Review: SuperSoaker Flashflood

Super Soaker Flash Flood. It's Awesome. Really.

The glory days of Super Soaker were in the mid 90's, where air pressure water blaster technology was at an all time high. From the original Super Soaker 50 to the awesome CPS 2000 (pint of water a second with extreme ranges and recoil!), water blasters had never seen such days. Then some thing happened; maybe it was a decline in sales due to global warming, or people just didn't like getting wet anymore, but water blasters went into hibernation and all that were available were stupid giant syringes that were as exciting as tofu.

And then the Flash Flood came out.. and water blasters had meaning again:)

Although it's been out for several years now, the Flash Flood is still available domestically and in my opinion is still the water blaster of choice, even compared to the new models on the market.

The Flashflood still uses the awesome CPS (constant pressure system) mechanism to pressurise the water in its underslung reservoir below the butt of the blaster. It's an unusual shape and size, but in my opinion feels nice in the hand- it's weighted well and you can wield it nicely with one hand. Of course you have to pump it up several times to get the pressure going, so I'm not sure dual wielding is really advised:) The pump sticks out of the bottom of the blaster and is relatively easy to use- you can pressurise the water with a good 8-10 pumps to be honest, but the manual advises more.

Being a CPS mechanism means the Flashflood’s stream is much stronger and thicker than regular non-CPS water blasters. It's range is fantastic, and there's a nice "kick" to the blaster when you fire it.

The reason why it's called "Flash Flood" is what makes this blaster so cool:) Other than it just being an all round great performer, a simple pull of the switch on top of the Flash Flood's barrel and so long as the reservoir is full and pressurised, you can launch the entire tank into an unsuspecting opponent's head (I did this on a goofy laughing 5 yo.. accidentally with his mother watching.. oops). Recoil is a definite and you'll crack yourself up laughing when you do this for the first time. It's great fun.

Ok, so the minuses- well, being a CPS blaster, and a mid-sized one at that, water capacity isn't great. Especially if you use the flashflood feature, you'll run out of water pretty fast. To refill, it uses the new sealed tops that don't require you to unscrew them to top up (which is great and all) but still leaves you open to attacks. (given I don't do water wars either, the scenarios where I get to use a water blaster is normally kinda.. impromptu.. so once i've emptied my tank into some unsuspecting person, I'm pretty much on the run there on)

I bought two of these from Toys R Us, and they range from anywhere between 20-70 dollars AUS. These haven't received the new NERF branding, so if you find them, they'll be old stock and I'd advise you to snap them up if you can. Once I got these, I was pretty much set and unless one day someone finds me some old school Super Soakers from the 90's (or a time machine), I know what i'll be packing every Summer:)

Usability: 7/10
Out of the box performance: 9/10
Cool factor: 9/10
Price point: 8/10 (if you can get them at the 30-40 dollar mark)