Tiviachick Loves Laser Tag

Thursday, August 14, 2025

Did That Really Just Happen? Laser Tag With Robbie Rist, Ming Chen and Brian Posehn

I have been fortunate to have had a few remarkable opportunities to play laser tag with some major names in the industry, like George Carter III (inventor of Photon and father of the laser tag industry), founders of several other laser tag systems, a couple of the “industry princes” and even once with two Olympic athletes. However, I NEVER expected to be able to play laser tag with a real-life ninja turtle (Robbie Rist), a Big Bang Theory alum (Brian Posehn) and one of my favorite Comic Book Men (Ming Chen). And yet, that is exactly what happened this past weekend in Connecticut!

Ok, we are not talking about playing “in the arena”, but rather a short burst of trading tags is technically the minimum definition of a “game” so, what happened here we’ll call impromptu “mini-games”.

I was not actually sure whether or not I could bring laser tag phasers into the Terrificon convention, but I suspected that full-size packs would be out of the question. So instead I showed up with the most “obviously toy” home laser tag kit I could find and was grateful that security had no issue with this.

My first stop was to pay a visit to meet Robbie Rist. While most of the world recognizes him as a talented actor who was both the voice of Michelangelo in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies or Cousin Oliver from The Brady Bunch, I am a longtime fan of his from a very different project. The man was part of the soundtrack of my youth by gifting the world with this banger!

That’s right, he was also part of Kidd Video! And these days “Video To Radio” resonates with me in a whole different way.

As it is very rare to come across their one and only album (as it was only released in Israel), I was delighted to first trade a few tags with him…

…and then I invited him to “tag” this KV memorabilia. My heart is happy!

I love that he referenced his laser tag prowess on this photo of the band.

So as I walked away, still amazed at having actually played a short burst of laser tag with Robbie Rist, my eyes were drawn over to where Brian Posehn (Bert from The Big Bang Theory) was signing autographs. Since I already knew him to be a laser tag enthusiast from a video he recorded for me years ago, I asked him if he would tag with me as well.

I am delighted to say I got a quick “mini-game” with this actor who I literally watch in BBT reruns every night!

And if you are curious to know what he had to say about laser tag…

Perhaps the most amazing thing that happened during this event was meeting Ming Chen of the Comic Book Men and podcasting fame, who I met while I was waiting to talk to Brian. I immediately recognized him, as I am a huge fan of everything/everyone connected to the Kevin Smith ViewAskewniverse and also, I was literally at the Secret Stash in Red Bank two weeks ago!

Our conversation led to a remarkable discovery…Ming Chen is legitimately a laser tag fan! And we had a really awesome discussion about his laser tag past as he recalled having the Worlds of Wonder home laser tag set and asking me about Q-Zar. This is not a reference that gets brought up without context or familiarity, so clearly he is legit and we really did have some common ground here.

As we prepared for a photo he saw the blinking phasers still lit up in my bag, so you KNOW we had to play!

As we continued talking, he generously offered to help promote my website, leading to a photo op that I never would have imagined (or imposed) otherwise, but fortune favors those who show up prepared for anything!

This was clearly an encounter that was meant to be because at some point he asked me if I have a podcast (why yes, I do!) and we traded contact info. I truly could have talked tag, comics and pop culture with him for another hour right then and there, but with a bit of coordinating this conversation continued a few days later and I am delighted to announce that Ming Chen will be my very special guest on this week’s episode of the Laser Unfocused Tag Talk podcast!

So, after three unbelievable experiences playing little bursts of laser tag mini-games while meeting these men, I headed back to New York in a happy little daze thinking to myself…”Did that really just happen?” :)

Comments or Questions?

Monday, August 11, 2025

This is My 650th Laser Tag Arena

My visit to Rhode Island culminated in playing my 650th laser tag arena at Urban Air in Warwick, RI.

I had just put in my special trampoline park socks (this is only the third time ever I have been asked to play laser tag in socks!) and meandered over to the arena to see if there was someone to join me for a game.

It always kind of amazes me to see how chance encounters make the best experiences on my tag trips. The woman in line behind me (Nikki) saw that I was coming in for this milestone and she had a big family group that came over to play in the game with me. What perfect timing and an absolutely ideal situation for this game!

We all put on our Delta Strike Genesis packs and prepared to go into the open-air arena.

I believe Urban Air was the first company to adopt the CW open-air arena concept, but this facility executed it incredibly well. Rather than hide the attraction behind four walls, it is easily viewable from the outside, with an especially good view from a ramp incline on the back side, which means that people can observe the game in progress right in front of them. It also means that Nikki was able to get some wonderful in-game photos (I rarely get these shots live in the moment) that she was kind enough to share from this fun game with the entire family!

This is now the second time I have seen what I will affectionately call the “Trapper Keeper” theming, as I saw this same aesthetic at a different Urban Air a couple of weeks ago.

Of course, the space determines a lot of what you do with your build, so this one had the same look, but a completely different footprint. That’s one of the things I find interesting about visiting so many arenas, because it gives me a chance to compare a lot of different approaches.

The game was a lot of fun and I am so delighted that I was able to play with this family and they even had a recommendation for me of another site to visit. Thank you so much for joining me to play my 650th laser tag arena at Urban Air!

Comments or Questions?

Best Game of Runner at BattlegroundZ

When I asked Jared, the general manager at BattlegroundZ in Lincoln, RI if I could get into a 1v1 game (as I arrived at a quiet moment), I mentioned sometimes the centers that I visit are kind enough to free up a staff member to play a game when I stop in. He asked me how many laser tag arenas I had been to and took a very reasonable double take when I said “this will be 649.” Well, before I had even finished watching the briefing video he had rounded up eight players (staff and a few airsoft customers) to join me in playing what turned out to be one of the best games of Lazer Runner I have ever enjoyed, no exaggeration!

There are a few reasons I am calling this the best Runner experience I have ever had (and I am talking apples to apples about sites using this specific equipment). I’ll walk you through it from beginning to end.

First, I was asked to watch the briefing video, which Jared noted is a safety precaution and I admire that because so many places do not give a proper briefing. Now, I have no idea what percentage of my 649 arenas have been Lazer Runner vs some other laser tag system, but I can tell you exactly how many times I have seen this particular briefing video…twice. And that includes this visit. That should give you an idea of how many places are NOT doing something as basic as providing a complete briefing before the game, so kudos to Jared for making sure all his bases were covered…pun intended! ;)

Now, let’s talk bases…they have them! They had four bases plus a center sentry pod and I cannot recall playing in another Runner arena that had that many.

This meant proper team games (or even special format games) were options on the table and we could have divided into up to four teams if we wanted. With nine players we instead opted for a standard game with three teams of three.

The arena itself was a surprise, as it is a Tron-tube build with the bases in all four corners. Theming is one of the first things I notice and I especially love the rope lights that make a “permanent beam” effect emanating outward from the center and adding a lighting pattern along the upper walls.

Because of the particular arena build, I asked if they had previously operated with different equipment and Jared told me all of this came from another arena location.

I didn’t ask if the Runner gear itself came from elsewhere, but one thing I did notice was that the equipment appeared (from just looking at the exterior) to be brand new. Barely a scratch, which is unusual! Kids are usually very hard on this gear.

This is obviously not the new gen 4 style phaser and I am unsure if it is a current production model or not, but it looked to me like very new equipment, or at the least, very well cared for equipment. That might not sound like it should be notable, but I assure you it is! It also illustrates that BattlegroundZ takes care of their laser tag and has presented itself very well before we even stepped foot into the arena for the game.

As for the game itself…so much fun because this group was taking it seriously! Several of these guys had just left an airsoft game to come play laser tag with me and they wanted to WIN! Love it, as this was also a big part of making this a better quality game experience.

We started at bases and then traversed the arena with half bridges on the side to add a bit of elevation to the single level space.

My go-to move is to rotate through the bases repeatedly, but these guys didn’t give it up those points easily! I noticed one base was inactive, I expect because we only had three teams. As I was on the red team (base in back right corner) I spent most of the game bouncing between the two left side bases across one of those half bridges.

And at one point the yellow team was putting up an actual defense! While I chased the base one guy accused me of spawn camping. I laughed out loud and said “there’s no ‘spawn camping’ in Runner!”

However, if ever there was a game where I might acknowledge that, this was it. Very well played by all!

My thanks to BattlegroundZ for making this a high quality experience and rounding up this amazing group!

The laser tag I experienced was well done, but only a small piece of what this facility has to offer. Paintball, airport, archery tag and even Gel Blasters (not Nexus) are among the cool activities that can be enjoyed before getting a drink in the Battle Bar or a bite to eat in the Mess Hall.

But as I was on a mission to take my arena count from 649 to 650 on this night, I thanked them and left with a T-shirt for my tag swag collection and a memory of one of the best games of Lazer Runner I have ever experienced thanks to BattlegroundZ.

Comments or Questions?