Mr. Bubble almost went out with the bath water before it became a splash hit, and on Tuesday the product Harold Schafer created turned 50.

Schafer, who died in 2001, was inspired by how much fun he had with his young children during bath time and created a bubble bath that was cheaper and could be sold in grocery stores rather than “fancy department stores,” his widow Sheila told The Dickinson Press.

The idea might have been sound, but its price point wasn’t, his son Ed Schafer told the paper.

“Mr. Bubble bombed. It tanked. It was a flop,” Ed Schafer said. “It didn’t do well enough to even keep it on the shelves.”

However, after lowering the price from 59 cents to 39 cents to sell off the remainder of the product, Mr. Bubble flew off the the shelves. Schafer worked with a supplier to fix the margins so the product was profitable and Mr. Bubble went on to become a worldwide hit.