Lazer Tag is a toy just like a paintball gun accept instead of using paintablls, it uses lasers. It was introduced in 1986 and is still made today. You can even go to a place and play, but not using the official Lazer Tag brand.

The starter set came with a belt/straps, a sensor (that can detect a hit), and a gun.

They also made a baseball cap (that could detect hits from 360 degrees).

Then came the full vest with a holster.

The following year, they released an amazing helmet.

This thing is called Starbase and would just shoot you in all directions (for those kids who had no friends).

Walkie Talkies, and an amazing rifle followed, but then a tragic accident happened. There was a young man was gunned down and killed by police who thought he had a real gun. That pretty much ended all the fun.

Afterwards, they only released white guns and rifles, and then the stock market crash pretty much ended Lazer Tag along with the company that made it, World Of Wonder (Teddy Ruxpin, Action Max). Since then, it’s been bought, re-released, sold, redesigned, and bought again, currently Hasbro has the rights.

My brother and I were lucky enough to get the started set when it was first released. It was a lot of fun. The guns were really cool looking, and as long as you had both sets and plenty of batteries (each gun took 6 AA batteries and the sensor took a 9V!) it was a ton of fun.

The most fun we ever had playing Lazer Tag was in my grandparent’s basement–in complete darkness. It was so cool to see the front of the guns light up and all the lights flashing when you got hit.

Whenever we would have friends over we would play too. We never knew anyone else that had it though, which is a shame because we could have had a giant 30 screaming kids lazer war!

This is one of those toys that seemed completely futuristic. I mean, you could fire actual lasers–LASERS! You could even get shot by them! But I guess in the end it was just basically a fancy game of tag with lasers…maybe…that’s why they called it Lazer Tag.

12 thoughts on “Icons of the Analog Age: Lazer Tag

  1. Lamar the Revenger says:

    I could play that again with you 2.

  2. Savage says:

    As a kid I was aware of it, but couldn’t afford it. I did play laser tag as an adult, which was fun.

    1. gabe says:

      You must have been a maniac in the LAser Tag ring! You always have to watch out for the quiet ones…

  3. JarMan says:

    I remember this product, but if I recall correctly it wasn’t actually a laser but a infrared light that the toy used. In any event I never really got into it, but I do recall really wanting a Teddy Ruxpin really bad as a kid and never getting one. Did you know a few years ago they released Teddy Ruxpin again, along with his friend Grubby and I guess they actually would talk back and fourth and stuff if they were in the same room. Sadly they don’t sell them anymore.

    1. gabe says:

      Whoa! I didn’t know they rereleased it! Teddy Ruxpin was a little too young for me, but I thought it was a cool toy. Amazing tech!

  4. Darrin says:

    I had the Photon version and yea those where good times.

    1. gabe says:

      Was it cool? Was it really different?

  5. Chris says:

    I had the same problem with not knowing anyone else that had the equipment to play. I even had the white sniper rifle with the “telescopic” scope. Didn’t matter much when all I could do was shoot at my own sensor thing across the room.

    1. gabe says:

      Sad but true. It always sucked when you didn’t have anyone to battle or explore the universe with…

  6. Chris Sobieniak says:

    I never had this. 🙁

    My town didn’t even get one of those cool Laser Tag arenas until I was in high school, and by then my interest had went on to other things (I did however go to that place as an adult with money to blow, but it certainly didn’t feel the same to me as if I was still 10).

    1. gabe says:

      We still go, I just feel more winded then when I was a kid!

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