Wonder
Dad Made His Children Flamethrower To Play It, Says It’s The Best Toy Ever
A flamethrower made from a leaf blower!
An animator and adventurous father from Canada has gone viral on the internet after giving his children a homebrewed flamethrower of their own. He showed his 11-year-old boy, James, spitting fire at his sister Sophia, 7.
And it was truly epic! But hold on, before you get angry, no children have been injured during the making of this video at all!
Yep! Daniel Hashimoto is an animator who works from home and loves coming up with new fun ideas to keep the children entertained. What looked like the flamethrower was actually a repurposed leaf blower with Hashimoto’s amazingly realistic editing on the video!
“To the children, it was not a deadly weapon, but more a dynamic and giggle-inducing obstacle,” said the animation worker from Prince Edward Island.
“They had a friend over to play on the patio, and we decided to let them have some supervised play with this electric leaf blower,” the dad shared with South West News Service. And yes, that is silk fabric attached to the blower!
He and his wife, Mandy Richardville, are pleased with the results and hope this can “inspire creativity for the kids.” Hashimoto added, “So far, it’s paid off!”
They talked about the DIY process, “We decided to see how the lightweight fabric might play with the blower, so Sophia grabbed a large rubber band and some tape, and we affixed it to the nozzle.”
“The result was even more spectacular than we imagined — large billowing waves looked remarkably like flames — and so the device immediately was dubbed ‘the flame thrower.’”
— ActionMovieDad (@ActionMovieKid) August 2, 2022
If you’ve wondered why this video looked so smooth, it’s precisely because Hashimoto was also the very person involved in the animation of ‘Kung Fu Panda 2,’ ‘How to Train Your Dragon,’ and ‘Mary Poppins Returns.’
“The children all took turns chasing each other in a game of ‘Flame Tag.’ We also played a jump-rope-over-the-flames game, and the children acted out a ‘fire bending’ play,” shared Hashimoto in reference to the ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender.’
He shared that the family had always used all kinds of tools to have fun and the leaf blower was often the chosen candidate.
“We hovered ping-pong balls, did slow-motion videos of our hair blowing in the wind, tried inflating a fitted sheet like a big marshmallow, and finally, the flame thrower… When you’re a kid, playtime is epic! You can imagine larger-than-life scenarios.”
He added, “I believe that most children can turn this kind of imagination into being good at improvising and dealing with challenges. We definitely want to encourage imaginative play, creative problem solving, and inventing a fun new game out of what’s lying around.”
He created a world that’s genuinely boundless, only limited to their vast imagination.
Kids and their imaginations. pic.twitter.com/neX2MJzdpP
— ActionMovieDad (@ActionMovieKid) August 16, 2021
