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Larami

{{Short description|American Toy Company}}

{{Infobox company

|name = Larami Corp.

|logo =

|type = Subsidiary

|genre =

|foundation = 1959

|founder = David W. Ring

|defunct = 2002

|location =

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|origins =

|key_people =

|area_served =

|industry = Toys

|products = Water guns, action figures

|services =

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|num_employees =

|parent = Hasbro

|divisions =

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|footnotes =

|successor = Nerf

}}

The Larami Corporation was a toy company established by David W. Ring in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1959.{{cite web |last1=PSU Administration |title=David W.Ring Family Scholarship created to help entrepreneurship students |url=https://www.psu.edu/news/administration/story/david-w-ring-family-scholarship-created-help-entrepreneurship-students/ |website=Penn State University |access-date=24 January 2022 |language=en}} It produced licensed toys based on movies and television shows. Often low-quality, these were manufactured in Hong Kong and Japan for sale on grocery store toy aisle racks for under a dollar.

By the 1980s, Larami had a growing water gun product line, and launched the Super Soaker brand in 1991. In 1995, it was acquired by Hasbro Inc, which renamed it Larami Inc. before retiring it in 2002.{{cite web|url=http://www.isoaker.com/Info/history_presupersoaker.html|title=Pre-Super Soaker History}}

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.{{cite web|url=http://www.bigredtoybox.com/cgi-bin/toynfo.pl?laramiindex|title=Larami Toys|access-date=2008-08-25}}Toynfo {{cite web|url=http://www.toynfo.com/ |title=Toy Encyclopedia|access-date=2008-08-25}} During the 1980s, Larami expanded its water gun line, licensing designs for a battery-operated water gun from inventor Alan Amron in 1984.{{cite web|last=Porges|first=Seth|title=The Best Battery Powered Gun|url=http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/toys/4322164-best-battery-powered-gun#slide-4|work=The Top 6 Water Guns of All Time|publisher=Popular Mechanics|access-date=16 October 2012}}{{cite magazine|last=Green|first=Amanda|title=History Of The Water Gun|url=http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/toys/a-brief-history-of-the-water-gun#slide-6|magazine=Popular Mechanics|access-date=5 August 2014}} By 1987, Alvin Davis and Myung Song had become co-owners of Larami.{{cite web |last1=Cook |first1=Bonnie |title=Alvin Davis, 78, businessman behind the Super Soaker |url=https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/20150609_Alvin_Davis__businessman_behind_the_Super_Soaker.html |website=Philadelphia Inquirer |access-date=24 January 2022 |language=en}}

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.{{cite book |last1=Walsh |first1=Tim |title=Timeless toys : classic toys and the playmakers who created them |date=2005 |publisher=Andrews McMeel Pub |location=Kansas City, Mo. |isbn=9780740755712}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.isoaker.com/Info/history_supersoaker.php|title=History of the Super Soaker :: :: iSoaker.com|website=www.isoaker.com|access-date=2018-09-04}} 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,{{cite web |title=Larami Corp. v. Amron, 27 U.S.P.Q.2d 1280 (E.D. Pa. 1993) |url=https://www.nathenson.org/courses/innovations/larami-v-amron/ |date=3 March 2018}} 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.{{cite web |last1=Eastwood |first1=Brian |title=The case of the Super Soaker and the chamber therein |url=https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/case-super-soaker-and-chamber-therein |website=MIT Sloan |language=en}}

Larami was acquired by Hasbro Inc in 1995.{{cite web |last=Miller |first=Greg |title=Little Squirt Turns Big Shot |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-jul-29-mn-60697-story.html |website=Los Angeles Times |date=29 July 1999}} 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.

Products

Larami toys were produced based on several movies, television shows, etc. By the 1980s, Larami Corp. had a growing water gun product line. It was Larami Corp. that eventually marketed and sold the Power Drencher, rebranded as the Super Soaker in 1991 which was based on the pressurized water-air reservoir invented and developed by the former Jet Propulsion Engineer Dr. Lonnie Johnson and Larami designer William Raucci.

=Movies=

=Television shows=

=Battlestar Galactica Cylon Bubble Machine=

Image:Battlestar Galactica Cylon Bubble Machine.jpg

In 1978, Larami created a Cylon soap bubble toy called the Battlestar Galactica Cylon Bubble Machine to coincide with the television series of the same name. In the same year, a commercial was also made for the product featuring its use in dispensing "big bunches of bubbles"{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxFhmtCQ9d4|title=YouTube - Battlestar Galactica Cylon Bubble Machine Commercial|author=goldcylon |date=9 January 2007 |publisher=YouTube |access-date=21 August 2010}} and a jingle. The jingle was described in one review as "amazingly goofy with a chorus yelping, 'Battlestar Galacticaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ...CYLON BUBBLE MACHINE!'"{{cite web |url=http://retrocrush.buzznet.com/tvthemes/part1.html |title=#89 BATTLESTAR GALACTICA|access-date=21 August 2010 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071017033719/http://retrocrush.buzznet.com/tvthemes/part1.html |archive-date = 17 October 2007}} and in an interview Re-imagined Series comics writer Greg Pak as said "I still periodically find myself humming the tune song [sic] to the Cylon Bubble Machine commercial."{{cite web |url=http://www.brokenfrontier.com/columns/details.php?id=420 |title=Battlestar Galactica Comics Are Dynamite!|author=Jason Berek-Lewis |date=5 April 2006 |publisher=Broken Frontier |access-date=21 August 2010 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060509022636/http://www.brokenfrontier.com/columns/details.php?id=420 |archive-date = 9 May 2006}} In a Los Angeles Times article covering Battlestar Galactica's influence on Facebook, the toy's [http://www.facebook.com/pages/Battlestar-Galactica-Cylon-Bubble-Machine/42793566285?ref=s Facebook Fan Page] is noted alongside the book The Science of Battlestar Galactica's.{{cite news |url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2009/01/battlestar-ga-2.html|title='Battlestar Galactica' countdown: Facebook was possibly built by Cylons|author=Jevon Phillips |date=7 January 2009 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |access-date=21 August 2010}}

References

{{reflist}}

External links

  • Larami Corp at the Battlestar Wiki
  • [http://www.space1999.net/catacombs/main/merc/vmtlarami.html Space 1999 Merchandise Guide: Larami]
  • [http://www.plaidstallions.com/racktoys/larami.html Larami Toys Gallery plus 1980 Catalog]

Category:Defunct toy manufacturers

Category:Toy companies of the United States