The Best Idea Yet - 🔫Super Soaker: Invented by a Rocket Scientist (Literally) | 27

Episode Date: April 15, 2025

Lonnie Johnson was already a brilliant Air Force engineer working on cutting edge, planet-saving inventions…when a surprise bathroom discovery (we’ve all been there) sparked an idea that changed water fights forever. This nuclear scientist's side hustle—a game-changing water gun prototype—would go on to reshape backyard battles and launch a billion-dollar toy sensation. But just like Lonnie when beat the odds as a Black student in Alabama’s segregated school system, his entrepreneurial era put him to the test. Hear how Lonnie had to navigate flaky investors—and go head-to-head with a corporate giant—on his way to splashy success. Along the way, we’ll get the secret sauce for turning side hustles into realities, learn a valuable business lesson from hockey legend Wayne Gretzky... and find out why the Super Soaker is the best idea yet.Be the first to know about Wondery’s newest podcasts, curated recommendations, and more! Sign up now at https://wondery.fm/wonderynewsletterFollow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting www.wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/ now. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to the best idea yet early and ad free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. I mean, there is nothing like taking the makeup off your face with a makeup remover, getting on the subway and then showing up to your real job. I think you're talking about Lower Manhattan. Yes. 2015. Classic.

When Nick and I were invited for our first TV interview appearance for our side hustle at the New York Stock Exchange. We're not talking about wearing makeup because we were like dancing in the middle of the night at some bar club situation. No, we had to put on makeup because we were going to talk about stocks before the stock market opened and then scamper across lower Manhattan to our day jobs as bankers because we had a side hustle outside of our day jobs at banks. Honestly, hugely risky move.

It was a hugely risky move. We did it anonymously because we thought we might get in trouble with our day jobs. We didn't tell anyone. But eventually we told our boss, they approved it, and eventually that side hustle, after six years of side hustling, became our full hustle. And then a few years after that, it became this podcast. If you have a side hustle, chances are your full hustle is not your dream job. No, we didn't love our day job working in finance, did we?

No, we didn't. We were job working in finance, did we? No, we didn't. We were both looking for something a little different. We way preferred waking up at 6 a.m., putting on some makeup, appearing on TV, and talking about stocks. And that's the thing about a side hustle, it is a hustle. It's a lot of work, because you're probably working a 40-hour a week job,

and then you're finding the energy and the motivation to do something either before or after that job in the early mornings or the evenings. We've seen every range of side hustles, but there is one side hustle that stands out among all the others. This is the story of how a side hustle turned into a hit toy phenomenon that revolutionized backyard water fights worldwide. A classic for ambushing your little sister on those long, hot, mid-August summer days. Bonus if you hit the sunburn. More refreshing than a dip in the pool, but way more powerful than your garden hose, this

is the Super Soaker. Just pump up our powerful air pressure system and you can soak someone up to 50 feet away. There is no better wrist workout than loading up a Super Soaker over there. Since it splashed down in 1990, the Super Soaker has pumped up its sales to over $1 billion. We're talking the first water gun unicorn. In the early 1990s, kids made do with feeble squirt guns, water balloons, and spit balls. But the Super Soaker was a total game changer.

And each new addition upped the stakes with more firepower. Sorry, water power. But the Super Soaker took way more engineering than your average toy. In fact, the Super Soaker was invented by a genius level nuclear engineer who launched NASA space probes. Oh, and he also helped the military keep their nukes from accidentally going boom. His name is Lonnie Johnson. And although his day job is working with rockets, NASA space probes. Oh, and he also helped the military keep their nukes from accidentally going boom. His name is Lonnie Johnson.

And although his day job was working with rockets, inventing the Super Soaker was his biggest challenge. He had to overcome a stream of business obstacles, including botched product launches, flaky investors, and a lawsuit that nearly cost him his home. He also had to beat the odds as a black student in Alabama's segregated school system in the 1960s. And while he hit the target to create one of the most iconic toys ever, it was all with the aim of funding

his more impactful inventions to help save the planet. To discover the true untold story of one of the best-selling toys of all time, we'll encounter a homemade robot and share the secret sauce for turning side hustle dreams into actual realities. And we'll learn how unstructured time isn't a waste, but part of a formula for greatness,

just like Wayne Gretzky taught us. Take no prisoners, Jack. Here is why this super soaker is the best idea yet. ["Wonder Woman"] From Wandery and T-Boy, I'm Nick Martell. And I'm Jack Kraviche Kramer. And this is the best idea yet. The untold origin stories of the products you're obsessed with.

And the bold risk takers who made them go viral. I got that feeling again. Something familiar but new. We got it coming to you. I got that feeling again. Been familiar but new, we got it coming to you I got that feeling again They changed the game in one move Here's how they broke all the rumors We'd like to thank our presenting sponsor, Amazon. Yeah, it is. Have you come up with your own best idea yet?

Well, you're going to need a notebook to write it down. And you can get that on Amazon. Does your idea involve pajamas, energy drinks, toilet paper? Jack, somehow I've used all those things in one single day. Save the everyday with deals from Amazon. The stage is set for a major competition at the hallowed home of the University of Alabama, Crimson Tide. But the squeaking of sneakers on the court and the crunch of bones on the gridiron have been replaced by beeps and clicks, whirs and bubbling sounds. The jocks are out and the nerds are in.

This is the 1968 Southeastern Junior Engineering Science Fair. First prize is up for grabs, but there's one entry that's an early favorite. Among the model rockets and electric motors, this project is in a universe of its own. Meet Linex, a three and a half foot tall robot that looks like a, I'm going to say startled trash can. All right, thanks to its round eyes and boxy body, it's a little freaky. This thing could be straight out of the low budget sci-fi movie, Jack.

To me, kinda looks like R2-D2 stunt dub. But Line-X is not a simple prop. This robot has a pair of spindly arms that can swivel at the shoulder, elbow, and wrist. And it can turn and move around on a set of wheels, all powered by compressed air and controlled with a wireless remote. Its creator is 18-year-old Lonnie Johnson,

and he's standing proudly next to Linux. He built this robot single-handedly over the course of a year. The robot can store, it can recall, it can repeat entire sequences of movements. And it's all thanks to a memory system that Lonnie built using his sister's tape recorder. And he controls it with his brother's walkie talkie. Forget science fair, Linex should be hidden away in some top secret government research lab over at Area 51.

What Lonnie's created is impressive. especially considering this is the 1960s. There's no Boston Robotics, no Chatchie BT, and no Roomba to clean up your spilled Cheerios. This is incredible. But there's one other thing that stands out about Lonnie. He's the only black student at this entire science fair. Right now, 1968, school segregation is only just coming to an end in this deep southern state. In fact, the former governor of Alabama, George Wallace, is running for president and he built a reputation as the most pro segregation politician in the country. He actually even tried to stop black students enrolling at the same university that is hosting this exact science fair.

Lonnie has fought hard not to let the pervasive racism hold him back. But it's been tough. One teacher at his all-black high school even told him his dreams of becoming an inventor weren't realistic because of his skin color. They suggested he figure out a more standard occupation and ditch the science dream. As for the staff at the University of Alabama, they aren't going out of their way to make Lonnie feel welcome either. So no one is holding the door open for Lonnie as he wheels in his hobbit-sized homemade robot. But luckily for Lonnie feel welcome either. So no one is holding the door open for Lonnie as he wheels in his hobbit-sized homemade robot. But luckily for Lonnie, the judging panel is not made up of university faculty. Instead, it's business leaders. These judges recognize genius when they see it, and they award Lonnie first prize. He wins the entire thing. For Lonnie, this is not just a

technical achievement, this is a moral victory because Lonnie knows he's the only black kid in this room. And he knows that he's showing black kids have just as much right and talent to be there. That homemade robot wasn't some one-off stroke of genius. Lonnie has been building, experimenting, and inventing his whole life. His childhood friends actually gave him the nickname

Professor, he's the original Data from the Goonies. And his parents are very encouraging of this, which is saying a lot, because having a teenage experiment loving professor under the roof, that can be a challenge and a risk to the house. Yeah, Jack, did you see that? Lonnie nearly set his parents kitchen on fire

because he was, you know, mixing rocket fuel on the stovetop. But rather than taking away his screen time, Lonnie's dad set up an outdoor stove so Lonnie could carry on making explosives outside the confines of the house with the flammable curtains and the shag carpet. So Lonnie's folks get credit for an assist here. They totally deserve it, man. They nurtured his instinct for innovation even if it almost cost them their kitchen. Well soon after that science fair victory, Lonnie earns a combined math and Air Force

scholarship to Tuskegee University, the prestigious historically black university in Alabama. He earns a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and then a master's degree in nuclear engineering. And after graduating in 1975, Lonnie's childhood rocket experiments give way to something way bigger. He goes from tinkering in his backyard to launching real life space missions. But this is just the beginning. Six, five, four, three, two.

We have liftoff. At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, the countdown clock reaches zero and a towering rocket bursts to life. It's August 1977 and the Voyager space probe is about to start its mission to chart the outer solar system and beyond. But back down on Earth, Lonnie Johnson probe is about to start its mission to chart the outer solar system and beyond. But back down on Earth, Lonnie Johnson is one of the thousands of people watching the launch. However, he's not just a spectator. As part of his job with the Air Force, Lonnie's been helping NASA perform a risk analysis for the launch because the Voyager probe is powered by

plutonium. Now, just in case you don't have your periodic table of elements handy, Jack, that's pretty serious stuff, isn't it? I'm pretty sure you can't just go buy some plutonium. You don't want to drop it. Let's put it that way. And if something goes wrong with that rocket, it could mean a deadly radioactive firework display for the world to see.

This is a high stakes, stress-inducing job. But it's exactly the type of challenge that Lonnie thrives on, and he wants more of that kind of challenge. So, as Lonnie watches the rocket clear the launch tower and speed off into the cosmos, Lonnie makes a decision. It's time to apply for a role at NASA. And in 1979, he's appointed to the space agency's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California, where he works on the Galileo and Cassini probes that give humankind a close-up look

at Jupiter and Saturn. So Lonnie is fully focused on launching giant metal tubes up into the heavens, but he's also finding the time to continue tinkering with his own inventions at home, late into the night, just like he did in high school with Linex. And this is key. It's a trait that will change Lonnie's entire life, even though he doesn't know it yet. One of his projects is a new refrigeration system with a huge environmental benefit. It uses water instead of CFCs. These are the chemicals that punched a hole in the ozone layer, but this is the early 80s before most people have even heard of the ozone layer, let alone

the fact that it's getting torn apart by the chemicals in their appliances. So what we're saying here is that Lonnie is way ahead of the curve with his side hustle invention. But this futuristic fridge isn't just some side gig. It's about to give Lonnie the idea for one of the most popular kids toys of all time. It's 1982. Lonnie's at home working on this invention. He's not in his workshop. He's not in his backyard. He's actually in his bathroom. You see, Lonnie's prototype refrigeration system, it needs a constant supply of water.

So Lonnie's got hoses attached to the faucets, snaking around the floor and piping water into his invention. He's checking the pressure valves, fiddling with valves, when suddenly a jet of high pressure water explodes across the room and soaks Lonnie head to toe. Would it be premature to call that a super soaking? I see what you did there, Jack. I like it. But hold on a sec. Okay, standing by. The floor is drenched. The toilet paper?

It's socky beyond saving. We're gonna need a new roll. And he's gonna also need like 14 rolls of downy just to clean up this whole wet mess. This is when most people let out a sigh or a huge swear or go and grab a mop. But not Lonnie. Because this is his eureka moment. That was awesome. Lonnie whispers as water drips from his lab coat. His mind drifts back to his childhood,

to epic neighborhood water fights, coming home with a soggy drenched shirt in the hot Alabama sun. And that's when the question hits him. What if I can harness this epic drenching moment in a toy? Here's a NASA engineer working on a hugely complex and important invention, a new type of fridge that could help save the planet.

But this thought stops him in his tracks. Kids love water guns. This is the kind of playful mindset that has always made Lonnie Johnson stand out. Lonnie is solving big, world-changing problems, yet he's still willing to chase other ideas that pop into his head just for the fun of it. That balance between scientific innovation and childlike creativity, it's the source of so many breakthroughs.

So Lonnie closes his eyes and pictures himself as a 10-year-old. And he asks, what would be my fantasy water weapon? Because although water guns exist, honestly, they're mostly cheap plastic squirt pistols. They barely hold enough for a spritz, they're always leaking, and they pretty much have zero range. Inspired, Lonnie trudges out of the soak bathroom and gets to work immediately on this next generation water gun. That pressure system he was experimenting with for the fridge?

Just a few tweaks and it can become the ultimate water gun. Alright, so Jack, here's what Lonnie does next. He writes down some principles and standards for this new toy. First, it's got to be able to hold a large amount of water. Second, robust enough to handle the high pressure. And finally, this needs to be something the kid can easily hold. So he devises a simple but clever mechanism to make this transformation complete. A long plastic cylinder holds the water while a sliding handle lets you pump air into a second

chamber. Pulling the trigger opens a seal and the pressurized air forces the water out. The result, Jack? A powerful stream that would impress a firefighter. Lonnie builds a few prototypes out of PVC pipe, scotch tape, and an empty two-liter soda bottle. He's going full MacGyver on this thing, and pretty soon he's using it to shoot water nearly 40 feet. And he calls this new creation the Power Drencher. Pretty soon Lonnie decides it is time for a field test. So he gives this prototype to a seven-year-old daughter to try out. She fills it up with a hose, pumps the handle three times, and then lets it rip. She actually brings it out to a neighborhood water fight

and basically sends all the eight-year-olds home crying. Soon after that, all her friends are clamoring for one of these freaky new power drenchers of their own. And looking at his daughter's drenched t-shirt and huge smiling face, Lonnie knows he's onto something. At this point, Lonnie's industrial strength water cannon isn't the only idea he has in the hopper. True to his nature, Lonnie's got at least five side projects

going at once. This guy's got more side hustles than Dolly Parton. Now, some of these have the potential to change the world, like that chemical waste free fridge we mentioned. Others, not so much. Jack, did you see that Lonnie also invented an electronic diaper sensor that tells you when it's time

to change your baby's diapers. Yeah, nature already gave us one of those. It's called the nose. Well, Lottie, he knows his time is limited. His job at NASA, it's only getting more demanding and his family, they're growing too. He can't do it all. So he looks in the mirror and makes the difficult decision to put all of his side projects on the shelf and just focus on the Power Drencher. Toys are relatively simple. They can go from concept to market much faster than something like a revolutionary new refrigeration system. Exactly. And Lonnie's thinking, hey, the Power Drencher, it's got the best shot at rapid development and rapid return on investment.

If this moonshot works out, he can use the cash to fund his more complex projects. Honestly, he's thinking like an entrepreneur and a venture capitalist at the same time. Because when you're juggling multiple ideas, prioritizing the ones with fast development, that makes so much sense. So Blahnie is doing these expected return calculations in his head. He figures, you know what, if I really want to change the world through my inventions, then this power drencher is the best place to start. And the time is now.

And at this point, he's back at the Air Force. His job is about as high stakes as it gets because he's a key player in keeping America's nuclear deterrent working. He's helping keep the nukes from inadvertently blowing up in the skies, the silos, and the subs. All this protecting the world from nuclear annihilation doesn't leave him much time for his side projects. But Lonnie snatches his few spare moments to keep working on the power trencher. Now, he'd initially hoped to make it himself, but then he realized the cost was way more than he bargained for. Get this, Jack. $200,000 to make the first batch

of 1,000 power drenchers. He doesn't have that kind of money. So Lonnie starts pitching to investors. And when one investment firm shows some interest, Lonnie decides, hey, it's time to bet on himself and make the jump to become a full-time entrepreneur. Lonnie puts in his six-month notice at the Air Force, and he's off.

Six months notice? Yeah, six months. I guess there's a lot of handoff involved in nuclear weapons. Yeah, the passwords are on the post-it note on the wall, keep the keys on you at all times, and oh yeah, whatever you do, do not, do not press the big red button. As Lonnie's last day on the job approaches in 1987, those investors he was talking with go dark. Lonnie gets anxious. Picture this. He's about to be out of work, out of paychecks, and he's counting on those investors to get this cash infusion. He's also got a mortgage to pay. He's got a family to feed. And these investors have ghosted him for weeks. But then, then he finally gets the call. One of the investors, they're still in, and Lonnie breathes a huge sigh of relief.

But what the investor says next puts a nut in Lonnie's tummy. They're still in, but they just need Lonnie to wire them $8,000 as a fee so they can release the funds. Lonnie's not buying this story. This feels like a red flag, Jack. It sounds like a scam.

So he tells the investor where to go and then slams the phone down. Yeah. But a second later, reality hits hard. Lonnie has no job. He's already in the process of selling his home in LA. And when he tries to back out of that sale, the buyer sues.

Lonnie has an amazing idea for a product, but doesn't have the money needed to launch it or to protect his family. He's out of work, soon to be out of a home and the power drencher? The idea that he thinks is his best hope for wealth and success? It's still just a homemade prototype toy his daughter plays with on weekends. Yeah, it is. This episode is brought to you by our presenting sponsor, Amazon. On this show, we glorify risk takers who had an idea and pursued it relentlessly. They brought their best idea yet into reality.

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Save the everyday with deals from Amazon. on. In a sun-dappled meadow on a clear summer's day, a young boy runs through the short grass, a broad grin across his face. Above his head, he holds a toy glider, its five-foot wingspan casting a shadow across his path. From out its tail, a light mist of water sprays into the air. In a moment, that water will be propelling this glider off into the distance. This is the Jammin' Jets glider. And that water streaming out of the back of it should be a

giveaway. Lonnie Johnson designed it. Those Jammin' Jets are using the same principle as the power drencher, but instead of soaking, they're flying. It's 1988, just a year after Lonnie was facing financial ruin after some sketchy investors ghosted him. But he's bounced back. He's actually managed to land a position back at NASA, working on more cool space missions, sending hunks of metal up into the galaxy. And then he came up with the concept called the Jammin' Jet, and he sold that to a toy company called Entertech.

Lonnie just side hustled a different toy, nailed an exit, and still kept his full-time job at NASA. And he did all of that in one year. Get this man another science award. Totally. Sure, it's not the power ginger, but the Jammin' Jets uses the same power principle he pioneered for the high pressure water gun.

And if it sells well, then Lonnie can start focusing on his other passion projects. Before you celebrate quite yet, our little scene in that meadow, it isn't quite over. The boy lets go of that glider and skids to a stop. He looks up, wide-eyed and hopeful. He's expecting to see his new toy soar majestically through the air driven by its water-powered engine. But after a few moments the glider starts to wobble and then suddenly it flips into a nosedive and drives itself into the side of the hill splintering into pieces. The boy's grin falls away as shattered as his broken toy. Thousands of other kids have a similar experience with the Jammin' Jet, but it's not Lonnie's fault.

In fact, his original designs were literally too good. The glider stayed in the air so long that Entertech was worried that kids would lose them in like the neighbor's backyard and complain. Mom, my Jammin' Jet just crossed Lake Michigan. A jet that soars is great if you got a wide open field. Totally.

But this company wants any kid with a backyard to be able to play with it and not worry about losing it. So the company insists on modifying Lonnie's design. They tilt the tail to an angle so the plane goes around in circles instead of just soaring the straight line. Lonnie, he does not like this tweak one bit, but Entertech, they own Jammin' Jets now.

And they're basically saying, hey, this ain't rocket science to an actual rocket scientist. So they make 60,000 of these modified Jammin' Jets. And Jack, do you want to share how that turned out? Not good. Not good at all. That change they made to the tail means the gliders love to flip right over and tailspin into the ground. And because they have a jet stream of water blasting out the back, they crash hard.

Most of the 60,000 Jammin' Jets end up as one-flight wonders. Maybe Intertech should have just listened to Lonnie. But this is what happens when you sell a company. You no longer have set. It's the classic inventor's dilemma. Once you hand over control, you're stuck watching as others make decisions about your baby. Sometimes good, sometimes disastrous. So, after the Jammin' Jets failure, Lonnie turns his attention back to the power drencher.

He still thinks it's got the biggest potential for a nice payday, so he can finally invest in the other dozen ideas that have been flying around his head. And in 1989, Lonnie lands a pitch with a toy company called Laramie. They're known for sucking versions of popular products by Hasbro and Mattel. Basically, copycats. Target sells Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Laramie's got pubescent, miscreant Jujitsu tortoises.

They're basically dropping dupes like Teemo. But Lonnie doesn't care. He wants this deal. He wants it badly. So Lonnie is standing at the front of the room, explaining what this new contraption that he's invented from scratch actually does. So one of the Laramie execs cuts to the chase

and asks the most important question. Does it work? Lonnie, he smiles. And he picks up the power drencher, pumps up the pressure, and shoots the exec's coffee cup cleaning off the conference table. What a legend. Legend.

They make Lonnie an offer on the spot. $30,000 cash plus a cut of every Power Drencher sale. Get this guy in Shark Tank. So finally, after seven years of development hell, the Power Drencher has a manufacturer, a distributor, and a marketer. It's locked, loaded, and ready to hit the shelves. In 1990, Laramie releases the Power Drencher. And how does it do, Jack?

Just okay. Yeah. The problem here, it isn't that kids don't like it. The problem actually is, the kids just don't know it exists. There's no TV campaign. There's no radio ads. There's no splashy signs in toy stores with a price tag of 10 bucks or about 25 bucks today. Retailers think it's just too expensive and they don't even bother stocking it. No shelf space means no chance for kids to spot a drencher on display and then no chance for them to pester their parents to buy them one.

For Lonnie, it's starting to look like the Jammin' Jets fiasco all over again. He's made another killer toy only for it to take a nosedive through no fault of his own. But while the Jammin' Jets maker bailed at the first sign of a problem, Laramie sticks with Lonnie and sticks with his invention. They come up with a new name, and a year after the brand makeover, they put out a TV commercial that could change Lonnie's life. They're gonna take one more shot. Crouching behind a garden hedge, five kids hold their breaths. They've got dirt smeared on their faces and branches sticking out of their waistbands.

It's suburban camo. Each of them is clutching a brand new, neon-colored, fully loaded super soaker. One of them signals to the others to be quiet. Their targets are in sight. Three unsuspecting friends come cruising around the corner on their BMX bikes. Suddenly, the little rambos leap out of their hiding spot and let loose. The bikers don't know what's hit them. But as they make a hasty retreat, they do know that one thing is certain.

They need to get their hands on guns like these because it's summer 1991, the season of the Super Soaker has arrived. Thanks to the ads and the new name, Let's Be On a Super Soaker, way better than Power Trench or Sales Take Off. And unlike the Jammin' Jet, they stay up. In fact, Super Soaker sells two million guns that first year.

In 1990, sales of toy guns, including water guns, totaled $89 million. But a year later, the entire toy gun market size tripled to $232 million, all driven by the new Super Soaker. By year two, it's hockey stick growth. Super Soaker is going Gretzky. Lonnie's persistence finally pays off by sticking to his guns. The Super Soaker becomes the profit puppy he always dreamed of. Each Super Soaker sold is another royalty check that's coming his way.

So, is it time for him to finally take his cash and retire? Enjoy all the free time in the world to tinker on his other projects, Nick? Not quite, Jack. Lonnie actually can't stop thinking about this hit toy water gun. He can't resist working on some new, improved Super Soaker designs. And he actually sketches out a model with a water tank that you can wear like a backpack, great for ammo, terrible for mobility. But who needs logic when you're the first kid to get their hands on the newest super soaker? By 1995, super soakers are still an unstoppable force financially and culturally, turning ordinary afternoons

into epic water wars. And amid all that aquatic entertainment, toy giant Hasbro sees an opportunity. Hasbro is a $4 billion company at the time, and they own some of the top IP and toys, from G.I. Joe to the Transformers to My Little Pony. But their portfolio, it's pretty limited to inside toys, the kind of toys your parents make you leave inside the house. So to take on Mattel,

Hasbro wants to make a play for your backyard, and they decide to make the biggest toy deal of the mid-90s and acquire Laramie for $100 million. In a single purchase, Hasbro gets a 90% share of the water gun market. Wow. If matter, they get to keep Lonnie on board to continue innovating. They probably give him a title like EVP of Super Soaking. Call the SEC.

Hasbro's got a water gun monopoly and they've got the God of Water War. Yeah. Now most founders, they'd be kicking it in Cava by now, down in daiquiris with their big water gun exit checks. But Lonnie, he proves that there is still plenty more water left in his tank. He keeps on creating.

Lonnie's next innovation, it's the CPS Super Soaker. CPS, by the way, stands for Constant Pressure System. That means you don't have to pump. It's like a machine gun of water gun. It's a total automatic situation jack. But his acquisition also fits with a new strategy Hasbro is also rolling out at the time. Evergreen toys. Games that aren't one-off, but games that they can iterate on with updates and new versions year after year after year. A couple years earlier, Hasbro actually bought Monopoly, the board game, for the same reason. They're launching new versions every year, just like a car company does. And Lonnie is Super Soaker's one-man R&D team,

launching new versions for each summer season. And those annual updates give a reason to own not just a water gun, but a water gun collection. He's turned buyers into collectors. In business, Jack and I like to call these repeat rabbits, people who keep coming back and back and back. And in fact, the first CPS Super Soaker, the CPS 2000 Mark I, it is so powerful, it comes with a warning to avoid aiming at people's faces. Rumors fly around schoolyards that some kid lost an eye to one of these things.

Our incredible team of fact checkers couldn't confirm that incident, Nick. That's true. And the jury's also still out if mixing Pop Rocks and soda will make your stomach explode, or if swinging over the top bar of the swing set turns your skin inside out. Also unconfirmed. But either way, the rumors are helping drive Super Soaker sales even further as the number one brand in the market.

Out of all the businesses we've ever covered, this is one of the best cases we've seen of an acquisition working out really well. And a company that acquired it really developing the IP. Because Hasbro also owns another iconic line of toy guns, Nerf. And soon Lonnie works out how to adapt the Super Soaker's pressure system to shoot Nerf darts.

He even gets his own line of Nerf guns named Endstrike, and together with the Super Soaker, Lonnie's inventions account for 80% of the entire toy gun market. Four out of five toy guns sold was created by Lonnie. Lonnie's dedication to building bigger and better Super Soakers is great news for kids. It's also why nowadays grown-up millennials scour eBay looking to buy a splash of nostalgia and snap up their favorite Super Soaker models from their childhood.

Okay, Jack, I didn't tell you this yet, but I'm on eBay right now. I'm looking at a Super Soaker 50 by Laramie. Get this, vintage. Laramie, that's pre-Hasbro acquisition. 1990, you want to know the price of this thing? 250 bucks. Wow. If you bought one and kept it in the box, honestly, it's your best investment. It's outperforming the S&P 500. it in the box, honestly, it's your best investment. It's outperforming the S&P 500. Lonnie has turned his childhood fascination with invention into one of the most iconic toys of all time. And with the royalties from the Super Soaker and its spin-offs, Lonnie's finally ready to fund his real passion projects. But when Lonnie compares his bank balance to the Super Soaker sales figures, something doesn't add up. Yeah, because the sales are really strong. The toys are just flying off the shelves and kids

are drenching each other every summer. But the royalties filtering through to Lonnie are short, like over $70 million short. Lonnie is a math whiz, but just in case you miss something, he double checks and then checks again. He concludes there is only one possibility. Hasbro has been shortchanging him for years. Yeah, Jack, this is more than a rounding error. It's a multi-million dollar mistake. Or worse, it's deliberate. Hasbro is withholding Lonnie's well-earned compensation for the invention he spent the last couple decades perfecting. spent the last couple decades perfect.

We bet you didn't know. Our new quieter trains are great for listening to that self-help podcast you lied about actually listening to. Get on board. Via Rail, love the way. So Jack, what does an engineer do when he realizes a billion dollar company has been underpaying him for years? He constructs a legal case just like one of his inventions, piece by piece by piece. In 2013, Lonnie Johnson sues Hasbro.

He's got proof they've been skirting their agreement. And not just that, Hasbro has also been underpaying him on his other big toy invention, Nerf's End Strike line. And you know what? Lonnie fights, and Lonnie actually wins a $72.9 million settlement. Not too shabby. Hasbro has to keep paying Lonnie royalties, but the thought of continuing to work for Hasbro after they kind of screwed him, it makes Lonnie wins. Yeah. He realizes now is finally the right time to ditch super soaking and dedicate himself

to his other projects, the ones that matter to him most. Clean energy and advanced battery technology. Innovations that could actually change the world, not just change playtime. And that is why today, instead of designing the next generation Super Soaker collab with Capri Sun, Lonnie Johnson is working on inventions that could power the future. He establishes Johnson Research and Development, a company in Atlanta with around 30 staff working on big moonshot projects. The company is still working on a number of Lonnie's ideas today, including a high-range battery for electric vehicles. Okay, I'd be interested in that. And a way to extract fresh drinking water from

the atmosphere by condensing humidity. But that's not all, because Lonnie wants to pay his good fortune forward to future engineers and future scientists. So Lonnie establishes the Johnson STEM activity center to offer mentorship and inspiration to the next generation of innovators. Because Lonnie knows, thinking back to that very first science fair, the value of encouraging kids to be curious, even if they blow up a few kitchens along the way. Whereas Lonnie himself put it. even if they blow up a few kitchens along the way. Whereas Lonnie himself put it, The desire for success becomes a habit. And that's kind of the habit you want in stealing kids

the desire to get them to experience success to the point where they enjoy the success and they want to have more. As for the Super Soaker, Hasbro merged them into the Nerf product line, although the name still lives on as a subred. There are also Super soakers that depart totally from Lonnie's original design. They now have slingshots, rocket launcher sprinklers,

and even dog toys. If getting shot with a squirt gun is annoying, getting blasted by a super soaker will make you laugh and wish that you had one, just like that day in the bathroom when Lonnie first got super soaked. So Nick, now that you've toweled yourself off, changed into something dry and reloaded your weapon with the garden hose again, what's your takeaway on the super soaker? The Wayne Gretzky play principle. Unstructured time can lead to structured greatness. Wayne Gretzky, greatest hockey player of all time. I know, Sydney Crosby, sorry, it's Gretzky. Wayne Gretzky, greatest hockey player of all time. I know, Sidney Crosby, sorry, it's Gretzky. Wayne credits his skills to the unstructured time

he was afforded as a kid when he would just skate around on his own after school. In the backyard ice skating rink that his parents built for him. Yeah, exactly. Now today, kids' schedules are packed. You go from soccer to baseball to theater camp. But Wayne had the opposite.

It was unstructured time. He could explore the ice on his own, fool around with the puck, and that's why he became so great. We saw the same thing with Lonnie. As fathers and former side hustlers, we can relate to his 5 a.m. and 6 p.m. tinkering time because it allowed himself to explore new ideas without any schedule in his own house, in the basement, and in the bathroom. Unstructured time. Having that space to create, to tinker, to test. Yeah, it can take longer, even years, to achieve your goal.

But Wayne Gretzky, and Lonnie Johnson, and their parents, knew the value of not scheduling and structuring everything. Creation is art, and art requires space. MVP takeaway, inspired by MVP hockey.. Now Jack, what about you? You've toweled off as well. What's your takeaway? If you're side hustling, money shouldn't be the only goal. Oh, totally.

I know what you're getting at here. The reality is that most side hustles and most startups fail with the money you invested not generating a positive return. It's just the numbers. For our side hustle, the money didn't really come until six years in. That's why it was key for us that we found other forms of value from our side hustle besides making money. Right, like our side hustle actually made us better at our day job.

And it made us feel proud of what we were creating between our friends and then other people hearing about it. And it kept growing and growing and growing. And this part is key. If our project failed and we had to shut it down, it would have been a great story we could have told in a job interview someday. Totally. So Lonnie's side hustle business was a huge financial win. He sold his super sucker idea and got a revenue share deal that funded his other projects. But even he didn't do it just to make money. He did it to have fun and to try to change the world.

So besties, to hedge your side hustle bet, you should also have other goals beyond making a bunch of money. That way, if you do have to shut it down, change it, pivot the business someday, you still have your own narrative of success. All right, Nicholas, before we go, it's time for my absolute favorite part of the show,

the best facts yet. These are the hero stats, the facts, and the surprises we've discovered in our research and couldn't fit into the story, so we're giving them to you now. First, the world's largest super soaker. It is seven feet long, four feet high, and fires water at, get this, 272 miles per hour. Not a kid's play toy. No, eight times the pressure of a fire truck hose. It was built by a YouTube star and former NASA engineer, Mark Rober.

And like Lonnie, Mark uses his love of engineering to inspire kids to get excited about science and invention. Now, Jack, we should probably mention our supporting actor in this story, Nerf. The Nerf brand first hit the market back in 1969 as an indoor sports ball and was sold by a games company called Parker Brothers, who you might remember from our Monopoly episode.

Well, Parker Brothers took the name Nerf from the foam padded roll bars that you find on Jeeps, which were nicknamed, ready for this, Jack? Nerf bars. Here's another one. In 2015, the Super Soaker was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame. It's about time.

The first sentence didn't mention Laramie or Hasbro. It did mention, and I quote, Dr. Lonnie Johnson, a Tuskegee Institute-trained mechanical and nuclear engineer, was working on NASA's Galileo mission to Jupiter when he invented the Super Soaker. Speaking of which, Jerrick, I just got an update from eBay and um, looks like there's a 1990 vintage model that's going for $10,000. Seriously, no joke. And that, my friends, is why the Super Soaker

is the best idea yet. friends is why the super soaker is the best idea yet. Coming up on the next episode of the best idea yet, Leonardo, Rafael, Michelangelo, and Donatello will be hanging out in the sewers, eating some slices and taking life lessons from a rat with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cowabunga. If you've got a product you're obsessed with, but wish you knew its backstory, drop us a comment right here and we'll look into it for you. Oh, and don't forget to rate and review the podcast. That's how we grow the show.

Follow the best idea yet on the Wondery app, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to every episode of the best idea yet early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey. The best idea yet is a production of Wondery hosted by me, Nick Martel and me, Jack Kraviche Kramer. Our senior producers are Matt Beagle and Chris Gaultier. Peter Arcuni is our additional senior producer. Our senior managing producer is Nick Ryan and Taylor Sniffin is our managing producer.

Our associate producer and researcher is H. Conley. This episode was written and produced by Adam Skuse. We use many sources in our research, including Lonnie Johnson, father of the super soaker by William Kramer of the BBC and an interview with Lonnie Johnson by Brandi Harvey of the Vault Empowers podcast. Sound design and mixing by Kelly Kramarik. Fact checking by Erica Janek. Music supervision by Scott Velazquez and Jolina Garcia for Freesan Sync. Our theme song is Got That Feeling Again by Black Alack.

Executive producers for Nick and Jack Studios are me, Nick Martel. And me, Jack Ravici-Cramer. Executive producers for Wondery are Dave Easton, Jenny Lauer Beckman, Erin O'Flaherty, and Marshall Louie. Wondery. Everyone has that friend who seems kind of perfect. For Patty, that friend was Desiree. Until one day...

I texted her and she was not getting the text. So I went to Instagram and she has no Instagram anymore. And Facebook, no Facebook anymore. Desiree was gone. And there was one person who knew the answer. I am a spiritual person, a magical person, a witch. A gorgeous Brazilian influencer called Cat Torres, but who was hiding a secret. From Wandery, based on my smash hit podcast from Brazil, comes a new series, Don't Cross Cat, about a search that led me to a mystery in

a Texas suburb. I'm calling to check on the two missing Brazilian girls. Maybe get some undercover crew there. The family are freaking out. They are lost. I'm Chico Felitti. You can listen to Don't Cross Cat on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.