iSoaker.net :: Soaking the world!

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5063268n

Have a look. It's too bad he didn't tell the public how strong the 2500 is compared to modern-day blasters.

Nice find.
I'm surprised to see that gun being publicly advertised. The audience were mainly adults but I don't think they would have wasted airtime going into specifics. Hasbro wouldn't want people thinking their new products suck now would they. He did mention that the CPS 2500 was from "the better days"

Yeah, Lonnie Johnson seems like a cool guy. I liked his drive by comment haha.

I wonder If he would join the boards. That would be something from a tech point of veiw.

The 2500 was pretty clearly stated and shown to be superior, heck, the fact that it's twice as long as every other gun shown is pretty good. They do give reasons for the 2002-2003 decline, but really, cutting range because of lawsuits from drive-by's? People are so stupid. -_-

I wonder how much the original, original SS50 is worth (the one that looks like a homemade). Johnson probably has several of them.

May the community continue to carry on the soaker legacy of the 90's... Maybe soon, BBT will also start a new one, eventually replace the relics of the late 90's with a new kind of WW and continue their positive blaster trend. They've streamlined their designs, have real CPS, experimented more with new pressurization systems (spring), and released a ton of blasters this year. Hopefully they'll continue to step up next year. Maybe water blasters will become more popular, maybe there will be more interest and more community members like before. Time will tell.

I would Like to see buzz bee make a cannon size blaster. A larger version of the vindicator. They need a bit more power also. If they made something really large next year I would be impressive. I wonder how the original prototype would function performance wise. It does look like it has a pull valve meaning that its possible to make one on a water gun.

I'd like to see BBT push SS/Hasbro to the point where they have to re-release guns from the CPS line, release new guns on-par, or just die. While this may sound like a dream, it's actually happening slowly. I don't doubt that BBT can continue improving their blasters and become the next water blasting legend.

However, upon considering, I'm not sure if BBT will release new and improved blasters next year. There seems to be a cycle in which new blasters come, and new stuff usually comes every few years from them.

Is Lonnie Johnson still associated with Hasbro and super soaker? Hasbro still makes money off of little kids who don't care about performance and parents who don't want to spend 10 dollars. They also have a legacy.

C-A_99 wrote:I'd like to see BBT push SS/Hasbro to the point where they have to re-release guns from the CPS line, release new guns on-par, or just die. While this may sound like a dream, it's actually happening slowly. I don't doubt that BBT can continue improving their blasters and become the next water blasting legend.

However, upon considering, I'm not sure if BBT will release new and improved blasters next year. There seems to be a cycle in which new blasters come, and new stuff usually comes every few years from them.

I think BBT is limited by their niche in the market. The problem is that the super Soaker brand has the ultimate trump card in brand recognizability: everyone knows super soaker, they have it in their mind that its the best (since it certainly used to be beastly), and for a product that most consumers put little thought or research into buying that means everything. In order to compete BBT has to have significantly lower prices (only $20 for vindicator and pulse master). With that low of a cost per item they probably can't spend the money on design and production that would create the quality of the original CPS line. This year's line even seems to have a slightly lower quality plastic for the casing. The Vindicator is a step in the right direction but far from optimal.

Still, Hasbro seems content to let them have comparatively better performance and lower cost. The result is that as you said, BBT seems to have gained some ground on Hasbro, having completely replaced SS at Kmart and created a significant prescence at other stores, particularly Target it seems. At this rate, hopefullly they can gain enough of a reputation to give Hasbro a run for its money.

Walmart Also has 90% Water Warriors products on their shelves. There are helixs and triple shots but thats it for hasbro. If they got a foot hold in toys r us that would be impressive for my area because my toys r us gets alot of sales. I am also content with Buzz Bee's Lowe cost high performance water guns. Why pay 20 dollars for a Secret Strike when you can get a vindicator?

I'm not talking about cost, size, or fanciness of design, I mean just plain power. Thicker, stronger PC's and larger tubing. BBT has already streamlined designs this year to put costs down, and performance improvements would not cost as much as previous design features, such as bulky cases and electric pressure gauges. The Vindicator is so streamlined and has nearly reached a cost mininum for an ergonomical, working blaster, meaning that improving performance by, say, larger tubing, would cost less to do on there than on say, the Orca. (whose pipes run around many curves from the PC to the nozzle) If a slightly thicker PC somehow presents a significant increase to costs, use a smaller PC size, and/or have it expand more. (i.e. Give a bit more leeway to PC durability, though I'm not sure how much they can give at the current state. Original CPS's PC's always expanded conservatively to guarantee reliability, and BBT's WW's may be different)

WW and SS presence seems random around here. Sometimes, some stores may have only WW, some only SS, and many a mix of both. Often, Target only has SS, but sometimes gets WW's. Meijer gets both, and Wal-mart seems to be all WW most or all the time. (BBT products are also very strongly present in the nerf section of that store)

Fear, they still have triple shots? I'd like to try one since they seem to make good sidearms. (though of course, the triggers will break after a season or 2) Or perhaps I should get a small WW for a sidearm. No more Max-D's in the future.

teamfear wrote:Why pay 20 dollars for a Secret Strike when you can get a vindicator?

The Secret Strike is ugly and I would never pay $20 for an air pressure blaster unless it was an XP 150, XXP 275, or SS/XP 300.