>>7102280>>7101587>>7099414That is all mostly a big long story and I usually take a couple posts to explain it all but let's see if I can quick fire some basic points to these questions.
First to OP about buying a gun for a Nephew. See if you can find a Water Warrior Gargantua online. It is a very recent gun and I beleive the first full Bladder CPS style gun on the market for MANY years. It will blow the other recent offerings out of the water. There is another bladder CPS recently I beleive from the adventure force line that is a walmart exclusive?
Now for the patent stuff.
Hasbro had the patent to all the soaker tech, in particular was the CPS they had strongest control over. People could modify the typical pressurized gun technology that started Super Soaker enough that Hasbro couldn't attack them. Water Warriors was trying to skirt by the patent by using a rubber diaphram rather then a full bladder. But then Hasbro took them to court, and there was either a settlement or the courts found there was not enopugh modification from the patent so Water Warriors couldn't do that anymore.
What caused the backwards in technology for Super Soaker? Hasbro got sued by Lonnie for short changing him on a LOT of royalties. The result was a VERY noticable change in both the style of guns and the fact they stopped even using the pressurized tech.
Their rights to exclusive use of the patent expired in 2015. A couple of the other companies began trying to test the market waters with CPS style guns, but it is not looking good at all.
Any questions for further information, feel free to ask, more then happy to answer.
