I will honestly say that I was this close to giving the AquaPod a bad review. Part of it was because I had a hard time getting it working, but it was overcome once I got it right and saw that bottle shoot 100 feet in the air.

Okay, I didn’t get an exact measurement of its height, but it was enough to impress me. And if I, as an adult, am impressed, just think of how much a child would be. By the way, this is definitely a toy that you want to use with adult supervision, for reasons that I will explain after the jump.

All I had to do was fill an ordinary 2-liter bottle to about one third full, and then turn that contraption upside down so I could put the bottle on it. By the way, you have to push that bottle all the way down to get it to work. This was the source of my frustration that was rather easily overcome.

From there, you just pump it up (when you don’t really need it). Seriously, all Elvis Costello references aside, you do have to pump it up about 10 times with an ordinary bicycle pump, until it can’t take all the compressed air inside.

Then all that’s left to do is stand back with that orange piece of twine which they call a lanyard and give it a sharp tug. All the compressed air is released in the bottle, and the bottle goes flying.

All in all, it is quite neat. It is definitely a terrific alternative for those who want a low-cost and low-maintance model rocket hobby. You should be able to purchase it at the AquaPod site for about $24.99.