* Photo: Tom Schierlitz * What it is: Magnum Manufacturing MAG9000 tactical cutter

What it's used for: Melting through doors, walls, or concrete bunkers

Locked your keys inside the Miata? Use a slim jim. Trying to breach an armored door to bust a drug cartel? Get a MAG9000. When government, military, and police organizations need to penetrate heavily fortified areas, they pack one of these heaters — its 10,000-degree flame will rip through just about anything. Pull the trigger and pure oxygen flows from the tank into a barrel at the cutter's business end. Add a spark and soft steel rods inside the barrel burn in the presence of the 0 2 . (Get the party started with a battery-powered catalytic ignition system.) Once lit, the torch can slice through metal plate in a few seconds, even concrete or stone (yes, it can cut through a boulder). Bonus: You could hook a breather to the tank for an underwater getaway. Come on! Don't act like you've never found yourself in that situation.

START Previous: Most Dangerous Object in the Office: The Toxic Cloud-Emitting Portable Dry Ice Maker Next: 15th Anniversary: Why the Future Still Needs Us a While Longer