What would you include in a Super Soaker "Collector's/Throwback" line?

[Silence]

Originally Posted by cantab

I agree that threaded bottle reservoirs are not ideal nowadays. (Technology available 20 years ago meant they WERE the best choice). However, nor is low output and range! I wouldn't use any version of the SS 50 in a water fight if I wanted to win. So the fact that the reservoir design is not great doesn't matter. What matters is that it's an SS 50, and making too significant changes would destroy that.

Quoted for truth. That's exactly what I meant to say. Once again, nostalgia trumps everything else in this case, and making a faithful replica is important. It's fine to reinforce the SS 300 (unless the XP 300 was already a reinforced version - I don't know anybody who has both, so it's hard to compare them) because the appearance doesn't really change.

I wouldn't say the technology for reservoir caps wasn't there in the beginning. It's more probable that nobody thought better. For example, rubber bladders have been around forever, but they weren't used for quite a while. And the Water Warriors Orca first had the cap underneath the reservoir so that it made a whale sound as air entered, but this year they "improved" the design by putting the cap on top. That's not exactly new technology.

Conversely, improvements in thread material and design may have helped later water guns more than the switch to caps, at least as far as loose pieces shooting off are concerned. Plastics tend to be much more durable these days - for example, that's the reason continuously variable transmissions are practical now.

[Cyrax9]

Let me clarify something I think I mis-spoke on: I'm not saying that I'd want Hasbro to release only an "altered" SS 50, but rather, reissue the "Classic" SS 50, and release an "updated" SS 50 -- call it the "SS 50+" for lack of a better term. The new gun would have the cap attached to it and maybe a QFD option.

The problem with removing the reservoir that I was thinking of wasn't the "shooting bottle" issue as I've never had that occur, but rather a fragility issue. The "threaded reservoir" requires one to "twist" the bottle out of the gun itself, which in turn puts excess stress on the entire soaker. For light use, this isn't a big deal, but for heavy use this usually leads to the assembly around the reservoir breaking from wear and tear. (This would be more of a problem if you carry a SS 50 as a secondary blaster with a much larger gun on you as well regularly.) Caps are generally easier to work with-- they allow you to stick a hose inside of the reservoir itself without disassembling a good portion of your gun, of course back when the SS 50 was new, the idea of something beyond a squirt gun was pretty revolutionary.

C-A_99 -- I'd like the QFD to be an option not a requirement for filling "updated" guns. In other words, every soaker should have a reservoir cap or twist-off reservoir as well as the ability to connect to a QFD device. I just like the convenience of the QFD although I agree that it'd be nice if a hose attachment could be incorperated into an updated QFD to avoid changing between the QFD and a hose nozzle time and again. Agreed 100% on the CPS 2000 Mk. I and Mk. II; I'm sure that the change had to do with parents complaining more than anything else.

SilentGuy--I'll have to keep an eye out for one of those XP 270 two-packs on eBay. It'd be a nice start to rebuilding my collection. Reinforcing the SS 300 is a no-brainer. If Hasbro did that it'df be a perfect gun. If the XP 300 was reinforced, just reissue that in the SS 300 colors and I'll be happy.

Drenchenator--Don't even get me started on the Max-D line. I'd want them to leave the valves alone, if they reissued anything from the Max-D series, I'd hope that they'd use the CPS series valves since I think the Max-D line was when we started to have "super squirters" replaced super soakers.