The convenience of queues of people waiting to use flamethrowers is that they have nothing better to do than talk to a journalist. That`s how I get to know Mike and Donna, who seem to be in their early 50s. They come from San Pedro and are fans of flamethrowers and Elon Musk. “It`s phenomenal what he did,” Donna says. “I love the recovery of rockets. We see them bringing it back. Everything is folded at the beginning of the school year. Looks like he went into space. The ion production team`s flamethrower buyers included law enforcement and the U.S. Forest Service, which used the units for controlled combustion, Byars said. Many retail customers who buy the devices use them “primarily to handle weeds and snow,” he said. The product is the latest for Musk`s company, which is currently working on ways to make the tunnel trench more efficient.
Born out of frustration over traffic in Los Angeles in December 2016, Musk`s company began selling Boring-branded hats when work began on a test tunnel at SpaceX headquarters. After selling 20,000 hats and raising $1 million, Musk switched to flamethrowers. He claims that he came up with the idea for the unusual fundraising method of the cult 80s sci-fi film Spaceballs. When Elon Musk first announced his Boring Company named Punni, he raised additional funds by selling hats with the company logo on the front. He recently promised that the next “fundraising” product would be a flamethrower. He wasn`t kidding. The Boring Company Flamethrower is Musk`s December promise that came to life. According to the product page – currently password protected – the image above is just a prototype and the “final production flamethrower will be better”. In the meantime, keep an eye on the password so that you can place your order. But what do you do with a flamethrower? My friend asks me. “I bought a flamethrower to help traffic in Los Angeles.” I arrive at the checkpoint where we are sorted online according to the time our reservation is for; Mine is for 2pm, but I`m not the first in line.
I ask the man standing behind me – a brilliant guy in the mid-`50s wearing a Broncos t-shirt – what he does with his flamethrower. He laughs. “What am I not going to do with it?” He thought of crème brûlée or maybe roasted marshmallows. Then he stops and tells me he`s probably going to hang it on a wall. As if Disneyland had only three versions of a ride and the ride with a flamethrower toasts a marshmallow, Musk followed up with a short video showing boring employees using flamethrowers. I suspect the mood has a purpose: it makes The Boring Company fun, and it`s likely to generate goodwill on top of sales. This suggests that Musk can turn his imaginative ideas into reality. He strengthens the community around Musk by offering his fans the opportunity to interact with him and own part of his infrastructure company.
You know: Merch. As I approach the party, I meet people who are leaving. One, a man with a furry hat with ear flaps, is in conversation with a companion. “I mean, yo, what have you done to help the world?” he said to his friend. “I bought a flamethrower to help traffic in Los Angeles.” I ask Yahyaoui what she wants to do with the flamethrower. “I didn`t buy it to burn things,” she says. “I bought it to get the item. I think it`s something you can collect.
She`s a vegetarian, so she won`t use it for a barbecue. She pauses. “Or maybe for a Halloween costume this year. Maybe. An online woman asks if we need licenses. As luck would have it, we don`t: devices that fire flames larger than 10 feet require permits in the state of California, but the Not-A flamethrower isn`t as powerful. In fact, there are a few questions as to whether the Not-A flamethrower qualifies as a flamethrower at all; Military-grade flamethrowers, such as those used during the Vietnam War, typically use liquid fuel such as gasoline to trigger firebreakers. The Not-A flamethrower, on the other hand, is powered by a propane tank; Ars Technica suggested that it be compared to a fairly simple propane torch in the grenade of an airsoft weapon. Our creative director, James Bareham, refers to the device exclusively as a Bunsen burner. It`s also unclear why Musk is selling a flamethrower, aside from obscure pop culture references.
The devices make up only a tiny fraction of the company`s funds, with $112.5 million coming from a more traditional round, and the idea of pulling flames several feet long through a legal formality doesn`t exactly assure people that the device is a safe and smart offering. An earlier model of Ion Production Team flamethrower also had a moment of Hollywood glory. The thing about Musk`s weird tweets is that they work like the photo of Pierre Trudeau doing pirouettes behind Queen Elizabeth. The snapshot suggests spontaneity; The reality was that Trudeau had carefully planned and repeated his gesture. I think this flamethrower does two things. First, it allows its fans to demonstrate their loyalty, just like a band t-shirt during a live show. The second thing he does is more interesting: it implies that Musk makes his highs real effortless. The flamethrower met with opposition from a California lawmaker, Miguel Santiago, who said he would introduce state laws to ban its sale. However, Byars said the ion production team`s updated flamethrower has a range of 30 feet and can be equipped with a backpack fuel kit that allows for about four minutes of non-stop fire fueled by gasoline combustion, a half-gas/semi-diesel blend or an alcohol-based fuel. It`s a bit after four now, and even though I`ve dipped into sunscreen, I`m starting to suspect I`ll get a sunburn later. I leave the queues of people waiting their turn with the sample flamethrower and go get mine.
My Boring Company bracelet is cut off and, in return, I receive my own Not-A flamethrower. In a live presentation held last month at the Leo Baeck Temple in Los Angeles, Musk announced that the flamethrower would soon be delivered to customers. The company struggled to send such a device, so it held an event to circumvent such restrictions: The Boring Company responded that its flamethrowers are “safer than what you can now buy off the shelf at The Home Depot to destroy weeds.” Musk made headlines by posting a tweet Saturday that read, “Say hello to my boyfriend” and linked to an Instagram photo of a flamethrower with the logo of his boring excavation company. Elon Musk sells flamethrowers. At least sooner. Boring Company`s flamethrower (technically “not a flamethrower”) was a success when it was launched in 2018. Musk sold 20,000 units to the general public before finally ending the project. But perhaps to mitigate these problems, to set everything on fire, Musk also announced on Twitter that each flamethrower comes with a free fire extinguisher.
Elon Musk Boring Company`s $500 flamethrower was certainly the topic of internet discussion, but if you`re wondering if you should get one, you`re too late. When I go to the SpaceX parking lot at 1:30 p.m., I already see people leaving with big white boxes under their arms.