Elon Musk’s fire sale of his Boring Company “flamethrowers” raised $10m, selling out all 20,000 units, despite warnings from the Home Office and US politicians.
The tech billionaire chief executive of Tesla, Space X and the Boring Company, tweeted on Thursday morning that all the $500 flamethrowers were sold out and that “all flamethrowers will ship with a complimentary Boring fire extinguisher”.
The flamethrower success follows Musk’s sale of 50,000 Boring Company baseball caps at $20 a piece.
Unsurprisingly, the sale of flamethrowers was not without controversy. Musk insisted that “obviously, a flamethrower is a super terrible idea” warning people to “definitely don’t buy one … unless you like fun”. He said that the flamethrower did not shoot flames further than 10ft so it was “A-OK” with the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, leading some to speculate that it was a fancy version of a blowtorch, rather than a flamethrower.
A Boring Company spokesperson told CNET that its flamethrower is “safer than what you can buy right now off-the-shelf on Amazon to destroy weeds. Much like a rollercoaster, this is designed to be thrilling without danger. Dangerous flamethrowers are already regulated and require a permit to own in California.”
Regardless, the Home Office warned that flamethrowers were a prohibited weapon and that it was illegal for those under 18 to buy any imitation firearm.
Musk also faces criticism from the US, with Democrat Miguel Santiago attempting to block the sale of the flamethrower within California saying that “if this is real, I’m outraged and you should be too. If this is a joke, then it’s a terribly insensitive one given that we’re coming off of the worst wildfire season in history. Either way: NOT FUNNY. NOT GONNA HAPPEN.”
But with another sales milestone passed for his company that was established as a “personal hobby” to dig transport tunnels, for Musk it’s onwards and upwards. The South African business magnate teased that his next Boring company stunt sale might be another weapon out of the fantasy villain’s playbook.
A snowthrower would be really fun
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 1, 2018