Arms Race in Squirt Guns Leads to Wide Arsenal : Toys: Success of Super Soaker, which debuted in 1990, has brought fierce competition from other manufacturers. Some analysts think the market has become saturated.

By JEFF BARNARD

June 13, 1993 12 AM PT

ASSOCIATED PRESS

MERLIN, Ore. — In a rural industrial park, workers spin-weld neon-bright pink, green and yellow plastic tubes to black pistol grips quickly enough to produce 1 million new water weapons this year.

“In the time it takes to refill the market leader, which is 48.8 seconds, I can fill and discharge the Stream Machine 10 times, which will douse my opponent with over three gallons of water. Once that has occurred, there’s only one thing my opponent wants: scuba gear,” said Terry Whitlock, president of Water Sports Inc. in this southern Oregon town.

The Cold War may be over, but the arms race in squirt guns is hot.

“It is now possible to get an arsenal from a mini-shooter, almost the size of a Derringer, clear up to the equivalent of a water-powered bazooka,” said toy analyst David Leibowitz, senior vice president of American Securities Corp. in New York.

“One could probably outfit an entire neighborhood without having to reproduce any single product more than once. The amount of throw-power that is out there is awesome.”

Ed Roth of the NPD Group in Port Washington, N.Y., estimates water guns accounted for 75% of the projected $405 million in retail sales of toy guns last year. That was more than double the sales in 1991.

The craze was created by the Super Soaker, made in China by Larami Corp. of Philadelphia. When it exploded on the scene in 1990, Super Soaker became the AK-47 of water weapons, prized for its oversized reservoir and pumped-up firepower. It claims 80% of the market.

“The guy who invented it was a rocket scientist, Lonnie Johnson, who worked for NASA,” said Al Davis, executive vice president for Larami. “A lot of his designs are flying up there as we speak.”

Unscathed by bad publicity last year, when a blast from a Super Soaker was blamed for sparking a shooting with a real gun in Boston, Larami expanded its arsenal to offer a pumped-up plane, rocket, bow and arrow, bathtub toys and the Multi-Directional System for shooting around corners.

In the Rambo tradition of big weird weapons, Larami is offering the Super Soaker 300, equipped with three reservoirs and a backpack unit for more fire power.

“The toy industry is very much like the fashion industry,” Davis said. “These youngsters are very, very up on things. You can’t keep selling them the same thing.”

Super Soaker’s pumped-up reservoir is a technological leap comparable to the invention of the repeating rifle.

“They’ve also done quite a bit of styling, so these things look super cool,” said analyst John G. Taylor of L. H. Alton & Co. in Portland.

“As is always true in the toy business, success attracts wanna-be competitors,” Taylor said. “So you’ve had an awful lot of money flowing into new designs, other technologies that may be applied to this category of toys.

“Most of this is coming from companies that are relatively unknown. Many of them have been around for a long time. But you don’t see names like Hasbro and Mattel in here so much.”

Larami jealously protects its gimmicks from the throng of upstarts. It holds 70 patents on Super Soaker and won 12 patent-infringement cases last year, Davis said.

Larami does not divulge sales figures, but Whitlock of Water Sports said 20 million Super Soakers have been sold around the world.

Some analysts think the market has become saturated.

“It still could grow this year, but it’s not going to accelerate the way it did last year,” Taylor said.

If the bubble doesn’t burst, more big-name toy makers could take the plunge, the way NERF has with its Hydro Bazooka, Taylor said.

When Super Soaker came out, it was aimed at children such as Jared Hooper, 13, of Grants Pass, Ore. It has become the standard side arm for squirt-gun fights with his pals.

“One of the reasons they’re nice is because you can pump them up and you have quite a lot of squirting power before you have to pump them again,” he said. “It doesn’t do any damage and you still have fun.”

Larami tapped a surprise market among adults.

“It’s great for quieting yowling cats at night,” said Ken O’Toole of Ashland, Ore.

Whitlock aimed the Stream Machine at teen-agers.

He figures they will provide the “serious water-fight competitors” who can appreciate a three-foot syringe that shoots a two-quart blast of water 70 feet, though you have to have a bucket of water nearby.

Stream Machine is advertising on MTV, and Whitlock expects to ship 1 million this year, with a quarter of them going to foreign markets including Mexico, Canada and Japan.

At a recent toy show, Whitlock found that the kid in him could not resist getting into a water fight with a competitor.

“It brings out crazy things in people,” he said. “When it goes in your hand, you feel it.”