11896
Media Platforms Design Team The cast-iron USA Liquid Pistol—said to "stop the most vicious dog (or man), without permanent injury"—is patented. A menacing rubber squeeze bulb and tube load the ammo.
21906
Media Platforms Design Team Soren Sorensen Adams founds the Cachoo Sneeze Powder Company. The prettiest prank in his bag of tricks: the water-streaming lapel flower.
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31936
Media Platforms Design Team Space hero Buck Rogers fired ray guns. His earthbound fans settle for the XZ-44 Liquid Helium Toy Water Pistol, which is now on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
41940s
Media Platforms Design Team Abbott and Costello spray each other with seltzer bottles while becoming a favorite comic duo.
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51977
The Cosmic Liquidator sounds like a businessman's worst nightmare, but it's actually the name of the first air-pressurized water gun.
61985
The first battery-powered automatic water guns, invented by Alan Amron, employ an electric motor instead of an index finger.
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71987
Media Platforms Design Team Long before Twilight, a group of teenage boys fight vampires with guns loaded with holy water in The Lost Boys.
81989
Media Platforms Design Team Engineer Lonnie Johnson perfects the Power Drencher, positioning the air-pressurized water chamber on top of the barrel. Rebranded in 1991 as the Super Soaker, it triggers a water-gun craze.
91994
Alan Amron strikes again with the Shout 'N' Shoot, a voice-activated, multidirectional water-spouting headset.
102009
Media Platforms Design Team With H2O grenades and rocket launchers, Wii's Water Warfare "first-person soaker" is the perfect game for water-fight enthusiasts who don't want to go outside or get wet. What?
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112011
Media Platforms Design Team The H2Grow ammo in Xploderz toy weapons—pellets that become gelatinous when soaked—are a safer alternative to paintballs and a more painful alternative to water.
122012
Media Platforms Design Team Water guns are banned—but actual guns are allowed—at the Democratic and Republican national conventions.
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132013
Media Platforms Design Team Nerf Super Soaker's Arctic Shock may not be the biggest gun in the arsenal, but its 25-ounce Ice Drum makes it the coldest. Only the brrrave need apply.
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