‘Not a Flamethrower’: Elon Musk to rename Flamethrower after controversy

Elon Musk is mulling over rebranding the Flamethrower, a new gimmicky product launched by his Boring Company. While the expensive $500 Flamethrower was sold out in less than a week, it came under the radar of custom agencies who oversee the shipments of the goods.

In order to evade customs' scrutiny, Musk on Saturday tweeted that he is going to rename the Flamethrower to 'Not a Flamethrower'. He followed the tweet with other suggestions such as "Temperature Enhancement Device".

Flamethrower, which looks like an assault rifle, was a limited edition device by The Boring Company, owned by Elon Musk. The company sold out 20,000 units of the device in just four days, raking up nearly $10 million.

"Buy an overpriced Boring Company fire extinguisher! You can definitely buy one for less elsewhere, but this one comes with a cool sticker and the button is conveniently riiiight above," says the company on its website.

"When the zombie apocalypse happens, you'll be glad you bought a flamethrower," he tweeted last Saturday. "Works against hordes of the undead or your money back!"

Musk said that the company was bundling a free fire extinguisher with the device and that buyers needed to agree to certain conditions before getting the device.

Before Flamethrower, Musk's Boring Company has sold 50,000 hats in similar fashion.

The Boring Company's original purpose is to build tunnels for the Hyperloop One super-high-speed transport project.

Controversy

Musk's new product drew anger from a California legislator who sought a ban on the sale of the device. "We've now seen some of the worst fires in California's history so handing out flame torchers for 500 bucks is a real bad idea and bad public policy," said the legislator, Miguel Santiago.

The Boring Company, however, maintains that Flamethrower doesn't violate any policy and it emits a tongue of fire less than 10 feet long.