Digital Trends
Emerging Tech

Elon Musk’s Boring Company puts first 1,000 flamethrowers in buyers’ hands

Bruce Brown
By —

Consumer flamethrowers and rockets on cars? Sure, right? Never happen. Fact is, Tesla CEO Elon Musk promised both and this weekend he delivered on his promised personal flamethrowers.

To be more specific, Musk’s The Boring Company delivered the first 1,000 of a limited run of 20,000 TBC Flamethrowers to customers this weekend. On that basis, who’s to say the next-generation Tesla Roadster won’t have a SpaceX option package with 10 rocket thrusters, as Musk claimed Saturday?

Choosing one of his favorite communications forums, Musk took to Twitter to post some photos of the flamethrower customer pickup event, accompanying his tweets with enthusiastic comments.

Musk’s Twitter thread started with a straight announcement, “First 1000 Boring Company Flamethrowers being picked up today!”

Musk later posted a photo of a couple with a baby carriage and a flamethrower standing in front of a Boring Company photo shoot backdrop in a parking lot. “Nothing makes your baby more zen than a few gentle puffs of a TBC Flamethrower,” Musk tweeted.

Still on a roll, Musk followed up with a suggested application for the flamethrower: lighting BBQs and home fireplaces. This suggestion probably should have a “Kids, do not try this at home” caution, because you know that’s what people will do.

Musk tweeted “Flamethrower obv best way to light your fireplace/BBQ. No more need to use a dainty “match” to ignite! If no wood, just drop your flamethrower in fire place! It will generate way more warmth than a quaint pile of logs.”

Twitter user @SPPhotonic mentioned California fire hazards, “Did Nobody tell you that fire Hazards in California are not a joke? Have some respect for the Firefighters and make an Ice Blaster.”

In response to @SPPhotonic, Musk may have revealed an upcoming new TBC product when he tweeted, “Each flamethrower comes with a state-of-the-art The Boring Company brand fire extinguisher. Will offer a TBC ice blaster before the dry season starts in winter.”

The 20,000 TBC Flamethrowers sold out quickly for $500 each. If TBC actually does plan to offer an ice blaster and expects it to be useful when the “winter dry season” begins, the news should come soon. Musk first announced TBC Flamethrower in January and the first deliveries took almost five months.

The 2020 Tesla Roadster with the SpaceX option package won’t see light before 2019, so we’ll have to wait longer to see if Musk really meant it when he promised rocket thrusters.

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