Board Thread:General Nerf discussion/@comment-37595644-20190104104913/@comment-27306930-20190112183245

I can't speak intelligently about individual Super Soakers, but I know branding and marketing. And you're right, there has been a change in the theme and the branding since 2011, and frankly well before that. They went from being very simple, to fantasy/sci-fi, to a more tactical theme, then back to a more toy-like look. Just look at that Shot Blast. At first glance it looks like a dart blaster, well, except for all that water shooting out the barrel. But you get my point. I think Hasbro shakes up this line of blasters more because it's seasonal, the target market is younger, and smaller (not in size, in number).

If you look at it, most of North America is cold half the year. And Super Soakers just aren't practical indoors. Plus let's face it, adults don't like to get squirted with water. Sorry if that sounds like a stereotype, but we don't. So that leaves a very small target audience - young people, outside, in warm weather. As a result, you need to change the line every year because let's face it, how many Soakzookas are you really gonna buy before you head off to college or wherever young adults disappear to these days. Coachella ? New Zealand ? Burning Man ? I dunno.

The end result is they need to change the look frequently, and rotate the product line, and reintroduce updated versions of old blasters to appeal to their revolving door of customers. That might partially explain why dart blasters like the Retaliator have been on the shelf since 2012, and Super Soakers like the Scatter Blast have been rereleased three times since 2011. Just keepin' it fresh, I guess.