Elon Musk Boring Company sells 10,000 flamethrowers in 8 hours
It sounds like an April Fools' prank but this is no joke. This is serious business, literally and figuratively. Elon Musk earlier just announced that it will do as it promised and will be selling its new novelty item after is Boring Hats: the Boring Flamethrower. Despite the ridiculousness of the idea, not to mention the risks, the Boring Company was able to receive 10,000 orders in just 8 hours. Amazing as that might sound, not everyone is impressed.
Like many of Musk's ambitious ventures, the Boring Company isn't going to make money for a long, long time. So what is an entrepreneur to do while biding his time? Why sell branded merchandise, of course! That started with the Boring Company Hat, which sold 50,000 units. Musk joked that the next item would be a flamethrower. Well, the joke's on all of us.
Within just 8 hours after opening sales, the company received a staggering 10,000 orders for the incendiary device. That is half the total number of flamethrowers the company has and will only make, making them a sort of limited edition product. At $500 a pop, that means the Boring Company just earned a not so boring $5,000,000 in that time frame.
10k
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 29, 2018
Like many of Musk's ambitious ventures, this didn't go without controversy. After all, who would sell a flamethrower to the masses? To be fair, the flamethrower is a bit of a misnomer as the device is more like a roof torch than a proper flamethrower. Limiting the flame to within 10 feet allowed the company to forego the need to go through certification and the like.
That said, the flamethrower couldn't have come at a worse time for the Boring Company's home state. California has been beset by a series of large fires that devastated lands, homes, and lives. Coming out with such a toy, which has the same potential to start large fires, is seen by many locals as one sick joke.