Entertech was a brand of battery-powered motorized

water gun A water gun (or water pistol, water blaster, or squirt gun) is a type of toy gun designed to shoot jets of water. Similar to water balloons, the primary purpose of the toy is to soak another person in a recreational game such as water fight. ...

s sold in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

from 1985 to 1990 by the now-defunct

LJN LJN Toys Ltd. was an American toy company and video game publisher based in New York City. Founded in 1970 by Jack Friedman, the company was acquired by MCA Inc. in 1985, sold to Acclaim Entertainment in 1990, and dissolved in 1994. The toy d ...

. Unlike the colorful designs of many of the simple hand powered pump water guns of that time, most of the Entertech water guns were manufactured from black plastics with a matte finish to resemble real firearms. Marketing materials and television spots tout, "The look! The feel! The sound! So real! Entertech!" These powerful water guns offered a breakthrough to an existing market of squirt guns that are mostly inexpensive clear-colored plastic, hand powered, with poor effective range. The Entertech line boasts realistic looks and water storage mostly in the form of detachable magazines like their real firearm counterparts. The motorized water pumps make noises that, though not realistic, add an extra level of sensation. All of the guns except the Enforcer shotgun model have a fully automatic rate of fire (approximately 60 rpm) and a 30-foot effective range.

Models

First generation

*Side Kick Pistol (product design based on the Colt

M1911 pistol The M1911 (Colt 1911 or Colt Government) is a single-action, recoil-operated, semi-automatic pistol chambered for the .45 ACP cartridge. The pistol's formal U.S. military designation as of 1940 was ''Automatic Pistol, Caliber .45, M1911'' for th ...

, it was connected via a vinyl tube enclosing a water feed tube and trigger actuation wires to a separate pack fashioned to look like an ammunition box that was slung over the user's shoulder which also held a 1-quart water supply) *M-16 (product design based on the Colt M655 Carbine) *R.P.G. Water Rocket Launcher (product design loosely based on the rocket propelled grenade launcher

RPG-7 The RPG-7 (russian: link=no, РПГ-7, Ручной Противотанковый Гранатомёт, Ruchnoy Protivotankoviy Granatomyot) is a portable, reusable, unguided, shoulder-launched, anti-tank, rocket-propelled grenade launcher. ...

) *AK Centerfire (a submachine gun with a number of design features from the Intratec TEC-22) *Double Clip Baretta (a submachine gun design loosely based on the FMK-3. It was also supplied with two magazines) *Water Laser (a futuristic looking laser gun with the same power and water delivery mechanism as the Side Kick Pistol, except with a 2-quart capacity and designed to be worn as a backpack) *Water Hawk (a large machine pistol based on the

Interdynamic AB Intratec was a firearm company based in Miami, Florida. The company's most famous product was the TEC-9. History Intratec began as Interdynamic USA, an offshoot of Swedish firearms manufacturer Interdynamic AB. As a result of the lack of a com ...

KG-9 The Intratec TEC-9, TEC-DC9, KG-99 and AB-10 are a line of blowback-operated semi-automatic pistols. They were developed by Intratec, an American subsidiary of the Swedish firearms manufacturer Interdynamic AB. Introduced in 1984, the TEC-9 was ...

) *Uzi Cap Repeater (This was the only item that was not a water gun. It was simply a cap gun designed to look like a

Micro Uzi The Uzi (; he, עוזי, Ūzi; officially cased as UZI) is a family of Israeli open-bolt, blowback-operated submachine guns and machine pistols first designed by Major Uziel "Uzi" Gal in the late 1940s, shortly after the establishment of the ...

Second generation

*Water Grenade Set (a portable water balloon filling device. The unit was designed to resemble a detonator device. It included 20 green water balloons designed to resemble pineapple style hand grenades) *Defender Shotgun (a pump-action shotgun with a detachable magazine for the water supply and powered by an air pressure discharge system similar to Larami Corporation's

Super Soaker Super Soaker is an American brand of recreational water gun that uses manually-pressurized air to shoot water with greater power, range, and accuracy than conventional squirt pistols. The Super Soaker was invented in 1989 by engineer Lonnie Joh ...

guns) *M-60 Rambo Edition (a re-branded M-16 with a box mag, folding bi-pod, a Rambo logo sticker on the gun, and a red Rambo headband. This product was released to promote '' Rambo: First Blood Part II''.) *R.P.G. Water Rocket Launcher Rambo Edition (same as above) *Baretta (a copy of the

Beretta 92 The Beretta 92 (also Beretta 96 and Beretta 98) is a series of semi-automatic pistols designed and manufactured by Beretta of Italy. The Beretta 92 was designed in 1975, and production began in 1976. Many variants in several different calibers co ...

pistol, released in stainless steel or all black versions) *The Saturator (a pump-action shotgun modeled after the

Pancor Jackhammer The Pancor Corporation Jackhammer is a 12-gauge, blow-forward gas-operated bullpup automatic shotgun designed in 1984 and patented in 1987. Only three working prototypes of the Jackhammer were built. Nonetheless, its distinctive aesthetics and futu ...

)

Similar products

* Photon: The Ultimate Game on Planet Earth: A home version of the Photon laser tag arenas *Gotcha! The Sport!: Non-motorized guns which fired ink-covered soft plastic pellets, a combination of

paintball Paintball is a competitive team shooting sport in which players eliminate opponents from play by hitting them with spherical dye-filled gelatin capsules called paintballs that break upon impact. Paintballs are usually shot using low-energy ai ...

and

airsoft Airsoft is a team game in which participants eliminate opposing players by tag (game), tagging them out of play with airsoft pellets, spherical plastic projectiles shot with mock air gun, air weapons(usually powered by an electronic motor) call ...

. The toys were released in conjunction with the video game '' Gotcha! The Sport!'', also by LJN.

Company closure

The end of Entertech's short-lived success was due in part to incidents in which law enforcement officers shot and killed children toting toy guns, claiming to have mistaken them for actual firearms. Toy guns were used in robberies of retail establishments and banks. Amid these highly publicized incidents, Entertech voluntarily began manufacturing guns with blaze orange-colored caps in 1987, and began a line of less-realistic neon-colored guns later that year. After

Acclaim Entertainment Acclaim Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game publisher based in Glen Cove, New York. Originally formed by Greg Fischbach, Robert Holmes and Jim Scoroposki out of an Oyster Bay storefront in 1987, the company established a worldwide d ...

purchased LJN in April 1990, it began phasing out toy manufacturing. Using LJN as a second brand to make video games instead of toys increased the quota of games Acclaim could produce for the

Nintendo Entertainment System The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in America ...

. In September 1990, Acclaim sold the Entertech brand for $1.7 million.

References