Elon Musk Sells $10 Million in Flamethrowers in Four Days (reuters.com)

An anonymous reader quotes Reuters: A handful of tweets and four days later, Silicon Valley billionaire Elon Musk has closed orders for his latest novelty product, after selling 20,000 flamethrowers at $500 a piece. "Guaranteed to liven up any party!" was Musk's tagline for a sale which raised $10 million for his high-speed tunnel venture The Boring Company... "When the zombie apocalypse happens, you'll be glad you bought a flamethrower," he tweeted last Saturday. "Works against hordes of the undead or your money back!"
The fundraising comes as Tesla "struggles" meet its production commitments, notes the article, adding that analysts are wondering if the car manufacturer will eventually need billions more in funding.

By Wednesday Musk had sold out his entire suppy of flamethrowers, though "Apparently, some customs agencies are saying they won't allow shipment of anything called a 'Flamethrower'," Musk tweeted Friday night, adding "To solve this, we are renaming it 'Not a Flamethrower'."

"Or maybe 'Temperature Enhancement Device.'"

Comments

Re:safety

[fluffernutter]

You sell something as a toy, people will play with it. People play with it, they will get injured. Yes I'm sure there are parties were people play with industrial blow torches but we don't need people candy-coating them in the name of making a buck. No amount of disclaimer can cover the idiocy of putting this in the market in the first place.

Re:safety

[Vairon]

I seriously doubt he would throw razor blades in a suicide ward.
He would charge for those blades.

It's not Elon's responsibility what you do with a flame thrower after you buy it.
It's not Gillette's responsibility what you cut with a razor blade after you buy it.
It's not Ford's responsibility what you hit with a car after you buy it.
It's not John Deer's responsibility what you run over with a riding lawn mower after you buy it.
It's not Sturm, Ruger & Company's responsibility what you shoot with a gun after you buy it.
It's not Clorox's responsibility what you do with bleach after you buy it.

Mr. Musk indeed knows his audience

[Latent Heat]

He knows how to charge people $400 for a weed-removal product used in landscape maintenance that you can get for $30 at Harbor Freight. Brilliant!

Re:safety

[cayenne8]

Except he's caused all sorts of "officials" to take "notice" and "offense" to something that no one really cared about before. I wonder if this stunt will have the side-effect of suddenly making business much more difficult for everyone who already makes and/or owns similar devices that were previously fine.

Of course it will....

This will be the new "bump stock"....and I'm guessing immediately we'll have a ton of liberal's shouting for "common sense flamethrower laws".

I guess while were at it, let's ban all things that could possibly be misused and hurt people:

1. Common Sense Truck laws

2. Common Sense Pressure Cooker laws

3. Common Sense Chainsaw Laws

4. Common Sense Kitchen Knife Laws

5. Common Sense Gasoline (and other flammables) Laws

6. Common Sense Baseball Bat Laws

7. Common Sense Richard Pryor Viewing Laws (his pre-politically correct rants might seriously damage a generation of millennials).

8.Common Sense...oh well, you get the picture how ridiculous things can get.