In 1982 a NASA engineer named Lonnie Johnson was testing a heat pump at home. A stream of water shot across the bathroom. His first thought was, “This would make a great squirt gun.”
The prototype was built from PVC pipe, Plexiglas, and a two-liter soda bottle. Toy companies rejected it for years.
In 1989 Johnson fired the gun across a conference room at Larami. The company president said, “wow.” The toy launched in 1990 as the Power Drencher. Renamed the Super Soaker, it did 200 million dollars in sales in 1991.