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Toy guns are toys which imitate real guns, but are designed for recreational sport or casual play by children. From hand-carved wooden replicas to factory-produced pop guns and cap guns, toy guns come in all sizes, prices and materials such as wood, metal, plastic or any combination thereof. Many newer toy guns are brightly colored and oddly shaped to prevent them from being mistaken for real firearms.
A water gun is a type of toy gun designed to shoot jets of water. Similar to water balloons, the primary purpose of the toy is to soak another person in a recreational game such as water fight.
In the Macross Japanese anime series and its English adaptation Robotech, the first mass-produced transforming aerospace fighter mecha is called the VF-1 Valkyrie. The VF-1 Valkyrie is referred to as a "variable fighter" in Macross.
Nerf is a toy brand formed by Parker Brothers and currently owned by Hasbro. Most of the toys are a variety of foam-based weaponry, with other Nerf products including balls for sports such as American football, basketball, and baseball. Their best known toys are their dart guns that shoot ammunition made from "Nerf foam". Their primary slogan, introduced in the 1990s, is "It's Nerf or Nothin'!". Annual revenues under the Nerf brand are approximately US$400 million.
Super Soaker is an American brand of recreational water gun that uses manually-pressurized air to shoot water with greater power, range, and accuracy than conventional squirt pistols. The Super Soaker was invented in 1989 by engineer Lonnie Johnson. The prototype combined PVC pipe, acrylic glass, and an empty plastic soda bottle.
Jetfire is the name of several fictional characters from the Transformers franchise. He is almost always depicted as an Autobot with flight capabilities and a jet or space shuttle as an alternate mode. In some continuities he is a former Decepticon.
Lewis Galoob Toys, Inc., was a toy company headquartered in South San Francisco, California. They are best known for creating Micro Machines, which accounted for 50% of its sales in 1989, and distributing the Game Genie in the United States.
B-Daman is a marble shooting toy franchise produced in Japan by Takara. It was originally based on the Bomberman series, but later expanded into other franchises and its own original designs.
Bop It toys are a line of audio games. By following a series of commands issued through voice recordings produced by a speaker by the toy, which has multiple inputs including pressable buttons, pull handles, twisting cranks, spinnable wheels, flickable switches, the player progresses and the pace of the game increases.
Entertech was a brand of battery-powered motorized water guns sold in the United States from 1985 to 1990 by the now-defunct LJN. Unlike the colorful designs of many of the simple hand powered pump water guns of that time, most of the Entertech water guns were manufactured from black plastics with a matte finish to resemble real firearms.
Nerf Arena Blast is a first-person shooter developed by Visionary Media, Inc. and published by Hasbro Interactive, released under their Atari Interactive label. The game, based on Nerf, was touted as a "family-friendly version of multiplayer combat games like Quake III: Arena and Unreal Tournament", and was supported by Hasbro Interactive until that company gave its rights and properties over to Infogrames. The cutscenes were animated by Mondo Media alongside them doing the in-game art.
Optimus Prime, also known in Japan as Convoy, is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Transformers franchise. Generally depicted as a brave and noble leader, Optimus Prime is the supreme commander of the Autobots in their fight against the Decepticons. The Transformers characters were developed for an American market after Hasbro representatives visited the 1983 Tokyo Toy Show. The characters were modified and the coloring was changed; notably, Optimus Prime was colored red, chrome, and dark blue. The popularity of the Transformers toys resulted in comics, movies, and even a TV series.
Lonnie George Johnson is an American inventor, aerospace engineer, and entrepreneur, best known for inventing the bestselling Super Soaker water gun in 1989. He was formerly employed at the U.S. Air Force and NASA, where he worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The Wii Zapper is a gun shell peripheral for the Wii Remote. The name is a reference to and successor of the NES Zapper light gun for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It is mainly used to enhance controls for shooter games, including light gun shooters, first-person shooters, and third-person shooters.
Lazer Tag is a brand name for the pursuit game using infrared toy guns, generically known as "laser tag". It was developed by Worlds of Wonder and launched in 1986. As one of America's top hit toys of 1986-1987, Lazer Tag was aggressively leveraged by Worlds of Wonder's retail sales network in an ultimatum to force the Nintendo Entertainment System into retail stores, allowing its smash hit nationwide launch, which prompted Nintendo of America to lead the nation's recovery from the 1983 video game crash and dominate the industry. The Lazer Tag brand is currently a subsidiary of Hasbro's Nerf toy line.
The Larami Corporation was a toy company established by David W. Ring in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1959. It produced licensed toys based on movies and television shows. Often low-quality, these were manufactured in Hong Kong and Japan for sale on grocery store toy aisle racks for under a dollar.
A Nerf Blaster is a toy gun made by Hasbro that fires foam darts, arrows, discs, or foam balls. “Nerf blaster” or more commonly “Nerf gun” are often used to describe the toy. Nerf blasters are manufactured in multiple forms; the first Nerf blasters emerged in the late 1980s with the release of the Nerf Blast-a-Ball (1989) and the Sharpshooter (1992). Today, Hasbro has produced over twenty unique lines of Nerf-brand blasters, with each line centered on a particular theme or type of ammunition. Hasbro has also produced Nerf blasters based on specific franchises, including Marvel Comics, Star Wars, G.I. Joe, Fortnite, Transformers, Overwatch, Halo Infinite, and Roblox. Nerf blasters are available in several international marketplaces, although some blasters have their names changed or are not sold in certain countries due to laws surrounding toy safety franchises.
Water Warriors is a water gun brand owned by Buzz Bee Toys that was created by the company in 2003. The toy line comprises a large variety of pressurized water guns, as well as smaller water guns for younger children.
The Constant Pressure System, or CPS, is a powerful design used for certain water guns. CPS water guns are powered by a rubber bladder inflated with water. It was patented by Bruce M. D'Andrade as "bladder water gun".
Buzz Bee Toys is an American/Hong Kong toy company created in 2002. They are an industry leader in the dart blaster and water blaster toy categories around the globe. They currently produce under several private label brands such as Adventure Force for Walmart and their own brands of Air Warriors and Water Warriors.
References
- 1 2 3 "This Week in God - Christmas Christacular". The Daily Show. 2006-12-18.
- 1 2 3 AV Club video
- ↑ iSoaker.com
- ↑ "Super Soaker Oozinator". Hasbro. Archived from the original on 15 May 2006. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
- ↑ Rob Lammle (13 October 2011). "The Wet and Wild History of the Super Soaker". Mental Floss. Archived from the original on 6 December 2022. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
- ↑ "The Oozinator Delights Children". Consumerist. 1 May 2006. Archived from the original on 11 June 2008. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
- ↑ "Oozinator's Origins, Revealed!". Consumerist. 8 May 2006. Archived from the original on 11 June 2008. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
- ↑ "The Oozinator Squirts Its Way Into Our Hearts". Consumerist. 2 May 2006. Archived from the original on 23 December 2017. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
- ↑ "Oozinator Comics". Wired. 30 May 2006. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
- ↑ Ken Weeks (4 May 2006). "Halo-ish Hasbro Oozinator comes up big". Engadget. Archived from the original on 18 January 2023. Retrieved 18 January 2023.