Plastic water guns are now the weapon of choice for youngsters.

THINGYAN appears with the coming of the hot season and is announced from every corner of the city by a variety of Thingyan sounds. Traditional music, pop songs and hip hop beats spread from tea shops and cars across the city.

The styles of music popular during the water festival continue to change each year. The way people celebrate, soaking each other with water, has also changed – the plastic water gun is now the weapon of choice for super-soakers rather than the traditional tha pyay khat (Eugenia).

In recent weeks, businesspeople have been busy stocking up on Thingyan goods, which will soon be in high demand by New Year revellers.

U Chan Chan Naung, owner of Kyar Nyi Naung toy shop, in Thein Gyi Zay market, said that various designs of water guns are being sold for the Thingyan Festival.

“There are over 100 new kinds of goods enter to the market,” he said.

U Chan Chan Naung said water guns with a water air pressure system and decorated LED lighting, which make them popular among the young customers.

He said that the reasonable price of this type of water gun, about K550, made it affordable for parents who want to buy something for their children to have fun with during Thingyan festival.

Another plastic gun dealer, U Win Aung, said plastic guns range in price from K75 to K6000.

He said the cheapest example, at K75, was experiencing high demand from other areas of the country such as Dawei, Sittwe, Yamathin and Ayeyawaddy division.

He said sales of the plastic toys start in March and will run until the first day of the water festival.

He said most of the plastic guns that he is selling this year are made in China and water guns priced at about K500 were popular in Yangon.

Daw Htay, owner of a foreign bag and toy shop, said they have been selling about 1500 plastic water guns each day.

She said this year’s water guns come in various sizes, from 2.5 inches to two-and-a-half feet, with prices ranging from K150 to K4800.

Daw Htay said that colourful plastic water guns can hold different amounts of water according to the size of their containers, some of which are attached to the gun while others are separate.

“The most expensive water gun in our shop – priced at K4800 and two and a half feet long – can contain about a gallon of water,” she said.

Daw Htay said her shop had been receiving orders from other cities in Myanmar since the first week of March and she expected customers in Yangon to start their buying in April.