Hands-On: The Cosmic Liquidator - @ iSoaker.com

Discussions of all varieties of stock water guns and water blasters.
User avatar
isoaker
Posts: 7115
Joined: Sun Jul 04, 2004 1:51 pm
Location: Elsewhere
Contact:

Hands-On: The Cosmic Liquidator - @ iSoaker.com

Post by isoaker » Sun Jul 01, 2007 2:23 pm

Pictures of The Cosmic Liquidator posted.

This air-pressure water blaster has a copyright date of 1977 (and is presently believed to have been released the same year). This makes The Cosmic Liquidator the oldest known stock air-pressure-based water blaster known, pre-dating the Super Soaker by at least 10 years.

The rest of the review coming soon...

Soak on!

:cool:

Link to primary Cosmic Liquidator discussion thread
:: Leave NO one dry! :: iSoaker.com .:

User avatar
cobralex297
Posts: 496
Joined: Sun May 27, 2007 6:29 pm
Location: Massachusetts
Contact:

Post by cobralex297 » Sun Jul 01, 2007 5:17 pm

You OWN that? Awesome! I am quite excited to see the review when it comes out!
That looks quite cool. Very cool.

I'm impressed by the seeming simplicity of the internal mechanisms. i haven't seen many air pressure gun internals, however that seems overtly simplistic, in a very good way.

Edit: undid double post; sorry!:-P




Edited By cobralex297 on 1183355187

User avatar
isoaker
Posts: 7115
Joined: Sun Jul 04, 2004 1:51 pm
Location: Elsewhere
Contact:

Post by isoaker » Sun Jul 01, 2007 5:52 pm

Internals of the Cosmic Liquidator are quite simple and straightforward. I'm not 100% sure how differently the stream would have behaved when set on Pulse as the tubing is now rather badly collapsed.

As an aside, ZOCCOZ was the first one in the community to discover that the Cosmic Liquidator is actually an air-pressure blaster. Not sure if his is in better condition than mine.

@cobralex297: don't forget you have the ability to edit your original posts to avoid making double posts that are close together in time.

:cool:
:: Leave NO one dry! :: iSoaker.com .:

Silence
Posts: 339
Joined: Sat Apr 21, 2007 3:01 pm
Location: Virginia

Post by Silence » Sun Jul 01, 2007 6:21 pm

Neat! Are you going to do a full review sometime?

Just curious, what would the Cosmic Liquidator have been besides air pressure? Spring, perhaps? I don't know what the older electric water guns used.

Hmm...so there was a pulse feature too...quite interesting. :cool:

User avatar
isoaker
Posts: 7115
Joined: Sun Jul 04, 2004 1:51 pm
Location: Elsewhere
Contact:

Post by isoaker » Sun Jul 01, 2007 6:59 pm

A full review is in the works; did some stats recording today (though I don't quite think the output and shot times I've recorded are accurate for a fully operational blaster). I have a short write-up done, actually, but am debating how "full" a review I'll put together for this one. We'll see... hopefully will have something together and uploaded by the end of the week.

:cool:
:: Leave NO one dry! :: iSoaker.com .:

ZOCCOZ
Posts: 455
Joined: Sat Jul 16, 2005 6:09 pm
Contact:

Post by ZOCCOZ » Mon Jul 02, 2007 12:04 am

isoaker_com wrote:As an aside, ZOCCOZ was the first one in the community to discover that the Cosmic Liquidator is actually an air-pressure blaster. Not sure if his is in better condition than mine.

Yeah, everyone forgets about good old ZOCCOZ. Even though I had the first Liquidator review, it got so few hits by visitors that 1 year later people still ask "What is that?"

The two I have are brand new factory sealed so in perfect condition. Well, after my review 1 still is. If your stats compare with mine very well, then yours should still be in good working condition.

Basicaly all it is you pump the tank and the pressure goes through the tube to the gun to the nozzle. Not much different than the SS50, just with the tube as a middle man.




Edited By ZOCCOZ on 1183352764

User avatar
isoaker
Posts: 7115
Joined: Sun Jul 04, 2004 1:51 pm
Location: Elsewhere
Contact:

Post by isoaker » Wed Jul 04, 2007 9:30 am

If this is correct, the Cosmic Liquidator was manufactured by Sun Products Corp which was a Talley Industries company. It appears that Talley Industries has now become Talley Defense Systems. In 2007, they became part of the NAMMO group Talk about going from water weaponry to real ones!

:cool:
:: Leave NO one dry! :: iSoaker.com .:

User avatar
Dr. D
Posts: 137
Joined: Wed Aug 24, 2005 3:05 pm

Post by Dr. D » Wed Jul 04, 2007 10:40 am

Argh, and Hasbro had to go soiling its reputation by releasing the 2004 Liquidator we're all familiar with..... :angry:

Wow. How did you guys get your hands on those? That's not something you see on eBay everyday....

Good god, THIS thing looks like it could launch a water balloon pretty damn far.....
http://www.talleyds.com/products/m72_products.htm
n00b friend: "Nice SP 270!"
Me: "Uhh, it's
XP."
n00b friend: "Oh yeah! Nice SP 270 XP!"

Current Official USF Armory: Monster X, CPS 4100, CPS 2500 (shotgun), CPS 2100 (x3), CPS 1500, CPS 1200 (x3), CPS 1000, MI Flash Flood (x3) STE Flash Flood (x2) WW Orca

User avatar
isoaker
Posts: 7115
Joined: Sun Jul 04, 2004 1:51 pm
Location: Elsewhere
Contact:

Post by isoaker » Wed Jul 04, 2007 11:13 am

Cosmic Liquidator Review posted. Enjoy!

Happy Independence Day!

:cool:
:: Leave NO one dry! :: iSoaker.com .:

Silence
Posts: 339
Joined: Sat Apr 21, 2007 3:01 pm
Location: Virginia

Post by Silence » Wed Jul 04, 2007 3:50 pm

Nice review - I especially like how the soaker was given an 80 as an overall rating, even with poor performance. :cool:

Are you going to add 1977 to the Soaker Listing? (Assuming the copyright year is also the release year, which it probably isn't.)

SSCBen
Posts: 1616
Joined: Sun Jul 04, 2004 4:15 pm
Contact:

Post by SSCBen » Fri Jul 06, 2007 4:26 pm

iSoaker, I have a little bit more information I can get to you about the Cosmic Liquidator, but I was waiting for our website update to add it. I'll write it here though. Remember you heard it from me first. Feel free to add it to your review in the time being.

The Cosmic Liquidator was invented by an inventor named Anson Sims. I emailed him several months ago as part of a huge research project that has taught me a lot. He's a great guy and he provided a little background information. I'll quote it.

As I mentioned in my prior email, I did invent and license the Cosmic Liquidator and we licensed it to Sun Products in 1977, I believe. It was marketed in '78. I was a partner of a major toy invention firm, California R&D Center at the time. I was inspired to create the Liquidator as I was playing with a very old product known as Water Rockets which involved a handheld pump which attached to the underside of a small hollow rocket shaped vessel which you fill half with water. Multiple pumps pressurizes the rocket and you then release the pump from the rocket and it propels into the air. I actually used the pump portion of that toy to fabricate the Liquidator prototype of which we presented and sold to Sun Products.

The trade did not buy into the toy in big numbers because they had never seen a squirt gun selling for over $3.99 and the Liquidator was to sell for $5.99 or slightly higher, I believe. Obviously history proved them wrong due to the amazing success of the Super Soakers several years later. I had no involvement in the Soakers but the Cosmic Liquidator was definitely the forerunner to the Soakers.


If you have any specific questions about the Liquidator, I can email him to see what he knows.

:cool:

User avatar
isoaker
Posts: 7115
Joined: Sun Jul 04, 2004 1:51 pm
Location: Elsewhere
Contact:

Post by isoaker » Fri Jul 06, 2007 6:58 pm

@Ben_ : Interesting info; thanks for sharing it! I'll correct the release date on iSoaker.com to 1978 as opposed to its current listing as 1977. I'm content in owning a piece of water blaster history, but I don't have the desire presently to dig much deeper into specific histories. If I use any other info from your post in the review page on iSoaker.com, I'll definitely note the source.
Remember you heard it from me first.

As an aside, I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but why did you feel that this statement was necessary to add to your post? It just seems odd to me to be there, turning an otherwise informative post into something slightly different (though I can't quite express the thoughts that are crossing my mind clearly).

:cool:
:: Leave NO one dry! :: iSoaker.com .:

SSCBen
Posts: 1616
Joined: Sun Jul 04, 2004 4:15 pm
Contact:

Post by SSCBen » Fri Jul 06, 2007 7:23 pm

As an aside, I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but why did you feel that this statement was necessary to add to your post? It just seems odd to me to be there, turning an otherwise informative post into something slightly different (though I can't quite express the thoughts that are crossing my mind clearly).


I feel that statement is completely necessary. When you do hours and hours of research to track down people and little known facts, you would like to receive credit for your efforts. Whether you have realized it or not, you contacted Alan (who invented the electric water gun) several months after I did. He joined my forum after I emailed him. When you put a page about his inventions here (a page that contained nearly exactly what he sent me), that very seriously annoyed me. I hope you can understand. It makes me feel sometimes that my efforts are worthless because someone else could simply copy what I have done very easily. :goofy:

Edit: To reiterate, I hope you don't take this the wrong way. I just am annoyed that much of what I do is easily duplicated.




Edited By Ben_ on 1183772246

User avatar
isoaker
Posts: 7115
Joined: Sun Jul 04, 2004 1:51 pm
Location: Elsewhere
Contact:

Post by isoaker » Fri Jul 06, 2007 7:50 pm

I feel that statement is completely necessary. When you do hours and hours of research to track down people and little known facts, you would like to receive credit for your efforts. Whether you have realized it or not, you contacted Alan (who invented the electric water gun) several months after I did. He joined my forum after I emailed him. When you put a page about his inventions here (a page that contained nearly exactly what he sent me), that very seriously annoyed me. I hope you can understand. It makes me feel sometimes that my efforts are worthless because someone else could simply copy what I have done very easily.

While I found out about Alan Amron through chatting with him at SSCentral Forums, I'll admit I was rather surprised that you had not put up more information at SSCentral already. However, as nothing appeared at SSCentral, the page at iSoaker.com containing information on his inventions is most definitely NOT copying as there was nothing to copy. If you had contact several months prior to me, that gave you several months to do something with it. SSCentral's latest article on the main page is dated "12/24/04". It's already 2 and a half years since the last new article went onto the site. I'd love to see SSCentral update, but I'll be adding in information I come across that's suitable for iSoaker.com whenever I can. There's no ulterior motive, desire, or intent to annoy anyone else. I should also hope you're not so easily discouraged if someone does end up copying something you did; these days, it's very hard to prevent pilfering of information and images without proper acknowledgements and/or credit. I have long lost count of how many times I've found my work, info, and images copied.

Ah well... I just found it odd, but this is disgressing.

:cool:
:: Leave NO one dry! :: iSoaker.com .:

SSCBen
Posts: 1616
Joined: Sun Jul 04, 2004 4:15 pm
Contact:

Post by SSCBen » Fri Jul 06, 2007 8:42 pm

Well, what is behind-the-scenes isn't known, so I can understand your "copying." That's why I never brought it up before but did bring up some relevant Cosmic Liquidator information now. Independent discovery still is rewarded a patent in the US system. Alan was an example.

Luckily I have so many ideas no one could possibly copy them all (aside from my brother). :laugh:

User avatar
isoaker
Posts: 7115
Joined: Sun Jul 04, 2004 1:51 pm
Location: Elsewhere
Contact:

Post by isoaker » Fri Jul 06, 2007 8:50 pm

In more relevant thoughts, it's too bad that Sun Products Corp didn't continue to develop and improve upon the Cosmic Liquidator design. Then again, if a Super Soaker SS50-type blaster appeared on the market 10 years earlier, there's no guarantee that things would have been better now.

The Cosmic Liquidator is a neat piece of water blaster history, but as all things in history, it's nice to know about but not to dwell upon. Here's hoping for a better present and future.

:cool:
:: Leave NO one dry! :: iSoaker.com .:

SSCBen
Posts: 1616
Joined: Sun Jul 04, 2004 4:15 pm
Contact:

Post by SSCBen » Sat Jul 07, 2007 6:36 am

Another neat thing is that there was a Cosmic Liquidator TV commercial (or at least one page I saw that was a film archive claims to have it). I don't have the link right now, but I did email the film archive a few times. They never emailed me back. This commercial would be something interesting to find.

I also have a catalog page scan of the Cosmic Liquidator, but it is the same picture used on the boxes.

Again, please post here if you have any specific questions for Anson Sims about the Cosmic Liquidator. He's already been very helpful and I know he can fill in some of the gaps.

To stray off-topic again, I hadn't considered you having a problem with my taking credit for that discovery. With that being said, I think I am several months ahead of you in research and general knowledge for the overall website. I want to keep things as surprises for the website update and naturally it becomes easy for me to get angry when I get beaten with a small article.

User avatar
isoaker
Posts: 7115
Joined: Sun Jul 04, 2004 1:51 pm
Location: Elsewhere
Contact:

Post by isoaker » Sat Jul 07, 2007 6:50 am

To stray off-topic again, I hadn't considered you having a problem with my taking credit for that discovery.

That's where you are incorrect. I've no problem with recognizing your efforts in making contact and finding out more information; I give credit where credit is due. However, I find it sad when someone feels they must state that they should be recognized; I had considered it a given. Without needing prompting, I had already recognized ZOCCOZ as being the first one in the community to have stumbled across the Cosmic Liquidator, finding that it is actually air-pressure based. However, it's irrelevant now. I think I can now understand your desire to make such a statement, thus will avoid asking why in the future.

In terms of being "ahead of me in research and general knowledge", that's a moot point as I was never particularly interested in doing such digging. If I come across info about some neat bit of water gun history, I'll add it in, but I'm not actively seeking content on the water gun history subject. I appreciate your willingness to ask Mr. Anson Sims more about the Cosmic Liquidator, but my interest in it has more or less peaked. If you'll be adding a lot more water gun history to SSCentral, I look forward to reading it once you get it posted.

:cool:
:: Leave NO one dry! :: iSoaker.com .:

SSCBen
Posts: 1616
Joined: Sun Jul 04, 2004 4:15 pm
Contact:

Post by SSCBen » Sat Jul 07, 2007 8:32 am

That's where you are incorrect. I've no problem with recognizing your efforts in making contact and finding out more information; I give credit where credit is due. However, I find it sad when someone feels they must state that they should be recognized; I had considered it a given. Without needing prompting, I had already recognized ZOCCOZ as being the first one in the community to have stumbled across the Cosmic Liquidator, finding that it is actually air-pressure based. However, it's irrelevant now. I think I can now understand your desire to make such a statement, thus will avoid asking why in the future.


Actually, I remember a thread at one of the Aquatica Ikonboards linking to the Cosmic Liquidator at a toy nostalgia website. Or at least my bookmark from late 2002 indicates that I saw it earlier: http://web.archive.org/web/200303080322 ... m/294.html

That page is my first encounter with the Cosmic Liquidator. I certainly don't think ZOCCOZ or myself was the first person to stumble upon the Cosmic Liquidator. In honesty, I don't really know, but it's irrelevant.

User avatar
isoaker
Posts: 7115
Joined: Sun Jul 04, 2004 1:51 pm
Location: Elsewhere
Contact:

Post by isoaker » Sat Jul 07, 2007 8:59 am

Oh, not that ZOCCOZ was the first who stumbled across it. Bad wording on my part. I think I've seen it before on eBay, but disregarded it. ZOCCOZ is, however, the first that I recall in the community to find/verify that it uses air pressure to function, not a piston trigger, motor, or squeeze bulb. He also posted the first online review that I know of.

:cool:
:: Leave NO one dry! :: iSoaker.com .:

Locked

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 61 guests