We’ve seen our share of dumb Kickstarter campaigns this summer. There was the $60,000 potato salad that set the Internet on fire. Then there was that guy who wanted $22,000 to make a handle for your iPhone for some reason.
But finally, there’s a Kickstarter campaign that's trying to solve a very real and pressing problem during these hot summer days -- namely, that water balloons take too damn long to fill up. Need we remind you how much it sucks to wait patiently by the hose to fill 20 water balloons amid an old-fashioned splashfest?
Thankfully, Josh Malone, a Texas-based father of eight and all-around genius, has created Bunch O Balloons, a single-use device that allows you to fill up 37 balloons in roughly 20 seconds. Do you understand what this means!?
Water balloon fights will never be the same.
Bunch O Balloons looks pretty simple to use: Step one is connecting Bunch O Balloons to a hose. Step two is turning on the water.
The truly amazing thing is what you do when the balloons are full. At that point, all you need is a gentle shake to detach them from the hose. A tiny O-ring keeps the balloons closed, no tying necessary.
The Kickstarter campaign hasn't hit potato salad levels of notoriety yet, but it’s already nearly tripled its $10,000 goal. And why wouldn’t it? As the saying goes: Fund a man’s potato salad Kickstarter and you’ll eat potato salad for a day; fund his game-changing water balloon Kickstarter and you’ll be having water balloon fights for life.
When asked why he created the product, Malone explained that with eight children and long Texas summers, his family was going through thousands of water balloons each year. "We put a lot of effort into filling them and tying them and being careful not to waste them before they're done," he told The Huffington Post over the phone. "It's obviously very time consuming."
The practical applications of Bunch O Balloons are basically endless: you can have family water balloon fights, neighborhood-wide water balloon fights, workplace water balloon fights, surprise ambush water balloon fights at fancy restaurants. Essentially, wherever you can carry a bucket of 100 water balloons, you can use this thing.
A pledge of $15 on Kickstarter gets you (or the kids, if you’re pretending you’re not buying it for yourself) a package of three Bunch O Balloons attachments, which is good for 111 water balloons; the early rewards are expected to ship between August and September 2014. The campaign ends August 21.