Toy Guns of the 1950's - 1960's

[Kaylee]

On the other hand.. I had a friend back Boise way who gave his son all kinds of fancy dancy solider toys.. to include a full-out airsoft copy of Daddy's real M4.

I'd say at least as much has been gained as lost -- it's just not on the locall toystore shelves anymore.

 

[Topgun]

Here's a pair of full autos.

The bottom one is from the Steve McQueen estate auction of his toy collection.

The top one is VERY scarce. Took me years to find one although I had one as a kid. Carried it EVERYWHERE. Played "war" with it. This example is complete and operational. Most have long since been destroyed or lost.

 

[Topgun]

Rembrandt, 20 bucks was a STEAL. AT LEAST $150 in today's market if it is not cracked.

 

[thebigc]

back in when i was about 5 in 1996 or so i got a m1 garand replica that was comepltely awesome it had a wood stock and i used to like to hit things with the buttstock and run around the neighborhood with it till i broke it on a tree hunting ''red coats'' at the lexington battle grounds.

 

[Topgun]

I think this one's my favorite. Also a gun show purchase for $50.
Real steals at shows.

It's the "full house" Daisy "Targeteer." Has the original spinner target and two tubes of original BB's. It will shoot #5 lead shot which is the closest appx. to the originals.

 

[Stevie-Ray]

My buddy had the Johnny Eagle Red River. It had a ricochet sound every time you pulled the trigger. I had a machine gun that had the full-auto rat-a-tat after pulling back the bolt. I also used to bust full roll caps with a hammer. Always had a buddy hold his hands over my ears. The kid honestly never learned.

Then I got a Sonic Blaster. Simply the most awesome toy I've ever had. Hopefully this link works; it's the one that told parents NOT to buy it. I had an absolute BLAST with this. Fourth of July and New Year's Eve were never the same again. A cool trick was to put a kitchen match in your mouth to wet it, (then spit, of course) light the match, which never flared but smoked like hell, hold the SB over it so the smoke would float up inside it. Pull the trigger and the resultant ball of smoke that whooshed out the barrel was a sight to behold.

http://www.consumerreports.org/main/detailv2.jsp?CONTENT<>cnt_id=2543&FOLDER<>folder_id=2311

 

[gm]

I had a nice peacemaker that was at a garage sale that was given to me free, it looked and loaded like an original.it had 6 cartridges that looked like real brass(no primer,just flat),a cap was inserted in them and a fake bullet that had a hole drilled through it set in the cartridge.bet it would be worth some bucks today.

also had a bb gun that looked exactly like a winchester levergun,right down tothe brass ring,loaded through the same spot that the real one did and had a spring/tube under the barrel where you could see how many bbs were left.stock broke and threw it out, in hindsight wish Ida kept it.

 

[Harry Tuttle]

 

[Carl N. Brown]

Oh, boy, the memories

I remember having one of those Mattel Thunderburps!
I pretended I was Peter Graves saving Peggy Castle
from the mutant grasshoppers in Begining of the End.

One thing I did not like: the Thunderburp had a
1911 style grip instead of the Thompson grip
and if I remember correctly, mine had a wire
stock like an M3 grease gun.
ByTheWay Beginning of the End has lotsa M1928
Thompson action including Graves and several
soldiers clearing jams on camera (guess those
movie blanks weren't too reliable).
Yeah, my boyhood was toy guns and B-movies.

 

[Unisaw]

I had one of the Secret Sam models. It was one of my favority toys and I have wracked my brain trying to remember what it was called. Thanks.

 

[Master Blaster]

My fondest memories are of the Hubley cap pistols though. They were extremely detailed and authentic, beautifully made, and expensive enough to make them a rara avis for most of the kids in my neighborhood.

I still have one that I played with as a kid, mine is a nickle plated model, small semi auto that looks like a colt .25 acp, that the left side of the grip opens up on so you can insert a roll of caps. Hubley Mfg. Lancaster Pa.

It was actually made in Lancaster Pa. in the USA imagine that. It sits in a place of honor in my china cabinet.

 

[Zundfolge]

I had several cool toy guns made from PVC pipe ... we was po but we still had the toy guns

Also had a real cool toy 1911 (looked like a Colt Mustang) it was a factory second so the chome job had filled in all the cowboy looking ingraving ... I thought that was the coolest gun.

Oh and I remember this plastic Tommygun ... it was light blue and about 1/3rd scale.

EDIT

OOH ... forgot about my Star Trek pistol that shot the little disks!

 

[frenchwrench]

I miss my Defender Dan!!!! Played Combat in the woods all weekend every weekend. Defender Dan got blown out of the tree I was in durring a pretty good death scene. Man I miss that toy.And those times.

 

[procomps]

When I was in the second grade, I got a matching western carbine and revolver that shot the Mattel Shootin' Shells for Christmas. Back at school after the holiday break, I wrote an "essay" telling "What I got for Christmas, and why I like it". My teacher went into conniptions when she saw that I got GUNS at my tender age, and sent a note home bawling my parents out for such corruption! The next day, my mother took the note back and basically told my teacher to put it where the sun don't shine!

I've liked, almost loved, guns ever since.

 

[WarMachine]

I guess those were the days. Today's kids are blasting away madly on one of these things.

There's just something wrong with kids going around pumping and squirting one-another

 

[PAC 762]

I'm only 27, but I had a few cool toys. I had an entertech water gun that looked like an RPG-7. I also had a 1:1 copy of an MP5SD. It had a removeable magazine, retractable stock, and working safety. You could load caps in the mag and it would eject the spent caps like spent brass. I wish I could find those.

ETA- I found a pic of the RPG: http://www.virtualtoychest.com/entertechsquirtguns/entertechbazookac.jpg

 

[gopguy]

This has been a fun walk down memory lane. I had the Marx Tommy gun and Mattel M-16 in that weird blue color in the late 60's early 70's. Had a real neat die cast Luger cap gun but I will be darned if I can remember who made it. Also on a trip to the civil war battlefield at Gettysburg I well remember getting a replica musket and single shot pistol. Those fired little cork balls. I had a plastic M1 Garand handed down from a cousin that had a working bolt. The ammo it fired long gone. What I do remember lusting was my neighbors James Bond brief case with all the spy accesories. I remember a toy Luger with extending stock and scope. Another neighbor kid had the Napoleon Solo Man from Uncle P38 with same style rig...I had lots of toy guns but nothing as neat as those....I hate to think of how rough we played with that stuff and what it is worth today. Sadly when I went off to college my folks tossed 8 hefty bags of my stuff from my room including all the old toy guns in my closet..I can imagine them all getting crunched in the garbage truck compactor...sigh :banghead:

 

[Carl N. Brown]

I hate to say it....

If your folks sold those toy guns on eBay today
they could recoup a years tuition!

 

[Zundfolge]

I hate to say it....
If your folks sold those toy guns on eBay today
they could recoup a years tuition!

Tuition? Talk about wasting your money.

If you sold these guns on eBay today you could buy more real guns!

 

[armedcitizen]

I had the Johnny Eagle Magumba

Up until just a couple of years ago when the barrel finally broke off of it.

It was very realistic for a toy. The bulletts were spring loaded, consisting of a copper colored shell and a gray bullett. You loaded them one at a time into the breach and when you pulled the trigger the spring released, sending the bullett out of the barrel and a pretty good clip. Pulling the bolt back ejected the "empty". Scope was adjustable and removable. Box came with wildlife targets on the back that could be set up a spinning targets. I spent many hours shooting that in our hallway.

Good memories.

 

[History Nut]

Thanks for the Memories

Wow! What a memory lane trip! I remember so many of the toy guns mentioned already. A while back, I was going through some old boxes and found several of the "shootin' shells" and bullets! I was often frustrated when my brother and I would have wars in the house and I could watch the bullet from the "shootin' shell" depart the barrel at quite an angle from my aiming point.

Our parents had already taught us safety with real guns and the only modification with toy guns was that we never aimed for the head/face.

I remember the Mattel derringer that came on a belt buckle and had a mechanism to pop it out and fire it when you wanted to ambush the unwary. That derringer also used the "shootin' shells".

The Mattel copy of the .38 snub-nose was banned in New York and Boston shortly after it came out. I know because my Mom worked at Mattel for many years. We got discounts on factory seconds and also got 'test toys' fairly often. I remember we got the "Sonic Blaster" as a test toy. I remember telling Mom about the ringing in my ears when I fired it from the shoulder and her noting in the test papers she had to turn in for each 'test toy'. Of course years later and way too late, we realized that if we had just kept some of those test toys in their packages and stored them, we could have made a killing these days. Things like test runs of Barbie packages that were never produced in quantity would probably bring real money these days.

What we did do was play with the guns until they broke too badly to fix and then they went in the trash. Now I have lots of real guns to 'play' with and fondly the innocent days of my youth. They are the "good old days" only because we tend to forget the "bad old days".

Again thanks for the memories!

 

[MountainPeak]

I was born in 51, and remember very well getting a "richochet " lever action. Mine didn't eject shells. I think it just made the noise. It was probably a knockoff of the the REAL deal. I must of liked it. I remember playing with it to this day. My guess is I was about 8. My ex-wife says the best picture I ever took was at age 3 or 4. It was Christmas and I'm in front of our family tree. I have a cowboy hat on, double six shooting cap guns, one out, and pointing. The other hanging, in my fancy double holster, past my knees. I obviously had wet the front of my pants. You would have too! It was 1954-55. They were Colts by gawd!!! She use to drag that picture out, and tell people; "see he never had a chance". "He had to be a gun nut"! Something I'm proud to be called, by the way! Thanks for the thread. It got me thinking of great times, growing up. Where I was from(ND), back then, EVERYONE had firearms. They weren't ever considered evil. They were tools. They still are in my mind.

 

[Oldnamvet]

I used to have one of the Colt peacemakers that used cartridges that came apart so you could put a cap inside. Then you loaded them just like the real thing. I liked to make a lot of noise though so thought reloading was a pain. I ended up getting a cap pistol that took the red rolls that came 5 to a box. I could go through those pretty fast. Once I had a box in the back pocket of my jeans. I slipped on something and fell smack on my butt -- those caps all went off. Blew the back of my pocket off and made a large hole in my jeans. Went running home with pants smoking. I was wearing a large bandage on my butt for quite a while. Had to put on more vaseline every morning. I was about 8 or 9 but still have the scar to remember.

 

[sfhogman]

Carl Brown, Thanks for the picture of the Thunderburp! It's been a while since the rheumy old eyes have gazed on one of those thngs....

Did anyone else have a Carbide Cannon? The breechlock had a spoon on the end that held a teeny bit of calcium carbide -"Bangsite". When put into the breech and rotated, the bangsite fell into about a tablespoon of water, creating acetlyene gas. Pushing the lock forward struck a lighter flint, and WHAM!!! The cool thing was a huge blue-white flame that you could see at night. You could hold your hand in front of the barrel and the flame would shoot harmlessly between your fingers. They still make these things....muy expensive.

http://www.ray-vin.com/mus/howworks.htm

Really livened up summer nights in Des Moines...

Jeff

 

[DontBurnMyFlag]

i remember having all sorts of good stuff when i was a kid. I still have a tec-9 water gun in my attic. the whole thing is black with no orange tip.