Motorized Small Piston
During the 1980s, the motorized water gun was perhaps at its most prolific. Companies such as Entertech Inc. and Larami Inc. created water guns modeled after guns popularized in movies such as Rambo. At the heart of these devices was a small motor and crank shaft that converted a rotary motion into a forward-backwards pumping motion to drive a small pump akin to those found in the small spray bottle-type squirt pistols. Stream performance was often not improved, but the motor removed the need to pump, which made the toys popular. The greatest fallback was that they wore out batteries quickly. However, their main strength—and consequent reason for dismissal—was their realistic styling. After some of these realistic-shaped water guns caused accidental shootings by police, stricter rules regarding shapes and coloring of water guns were drafted in the United States.
Famous quotes containing the word small:
“Enthusiasms, like stimulants, are often affected by people with small mental ballast.”
—Minna Antrim (1861–?)