Atom Buster (Webb Electric Co. / 1950s / U.S.A. / 6.5 inches x 11 inches)

Big, bad, and bold: It's the Atom Buster!



This is definitely a fun toy. All barrel-shaped and covered in fins, it evokes the classic 1950s fear of atomic annihilation. Like I said, a fun toy!

The Atom Buster fires a blast of air at a tissue-paper target printed with an image of a mushroom cloud. Which begs the questions: Is it firing an atomic blast and the cloud is supposed to be the result? Is it firing a blast of air at the mushroom cloud, presumably to "bust" it, as the name suggests? But then why is it shaped like a bomb itself? And why does a gun need bomb-like fins? And why did a company called Webb Electric make a toy that's not electrical?




Frankly, we may never know. Some mysteries of the universe are never meant to be solved.

The gun was originally available in yellow, green, and red, with yellow being by far the most common. Red and green are about tied for scarcity -- I've seen a couple of each over the years. The boxes are all identical, and feature the yellow gun. However, there are three dots -- yellow, green, and red -- on the face. A circle around the dot denotes which gun goes with the box. It kind of makes you wonder if Webb Electric Co. knew that collectors, 50 years later, would want to know if they had the correct gun-box combination...

I once owned a yellow, boxed example of the Atom Buster -- it was one of the first few ray guns I bought. It wasn't a perfect piece, though. The bottom fin was missing, something neither I nor the seller realized during the auction (because the break was so clean, and I'd never seen a mint example before). So I was always looking for an upgrade...

One day, a dead-mint, boxed green example popped up on eBay. It was complete with the tissue paper target, too, and I wanted it bad. It was a buy-it-now sale only, and the price was just too high for me at the time. I let it go and figured that was that. It didn't sell, though, and a week later it appeared again -- with the price cut by a third! I stared at it longingly, but again, I had to let it go. Still, it remained unsold and a week later it appeared again, this time at half the price. Finally affordable!

Except that I'd just spent a lot of money on something else and was flat broke.

This time, the gun sold -- of course! Thus is the life of a ray gun collector.

It all worked out in the end though when I snagged this mint-in-box red one a couple years later. I like the red better, anyway, so there!

Ideal 3-Color Space Ray Gun (Ideal / 1952 / U.S. / 4 x 7 inches)

I have a lot of memories tied up in this particular ray gun. It's one of the first that caught my eye after flipping through the book Ray Gun, by Eugene Metcalf, and I was completely taken by how well its giant, bulbous lens and funny fins captured the retro futurism I love so much. Looking back, I think it was at that moment that my love affair with vintage ray guns transformed from the infatuation of a beau for his belle into the outright obsession of a stalker.

Ray Gun was my only reference at the time, and as such, I considered every toy in it part of my "must-have" list. It was canon -- no pun intended -- and I was thrilled every time a piece leapt from its pages and on to my toy shelf. The 3-Color Gun was one of the first to do so, and as such, it holds a pretty special place in my collection.




This gun also represents the first time I met the collector and dealer Justin Pinchot face to face. We'd been speaking online for a while when I decided to take a trip out to sunny California to hang out. He promised to show me the sights, introduce me to a couple friends, and let me check out his collection. Justin also mentioned having some ray guns for sale if I was interested. If I was interested? What a question...

So I get to California and eventually, Justin gives me the tour of his collection. At the end, we stopped in front of a desk covered with ray guns. "These are what I've got for you," he said. I stared, unable to process what I was seeing. Five or six guns, almost all of which appeared prominently in the Metcalf book. What a haul!

Among them was the Renwal Planet Jet, a ridiculously rare toy that I knew I'd be taking home with me. Sitting next to it was a pristine Strato Gun. There was also a small, pressed tin clicker made by a company called Tomy. A Pez gun in classic, fire-engine red was next. And then... the 3-Color gun!

I couldn't afford all of them -- heck, the Planet Jet alone knocked out a large chunk of my toy-buying budget. I could grab one more, and I decided to go with the 3-Color gun. I'd never seen one for sale before, and I'd been lusting after it for so long... It wasn't a difficult decision!



However, it turned out to be the wrong decision. Kind of. I was tempted by the Strato Gun, but passed because, at the time, it was popping up on eBay regularly. I figured I'd get one somewhere down the road. Unfortunately, the supply soon dried up and prices pretty much quadrupled. The 3-Color gun, on the other hand, turned out to be more common than I thought. Whoops! (Read more about this sordid tale here!)

Nonetheless, I don't regret buying the Ideal gun. It remains one of my favorite toys, and the memories make me smile every time I pick it up. Which, I've gotta say, is often.

Like I said, the toy appears on eBay fairly often, and is available in two standard color variations: A red body with a blue trigger, switch, fin assembly, and lens housing; and a blue body with a red trigger, switch, fin assembly, and lens housing. Every once in a while, blue triggers will appear with blue bodies, etc. There's also a much rarer variation -- I've only seen one -- with a black body and red trigger, switch, fin assembly, and lens housing. This matches the toy as depicted on its box, so there's some thought that it might be a salesman's sample. I had a chance to buy it, but I passed. I feel kind of dumb about that today, but I just didn't have the scratch back then to make it happen. Oh well.

Space Pilot Nuclear Missile Gun (Merit / U.K. / 1950s / 6 x 9 inches)

It's sometimes hard to believe that these toys were made for children. Take, for instance, the Space Pilot Nuclear Missile Gun, which has a handle suitable for any adult hand. It's like they anticipated the collector market; either that, or whoever owned Merit saw in this gun an opportunity to live out his own space adventure fantasies. And who can blame him?

The Space Pilot Nuclear Missile Gun is really an insane concept. Consider it: A pistol that fired some sort of nuclear missile! It's yet another example of the awesome mixed signals -- "Fun toys fire nuclear missiles!" -- that popped from the collective mind of a civilization living at the dawn of the atomic age.

Regardless, this British toy is fantastic. The wonderful, fluid lines; the shiny silver plastic; the dials; the compass. I tell ya, every space gun should have a compass. Every space toy should have a compass. "Hey, see that space compass over there, the one you wear on your wrist? It'd be even cooler if had a tiny compass attached to it." I love compasses.

The Space Pilot Nuclear Missile Gun was loosely designed around the mechanism found previously in both the Space Patrol and Dan Dare Rocket Guns. It's similar in size and fires the same type of darts.

Both dials turn. The green one is an "Interplanetary Selector," with settings for Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The red one is the "Velocity Control," and ranges from 1,000 to 14,000. Yes, yes, they're just free-spinning knobs that don't control anything, but it's fun to imagine sending a nuclear missile screaming towards Saturn at a velocity of 14,000... um... somethings. On the other hand, am I the only one who's disturbed that the gun has an Earth setting?

As far as I know, the only variations have to do with the knob and cap colors; besides red and green, I've also seen blue. No color is scarcer than any other.

This is a pretty rare gun, especially in complete condition. It's almost always missing the little cap on the back, as well as that compass. The knobs can fall out, too. Despite the toy's scarcity, I recommend holding out for as complete an example as possible -- they do show up, all you need is patience.

Bell-Barreled Space Clicker Gun (Unknown / 1950s / U.S. / 4.5 x 6 inches)

First, apologies all around for not posting over these last couple weeks. It's been a busy time, but I'm back and rarin' to go!

Today we've got one of the many space guns whose names are, alas, lost in the mists of time. "Bell-Barreled" is more of a description than an actual appellation, something to help the gun stand out amidst what I'm sure will one day be hordes of simply named "Space Guns." Still and all, she's quite the doozy!

I really love candy-colored guns. There's a whimsical ridiculousness to their design, an innocence that belies the weapons' intent. Many early guns were produced in these colors -- in case you haven't already noticed -- in part because these were the shade of plastic that manufacturers had on hand. Remember, before making space guns, most of these companies (Renwal, Park, Palmer, Pyro, Marx, and all the rest) were making more common toys for children. Bright colors equal fun. It wasn't until science fiction proved itself as a marketable genre that a lot of these companies switched to metallic plastics. (Some were doing so by the early Fifties, but most silver, bronze, or gold guns don't seem to show up until midway through the decade, at least.)

This particular ray gun doesn't do a whole heck of a lot. It clicks -- because they pretty much all click -- and it has a neat "whoosh" whistle in the back that you can blow to make a siren sound. Perfect for calling in reinforcements when you realize that those rampaging aliens aren't dropping dead no matter how madly you click the trigger. (Hopefully your buddies will be armed with something a bit more effective, though the truth is, they'll probably show up with water guns!)

Even though I don't know much -- okay, anything -- about this toy, I feel pretty confident with the 1950s date. Besides the colors, which were used a lot during the period, there's also the really thin, really cheap plastic. Nothing feels quite like early styrene, and even by the Sixties, quality was markedly improved. Lastly, there's the complete lack of markings, including country of origin. Most space guns from the Sixties were manufactured in Hong Kong, and are clearly marked as such. American guns from the Fifties, on the other hand, often weren't marked with anything.

Of course, this is all speculation -- for all I know, this one was made in the Eighties. (Though I seriously doubt it.) Regardless, it's a great space gun with bright, fun colors and a nifty shape that's ready for action.

Strato Gun (Futuristic Products Co. / 1953 / U.S. / 4 x 8.5 inches)

I think what I love most about the Strato Gun is that it really looks like the prop from some great, old science fiction adventure flick. It's fancifully futuristic, but at the same time, it kind of looks like it means business. If your business is blasting BEMs from Betelgeuse.

The Strato Gun is made from chrome-plated, die-cast metal, and it has a pleasing, solid heft -- even in an adult's hand. The toy fires rolls of caps, a simple enough ammunition used by not only junior spacemen, but also junior cowboys, junior pirates, junior cops, and junior soldiers. If you were armed and underage in the Fifties and Sixties, you were probably packing a cap gun.

The body and barrel of the gun flip upwards, revealing the cap mechanism just above the handle.

The toy was originally available in both chrome and matte finishes. (There's also a plastic Dan Dare water pistol made in the U.K. that borrows heavily from the Strato Gun's design.) The chrome version comes up most often, which I think is pretty good since I like it more than its (literally) duller brother.

This ray gun and I go back quite a ways. See, when I first started collecting, Strato Guns appeared on eBay with some regularity -- maybe once every month or two -- and prices were fairly consistent. Consequently, I never bothered bidding on the gun, instead holding my money for whatever rare pieces might pop up. My attitude was, "I can get one whenever I want, so for now I'll go after all the tough stuff."

One day, I was visiting the collector and dealer Justin Pinchot in sunny California. He presented me with a table full of guns for sale, including a dead mint Strato Gun. After giving it some thought, I decided on two guns: the extremely rare and utterly beautiful Renwal Planet Jet (which remains one of my all-time favorites), and a fairly common -- though extremely cool looking -- Ideal 3-Color Futurama Gun. To be fair, I didn't know whether the Futurama gun was common or not; I was new to the game and hadn't yet gained any real perspective.

Regardless, I passed on the Strato Gun because, hey, I could get one any time I wanted. Unless, of course, the supply dried up. Which it did. And unless the price climbed to about six times what I could have bought it for. Which it did.

Fast forward about four or five years. I was down in Adamstown, PA, with my friend, Karl Tate, and my girlfriend, shooting a profile of the Toy Robot Museum and its curator, Joe Knedlhans. We had taken a break for the day and decided to hit Morphy's auction house -- they also have cases full of toys being sold on consignment and you never know what you're going to find.

I still didn't own a Strato Gun because I refused to pay more than I was originally prepared to spend all those years ago. Yep, I can be stubborn like that.

I was wandering around, checking out the toys, when from a few cases over my girlfriend lets out a little yell. I rush to see what she's found and discover, sitting on a shelf and gleaming in the overhead light, a shiny Strato Gun. My pulse raced a bit as I stooped down to check out the price tag; it went into overdrive when I saw that the gun cost pretty much what I remembered it costing a few years earlier. It wasn't quite as clean as the one Justin offered me, but it was close enough. About five minutes later, I walked out the door with my newly purchased prize.

There was definitely a feeling of closure when I finally stuck the toy on my shelf; I had my Strato Gun, and a hole in my collection had finally been filled. It also stands as a powerful reminder: Every time I get bummed out about missing an auction or letting a toy slip through my fingers, all I have to do it glance at the Strato Gun and I remember that everything comes up again, and nothing's more important to a collector than patience.

Sing it, Axl! "Just a little patience/Oooh yeah/Just a little patience..."

Space Explorer Gun (Palmer Plastic / Early 1950s / U.S. / 4 x 6 inches)

I first discovered the Space Explorer Gun while flipping through the pages of Gene Metcalf's excellent book, Ray Gun. And even though it isn't the fanciest ray gun ever produced, I wanted it from the moment I saw it.

In this case, it's all about the entire package -- the tight, sweet display of ray gun, dart, and wonderfully primitive space art. Of course, the flimsy cardboard backing rarely survived the decades and the dart was probably the first thing to get lost, so I never held out much hope of actually owning a complete set. Which is why I was so shocked to find one on eBay early on in my collecting. I bid pretty hard, but apparently no one else was interested because I snagged it for next to nothing. Saint Jude might be the patron saint of lost causes, but he ain't got nothin' on eBay.

The Space Explorer Gun is pretty simple, but there's something quaint about the funky little lightning bolt and shooting star designs. I also love the two-tone look, which I never knew about until I had the gun in my hands. Photo books are fun, but they never tell the whole story, which is why I always recommend that collectors try to see other people's toys whenever possible. (Try to get an invitation first, though. The Attic of Astounding Artifacts does not condone peeping in through other collectors' windows.)

As far as I know, this particular dart is unique to the Space Explorer Gun; other darts had explosive tips of various types, but none were designed quite like this one. I like that the display card proclaims: "Explosive Dart... SAFE AND HARMLESS." Because nothing inspires feelings of safety like the word "explosive." But these kinds of mixed messages appeared all the time on the packaging for old space guns, and frankly, I think the naivete was part of their charm.

A cap would be placed in the small opening. The spring-loaded suction cup acted as a firing pin.

When this toy arrived in the mail, I was surprised to discover a second dart. The toy was never sold that way, so I tucked it away, figuring I'd sell it to someone who had the gun. Then, one day, my friend Don won the gun and display card -- but no dart. After chatting a bit, I decided to trade it to him -- for goods to be determined. He didn't have anything I wanted at the time, but he really needed to have the dart so I figured I'd just send it to him and worry about it later.

About six months after that, he did me a solid by hooking me up with a gun that by all rights belonged to him. He'd won it on eBay, I was the underbidder -- neither of us knew the other was bidding -- and after listening to me wax rhapsodic about the gun, he decided that it belonged in my collection. He wouldn't take no for an answer, and sold it to me for what he paid. (Which was only a dollar more than my high bid.)

Well! It was such a nice gesture on his part that I also absolved him of any lingering obligations relating to that Space Explorer dart -- it really was the least I could do, seeing as he didn't have to let me have the gun. In the end, we all win.

Once again, it's all about Toy Karma, guys and gals. Collecting can be cutthroat -- but it doesn't have to be. If we help each other out, we'll all end up with pretty sweet collections.

Space Water Pistol (Reliable / 1950s / CAN / 3.5 x 5.5 inches)

Another unnamed ray gun, this time a water pistol. Call it what you like, but with those deco swoops, spacey fins, and sweet curves, it's not a toy you're likely to forget.

Reliable, a Canadian company, pulled out all the stops, turning the basic water pistol into a work of art. I particularly like how the toy becomes a very Flash Gordon-esque rocket when looked at from above. Very clever!

The gun also features a compass, something I wish more toys included. You just can't go wrong with a compass. Not only does it look awesome, it provides some much needed functionality. After all, space men can't rescue alien princesses if they're lost in the woods!

Reliable's water pistol was available in the usual variety of colors. And take a look at the tip of the gun. Water pistols in the 1950s often featured brass tips. It's a nice touch, a mark of quality construction. Looks cool, too, right? Lots of vintage ray guns are missing this tip, so when shopping around for one, make sure it's complete.

Space Gun (Unknown / 1950s / U.S. / 3.5 x 5 inches)

Space Gun. Yep. That's all I've got. I don't know what it's called, I don't know who made it. I do know, however, that it's got a great design with lots of detail, and there ain't nothing much cooler than silver plastic.

This little clicker also came in a rainbow of colors, most commonly red, blue, and green. It's not a difficult toy to find, thought its thin, brittle plastic means a lot of them come up damaged. Still, it's a potentially inexpensive addition to any collection.

If anyone's got any hard and fast info on this gun, please let me know!

Space Rocket Gun (U.S. Plastics / U.S. / 1953 / 3.5 x 5 inches)

You want space-age style? Fine. Here's your space-age style!

I bought this ray gun when I first began collecting, after falling in love with a picture of it in the book Ray Gun, by Eugene Metcalf. I couldn't get over the wildly designed front site; the rings at the end of the barrel; the embossed planets, stars, and rockets; and all the other little details that helped give the gun such a strong sense of movement. I mean, this thing screamed "Space Gun," positively bellowed it from the top of the mountain.

But there were two details that the photo in Metcalf's book failed to convey. First, the gun is actually made of two different colored halves. It can be found in a wide combination of colors, including -- in no particular pairing -- red, yellow, blue, green, black, and white. I'm pretty sure I've seen silver, and possibly a mottled, marbled kind of color. It's a nice touch that adds even more playfulness to the gun's design.

The second omission is more my fault than the book's. See, Metcalf was kind enough to include some raw data on each toy, including manufacturer, date (when known), country of origin, material, and size. The thing is, I didn't pay too much attention to these details when I first got the book. And the photos, well, let's just say they didn't convey scale very well.

So you can imagine my surprise when I opened the package containing this gun and discovered that somehow U.S. Plastics managed to cram so much detail onto a toy that's only five inches long. Yep, this here space blaster is teeny-tiny. A hold-out gun, the kind of thing you keep secreted away in your boot cuff until you can see the whites, pinks, greens, and yellows of the Venusian's 36 eyes. Then you whip it out and blast him!

I've got to say, though, I really like the gun's small size. It makes all the embossing that much more impressive. It's like a miniature work of art; like scrimshaw for the junior spaceman. Any larger and the Space Clicker would probably just look garish.

This simple clicker gun is pretty easy to find on eBay, and usually doesn't sell for too much money. Often, though, the trigger is broken and swings freely. Also, the small bit sticking out from the top of the gun, directly above the trigger, is commonly missing. If you're trying to add one to your collection, play it smart and hold out for a mint example -- you won't be waiting long, and you won't pay very much.

A simple, inexpensive, cheaply made little toy, one that was sold out of bins at the front of toy stores -- who would have guessed that today it'd be considered a classic?

Zetaray (Pifco / Early 1960s / U.K. / 4.5 x 7 inches)

Sorry for the delay, everybody. The holidays can be a busy time... and a lazy time. But we're back, and ending 2009 with a bang! Get it? Hm...

The Zetaray, by a British company called Pifco, is definitely one of the gee-whizziest ray guns in my collection. Its sleek, slick lines and sweeping fins make it look more like a space ship than a space gun, and the metallic blue plastic is probably the most beautiful finish you're likely to find on any toy.

Of course, like so many of these ray guns, the looks outweigh the functionality -- this one clicks and has a flashlight in the barrel. But it's still enough to have made the Zetaray a fun toy for kids to play with back in the day.

The gun is clearly modeled on the Radionic Resonator Beam Gun (which I wrote about here), which was made by the British manufacturer Multum. Pifco modified the tail fin and ditched the more complicated, multi-color lens array. They also offered up the Zetaray in a second color, metallic bronze, which is quite striking. Still, I've got to say I like the blue one more. It's definitely less common.

The basic Pifco version of the design was reused a few other times. There's version from Argentina called the Linterna Espacial, which is available in both red and green. And I recently saw an amazing version from Australia called the Supersonic Space Shooter that includes a color-changing mechanism similar to the one found on the Radionic Resonator Beam Gun.

Australia's version of this classic gun. Pic via eBay.

While all these variations might be tough to get, luckily for collectors, the Zetaray isn't that hard to find, and can usually be had for a reasonable price. Which is nice, because it's a great piece that looks stellar in any collection.

Dan Dare Atomic-Jet Gun (D.C.M.T. / 1950s / U.K. / 4 x 6.5 inches)

Americans had been enjoying the exploits of Buck Rogers for more than 20 years when Frank Hampson created Colonel Dan Dare for for a comic strip in Britain's Eagle Magazine in 1950. Despite the late start, the U.K.'s toy market was quickly flooded with dozens of amazing toys and tie-ins, from space ships to pop-up books to walkie talkies to ray guns. Yes, ray guns. Sweet, sweet ray guns. And one of the best of the lot is the Atomic-Jet Gun.

The Atomic-Jet has a lot of stylistic zing, making it a popular ray gun today. But it's definitely one of the less common Dan Dare toys, probably due in part to the delicate plastic construction. A little rough play and Britain's space cadets would be left with inoperable firearms. Not a good position to be in when the Mekon's hoards attack. (The Mekon, for the uninitiated, was Dan Dare's fiercest enemy.)

That is one thin freakin' ray gun!

As far as I know, the Dan Dare Atomic-Jet has no variations. But then again, I'm constantly being surprised by this hobby, so who can say? Rare in any condition, when it does pop up it often has some cracks, or a broken trigger, or a missing plastic tip. It's almost always missing the black plastic cap on the back of the water tank. In fact, mine is a reproduction that I made out of Super Sculpey. Not half-bad, if I do say so myself! (I did find a company online that makes small, plastic caps that look like they might be a closer match to the original piece. I've ordered a few different sizes, if they work out well I'll update this post.)

Now, while the toy might not have variations, it does have some relatives. The gun is clearly based on an American toy from the 1940's: Hiller's aluminum Atom Ray water pistol.

via toyraygun.com

It's also related to an earlier British gun, also called the Atomic-Jet, which was made out of metal by a company called Crescent (and which was itself based on the Hiller).

via toyraygun.com

All three toys share the same handle, large water tank, and general shape. However, the Crescent version of the Atomic-Jet is a bit more elegant, with a barrel that's been moved up so that it can extend directly from the tank. In one final bit of weirdness, the box for the Dan Dare Atomic-Jet Gun depicts the titular hero holding the Crescent Atomic-Jet Gun. Like I said, weird.

While many collectors favor the original Hiller version of the gun -- and hey, what's not to love? -- the Dan Dare Atomic-Jet is probably the rarest of the three. It just wasn't as durable as the other two toys, whose metal construction helped them survive many an imaginary battle. Personally, I can't say which I like the best. The two metal guns have greater design cohesion, but there's just something compelling about the brightly colored plastic. To me, it screams "mid-century."

Heck, I'll gladly take all three!

This is a gun I've wanted for a loooong time -- it was really a thrill when I finally snagged it. So c'mon, Mekon -- I double Dan Dare you to make your move!

Another Vintage Space Toy Photo

Many thanks to Attic contributor Karl Tate, who uncovered photographic proof that yes, dressing like a Space Cadet won't always scare off the girls. Especially girls who are cool enough to dress like Space Cadets, too!

Awwww...

It probably helps that the guy dressed to impress, and sports a snazzy Space Scout helmet, by Renwal. The photo is from Life Magazine, and was taken by Robert W. Kelley at what is described as a "Science Fiction Party, Oak Ridge." It's dated 1954, which, incidentally, is as close as we've come to figuring out when the helmet was made. Nice archeology work, Karl!

Here's a photo of mine, which I wrote about -- along with Renwal's wonderful Planet Jet Gun -- here.

Rocket Jet Space Gun (U.S. Plastics / 1953 / U.S. / 4.5 x 5.5 inches); Space Gun (Plast-Trix / 1950s / U.S. / 4 x 4.5 inches)

It's been a while since I've written about ray guns, so today I'm featuring two. Talk about... wait for it... bang for your buck! (That pun's for you, Andy!)

I really love these little guns. They're simple toys, and do what you expect a squirt gun to do: squirt water. Bu their looks -- now that's something special! The smooth, metallic finish looks nearly liquid in the right light, like the toy was made out of mercury or something. Pretty darn striking.

The Rocket Jet has a few variations. This one's all silver, but the toy's also often found with a bright, orange trigger. The tip, which is concave like the front of an old-school jet engine, is also sometimes orange. There's another version out there with a translucent red trigger. However, I've got to say, the pure silver version's my favorite.

The trigger guard is often missing on the Rocket Jet. It's usually a clean break, and you often can't tell anything was supposed to be there.

The other gun, which, as far as I know, has no special name, is a little less common than the Rocket Jet. Honestly, I don't know a whole lot about it. I'm going to assume there are variations out there, but I couldn't tell you what they look like.

Those swoopy looking marks on the gun -- under the back fin, under the front of the decorative side piece -- are actually part of the plastic. This "marbling" is common in metallic plastic, and many collectors (myself included) look for it specifically.

Regardless of my feelings about the all-silver Rocket Jet, I really love the red trigger and stopper on this gun. The colors pop like fireworks.

Like I said, these are your standard water pistols: fill 'em up and piss off the cat. It's hard to tell in the photos, but the tip of the un-named gun is a white, hexagonal piece of plastic. Many, many water pistols from the 1950s had these types of tips, and they're a surefire way to tell whether a gun is modern or not. In most cases, this tip will be brass colored (or, actually made from brass). Again, a great way to ID an older water pistol.

U.S. Plastics used an incredibly thin material when making the Rocket Jet. If you shine a light through it, you can see the water pistol mechanism.

U.S. Plastics, who mad the Rocket Jet, also produced a number of Space Patrol ray guns. I don't know much about Plas-Trix, but they've got a pretty funky name and the company was based out of Brooklyn, NY, so they've gotta be at least kind of cool, right? Right.

I was actually pretty dismissive of water pistols when I first began collecting. There are so many of the translucent, plastic ones floating around, and it seemed like most were produced in Hong Kong during the latter half of the Twentieth century. Heck, I grew up with the things. They're still produced today! Pshaw!

But then I started to give them a closer look, and I realized I was being a kind of dumb. Many of the greatest plastic ray guns from the 1950s and early Sixties happened to be water pistols, and by ignoring them I was denying myself some amazing additions to my collection. So I hired a thug to knock some sense into me. Too bad I didn't know that his cough syrup addiction made him meaner than your average roustabout, because that beating went on a little longer than I'd have liked. But it must have worked, because before I could say, "Hey, I've still got one tooth left!" I was logged into eBay and bidding on water pistols. I haven't looked back since. (Mostly because I can't really turn my head too far in either direction anymore.)

So let my pain be a lesson for you: Don't get all snooty about your collection, don't limit yourself, and don't hire a thug with a wicked addiction to cough syrup.