Access Teams of Expert Solvers led by World-Class Facilitators

Seeking to Innovate?

Accelerate your company's innovation capacity
[CONTACT US]

INNOVATION RESOURCES

Super Soaker®

Breakthrough:
The Super Soaker® blew away the market for water guns as it didn't require batteries, using air pressure and arm pumping to pressurize the firing chamber.

Inventor:
Dr. Lonnie Johnson, United States

Financial reward:
$4,000,000+

The Story:

Who would have ever believed that a simple toy could bring inventor Dr. Lonnie Johnson, more than $400 million?

Johnson, a nuclear engineer, had an ides to invent a performance toy water gun. Eight years later the Super Soaker® (originally known as the Power Drencher) was introduced to the consumer market.

While other water guns were already on the market, they were motorized, requiring costly batteries to keep them going, and they didn't offer much soaking power.

Johnson's idea used air pressure and arm pumping to pressurize the firing chamber, which delivered more water farther and faster than any other water gun available.

After a failed attempt to produce the gun through Daisy™, the BB gun people, he entered into a licensing agreement with Entertech, which was also doomed to failure.

Still refining his product, Johnson decided to use a blow-molded bottle as the pressure chamber, which reduced manufacturing costs, and made the gun more reliable.

Finally, in 1989 Larami agreed to manufacture the toy. Bruce D'Andrade was assigned to develop the tooling for large-scale manufacturing.

The top mounted, blow-molded bottle became an icon that made the Super Soaker® instantly identifiable.

In 1991 the Super Soaker® 100 was the first to offer a separate pressurized firing chamber, allowing the user to refill the reservoir at any time.

Other improvements included the Super Soaker MDS (Multi-Directional Soaker) that allowed users to point the nozzle in any direction, and the XP (Xtra Power) valve with larger nozzles which could deliver pulsing water at a quicker rate. Double- and triple-barreled versions were also offered.

In 1996 the revolutionary CPS 2000 (Constant Pressure System) was introduced, allowing even more water to be blasted out. The CPS system allowed pressure to be maintained, instead of it petering out as the pressure dropped during firing. In fact, the power unleashed was so forceful it had to be toned down in subsequent models, due to safety concerns.

Numerous other improvements ensued, but in 2002 Laramie Ltd. was absorbed by Hasbro Inc. Hasbro took the water blasters to a new level, introducing the SoakerTag™ which allowed players to knock tags off opponents with a direct hit of water.

Next in line was the Max-Infusion Super Soaker series which offered users an optional backpack or hip-pack water reservoir to increase capacity. And of course the Oozinator was modified so it could fire out "Bio-Ooze", a non-toxic tinted goo you could ooze your friends with.

2010 saw the SoakerWars models hit the market with tactical rails for mounting add-ons.

Johnson has remained involved in the creative side of new Super Soaker® products and has a team of engineers and industrial designers that bring his creations to full-scale manufacturing.

The latest Super Soaker® is available online from [AMAZON] and from other major retailers.

[NEXT STORY]

IdeaConnection: What Can we Innovate for You?

Become a
Paid Problem Solver