WEBVTT - Nerf! 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:11.360 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey, 0:00:11.360 --> 0:00:13.680 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:17.959 and this is Stuff you should Know. Another toy edition. 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:19.120 We haven't done one in a while. 0:00:19.640 --> 0:00:20.640 Classic Toy Edition. 0:00:21.200 --> 0:00:25.800 Yep, I love these NERF that's right. 0:00:27.520 --> 0:00:32.640 I was just got back from spring break, so I 0:00:32.680 --> 0:00:34.239 wanted to do a couple of things, and this is 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:37.360 NERF relevant, But I got to see a bunch of 0:00:37.479 --> 0:00:39.720 LA pals and I wanted to give a special shout out, 0:00:40.120 --> 0:00:41.839 which I'm sure you will agree with even though you 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:47.120 didn't see them to the Randazzo clan. Our old buddy 0:00:47.159 --> 0:00:51.720 Joe Randazzo, who we met many years ago, is still 0:00:51.720 --> 0:00:54.920 a faithful listener, as are his kids. Oh yeah, they 0:00:54.960 --> 0:00:57.600 listened to the show. They've called me and yelled and 0:00:57.680 --> 0:00:59.960 left messages yelling all us about the show before. 0:01:00.240 --> 0:01:00.880 Yeah, that's right. 0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:03.880 But we finally got to hang out and Ruby got 0:01:03.880 --> 0:01:08.160 to hang out with their three kids, Cormac, Gus and Hazel, 0:01:08.760 --> 0:01:10.720 and they even spent the night at our rental house. 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:11.920 A couple of nights. 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:15.000 By themselves, no with Joe and the whole family did 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:17.240 oh okay, And we just had so much fun and 0:01:17.280 --> 0:01:20.520 those kids are so much fun and so big hellos 0:01:20.680 --> 0:01:21.440 to all of them. 0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:22.679 Very nice. 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:25.200 But the reason I mentioned NERF was I was we 0:01:25.240 --> 0:01:28.200 went down to Venice Beach did a lot of touristy stuff, 0:01:28.240 --> 0:01:30.840 and I wanted to show Ruby the skate park there 0:01:30.880 --> 0:01:33.800 because she's used to seeing the kids at the local 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:37.440 skate parks who are like, like literally can't even ali 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:39.920 basically yeah. And it was like, Ruby, it's like your 0:01:39.959 --> 0:01:41.560 mind's going to be blown when you go to this 0:01:41.680 --> 0:01:45.120 skate park at Venice Beach because these like this is 0:01:45.120 --> 0:01:47.040 where it was born, and they really know what they're doing. 0:01:47.120 --> 0:01:50.360 And it did not disappoint. There were some these three 0:01:50.480 --> 0:01:53.440 dudes that were just crushing it, these two kind of 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:56.000 young teenagers and this one guy that looked like he 0:01:56.080 --> 0:01:58.520 was probably in his late twenties, and they were trying 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:01.480 to outdo one another and goofing around with one another, 0:02:01.520 --> 0:02:03.960 and it was just a big fun show, Like I 0:02:03.960 --> 0:02:06.320 could watch that for hours. And one of the guys, 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:09.600 the older guy, kept making fun of the kids, saying, 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:12.640 you're doing these nerve tricks. You're doing these nerve tricks. 0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:15.200 Oh yeah, And I couldn't figure it out if that 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:18.280 just meant like, it's like a kiddie version of a 0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:18.800 real trick. 0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:20.240 Is kind of what I figured. 0:02:19.960 --> 0:02:24.280 He meant, Like a nerf ball is like a kiddie 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:25.800 version of a real ball. 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:27.960 Very nice segue, Chuck. 0:02:28.120 --> 0:02:29.680 I think that's probably what he meant. But it was 0:02:29.680 --> 0:02:32.000 just so funny. Look at you with those nerve tricks. 0:02:32.639 --> 0:02:36.120 Could you tell what he was criticizing specifically, like what 0:02:36.160 --> 0:02:37.840 they were doing that was making him say that. 0:02:37.760 --> 0:02:40.000 It looked like just sort of little more basic stuff, 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:42.200 like they were coming out of the bowl and doing 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:44.480 different things and then like landing on the flat surface, 0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:47.280 And anytime they just did sort of a basic thing, 0:02:47.320 --> 0:02:49.200 he'd say, get out of here with your nerve tricks. 0:02:49.520 --> 0:02:52.280 Were they landing on their feet or on their skateboard. 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:54.480 On their skateboard? Oh okay, but they would like kick 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:56.840 a leg out and then land on the skateboard. 0:02:56.360 --> 0:02:58.280 Or something like that and call it a nerve trick. 0:02:58.639 --> 0:03:00.680 I mean, trust me, dude, I would I couldn't even 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:03.799 run around this thing, much less do it on a skateboard. 0:03:04.680 --> 0:03:07.080 But this guy was so good man, and everyone was 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:09.280 so good and it's just amazing to see them. 0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:09.840 Do that stuff. 0:03:10.320 --> 0:03:10.760 Nice. 0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:13.160 Very highly recommended. If you go to Venice. 0:03:13.680 --> 0:03:15.840 Yeah, I can imagine. I've never gone to see. 0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:17.480 That, but I'm going to now it's amazing. 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:19.519 So let's go back to your segue. 0:03:19.680 --> 0:03:20.799 Nerf nerf. 0:03:22.600 --> 0:03:25.519 There's a lot of questions about nerf chuck in particular 0:03:25.600 --> 0:03:30.240 what nerf means and not just in skating terms, in 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:35.040 the original form even. Okay, so for example, some people 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:38.600 say it was French for nerve. Obviously it makes total sense. 0:03:39.200 --> 0:03:41.720 It's not true at all. There's other people who say 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:45.480 it stands for a non expanding recreational foam. That's not 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:47.200 true at all, but you will see that all over 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:51.880 the internet as fact not correct. Instead, it's got one 0:03:51.920 --> 0:03:54.960 of the cooler origin stories. They are most interesting origin 0:03:55.040 --> 0:03:58.400 stories for a word that no one really knows where 0:03:58.440 --> 0:03:59.320 it came from. 0:03:59.560 --> 0:04:01.240 Yeah, and if you're in some part of the world 0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:05.000 that's right now saying what is nerf, we should just 0:04:05.080 --> 0:04:09.200 quickly say that it's a toy brand made of soft 0:04:09.240 --> 0:04:12.240 foamy products, and we'll kind of go through the history. 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:14.960 But you know, they started with balls and then now 0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:16.880 they make all kinds of stuff, but it's you know, spongy, 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:20.360 soft foamy things that you can throw and not hurt 0:04:20.400 --> 0:04:21.360 somebody with. 0:04:21.520 --> 0:04:24.400 Wow, that was some professional podcasting just now. 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:27.080 But the origin and this is something I remember when 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:30.360 I was a kid because we had nerf bars on 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:34.320 our jeep. It started out as a racing thing, like 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:37.200 if you bumped up against another car in a race 0:04:37.279 --> 0:04:39.520 that could they might call that a nerf And they 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:43.080 eventually started putting this metalwork on the outside of the 0:04:43.080 --> 0:04:46.159 cars to prevent damage if you hit a car like that, 0:04:46.720 --> 0:04:51.240 and those were called nerf bars, and today they're still called. 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:53.360 Like if you have a like I have a pickup 0:04:53.360 --> 0:04:56.080 truck that has nerf bars, And instead of having a 0:04:56.080 --> 0:04:58.799 little tiny step, you know sometimes big trucks and jeeps 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:01.159 and things, you'll have a step to step into the car. Sure, 0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:03.479 instead of just being a little step, it's a big 0:05:03.600 --> 0:05:07.359 round bar that extends sort of the length of at 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:09.480 least the door two doors if you have a two 0:05:09.520 --> 0:05:11.919 door or a four door I guess mm hm. And 0:05:12.360 --> 0:05:14.000 they still call those nerve bars. 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:16.680 Does it say yeehaw every time you step on it 0:05:16.720 --> 0:05:17.559 to get in the truck? 0:05:17.720 --> 0:05:18.440 It really does. 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:22.720 I'm familiar with nerf bars is like those anti roll 0:05:22.760 --> 0:05:24.880 bars like you were talking about on your dad's jeep 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:28.719 or something like that. Those can especially if you have 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:31.279 like a soft top or a no top like jeep 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:33.040 and you have a roll bar over your head to 0:05:33.160 --> 0:05:35.800 keep you from dying or the jeep from crushing you. 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:39.920 If it rolls over, it can still hurt pretty bad 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:42.320 because that's a metal bar, even if it is hollow, 0:05:42.320 --> 0:05:43.920 and if you go over some bumps and you hit 0:05:43.920 --> 0:05:45.680 your head on it, that's a problem. 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:46.560 Yeah. 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:51.040 So people started figuring out very quickly in the advent 0:05:51.160 --> 0:05:54.640 of off roading that you could put foam padding on 0:05:54.720 --> 0:05:58.440 those bars, and that's where nerf bars came from, this 0:05:58.560 --> 0:06:03.320 idea that foam path could prevent some sort of injury. 0:06:04.080 --> 0:06:07.080 It became like kind of wetted to that idea of nerf, 0:06:07.160 --> 0:06:12.840 which was originally just a little bump. And that's apparently 0:06:12.920 --> 0:06:15.920 where the actual the name comes from. That's the origin story. 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:18.040 It was a marketing person who was familiar with that 0:06:18.160 --> 0:06:22.240 term and just brilliantly thought to apply it to these 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:25.680 little foam balls that can't hurt anybody because they're too light. 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:27.600 Yeah, they are. 0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:30.600 Generally there's all kinds of nerve products, but generally we're 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:32.720 talking about polyurethane foam. 0:06:33.040 --> 0:06:33.680 It's got a. 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:38.080 Little thin plastic coating that kind of keeps the foam 0:06:38.120 --> 0:06:43.560 from breaking down as much and gives like a NERF 0:06:43.680 --> 0:06:47.800 arrow like better flight characteristics. But it's basically all it is. 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:50.640 It's a very low tech thing. The Grabster helped us 0:06:50.640 --> 0:06:53.600 with this, and I think, very astutely kind of argues 0:06:53.640 --> 0:06:56.400 that that's part of the appeal of NERF is that 0:06:56.480 --> 0:06:59.039 it's a very low tech product and sort of like 0:06:59.080 --> 0:07:01.640 a frisbee times, it doesn't have to be something fancy 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:03.680 to really endure in the toy market. 0:07:04.120 --> 0:07:07.120 Yeah. I think that that's one reason why NERF has 0:07:07.240 --> 0:07:09.039 just hung in there for so long, because they're just 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:12.920 they're very prolific, but the stuff they make is it's just, 0:07:13.400 --> 0:07:16.960 I don't know, it becomes like iconic here in the 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:21.080 United States like it definitely did from the beginning of 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:24.880 the seventies till the mid nineties. Yeah, I think it's 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:28.840 kind of gotten less like a huge cultural thing over time, 0:07:28.880 --> 0:07:33.480 but it's become more niche and I think just as widespread, 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:37.120 but just not quite as like pop culturally. 0:07:38.120 --> 0:07:39.320 Yeah, I would agree with that. 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:42.520 So one other thing about the word nerve, it's kind 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:48.440 of experienced a rebirth among gaming communities apparently back in 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:50.280 I found the actual origin for this, chuck. 0:07:50.320 --> 0:07:51.400 You're ready sure. 0:07:51.720 --> 0:07:54.720 In the late nineties early two thousands, there was a 0:07:54.920 --> 0:07:59.640 massive multiplayer online role playing game called Ultima Online and 0:07:59.680 --> 0:08:03.280 when they they launched it, for some reason, the swords 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:08.480 that you used were way more devastating than any other weapons, 0:08:09.080 --> 0:08:11.120 and so the developers were like, this is a problem. 0:08:11.200 --> 0:08:14.160 Everybody's just using swords and it's not really fair. So 0:08:14.200 --> 0:08:16.200 they went in, they fixed it. They put a patch 0:08:16.240 --> 0:08:20.200 in there, and swords suddenly became less devastating, and players 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:22.520 complained that it was like hitting one another with nerf 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:26.000 swords now, And so nerf became a word for anything, 0:08:26.840 --> 0:08:30.280 especially in games where the developers go in and like 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:32.840 downgrade its effectiveness essentially. 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:37.839 So like they should have nerved Bo Jackson and Techmobile. 0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:40.120 Because he was unstoppable? 0:08:40.720 --> 0:08:41.040 Was he? 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:42.000 Oh man? 0:08:42.440 --> 0:08:44.679 Yeah, it's sort of a legendary thing. Is that in 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:47.640 the original Techmobil or I don't know if his original, but 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:51.080 bo Jackson was you couldn't stop them, and like if 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:54.520 he played the Raiders, you know, you would have to 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:57.680 instill rules like bo Jackson can only carry the ball 0:08:57.800 --> 0:09:00.920 like once every five plays or something. Oh really, yeah, 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:02.800 because he was just built faster and better and you 0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:04.800 could like score almost every time he touched the ball. 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:08.240 I mean, that's an appropriate person to make like that, for. 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:10.000 Sure, But it was so gamed. It was just like, 0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:11.520 you know, it wasn't even fair. 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:14.320 But yes, to circle back to your original point, that 0:09:14.440 --> 0:09:16.720 is an excellent use of the term nerve. 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:20.360 The nerf that we know in love was invented by 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:25.440 a guy named Rin geier r e y n Geyer 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:29.840 for Reynolds. Yeah, that makes sense. And he invented Twister, 0:09:30.000 --> 0:09:32.800 so he's got a couple of big time pop culture 0:09:33.240 --> 0:09:36.760 games under his belt. Yeah, and he was forming a 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:40.319 company and he wanted to design a game where kids 0:09:40.360 --> 0:09:43.080 could throw rocks at each other. And so they made 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:47.200 them obviously at a foam, and they had this packing 0:09:47.240 --> 0:09:50.160 foam and this technique that they used cutting that foam 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:53.680 with heated wire. That worked out pretty well, and he 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:57.520 wanted to sort of gamify it, like I said, and 0:09:57.559 --> 0:10:00.640 not just you know, make it a light ball that 0:10:00.679 --> 0:10:02.720 you could just throw at each other. But that was 0:10:02.840 --> 0:10:06.720 kind of the hit from the from the get, which 0:10:06.840 --> 0:10:09.480 was you could throw something at your little brother and 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:12.040 not get in trouble because it wouldn't hurt, it wouldn't 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:16.880 break a window, and they took it to basically everybody. 0:10:16.960 --> 0:10:19.960 I think Milton Bradley passed on it, Parker Brothers bit, 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:22.679 but they said, let's just do the ball, like, we 0:10:22.720 --> 0:10:25.000 don't need some dumb game around it. And that was 0:10:25.040 --> 0:10:26.920 the very first thing. It was a ball in a 0:10:26.960 --> 0:10:29.640 box and it was a Nerf ball, and off to 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:30.320 the races. 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:34.240 Yeah. The first ad copy said throw it indoors. You 0:10:34.280 --> 0:10:37.800 can't damage lamps or break windows, you can't hurt babies 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:38.720 or old people. 0:10:39.160 --> 0:10:40.720 Eeah, okay, that's very It got weird. 0:10:40.960 --> 0:10:43.720 And then on the package itself they called it the 0:10:43.760 --> 0:10:47.880 world's first indoor ball, and it took off like a rocket. 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:52.240 Yeah, like a Nerf rocket. This is nineteen sixty nine, 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:57.520 big success. Hard to get good numbers, like with a 0:10:57.520 --> 0:10:59.240 lot of products, it's really hard to get like great 0:10:59.320 --> 0:11:02.760 numbers sometimes. But I've seen anywhere from like three to 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:05.320 four million of those sold in that first year. 0:11:06.320 --> 0:11:11.920 It's astounding. Yeah, it's just a round Paula eurothane foam ball. 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:14.160 That's it. That's all to They just put it in 0:11:14.240 --> 0:11:17.120 a box with and made it pretty colors out of 0:11:17.160 --> 0:11:21.319 it and ragged on old people, right and babies. It 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:25.240 was a hit, So that's right. That was nineteen sixty nine, 0:11:25.280 --> 0:11:28.280 I think when the first NERF ball came out, So 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:32.320 they didn't actually start innovating themselves, I should say they 0:11:33.920 --> 0:11:36.560 they knew a good idea where they saw it, and 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:39.160 they saw it from a pair of guys, Fred Cox, 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:41.480 who was a place kicker for the Vikings, and a 0:11:41.520 --> 0:11:44.319 businessman named John Maddox, and they had a very good 0:11:44.360 --> 0:11:47.439 idea that took nerf into the next dimension. 0:11:47.640 --> 0:11:51.280 Yeah, this is pretty funny story actually, because John Maddox 0:11:51.760 --> 0:11:54.160 wanted to build a game, like a field goal kicking 0:11:54.200 --> 0:11:56.960 game where they had these little portable goalposts and you 0:11:57.000 --> 0:11:58.800 could go in the art and kick field goals just 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:02.600 like the pros do. And he went to Fred Cox, who, 0:12:02.640 --> 0:12:05.120 like you said, was a professional kicker for the Vikings, 0:12:05.480 --> 0:12:06.960 and he was like, here's what I want to do. 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:10.040 But here's the deal. Is like, this ball can't go 0:12:10.080 --> 0:12:13.480 too far because yards aren't huge, and so we should 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:16.040 make it like a medicine ball or something, but shaped 0:12:16.120 --> 0:12:19.320 like a football so they can't kick it very far. 0:12:19.800 --> 0:12:22.120 And fred Cox was like, that is not a good 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:26.480 idea kicking a big, heavy ball is really stupid and 0:12:26.520 --> 0:12:28.760 you could get injured very easily. He said, why don't 0:12:28.760 --> 0:12:31.760 you do something super super light and very low density 0:12:31.880 --> 0:12:34.520 and soft, so it doesn't matter if you can kick 0:12:34.559 --> 0:12:35.960 it far, it's not gonna hurt anything. 0:12:36.320 --> 0:12:38.720 Well, plus it won't go very far because it's foam. 0:12:39.000 --> 0:12:41.480 Yeah, I mean it would. I mean you can kick 0:12:41.520 --> 0:12:42.680 it in her football pretty well. 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:44.760 Okay, all right, calm down. 0:12:48.720 --> 0:12:51.640 I love it, he said, calm down when no one's 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:56.600 not calm. It's a good bit. Uh so, I don't 0:12:56.600 --> 0:12:58.120 even know where it was. Oh yeah, So he's like, 0:12:58.200 --> 0:13:03.640 let's do that. And so they created a mold injection 0:13:03.800 --> 0:13:06.880 mold in the shape of a football, filled it with foam, 0:13:07.280 --> 0:13:12.160 and they took it around and Parker Brothers again said, 0:13:12.720 --> 0:13:14.400 we don't need this dumb game. No one wants to 0:13:14.480 --> 0:13:16.720 kick field goals. It's like no one wants to be 0:13:16.720 --> 0:13:19.800 a kicker. That's really boring. Let's just sell the ball, 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:23.520 and they licensed it from them because they were trying 0:13:23.520 --> 0:13:25.520 to work on a football, but that heated wire cutting 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:28.120 thing couldn't make a good football. They had never thought 0:13:28.120 --> 0:13:31.840 of injection molding, so they said, great, we'll use your idea. 0:13:32.200 --> 0:13:35.680 And then in seventy two, the NERF football and NERF basketball. 0:13:35.920 --> 0:13:37.199 I had both of these. 0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:38.720 Very early in my life. 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:43.480 I probably had the maybe fourth generation of these, or 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:45.960 maybe first generation, but I got one in by the 0:13:45.960 --> 0:13:49.200 time I was probably four years old, and that was 0:13:49.240 --> 0:13:50.520 it for about two decades. 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:53.960 Yeah, you could say that there was also some pretty 0:13:54.120 --> 0:13:56.680 iconic stuff. It just wasn't as big as the NERF 0:13:56.720 --> 0:13:59.920 football or NERF ball. Like NERF tabletop pool remember that. 0:14:00.200 --> 0:14:03.160 Yeah, and I had like a ping pong I think. 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:07.120 Yeah. There was also the NERF boomerang. The three from 0:14:08.400 --> 0:14:11.200 that was NERF. Those things came out in the meantime, 0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:13.440 but Ed puts it like that, and I think some 0:14:13.480 --> 0:14:15.800 people would probably agree, like, yeah, they didn't have any 0:14:15.960 --> 0:14:19.680 massive mega hits, And even if they did, the point 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:24.400 is that in the nineties NERF got essentially completely reimagined 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:28.320 as a as a totally different toy company. And I think, Chuck, 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:30.000 if you ask me if I can toot my own 0:14:30.040 --> 0:14:33.560 horn a little bit here, that was a quality cliffhanger. 0:14:33.600 --> 0:14:35.680 I just set us up for beepp. 0:14:36.400 --> 0:14:39.880 Okay, so let's take a break and we'll be right back. 0:14:45.040 --> 0:15:07.360 Jogging job, all right, So you set the stage that 0:15:07.480 --> 0:15:12.080 NERF was about to rebrand, and they rebranded indeed in 0:15:12.120 --> 0:15:15.640 a big way, from a company that makes fun balls 0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:23.080 to a weapons manufacturer. Basically true, but there's a story 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:26.720 behind this. In nineteen eighty seven and NERF has bounced around, 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:30.240 they're sort of the stuff you should know of toys. 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:31.480 And I thought the same thing. 0:15:31.640 --> 0:15:35.440 They have been owned by virtually everyone, I think except 0:15:35.480 --> 0:15:39.040 for Parker Brothers or no, no, no, wait, they were owned 0:15:39.040 --> 0:15:39.800 by Parker Brothers. 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:41.400 Yeah, they weren't owned by Milton Bradley. 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:43.960 Milton Bradley, right, so they in eighty seven they were 0:15:43.960 --> 0:15:47.840 part of Kenner, part of General Milton Mills, the same 0:15:47.880 --> 0:15:51.960 as Parker Brothers. And I think then Kenner was purchased 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:56.240 by Tonka. In ninety one, has Bro bought Tonka. So 0:15:56.400 --> 0:16:00.240 NERF kind of endured through all those changes as we 0:16:01.200 --> 0:16:04.640 as NERF as Yeah, stayed NERF, just like we stayed 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:08.040 stuff you should know. And you know, at any point 0:16:08.120 --> 0:16:10.600 someone could have come along, one of our company owners 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:11.720 and said, let's change the name. 0:16:12.280 --> 0:16:15.880 Yeah you know, yep, I know for the host dangerous, 0:16:16.240 --> 0:16:18.240 it's a dangerous time for sure. 0:16:18.760 --> 0:16:22.080 But there's another toy company that plays in called Laramie 0:16:22.800 --> 0:16:27.640 and a gentleman that my daughter met recently. What I've 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:29.880 wanted to do it a full episode on Lonnie Johnson. 0:16:30.720 --> 0:16:33.640 But they did their first little you know how you 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:36.920 you do a little oral report. They did their first 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:40.200 ones in second grade during Black History Month and one 0:16:40.240 --> 0:16:43.600 of the kids' profile Lonnie Johnson. And he is still 0:16:43.640 --> 0:16:46.880 alive and is local. And they took Atlanta. Yeah, they 0:16:46.880 --> 0:16:48.760 took a field trip and met with Lonnie Johnson. 0:16:49.240 --> 0:16:52.200 That's awesome. So yeah, this guy is he's a bona 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:55.720 fide inventories in the Inventors Hall of Fame for a 0:16:55.800 --> 0:16:58.160 number of reasons. But his his whole thing that he's 0:16:58.200 --> 0:17:00.280 been trying to do all these decades is to come 0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:03.520 up with green energy solutions, long before anybody ever used 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:07.520 the word green to describe things like energy solutions. And 0:17:07.560 --> 0:17:09.679 in nineteen eighty two he was actually coming up with 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:12.760 a cooling device. I'm sure Ruby knows all about this, probably, 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:15.320 and the cooling device that he was going to use 0:17:15.480 --> 0:17:19.760 would replace the free on cooling device for a refrigerator, 0:17:19.880 --> 0:17:24.080 so get rid of free on. And there's something happened. 0:17:24.119 --> 0:17:30.200 There was a malfunction somehow and a really pressurized blast 0:17:30.200 --> 0:17:32.119 of water shot out of one of the tubes he 0:17:32.240 --> 0:17:36.320 was using, and rather than like kick over his equipment 0:17:36.400 --> 0:17:39.480 and like start shouting in the air, which is what 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:43.280 most people do, he saw a new opportunity. He was like, Hey, 0:17:43.640 --> 0:17:45.720 I just figured out a way to pressurize water really 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:48.359 easily and simply, and I'll bet you could make a 0:17:48.400 --> 0:17:49.919 really cool squirt gun out of that. 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:50.480 Yeah. 0:17:50.520 --> 0:17:53.439 Do you know what's funny is no one before Lonnie 0:17:53.480 --> 0:17:58.600 Johnson that ever saw a pressurized stream of water shoot anywhere. 0:17:59.359 --> 0:18:03.000 Thought kids love this, right, like it had happened before 0:18:03.040 --> 0:18:06.840 He's he didn't see the first stream of water being shot, 0:18:06.880 --> 0:18:09.439 but he was like, hey, man, that's like the coolest 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:10.160 squirt gun ever. 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:11.080 Yeah. 0:18:11.119 --> 0:18:13.080 So, I mean I think that's why, you know, someone 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:15.280 like Lonnie Johnson is a sort of genius and has 0:18:15.320 --> 0:18:18.640 like such an inventor's brain, right, they see the world 0:18:18.640 --> 0:18:20.080 differently exactly. 0:18:21.000 --> 0:18:23.680 And he he was like, I want to test my idea. 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:26.239 I'm going to build a prototype for my daughter and 0:18:26.320 --> 0:18:29.119 give it to her, set her loose on the neighborhood. Yeah, 0:18:29.160 --> 0:18:31.720 and I think she was. She just probably very quickly 0:18:31.760 --> 0:18:34.160 became the boss of the neighborhood right with her new 0:18:35.400 --> 0:18:38.080 what eventually we come to be called a super Soaker, 0:18:38.119 --> 0:18:39.840 but was originally a power Drencher. 0:18:40.400 --> 0:18:44.440 Yeah, so Laramie, this toy company I mentioned, they weren't 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:48.719 very big. They licensed his idea as the Power Drencher, 0:18:48.760 --> 0:18:51.800 like you said, was rebranded in ninety one as the 0:18:51.880 --> 0:18:56.439 super Soaker. And in the meantime we'll jump back to 0:18:56.560 --> 0:19:02.199 Nerf here. Between eighty seven and when the super Soaker 0:19:02.240 --> 0:19:08.959 comes along, they had started making weapons, things like, you know, 0:19:09.560 --> 0:19:11.879 a bow and arrow, like a NERF bow and arrow. 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:14.880 The very first thing they ever used and you can 0:19:14.960 --> 0:19:17.760 still buy these on eBay, was called the NERF blast 0:19:17.760 --> 0:19:19.120 a ball in nineteen eighty nine. 0:19:19.440 --> 0:19:20.480 It was like a pop gun. 0:19:20.760 --> 0:19:24.320 Yeah, It's just a tube with a handle and you 0:19:24.359 --> 0:19:27.400 could just pump a ball out, a little Nerf ball. 0:19:28.040 --> 0:19:29.960 And so they were getting into sort of the NERF 0:19:30.040 --> 0:19:34.439 gun business. But it was really when Super Soaker was 0:19:34.800 --> 0:19:37.840 purchased by Laramie, rather who owned the super Soaker was 0:19:37.840 --> 0:19:41.600 purchased by Hasbro, when those two worlds kind of all 0:19:41.600 --> 0:19:43.960 of a sudden, we're under the same roof. They said, 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:48.040 wait a minute, this whole idea of using pressure to 0:19:48.400 --> 0:19:52.520 increase force and range and accuracy with water, we can 0:19:52.640 --> 0:19:56.080 use with NERF as well, and then all of a sudden, 0:19:56.600 --> 0:19:59.280 the NERF gun they don't call them guns as a company, 0:19:59.320 --> 0:20:03.200 they call them blast. The NERF blaster became the new 0:20:03.240 --> 0:20:04.120 thing in a big way. 0:20:04.840 --> 0:20:07.880 Yeah, that's what NERF went all in on. The first 0:20:07.920 --> 0:20:12.199 thing they came out with was the Nerve sharpshooter, and 0:20:12.240 --> 0:20:14.880 that was actually powered by a spring, but it's still 0:20:14.920 --> 0:20:18.119 considered the first Nerve blaster. They also came up with 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:21.800 a bunch of other ways of shooting a foam missile 0:20:21.880 --> 0:20:25.680 or projectile out of a NERF gun, including Lonnie Johnson's 0:20:25.720 --> 0:20:32.080 way of compressing air and then releasing air forcefully. And 0:20:32.119 --> 0:20:35.520 that's it. Like the whole company just completely changed and 0:20:35.600 --> 0:20:38.800 became that because they got so popular so quickly. 0:20:39.320 --> 0:20:41.560 Yeah, and it kind of, you know, ed makes a 0:20:41.560 --> 0:20:43.520 good point. It kind of aligned with a bunch of things. 0:20:44.480 --> 0:20:48.200 It aligned with the nineties, which was you know, remember 0:20:48.240 --> 0:20:50.360 everything was just extreme back then. That was the big 0:20:50.400 --> 0:20:56.320