Not familiar with any recent or Nerf stuff...but I certainly remember the "mine is bigger and more macho than yours" squirt gun arms race of the early 1990's. The 1950's had "mine are bigger and fancier" tail fins on cars. A whole lotta folks like to image that human nature changes over time. Fashions change. Human nature, not so much.
My favorite "example" of this is looking for pictures of "soldiers" or fighters or warriors using a weapon as a penis for a photo/picture/drawing. We even have instances of that kind of thing in cave drawings! There's something very deep in the male brain that goes "haha long stick is long penis!"
But also, plenty of means, good genes. You are right, it’s real deep in there.
It’s frustrating when you catch it in your own thought processes! I honestly recall when dating seeing a physically attractive potential partner and thinking “they seem nice”…