What do you expect in 2006 from Hasbro and Buzz Bee Toys?

Personally, I think that BBT will have some improved soakers, maybe some larger nozzles and a bit more power. Hasbro probably will remain on its current course, some CPS guns, some air pressure, a little improvement, but not anything drastic.

I think that BBT might try to get better guns than what Hasbro by creating near CPS-like quality in more models and (possibly) might expand who they sell to to increase intrest. However Hasbro will probably remain relatively unchanged.

Hasbro's probably not going to sit on their laurels, I don't think. They've undoubtable noticed that kids want power, not gimmicks, really. Even the Triple Aggressor's gimmicks were still soaking related. The death of the EES line, in my mind, proves that Hasbro will start making soakers with some oomph again. The Flash Flood's MAJOR success should be enough to convince them that output and sales tend to be related.

And, of course, BBT is going to try and make theirs more powerful. Who knows - maybe we'll get some real competition for the first time in years, but only if BB gets their products out there and advertise as well. Finding their soakers was a bit of a challenge this year for some people.

buzz bee toys is real competition. and it's not that hard to find water warrior guns, except for the blazer. I think BBT will make guns with bigger nozzels,but they would have to make the pc walls thicker. The 2005 blazer has larger nozzels and it dose not support them that well.

In the US and Canada they may not be hard to find, but over here in the UK they are impossible! I want a Blazer, Piranha and a Hydra Pak, but nowhere sells them. :angry:

I contacted BBT and I said what had happened and they said they would see what they could do about mail order or something. I am going to contact them again to ask what is going on. They are great at replying unlike Hasbro who which I sent a query to about nearly a month ago.

Anyway, BBT are doing great and are improving all the time, hence that's why I want their guns. Bigger and more powerful guns we could see in the not too distant future. All they need to do now is get their great guns to the UK so I will have no trouble trying to find them! :lol:

I have contacted Hasbro 5 times and they have never answered. Remember the Hasbro email campaign? Of course you don't, the last post about that was on the 4th of July, 2004. :lol: That was when I sent the 5 emails. They might have not responded because I tried to start a boycott against them, but that was after the emails... :blink:

I remember that. I sent a letter too but mine got answered. "Hasbro cares about their customers opinions". What a load of crap. I did get a Nerf N-Strike 3 gun pack though. I think I remember Blaze or someone trying to tell about how easy it was to take advantage of Hasbro and get N-Strikes back then... :unsure:

Blaze had a broken 4100. He told Hasbro and they sent him a new one. Soon after he fixed the 4100. Pretty nice, eh?

Trying to get Hasbro to do anythingin the UK is nearly impossible... I had a monster rocket, and so I sent it back for my money after they recalled it... It took 6 months to get my money. The UK people aren't authorised to send out refund cheques, so the cheques come from the US.

Not that I'm complaining. I bought the Monster rocket on sale for £4.12 and got the full refund of £30.

They really spell it like that in the UK? Weird. I had to stare at that sentence for a moment before figuring out what it meant. :lol:

Now that I have had some time to think about it I think that for 2006 there will be a considerable power increase in the Water Warriors line in an attempt to squash the new 2006 Super Soakers.

On Super Soakers side I think they will either make their guns slightly more powerful than this years guns and extend the soaker tag name a little bit further with near gimmic-less guns, or they will come up with a completely new series of guns with different gimmics. :unsure:

Bold Green = Admins
Bold Blue = Moderators
Blue = Veteran members
No change = New Members and Members
Bold Red = Restricted/On Probation

If you want a new color, the easiest to achieve is the Veteran Members group. All you need is 200 posts and have contributed to SM in some way. Wow that was really off topic. :blink:

I hope they cut down on some of the gimmicks next year. Useless gimmicks are definately one of the things I hate most about soakers made in recent years.

Now, remember, Dux, the Triple Play had a crappy gimmick and came out years ago!

Hey, at least this year's gimmicks were mildly useful. Flash Flood's was the whole point of the gun, and powerful at close range. Arctic Shock's was painful, but it was weak so few bought it. The APD had virtually no gimmicks. The Triple Aggressor and Hydroblade were some examples of crappy gimmicks, though, but that was last year's latest models...

I was really refering to years after the original CPS guns were discontinued [2003, 2004, 2005]. Now let's not forget EES, probably the worst line ever to be released! But there is a big difference between the amount of gimmicks in 1998 compared to the amount today.

Well, I think everyone's glad to see EES go the way of the dino.

Honestly, gimmicks aren't the problem, really. This year's line is a major improvement. The main issue is how much weak the guns are in general, not any gimmicks. Hopefully next year will bring back some power.

The companies are only willing to put in so much power, then it is up to us. In battle terms, we the community have the initiative, which the companies lost when they started making weaker soakers. They will probably improve their soakers, but we have to pick up where they leave off. One can go homemade and still enjoy their stock soakers. But the sense of freedom calls you back to the hardware store whenever you've got enough cash. Being able to build what you want, controlling your own stats, putting in as much power as you want, designing for your own desires, no need to worry about marketing, profits, consumer opinion, etc. is a great feeling. If companies don't want to put power in their guns for marketing reasons, we the community should not have to settle for that. I'm giving both major companies another shot, but I haven't bought a 2004 or 2005 gun and I'm really hoping 2006 is a better year.

If anyone from Hasbro ever reads this [which is extremely unlikely], please put at least a few more cents worth of quality in your trigger valves. That would be a tiny step in the right direction. BBT has been better about quality, especially the trigger valve. One of the main reasons I haven't bought a new stock soaker in 2 years is that they tend to break so easily.

While a good topic, IMO, it's too soon to speculate. We're still in summer, guys! We need to be out there using soakers and getting what we can from the summer. Fall/Autumn and Winter when soaking outside is not as likely is a better time to speculate. Otherwise, by then, what will there be to talk about regarding stock soakers? :P

I have faith in both Hasbro and Buzz Bee Toys. This year's sales results will be interesting and it'll be intriguing how both companies will respond to the changes in the consumer market.

However, with BBTs trying to build themselves up and Hasbro wanting to keep their top spot, this will hopefully then yield good things to come for us soaker enthusiasts.

B)

Since it is the ten year anniversary of the cps class blaster i think Hasbro might rerelease some of the older cps guns.

I have been hoping they would do that ever since they rereleased some of the older Xp guns. That would be great, but Hasbro is in gimmick mode, finding new, useless ways to make money and sell guns. If they did rerelease some Cps guns, (just one would make me happy, as long as it isn't the 1-3-5) I would definitely buy a few of each one.

Tell me about it! :lol:

I'd really like that to happen. If the CPS 1700 or any good CPS soaker like that was rereleased, believe me, I would buy about 10 or more! :lol:

I would sell almost all of my things, find a job, mow lawns, deal fireworks I got online to my friends (it is illegal to have fireworks here) and ask for an allowance raise to get those guns. I would get 10 of each type that I would put in storage, and two of each for personal use. The ones I would use would be for modding, the one I don't use for in case one of my modding one breaks beyond repair. Then, when I am older and the old Cps guns are selling like Cps 2000s, Monster Xls, and Cps 2500s because Hasbro is in another slump in powerful soakers, I will sell the guns I kept in storage all of those years. ^_^

Good idea. I would probably just buy some and mod them though... But if they were really good then yes, I would keep a stash somewhere.

I hope Hasbro is reading this! Bringing back the old CPS soakers would beenefit them in several ways. Firstly, there is the enthusiasts who buy truck loads of them. Also, there would be an increase of popularity and more enthusiasts would come from it. Then, they'll have more and more people buying super soakers.

Not to mention we wouldn't have anymore us vs. manufacturers RPs anymore. But still I think that the enthusiast boost would be great! I mean everybody could actually have frequent 1HK wars with massive armies. It'd be like paintball, except you could play anywhere.

I'd do the exact same as you Crashdummy. Get a ton of them and then use about 3 and keep all the others probably just under my bed! :lol:

Anyhow, If Hasbro do bring some old CPS soakers back it will help people who have always wanted say, a CPS 1500/1700 but can't get them because of the high prices on eBay. They will be able to just get one new from a store near them instead of trying to win an auction full of competetive bidders. Which would then make more interest. B)

Lol, don't any of the people working for Hasbro ever go on ebay? The prices the guns are selling for there are crazy. You would think they would build guns of that caliber and sell them. They would be making so much more money from than the Soakertag Elite line made. Think about it, the average kid only buys 1 gun every other year. If there were a leap in performance and lots of commercials on t.v., I bet kids would start buying more than one gun every year (considering how fast the new guns break) .

Lol, they probably don't want to, they can't face and take what they have done to make it like this. It their mess and they've got to sort it out.

If I were them I would just make two different lines of soakers. There would be whatever crud they want to make, and there would be the "Revivals" series, bringing back three guns from the past, one CPS gun, and two XP guns. Next year the "Revivals" line would include (if I were Hasbro) something along the lines of a CPS 1500 / 1700, an XP 65 twin pack, and the XXP 175.

That would be a really good idea. I would prefer to see a CPS 1000 re-release to a CPS 1500/1700 one though. Even better, if they revived 2 CPS guns a year. CPS 1000 and CPS 2100! :lol:

Better yet would be a revival of every CPS gun ever made! But manufacturing costs would be through the roof. They would be better off just making an CPS 1100, CPS 2250, CPS 1700. They could add any other stupid stuff they want afterwards which would include a decent pistol and lower assualt rifle.

I'd like to see a 15001700 rerelease though, some people will disagree, some will agree, its just a matter of opinion on your soakers overall and what your favourite CPS is. The 1500/1700 is one of the best weapons I've got and I would love to get more of them.

My choice would be:

CPS Revival
CPS 1500/1700

XP Revival
XP 55 Twin Pack
XP 95

Mmmm, a CPS rerelease, eh? One thing you forget is that if they remake them, there's no telling if they will be back to their former strength. A CPS 1500 is nothing if it's range is 35 feet.

But I am assuming they have atleast some level of intelligence and will remake them exactly the same. Well, not exactly the same. Knowing hasbro, if they were to revive the CPS line they would probably make them in bright colors. <_<

I just don't know if they would bring the CPS of the time back to its former strength. What more would they want? Kids thinking that guns from the past were cooler, or guns from now are cooler. I think Hasbro might want people to go for their new guns rather than the old ones. However, if they do make them to what they were years ago, they might see that people want to buy the bigger, stronger guns.

I don't think that they'd want us to think that old guns are better (ha, just try to stop me!), but the FF and APD prove that people like more powerful guns. I doubt that they would ever make old guns, but they might invent new ones that are as good as (or better - eek) the old guns.

It's more likely that hasbro would make new guns than rerelease old ones. I would be very surprised if they are as good as or better than the old guns. However if they did rerelease old guns i would not care what color they were unless they are pink,yellow,red or some other stupid color they decide to make them.

The colors don't really matter. I wouldn't care if the gun was all pink. Some black and green spray paint could take care of that.

Buzz bee toys has done a pretty good job with this years line. But i dont like the small desings that their soakers have next year i hope in addition to larger nozzles they release more long barreld "monster x style" soakers.

That's nearly impossible with Hydro Power. When I opened up the PC of my lightning I found out that it is pretty much a diaphram. When you pump the gun it does not put the water into a rubber bladder. You simply are pumping water against a single rubber disc (diaphram). This limits hydro power designs to being spherical in design. However if you use the precharge system then a long barreled gun might be possible, it would just be hardish to design.

Hydro Power isn't pretty much a diaphram - it IS a diaphram (I believe that Big Bee referred to it as "diaphram technology" at one point.) It would be possible to make a long-barreled one - instead of two diaphrams, as the Blazer, it would instead have one much larger one - pretty much like most CPS soakers with a spherical PC. It would function nearly exactly the same.

Look at the differences between a 1500 and a Lightning. A Lightning has better range, which is an excellent plus. Its output, though, is nearly four times less than the 1500's 5x (which seems odd, considering that the Lightning's largest nozzle is quite a bit more than 2x, I believe, but I've never used one.) The problem is obvious, though - the firing chamber size. The Lightning has a chamber less than half of the 1500's. If you more than double it (make it equal to the 1500), you have the power to support nearly the same 10x nozzle with nearly the same firing time, WITH A BETTER RANGE.

Now, a 900ml PC is too heavy to mount in the front of the gun - the solution is to make it a long rifle with the pc in the rear portion, a large reservoir, and a nice, tracked pump for balance. Why hello thar rifle! Give it a better pump volume than the 1500, and Buzz Bee's just made a better gun.

Hydro Power could very well be better than CPS tech, or at least very comparable. Big Bee said once that HP is better than CPS for some reason I can't remember, but no one really believed him. After running the figures, I agree that it COULD be - they just aren't using it properly. If they tried to top the old blasters, they definitely could.