Larami

History

In 1947, David W. Ring and his brother founded Ring Brothers Toy Wholesale, selling toys to retailers out of the back of his car. Ring founded the Larami Corporation in 1959 after being introduced to toy imports during a trip to Japan earlier that year. Larami specialized in low-cost, low-quality licensed toys based on popular movies and television shows during the 1960s and 1970s, toy guns, and toy water guns. During the 1980s, Larami expanded its water gun line, licensing designs for a battery-operated water gun from inventor Alan Amron in 1984. By 1987, Alvin Davis and Myung Song had become co-owners of Larami.

At the 1989 North American International Toy Fair in New York City, Davis and Song met former Jet Propulsion Lab engineer Lonnie Johnson. After being impressed by his prototype of a pressurized water-air reservoir, Larami licensed his designs and developed the Power Drencher. In 1991, the Power Drencher line was relaunched as the Super Soaker. Talk To Me Products filed suit against Larami in 1993, alleging that the Super Soaker infringed on their 1978 patent for a battery-powered water gun. On March 11, 1993, Talk To Me Products' claims were dismissed, as their patent referred to a water gun "having a chamber therein". Instead, the Super Soaker had a detachable chamber at the top of the water gun.

Larami was acquired by Hasbro Inc in 1995. Hasbro continued to manufacture Super Soakers under the Larami name until 2002, when Hasbro began marketing the Super Soaker as part of the Nerf line.