Here comes summer season, and with it, the most recent wave of groundbreaking, splash-making toys. But these electronically enhanced blasters and shooters aren’t the leaky plastic pistols of our childhoods. These are superior soakers—trendy bits of water-fighting package designed particularly with adults in thoughts.
Last month, two corporations from reverse sides of the globe unveiled uber-powerful electrical water weapons: the SpyraThree, from a startup in Germany, and the Mijia Pulse, from Chinese tech titan Xiaomi. Between them, these fashions characteristic LCD screens, LEDs, USB connectivity, and even gaming modes. But water blasters are simply the most recent toys to stage up and put grown-up customers of their crosshairs—thus getting into an rising sector that trade analyst Steve Reece calls the “kidult” house.
“In most developed countries,” says Reece, writer of the Toy Industry Journal, “the birth rate is dropping—which risks a reduction in the overall toy market size. But the great savior, potentially, are toys developed with mostly adults in mind.”
When meant for kids, Reece explains, toys are usually sure by plenty of restrictions, from security issues to affordability. “But with ‘big kids,’” he provides, “the same pricing parameters don’t apply. For example, I know five people in my own social circle who own the Lego Millennium Falcon, which costs $850, or £735.”
“In previous generations,” he continues, “that type of product would have been so ultra-niche that it wouldn’t have been worth developing and launching. That’s why, when it comes to water blasters for ‘kidults,’ I’d expect them to cost more, offer a more compelling experience, and have higher specifications.”
And they do. Spyra units the high-tech tempo within the house, and has performed so since Sebastian Walter, a eager gamer and designer, crowdfunded his water-blasting brainchild by way of a 2015 Kickstarter marketing campaign. (The funding drive drummed up greater than seven instances his £35,000, or $59,000, goal.) And the newest addition to the model’s arsenal, the $186 (£149) SpyraThree, is probably the most tricked-out mannequin but.
