Oahu Nerf Entertainment co-founder Jason Liang was a fan of foam blasters as a child, but his parents discouraged the use of gun-like toys, so he didn’t engage with them much in his youth.
“But as I got older and had my own income, I decided that was something I wanted to spend my money on or I thought was interesting,” he said.
Liang said he originally started looking at Nerf blasters as a way to “shoo away some pests that were bothering me,” but spent 40 hours that week watching online reviews of blasters.
“I never thought of myself as an engineer or someone who was into sciences or was very good with his hands,” he said. “But seeing the cool stuff people made in the hobby made me want to get my hands dirty. From there, I spouted an interest in modding Nerf blasters in 2020. Into 2021, I told myself, ‘What’s the point of building all these blasters if I’m not playing with anybody?’”
ONE held its first game in July 2022. The group hosts events about once a month
Before he started the group, Liang said he and his friends would play at Pups of Wars, but he soon became more ambitious.
Liang said he happened to connect with another founding member, Jason Pho, who had spent a lot of time in Singapore, “where they sort of treat Nerf like how people here treat Airsoft – they take it very seriously. It’s not associated with childrens’ toys so much in Singapore as it is in the U.S.”
In the first year, Liang said he was happy to just play Nerf with others, but events organized on the Mainland inspired him to become more ambitious.
The group has branched out, with events at public parks and gymnasiums and even a local church, but when talking about future goals, Liang said he’d like to play a game after-hours at a local mall or the Blaisdell Exhibition Hall.
“If we could put together some sort of indoor urban zombie city for Halloween, and have kids and adults participate in a human-versus-zombies game, I’d love to do that,” he said. “That’s a lot of resources and manpower and experience I don’t have right now. But I’d love to do that someday.”
Since its inception, though, ONE has grown.
“You never knew how many people were out there,” Liang said. “I mean, Nerf is a pretty niche hobby but you see a lot of people come together. You have a lot of old school folks who remember Nerf blasters from the ’90s. You have a lot of younger kids – they’re at Pups of War, maybe they see us gearing up one day and they take interest. The hobby attracts (or the club has attracted)*** all age ranges, from late 40s down to 8 or 10 years old. So it’s interesting to see all these groups kind of come in and all play the same game.”
He’d love to see more parents try the game out because he sees a lot of kids trying it.
“It’s just a cool thing to get into with your kids,” Liang said. “… There’s a lot that can be fostered when both the parents and the kids are interested.”
Along with Liang and Pho, Kevin Luu and Allen Lum also co-founded the club.
*** wording was unclear so choose how you- want to phrase it..