Saturday, January 25All That Matters

Who remembers Entertech? Can you imagine taking one of those to school today?

47 Comments

  • Friend got one. Neat concept but terrible water gun. Battery operated water pumps weren’t much even against finger pumps. Of course all water gun fights for us were an arms race that ended up front yard hose vs back yard hose.

  • I bought one of these at a toy store, somehow bypassing my parents. When my mom saw it she rightfully made me return it. Even in the 80s there was some concern that people would mistake it for a real gun. In 2023 playing with one of these would get you immediately shot.

  • I vividly remember these. They were game changers in being battery operated / automatic even if pretty low power.

    There was a 2-3 year span in the latter 80’s to the start of the 90’s where these were THE water gun to have at summer camp.

    But pretty soon after, the very first super soakers came out and really buried Entertech. Also, by that point – super soakers and many other copy carts all were made with a combo of different bright colors and a base body of white plastic and they all had a much more sci-fi-movie-laser-gun design to them.
    This was the real kickstart to the trend of many manufacturers of water/dart/ball shooting toy guns moving away from looking hyper realistic.

  • I vividly remember these. They were game changers in being battery operated / automatic even if pretty low power.

    There was a 2-3 year span in the latter 80’s to the start of the 90’s where these were THE water gun to have at summer camp.

    But pretty soon after, the very first super soakers came out and really buried Entertech. Also, by that point – super soakers and many other copy cats all were made with a combo of different bright colors and a base body of white plastic and they all had a much more sci-fi-movie-laser-gun design to them.
    This was the real kickstart to the trend of many manufacturers of water/dart/ball shooting toy guns moving away from looking hyper realistic.

  • Just being a kid running around your neighborhood playing cops & robbers with the other kids with one of these in todays age is enough to end badly….I see why they stopped making them.

  • I loved these as a kid.

    Not sure if it was the same brand, but I had an MP5 and UZI (with wire stock) fully auto. The magazines were the water reservoirs.

    Also had their 1911 and Sig P226 water pistols.

    My buddies and I were using them in a parking garage on a weekend, and the police showed up.

  • Larami, the company that made the Entertech guns, also first produced the Super Soakers (which are now made by Hasbro under their Nerf brand. About 2 years after the Entertech guns came out there was large blowback caused by their realistic look (there were some cases in which Entertech water guns were used in actual robberies. To self regulate Larami started to put orange caps on the gun barrels so that they could be identified as toy guns, then they started producing the Entertech guns in neon colors (a precursor to the Super Soakers). However once the Super Soakers started to become popular Larami just started to produce those and discontinued the Entertech line as it solved three issues that Larami was having with the Entertech guns: 1) The Super Soakers could not be confused for real guns, 2) They were cheaper to produce, and 3) they did not require batteries which was a hassle for parents

  • Im old enough to have taken actual guns to school and no one cared. It was for a speech class. Took them on the bus. I was also one of the kids people would assume to shoot up a school….not worth the ammo.

    This was also in a city that tops 300 murders a year.

  • 1985ish, I’m 11ish, My friend had 2 of the AK ones. We didn’t like the annoying neighbor kid. I still clearly remember this day; both of us going into the bathroom, pissing in all the mags. We went outside and immediately found Todd…. big lipped bowl cut Todd. Todd was a happy kid and talked a lot. Well, he walked up to us right away and we blasted him right in the mouth. He never knew but we really worked that mouth, it was disgusting and delightful. I’m no longer a mean kid. Todd’s a lawyer.

  • Yes, I’ve talked about them often. I had the uzi one and loved it except that it was hard to get the water out of the tiny hole in the “clip” if you just wanted to dump it.

  • So, funny story. I had the AK Centerfire that’s in this commercial. I also had divorced parents who lived in different states. Guess who packed their AK Centerfire in their carry-on bag for their flight to visit Dad? Me.

    I was oblivious to the implications of having a machine gun go through the airport x-ray machine. I’ll never forget the look on the screeners face when it went through the x-ray. Or my dad’s face when security surrounded us and they pulled it out of the bag.

  • I can still feel the vibrations in my hand. My parents wouldn’t but me one but my friends parents apparently bought a handful. This toy is probably why I own an AR15.

  • Why do I remember having something similar that mounted to the front of my tricycle? I vividly remember there being a thumb push to activate it as i chased my brother around and tried to spray him…

  • I had a dufflebag full of plastic toy guns as a kid in the 80s. Went out running around with guns strapped to my back on my bicycle. No one gave a shit.

    I got constantly bullied growing up and teased for my temper. I never went crazy.

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