Is Water Warriors Dead?

Discussions of all varieties of stock water guns and water blasters.
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SEAL
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Is Water Warriors Dead?

Post by SEAL » Sun Jan 27, 2019 12:52 pm

So I just checked out http://www.buzzbeetoys.com/ to see if there was any information on this year's WW blasters, only to find that Water Warriors is no longer mentioned anywhere on the site. At least nowhere that I could see. All the water blasters and the Water Warfare Handbook are gone, and all that's there is "Air Warriors".

So is that the end of the road for BBT's water gun line? Maybe they'll still make guns under the Adventure Force name or whatever, but things don't look good. I hope water warfare doesn't die out. It's such a unique experience that many people miss out on. It's much cheaper than airsoft or paintball, and can be played pretty much anywhere at any level of intensity, from pool parties to all-day endurance tests in the wilderness. Nerf guns could theoretically accomplish the same thing, but the whole culture behind them is different, and it's more like 'paintball lite' except you have to retrieve every shot you take. I no longer have the time to keep water wars as a primary hobby, but I definitely still plan to enjoy it from time to time.
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Re: Is Water Warriors Dead?

Post by SSCBen » Sun Jan 27, 2019 9:54 pm

You're right, Water Warriors is no longer mentioned on Buzz Bee's website. I'm not sure what to make of this. This is the worst news in the hobby in a while.

Spyra and homemades might be our only hopes now.

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Re: Is Water Warriors Dead?

Post by marauder » Mon Jan 28, 2019 9:32 am

Walmart has a watergun that looks just like water warriors design. I thought I read somewhere on isoaker that buzz bee designed it for Walmart. I could not find it on their website, but they just put it on the shelves here. I may buy one to test out. The toy industry is brutal. I hear that on Shark Tank all the time. You come up with a great idea and then someone else steals it, waters it down so its cheaper to produce but not as good quality, and then that/those companies make the money off it. This is a large part of what has happened with water warriors IMHO.

There's still a lot of new blasters available on ebay. I have 1 NIB Python 2 that I haven't taken out and my 3 other Python 2s hardly get any use because we are still mostly using CPS, which is incredible.

Regarding waterwarfare dying out. I doubt that. People will always be interested in watergun fights. I do think that the access and visibility of new blasters is the primary driving force for people getting in to the hobby, but people are still interested. I wish you both could have been at our last war. There were a lot of people who wanted to come but were on Winter Break or gone for work. Many of them have never had a watergun fight before.

We have to engage those people. My current issue is that people want to see videos and pictures and so we go and take super high quality footage from our wars or from our hobbies/work at home but then wait months or even years to post it. I am going to get off the flip phone and go back to a smart phone so I can facilitate this and help share the footage. Internet starts at $90/month here, which is ridiculous, and while I could afford it it would be pretty iresponsible as I try to pay off student loans and take care of the family. I will spend the extra $15 / month to be able to use a smart phone soon though.

Anyway, I can't emphasize the point of sharing things enough. The track team at Danny's school wanted to join us and they wanted to see footage or pictures but we still have not been able to share those. A perfect product shared at the wrong time is worth nothing. A good product shared at the right time can be worth everything. I will do my part to share our film, pics, etc. here and other methods for people who want to join us. We have more observers of this forum than people who post and many of them want to join us. There are a lot of people, from my neighbor, to people on Danny's track team, ROTC, etc. who read this forum and go to our facebook but never post. I think for younger people the idea of a message board is a little intimidating because it seems so formal, and many people don't have facebook anymore, but they certainly view what we have available. So, take courage in that.
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Re: Is Water Warriors Dead?

Post by SEAL » Mon Jan 28, 2019 5:20 pm

Yeah I'm thinking it's possible that BBT will continue to build guns for Walmart and stuff, so it would be good to keep an eye out. It's not like they were really delivering much recently anyway, but it's still a little disheartening to see them seemingly abandon their water gun line that served the community for 15 years after Super Soaker went down the tubes. Maybe we should start a community shop for members to custom-order homemades or something, haha.

I'm sure casual water fights aren't going anywhere anytime soon, but enthusiast water warfare does not look very bright at the moment. Sure, a lot less people use forums these days, but it's not like we have a significant presence anywhere else either. I get that older members, myself included, have much less time for it as they get saddled with adult responsibilities and what not, but nobody new is stepping in to give it new life. What the community really needs is exposure, because as you say, lots of people would actually really enjoy it but don't know about it. Who's going to do that though, since everyone's a busy adult?

Agreed that waiting on pictures and videos sucks. I still haven't seen the ones from your last event. I always tried to post up my stuff as soon as I could, but my issue is that I'm really bad at taking pictures. Like, I have so many great memories but now it's like they never happened 'cause I either forgot the camera, or brought the camera but forgot to use it. Trying to get better at that.
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Re: Is Water Warriors Dead?

Post by marauder » Tue Jan 29, 2019 8:36 am

SEAL wrote:
Mon Jan 28, 2019 5:20 pm
Agreed that waiting on pictures and videos sucks. I still haven't seen the ones from your last event. I always tried to post up my stuff as soon as I could, but my issue is that I'm really bad at taking pictures. Like, I have so many great memories but now it's like they never happened 'cause I either forgot the camera, or brought the camera but forgot to use it. Trying to get better at that.
This is my point. Decent pictures posted right away are better than professional photography that shows up 2 years later. I had about 10 locals who wanted to come but were either gone due to winter break vacation or due to work. They want to see what we did, but the further out we get from the battle the more that interest fades. Rob said he is working on uploading his photos somewhere (told me that yesterday). They are really good quality. I have been working on some video editing when I can. I am going through hours worth of footage to try to cut it down. After I get my tax returns I will be getting a new phone, so I should be quicker with putting some of this stuff up.

Call me callous, but I am not mourning over this fade in enthusiast warfare across the world. That has been going on for over a decade. What matters at this point, to me, is our friends here and being able to get together and still do this with you all. After that, then yeah, I want to spread it to everyone else, but I am not crying because people in Switzerland or Singapore aren't (or maybe they are and we don't know) having strategic team battles. We have things now that we would have killed for back in the day. The coming of Spyra is huge. We had been asking for something like that for years. Let's be positive and embrace all the good things we have.

Speaking of which... we still on for getting together this weekend?
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Re: Is Water Warriors Dead?

Post by SEAL » Tue Jan 29, 2019 5:03 pm

I just want more people so we can have bigger and better wars, haha. I have lots of sick event ideas but none of them really work with small groups. But it is pretty incredible that community members are still getting together even when the online portion is so sleepy. It has become more of a physical hobby than a digital one.

Spyra is promising for sure. Maybe they'll be able to fill the void that BBT left behind. I'm also hoping they'll make more powerful models in the future.

Yeah, this weekend is good. Text one of us and we can come up with a plan.
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Re: Is Water Warriors Dead?

Post by the oncoming storm » Fri Feb 01, 2019 1:28 am

Sorry to hear about WW and after 15 years of supporting this community. It seems very unlikely that we will ever have a return to the markets golden age.

I have low expectations for Drench Force having handled a few of last years products (including the BBT CPS) I doubt that any of them could even take down a python 2.

We will continue to persevere, just as we have always done. Relying on our mechanical prowess to keep our ancient Larami Super Soakers running.
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Re: Is Water Warriors Dead?

Post by Buffdaddy » Fri Feb 01, 2019 4:08 pm

Image

There is at least one new design, but info (outside of Buzz Bee releasing info) has been borked because the Hong Kong IP Office is redoing their entire online system, meaning you can only look at journals with info from months back.

You can still look up what names they're looking at using in the US Patent and Trademark Office, though. I don't believe Saturator has been used for anything yet.

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Re: Is Water Warriors Dead?

Post by SEAL » Fri Feb 01, 2019 5:58 pm

Good find! I'm willing to bet that gun is going to be another Adventure Force/Walmart special. Pity it seems to be a little cream puff of a blaster. Can't believe BBT is reduced to building generics now. Yo, even Hasbro has been making more powerful guns than they have lately (i.e. the Soakzooka and that newer derivative of it). I mean, I guess the Drench Force hit pretty hard, but it looks awkward. What happened?

Well perhaps we'll see some more new guns that are better. Also, wasn't Saturator a company that made electric soakers a few years back? I almost forgot they existed but that name reminds me of them. Guess it's a pretty obvious name for a water gun. I think I kinda prefer names that aren't necessarily related to water.
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Re: Is Water Warriors Dead?

Post by jja » Fri Feb 01, 2019 8:07 pm

Had a look myself at the Buzz Bee website, the water warriors section does still exist somewhat - the hand book is still there but all the product links are 404. its not possible to navigate directly to the water warriors pages but a google search got me there

http://www.buzzbeetoys.com/USglobal/Wat ... index.html

Has anyone contacted isoaker about this? - perhaps his contacts at BBT might shed some light on the situation.

Edit these pages are now no longer available.
Last edited by jja on Wed Feb 13, 2019 4:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Is Water Warriors Dead?

Post by pat720 » Wed Feb 06, 2019 8:33 pm

Water Warriors still exists, I bought the 2018 version of the stingray in september. They just are no longer a subsidary of buzz bee. Dont get to worked up.
When my friends are bringing big ole cps guns, and I show up with an SS50

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Re: Is Water Warriors Dead?

Post by marauder » Wed Feb 13, 2019 1:42 pm

pat720 wrote:
Wed Feb 06, 2019 8:33 pm
Water Warriors still exists, I bought the 2018 version of the stingray in september. They just are no longer a subsidary of buzz bee. Dont get to worked up.


Who purchased them?
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Re: Is Water Warriors Dead?

Post by HBWW » Mon Feb 18, 2019 12:27 pm

Not sure what's going on with the branding. WW is gone from the site but they've just updated the aesthetics of the Outlaw, and did a new small air pressure blaster for the Adventure Force line.

https://www.facebook.com/buzzbeetoysinc ... 3481680102
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Re: Is Water Warriors Dead?

Post by SEAL » Mon Feb 18, 2019 5:48 pm

I actually just saw that. Right as I was considering "un-liking" their page, haha. But that's kinda weird. The Outlaw is like ten years old now (remember how it used to be called the Equalizer? I actually have one of those), so I don't know why they keep re-releasing it. If they're going to do that they should re-release guns like the Vindicator and Gorgon too. I also don't know why they don't have any water guns on their website if they are indeed still making them. But I guess it's sorta good news that WW isn't completely gone, even though they haven't been very relevant lately.

The Power Raider looks unchanged from last year, but they did mention another Adventure Force gun by the name of "Max Morpher" or something. Unfortunately they don't seem to show a picture of it. However going by the name it sounds like gimmicky trash. I guess at the end of the day, they're just a bunch of toys. We need to make water guns that are specifically NOT designed as toys, haha.
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Re: Is Water Warriors Dead?

Post by SSCBen » Wed Feb 27, 2019 8:04 pm

Based on a blog post by iSoaker, Water Warriors continued to exist in 2019, and even is releasing a new blaster.

http://www.artofsoaking.com/2019/02/23/ ... dent-2019/

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