I don’t know about you guys, but this summer was so hot it melted the vinyl steering wheel cover on my 1999 Daewoo Nubira!
Climate Change?
I dunno; I seem to remember Captain Planet telling me the world was going to cool like that move The Day After Tomorrow.
… or was it heat up under a dome of CO2 from that dude with the pig face? I forget.
Anyway, to beat the heat I decided to profile the greatest summer toy to hit the world since the Slip ‘N Slide:
The Super Soaker.
During summer, when I wasn’t in YMCA day camp, I was thrust outside with my friends.
You see, as a child of the time before the internet, there really wasn’t much to do and, come August, the last place you wanted to be was inside an un-air-conditioned house.
So my friends and I would do all sorts of water-related things like play with squirt guns, water balloon wars, the above mentioned Slip N’ Slide, etc.
All of that changed when the Super Soaker 50 came into play.
Constructed incredibly well and with a jet of water that came out like the thunderous power of Poseidon himself, the Super Soaker was the envy of every kid on the block.
Created by engineer, inventor, and all-around awesome guy Lonnie George Johnson in 1982, the Super Soaker had sold over 2 million models by 1991 and placed itself firmly in the American lexicon as another way to say “water gun.”
In other words, when people say, “Hand me that Super Soaker,” you immediately know they want the water gun on the table.
The water weapon itself isn’t necessarily original, it was how Johnson put all of the components together that worked so well. He integrated a piston pumper (the thing we all pumped to build up the pressure), a pressurized reservoir (an area to store the air that was pumped by the piston), and a separate chamber to build up even more air pressure to make that stream of ice cold water shoot even faster.
It was genius.
After rightfully winning a lawsuit for 75 million against Hasbro toys for unpaid royalties, Johnson himself went on to do amazing research for alternative fuel systems; focusing on green energies, including the development of the Johnson Thermo-Electrochemical Converter System.
However, to me he’ll always be remembered as the guy that made my sweltering summers a little better.
The Super Soaker brand is so popular that new water weapons are being developed today including spring-powered, motorized, and constant pressure guns.
However, being that KB Toys is now defunct, FAO Schwartz is slowly closing down, and Toys R Us isn’t doing that well either, I guess you order them online…and I recommend it.
Super Soakers are still fun and a great way to break up those noisy cats in heat that keep you up all hours of the night.
Until next time!
