nerf

Words: Matt McAllister; Photos: Simon Jacobs