Most kids have owned a Nerf gun at some point. They’re good fun, at least until a kid shoots their sibling in the eye, resulting in a meltdown and merciless vengeance. Usually Nerf guns cost anything from a few bucks up to maybe $100 or so, and fire a few rounds at a time.
Leave it to a German to snort in derision at such paltry figures and come up with a foam dart minigun, of all things. A clip on Reddit shows the Nerf gatling gun in action, and it’s just as crazy as you might imagine.
Ridiculous, right? But also kind of cool, for all of us kids at heart. The foam dart minigun comes courtesy of MOA International. Fittingly enough, it’s called the MOAB, or Mother Of All Blasters. Does what it says on the tin, I guess!
The MOAB was designed and created by a German engineer who goes by the alias GatlingTommy. According to the inventor himself, he wondered: “Why isn‘t there a Foam Dart Blaster Minigun? How hard can it be?“ I can only imagine it wasn’t particularly easy to create given the startling to level on technology on display. The MOAB is apparently a 3D-printed minigun with “real minigun mechanics,” including “six rotating barrels.” GatlingTommy claims it can fire up to 3000 darts a minute, though I wouldn’t fancy being the one to verify that.
Notably, the MOAB comes with a backpack that can hold 500 darts. That sounds impressive until you remember how quickly the foam dart minigun fires the things! As one Redditor joked: “Plot twist: the real fun is cleaning everything up.” Another asked where the machine is that reloads the belt and backpack, because “this is only fun one time.” A fair point, in my opinion, but nothing about the MOAB screams practicality or sense. Perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised that it has this “minor” setback.
The other major point worth keeping in mind is the foam dart minigun’s price. The MOAB will set you back a cool $4,400 for the “stock” version and another $200 if you want it customized. Wait! Another $300 for “barrel extensions.” I mean, sure. Why not? In fairness, it is ridiculously cool. If I had money to burn I can just picture rocking up to a kids’ birthday party with this baby. “So, uh… who wants a Nerf fight, kids?”
