It may surprise you to learn that the Nerf gun was actually based on an invention from the late 1960s, called the Nerf Ball. This springy sports-ready material became a slew of branded footballs, ping pong balls, and all sorts of balls before Hasbro got ahold of the brand in the 90s and created the “Nerf Blast a Ball.”
This foam invention is the granddaddy of every backyard Nerf turf war fought during the 90s and 2000s. In recent decades, Nerf may not be as ubiquitous as before, but the guns still fly off the shelves into the hands of play-pretend warmongers every year. But just because “Nerf” sounds kiddie, doesn’t mean the guns are only for kids. In fact, many of those kids are now adult collectors who never gave up their enthusiasm for hard-foam warfare. They’re now willing to pay a bundle for the Nerf guns that are the hardest to find.
Continue reading to learn about the prices and capabilities of the 8 most expensive Nerf guns out there.
- N-Strike Rayven CS-18
- Phoenix LTX Tagger
- Dude Perfect Signature Bow
- N-Strike Whiteout Series Deploy CS-6
- Terrascout Recon RC Drone
- Manta Ray
- N-Strike Vulcan EBF-25
- N-Strike Longstrike CS-6
Series: N-Strike
Year: 2012
photo source: Nerf Wiki
The first Nerf gun on our list is in the N-Strike series, which will recur in this list as the most expensive sub-brand that Nerf ever made. This particular gun, the Rayven CS-18, is a 2012 Nerf handgun that shoots glow-in-the-dark bullets. To add to your nighttime battles, the gun lit up inside when it fired.
Each Firefly clip had 18 darts in it. Getting all of them together with the gun now, the Rayven CS-18 can sell for $235.
Did you know?
The handle of the Rayven CS-18 has a chunky space wide enough to store an extra clip of darts while you take this gun on the go. This wasn’t an intentional design decision, but you can bet that kids everywhere got the gist without much help.
Series: Lazer Tag
Year: 2008
photo source: Nerf Wiki
The 2008 Lazer Tag System included the Nerf gun known as the Phoenix LTX Laser Tagger. These guns don’t shoot Nerf bullets. Instead, they formed pairs with other Lazer Tag guns to allow players to compete in home laser tag tournaments.
To increase immersion, the guns rumble when fired for a simulation of recoil and to tell their player when they’ve been hit. They also keep track of ammo and score, depending on the game selected. The guns had laser sights too, which helped players aim in the dark. Buying the original 2008 Lazer Tag System costs $250 now.
Did you know?
The rumble pack was cool but it also notoriously drained the gun’s battery life. Players quickly learned a hack to disable the rumble pack, without an official option to do it. All you had to do was hold the rumble button down to trick the gun into thinking it jammed, preventing it from rumbling again for a while.
Series: Nerf Sports
Year: 2017
photo source: Nerf Wiki
The Dude Perfect Signature Bow can fire arrows accurately up to 105 feet away. Unlike most Nerf guns, the Nerf Sports series was intended to be more than a toy, though less than a weapon. Somewhere in between, two 24” foam arrows were whistling across yards and nailing the targets included in the box throughout 2017. Today, the bow costs around $250.
Did you know?
The YouTube channel called Dude Perfect is famous for doing trick shots using all manners of projectiles. The Nerf sub-series that borrows their name only includes this crossover bow, which they featured in a video in 2017.
Series: N-Strike
Year: 2010
photo source: Nerf Wiki
The second N-Strike Nerf gun on our list is the N-Strike Whiteout Series Deploy CS-6, a beefy pump-action rifle that looks like a multicolored kiddie version of Master Chief’s gun in Halo. This gun is old school, going back to that running through the backyard, pumping the reloader behind cover, and popping out to blast your friends a bullet at a time fun that made Nerf popular to begin with. There are no auto-firing, camera-targeting, remote-controlled mechanisms here.
However, the CS-6 does have a nifty strap, quick-reloading ammo clips that each contain six Nerf bullets, and a button that switches on a flashlight for added accuracy. The gun was retired from the shelves early back in 2010 and this has contributed to it becoming a collector’s item. Owning a Whiteout Series Deploy CS-6 gun now costs around $300.
Did you know?
This gun was an exclusive sold only at Walmart, which is an interesting decision when you think about how toy stores drove the market for these Nerf guns. Without the lucrative markets of other stores (especially Toys R Us, at the time), the CS-6 was almost destined for rarity from the outset.
Series: N-Strike Elite
Year: 2017
photo source: Nerf Wiki
The Terrascout Recon RC Drone is not quite a “gun” so much as a mobile Nerf turret. But it still shoots foam darts at your unsuspecting targets, so we’re counting it. The Terrascout Drone’s $315 price tag is due to its unique technology and how difficult it is to find in perfect condition now, even just 5 years after it was launched in 2017.
What would have been a military secret 30 years ago, today is a powerful toy that you can control by remote, activating a fully automatic firing mechanism that can shoot 35 darts at a time. The most expensive version of the Terrascout Drone also had an HD camera mounted to it that allowed you to do some serious recon.
Did you know?
The Terrascout’s rarity is partly due to it being sold as a Toys R Us exclusive toy. As a bonus, this drone is the only way that avid Nerf collectors can get their hands on the high-quality “Elite” darts, which are thin and black and (supposedly) ultra-accurate.
Series: Max Force
Year: 1996
photo source: Nerf Wiki
The oldest gun on this list is the Manta Ray, a gun in the Max Force series that was released in 1996. The gun came with four “mega darts,” which are extra-large darts that are now discontinued. But they introduced the Nerf world to the “sucker dart,” with those plastic tips that stick to glass (and occasionally to faces).
The Manta Ray was released in teal and purple. Either color costs $425 to own now due to the gun’s age and rarity.
Did you know?
The gun is shaped like a manta ray as the name suggest, but this means that it can also be used as a shield in a hectic firefight.
Series: N-Strike
Year: 2008
photo source: Nerf Wiki
Continuing the N-Strike series’ domination of this list’s most expensive Nerf guns, we have the N-Strike Vulcan EBF-25, a mounted machine gun that shows off its Nerf ammo belt as it pelts your friends. Not many Nerf guns came complete with a war-ready tripod, much less a bolt-action primer that allowed you to load belts of ammo and auto-fire 25 darts at a time from behind cover.
The tripod also closes to allow the user to take the Vulcan EBF-25 into the thick of it, firing from the hip at 3-5 BPS (bullets per second) into your smug friends’ smug faces. This gun debuted in 2008 and was a flash-in-the-pan success before being replaced by guns with fewer complex parts. It is now a rare collector’s item, fetching $520 in good condition.
Did you know?
In addition to being nearly the most expensive Nerf gun that money can buy, the N-Strike Vulcan is also the heaviest gun that Nerf ever made. The gun, complete with its tripod and ammo belt, clocks in at a hefty 7.7 pounds.
Series: N-Strike
Year: 2010
photo source: Nerf Wiki
The most expensive nerf gun is the N-Strike Longstrike CS-6. For an in-box example of this coveted Nerf sniper rifle, collectors shell out $600 or more. It was a pretty complicated toy, complete with an in-box barrel extension and mounted sight for extra range, giving the gun the power to launch rubber nubs into unsuspecting faces up to 35 feet away.
However, despite the obvious advantages to backyard shenanigans, the Longstrike and its sight were discontinued not long after it hit the shelves. Unfortunately, the gun’s firing mechanism was prone to jamming and led Nerf to develop the auto-firing mechanisms of the subsequent N-Strike models. Though its 2010 stint was short, this gun remains the most expensive Nerf gun to find still in the box.
Did you know?
The U.S. iteration of the N-Strike Longstrike is rare enough, but the Canadian iteration featured oddities that make it even more of a collector’s item, in a sense. These include a barrel extension that has plastic insides accidentally missing from its design and a box covered in overlapping logos and type errors.
The Takeaway
The most expensive Nerf guns sell for hundreds of dollars now, often owing to an early discontinuation or a particularly coveted gun design that had delicate, easily breakable mechanisms. Avid collectors, often the grown-up versions of the kids that used to play with them for real back in the day, are now willing to seriously pay out for these pieces of plastic history.
