The Soft Shooter is a handheld, spring loaded toy gun. The gun is designed to shoot soft objects such as foam balls or marshmallows. A detachable clip can be loaded with the projectile and inserted into the gun. Once inserted, the spring in the clip pushes the first round into the gun. The child can then cock the gun by pulling back on the top with compresses the spring. The trigger is designed to release the spring and allow it to send the projectile flying. While playing with the soft shooter, children can inherantly learn about springs and projectile motion.

The obvious safety concern is that the child will load the magazine with something hard that can do damage to the child or to others. This concern is addressed by using a spring in the magazine that is only strong enough to lift extremely light objects such as foam balls or marshmallows. The other safety concern is the small objects that are being used as projectiles. They can be swallowed by small children. As a result this toy is recomended for children ages 5 and up and will come with a small parts warning.

The majority of the toy can be built out of cheap plastic, although the better the plastic the better the durability of the Soft Shooter. The magazine spring needs to intentionally not be a very strong spring; however, the firing spring needs to be relatively strong in order to propel the projectile. The Soft Shooter's working parts can be easily made rather durable without increasing the price too much since the outer body of the toy can be damaged without compromising the function of the toy itself. As a result the outside of the Soft Shooter can be made of a cheap or moderately priced plastic while the inside components need to be built out of far more durable components.