Toys Guns Not Butter

In the 60s and 70s when girls were playing with their EZ Bake Ovens and making butter, boys were playing with their guns. And boy did they have a ton of them to choose from. In this second of a 3 part series, we'll take a look at some more of the guns kids had to choose from during those times.

In our previous article we talked about the Man From Uncle set. Well, that wasn't the only spy set that you could get during the time. The 1960s also saw the Secret Agent Transmitter Gun. This was a very unique piece of equipment. It looked like a radio but it fired bullets. It's not very big at 5 inches by 3 inches and doesn't look very real. But kids loved playing with this thing because it was so deceptive. The gun actually came with plastic bullets that when you loaded them into the radio and pulled the trigger they came flying out. This was probably one of the more dangerous Toys of the era.

GI Joe was a very popular action figure of the 60s. Well, there was no way toy makers weren't going to cash in on the GI Joe craze and give the kids a gun that they could hold themselves. Enter the GI Joe Machine Gun. The gun was 25 inches long and you had to have a bit of strength to pull back the firing bolt. This was one very well made weapon. The gun comes with a strap so you can hang it on your shoulder. The multi coloring of the gun doesn't make it look very real but it still does look very cool. Kids ate this one up.

Another gun from the era that wasn't quite as popular and also very hard to find was the G-Man Machine gun made by Linemar. The gun is battery operated and makes quite a loud noise when you fire it. The gun is very odd looking, which may be part of the reason that it wasn't very popular when it came out.

In the late 50s there was one really odd looking gun that came out which was actually quite popular. It was the Hubley Secret Rifle that had very odd ejectable bullets. It had a cocking mechanism like no gun before or after it. If you yank on the handle the gun actually extends. The gun comes with 7 brass bullets that you insert into the cartridge. The bullets eject through the wide window in the gun. The gun itself is made of a combination of plastic and metal. It's hard to say that this gun looks anything like a real gun because of its odd appearance.

And if you are looking for something small that you can fit in the palm of your hand, there was the Mini Pistols of the 60s. The guns included a 45, Luger, Patroller and a Derringer. These guns were literally smaller than your hand. Each one came with 5 bullets. Each gun came in its own color and none of them looked very real. But they were certainly fun to play with.

In our last installment of this series we'll take a look at some guns from the old west and other odds and ends.

Michael Russell

Your Independent guide to Toys

Author:: Michael Russell
Keywords:: Toys
Post by History of the Computer | Computer safety tips