A Former NASA Engineer Built the World’s Biggest NERF Gun

Mark Rober, a former NASA engineer who now works at a tech company, didn’t want to be on the losing end of any NERF dart wars at work. So he decide to do something about it.

“In an effort to keep people from picking on me, I decided to create the world’s largest functional NERF gun,” he explains in his YouTube video. The ensuing device is about as long as Rober is tall, with darts concocted of foam pool noodles and plunger heads.

But the gun isn’t all for show: the thing really does work. And it’s powerful, with the ability to shoot darts at around 40 mph. Rober’s collaborators, two fellow engineers and YouTubers called the PyroGeeks, explain that the power source for the gun is a paintball air tank that can power up to 20 shots. It’s a big step up, but the record for most foam-powered weapon still goes to this Nerf Rival Khaos, which fires at 68 mph — and is, unfortunately, a toy that you can actually buy for a child.

But it looks like Rober’s work problem is solved. No one’s going to bother a guy with a NERF gun this giant, unless they want to get hit with a toilet plunger.