Buzz Bee Toys Updates - 2006

[ZOCCOZ]

Oh, the questions would be if there is a specific reason why this year are 3 new soakers, while last year where around twice as many(I think), and if next year's line up would be similar to this year or last year in new soaker quantity? The good old Larami Super Soaker days in the 90s used to have a system where one year was the new large cannons, while the other year was experimental soakers. It would be interetsing if Water Warriors would work the same way now.

The other question would be about the similarity of some Water Warrior and Six Flag models on the same year. Thanks in advance.



Edited By ZOCCOZ on 1144450300

[Hannibal]

Hey, good to see you Big Bee!

I was wondering if Buzz Bee Toys was going to go more into the area of big cannons. I'm really impressed with my Blazer, and was wondering if we would see more larger-sized cannons, maybe in the class of the 1998 CPS 2500?

And I wanted to say, you guys are doing really great! Your 2006 line owns Super Soaker's 2006 line. You also have way more choices in selection. Keep it up!

[Big Bee]

You guys really ask the tough questions.

For "new" it is more distribution than development. Chamelion, Splat Blaster and Scorpion are "new" developments for this year. Cross-Fire is new for distribution. This is about the same as last year. THe Aqua Master series (Argon, Xenon, and Krypton) are improved substantially for this year. Are they now new or old? The Splat Blaster was an attempt at developing an item as we understood the requests from the people in this forum. It will undoubtedly be re-worked and improved again next year. As for similarities between Buzz Bee and Six Flags, well, good ideas with improvements go both ways. We are working on the 2007 line now, and I am really excited about it, there are some great things happening.

[isoaker]

Thanks for the insight, Big Bee!

Electronic-pressure-gauge trigger gripe aside, I suppose the main thing missing from the Water Warriors line is a larger water cannon. Granted, I realize that it also depends on whether retailers would be willing to carry it, but would be nice it larger 'Hydro Power' soakers were available. Otherwise, definitely like the direction of the lines in general! The 2006 re-colours look really nice, too!

[m15399]

Comparing BBT to 6 Flags?? To me, 6 Flags is a pitiful effort at making fun water toys for you and your 3 year old kid or your 8 year old who wants the biggest soaker no matter how good it is. BBT is a high quality manufacturer that actually tries to improve their blasters over their profits.

[ZOCCOZ]

Comparing BBT to 6 Flags?? To me, 6 Flags is a pitiful effort at making fun water toys for you and your 3 year old kid or your 8 year old who wants the biggest soaker no matter how good it is. BBT is a high quality manufacturer that actually tries to improve their blasters over their profits.

Its not the comanies themselves really that are being compared to, but certain models that are suprsingly similar in concept and apearing on the same year simutaniously. BBT's Camelion and Six Flags Load N' Shoot would be one example.

Electronic-pressure-gauge trigger gripe aside, I suppose the main thing missing from the Water Warriors line is a larger water cannon. Granted, I realize that it also depends on whether retailers would be willing to carry it, but would be nice it larger 'Hydro Power' soakers were available.

BBT should perhaps try at least 1 large cannon with a 10Xer. Just 1, while the rest would be as usual in size. To avoid problems about retail shelf specifications, one could find an econimical design that is large yet compact. (I have an urge to create a BBT large cannon design proposal/suggestion thread...and I will.)

[m15399]

Oh, ok. In that case...
Helix = Crossfire
Liquidator = Cricket (or similar)
CPS 2100 = Blazer/Piranha/Lightening
Vaporizer = Grimlin
Power Pack/Big Trouble = Hydra Pak

Lots of similarities. Same with the nerf guns. I guess you can't really help it, eh?

[scorpion]

One reason Buzz Bee Toys hasn't made big blasters is because they don't have a system that could support that big of a blaster. Some of you were wondering if he could make a blaster like a CPS 2500 with a 10x nozzle. Well the problem is hydro power is there to keep the shot from dropping off so fast. Though it is more powerful than air presure, it does not compair to CPS which happens to be patented. That patent has fallen into the wrong hands. A greedy, money worshipping company that DOES NOT CARE. Buzz Bee Toys cares but can't do any thing about the patent unless they offered hasbro enough money. But one thing is that if we complain about something in his blasters he fixes or removes the problem. As for the scorpion having the small tank, He said it is opening a door to bigger and better blasters in the future.



Edited By scorpion on 1144502540

[Wild Boys]

Yes, but Diaphragm/Hydro Power technology has the potential to be made better than CPS, its just that Buzz Bee Toys haven't got full use of it yet though. Once full use is made of it, then perhaps we may see more powerful guns like before. I'd be really happy to see a gun with a 10x nozzle again, as then it would make a nice change and add more variety to the big battles I, and loads of other people here have which include guns like the CPS 1500/1700, 2500, 2700 .etc.

I am very happy with you Big Bee, I have a 2005 Lightning (that I managed to fix), and I think its great now. I've also now managed to buy a Blazer and Piranha which are coming soon, and I am very much looking forward to those. If only you could distribute your guns to the UK, as then I could actually buy a good gun off the shelf instead of going through it all and paying more on the internet because of all the shipping prices to the UK which are expensive.

I look forward to next year, sounds like Big Bee and Buzz Bee Toys have some good things planned.

300th post!

[scorpion]

I agree just something that close to being CPS should be more powerful. Still I am completly switching to buzz bee toys blasters to support them because soon I think they just might make better guns than the older super soakers.

[SSCBen]

Hydro-Power is sadly flawed in design, and will always be in CPS's shadow. It never will be better than a CPS system for several reasons, namely the drop off and lack of linear design. Both of those problems can be fixed somewhat, but a cylindrical rubber CPS PC wouldn't have those problems to begin with. Non-Super Soaker water guns use the cylindrical CPS design anyway. Think about Water Worms and all of the things like that. Buzz Bee Toys might actually be able to make a cylindrical PC water gun without any legal trouble, but don't take my word for it because I am not a lawyer.

There are plenty of other good ideas Buzz Bee Toys could implement such as spring-powered water guns which should be excellent if implemented correctly. Constant air pressure also is an option, but it would be too complex to implement in a separate PC water gun. The air would have to be pushed into a second air chamber and then reregulated out, a poor design.

Great website update by the way. The colors are much better than SS.com's selection. Blue calms users and helps them read faster, while red increases their heart rate and consequently makes them read slower. Not only that, but the amount of usability flaws in SS.com is so numerous that I won't even begin to talk about it.

The only problem with the new design is the URL changes which should have a negative affect on the search engine ranking of BBT.com's pages. 301 redirects should be implemented to prevent any more problems.

[Crashdummy]

Didn't the ARM XL break some copyright, resulting in the makers getting sued? Just wanted to bring that up, because I'm sure Super Soaker has some sort of copyright over it. I see your point though, because Water Worms are basically cylindrical bladders attached to a nozzle, with a check valve at the end. :p

[scorpion]

Well the reason most who use CPS are not sued is because they are not a thret to hasbro.
Buzz Bee Toys is improving every system hasbro has not patented. And They are a big thret to hasbro. hasbro has lost a lot of money from BBT. They figure at some point BBT will see no one has been sued for making CPS guns and will make some too ant then hasbro will take them out.

[Hannibal]

Well the reason most who use CPS are not sued is because they are not a thret to hasbro.
Buzz Bee Toys is improving every system hasbro has not patented. And They are a big thret to hasbro. hasbro has lost a lot of money from BBT. They figure at some point BBT will see no one has been sued for making CPS guns and will make some too ant then hasbro will take them out.

I don't know how big threat they are yet. BB is obviously making superior blasters, but their distribution is not that great. It's too hard to find some of the better BB blasters. That aside, they could put Super Soaker way behind in the business were it not that Super Soaker posses the "Super Soaker" name, which gives them business in itself.

[SSCBen]

Didn't the ARM XL break some copyright, resulting in the makers getting sued? Just wanted to bring that up, because I'm sure Super Soaker has some sort of copyright over it. I see your point though, because Water Worms are basically cylindrical bladders attached to a nozzle, with a check valve at the end. :p

That patent lawsuit was thrown out of the court. A few links are below:

- http://forums.sscentral.org/17139-post8.html
- http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1056139981128
- http://unames.com/gen-eric/20030715_arc.htm

The best part of this is that Hasbro doesn't seem to have any problem copying other people's ideas, namely the Speedloader series of water guns. Then again, Speedloader water guns were not patented, so I suppose Hasbro saw the opportunity.

[Hannibal]

The colors are much better than SS.com's selection. Blue calms users and helps them read faster, while red increases their heart rate and consequently makes them read slower.

Interesting, I didn't know that. Someone should email that to Super Soaker's site. :;):

I like BB's site's looks better, but I wish the site gave a little more info on each of the blasters. I usually want more than just the water capacity to influence my buying. An online store would also be nice, as there are certain (actually, most) blasters I can't seem to find in stores in my area.

[isoaker]

After some thinking and some reading, there's something that puzzles me about the various Hydro Power-based Water Warrior blasters (with the exception of the Splat Blaster). If straight pressure chamber (PC) to nozzle is more desirable for laminar flow, thus better cohesive streams, why not turn the Hydro Power PCs on blasters like the Blazer and Piranha on their side and lower them to be in line with the nozzle? The set-up for a single Hydro Power PC blaster would be similar to the layout of a CPS1000/CPS1200, but using the diaphragm tech. To increase overall PC size by having 2 or more PCs could be done by having the chambers slightly angled to allow them to sit near eat other while trying to keep the flow from the PCs to the nozzle straighter than the present ~90 angle.

Perhaps, though, there are mass manufacturing complications to such a design. That part is something I don't yet know how to account for.

[Hannibal]

After some thinking and some reading, there's something that puzzles me about the various Hydro Power-based Water Warrior blasters (with the exception of the Splat Blaster). If straight pressure chamber (PC) to nozzle is more desirable for laminar flow, thus better cohesive streams, why not turn the Hydro Power PCs on blasters like the Blazer and Piranha on their side and lower them to be in line with the nozzle? The set-up for a single Hydro Power PC blaster would be similar to the layout of a CPS1000/CPS1200, but using the diaphragm tech. To increase overall PC size by having 2 or more PCs could be done by having the chambers slightly angled to allow them to sit near eat other while trying to keep the flow from the PCs to the nozzle straighter than the present ~90 angle.

Perhaps, though, there are mass manufacturing complications to such a design. That part is something I don't yet know how to account for.

Yeah, I've thought that might be good before. But I wonder if that would waste a lot of space. But that would make it similar to CPS, and would also get rid of some of the air that gets stuck in there.