>>9021920Not really, as far as I know there weren't even any lawsuits threatened over the original CPS being too powerful, they willingly cut down on the power after that just to preemptively prevent future issues.
The real issues are more two fold. First off is that most people, particularly the parents most likely to buy the soakers, is they have a preconceived notions on what is acceptable price points for water blasters in general. I wish I can find the quotes again but google is so God damn filled with store results these days, but the president of Buzz Bee said that once you get over I believe $20, people just do not want to buy the water gun. This makes it much harder to make and sell the bigger and more powerful soakers.
Second issue just exacerbates all other issues, especially the first one. Water guns are SEASONAL products. This means they are not always on shelves, this not only reduces the amount of time it takes to sell higher prices products but it also cuts off Holiday purchases of the water soaker that may help get parents more likely to spend above their original limit for a water gun. Now this also means the RETAILER can be far more iffy on wanting to order a huge massive seasonal item that takes up a lot of that limited seasonal shelf space and worry about what to do when they need to change out the seasonal stock for the new season. Retailers have a lot more power and influence on what gets made then most people realize. There are many cases of toys in the past either not being made or having a super short production because retailers refused to order. This seasonal item situation was also brought up by the Buzz Bee president iirc.
So in short, parents only want to spend a certain limit on water guns, they have a short selling season as seasonal items, don't get to be sold during holiday season, and retailers are hesitant to stock huge shelf taking items that may not sell. This all adds up to reduce the size and complexity of soakers nowaday
