firearms

[davemerrill]

At some point when we were too old to play with toy guns, they came out with these awesome Italian spring-powered guns that fired little yellow plastic bullets.



My brother and I both got one. There was a 4-shot spring loaded clip and a bolt on the side to load and cock the action. It had surprising range and was a lot of fun to shoot people with. I think we annoyed people in a three state area with those things. Eventually the bolt broke off and the guns quit working. I later bought a cap pistol that was built using a similar mold, but it wasn't the same.

The pistol came with a little catalog in six languages illustrated with spy-type photo montages and weird airbrushed art. The same outfit also released a pump-action sub-machine gun version that resembled a Beretta Model 12.

It's just as well they don't sell these things any more because I would totally buy one and shoot the cat with it, er, I mean, NOT ever think about shooting the cat with it when she misbehaves, no sir.

Comments

[jasonrmerrill.livejournal.com]

I still have both of them. Bullets are all long gone. I've seen quite a few used as costume props (and on book covers, etc).

The company is still in business, but has no real US distributor. Their latest catalog can be found here: http://www.edisongiocattoli.it/index.php?products

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

Does the action still work on those pistols?

I believe I have a few of the bullets lying around, stuffed in boxes or wherever.

[jasonrmerrill.livejournal.com]

They do. You had filed the side cocking handle off yours, so it has to be pushed back with something. That's the only way it fits into a holster comfortably.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

As I recall, the bolt handle broke off on mine. At one point I had just screwed a phillips head screw into it so I could work it back and forth, but eventually that didn't hold in the plastic, so I just filed it down smooth.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

Scroll down to page 12 of that catalog for Lil' Patty Hearst!

I still have the "Uzimatic", I think I bought it at one of the first Chattacons we went to. The cap action no longer works, though.

[sobieniak.livejournal.com]

Well, it's not a total loss if you know the right people as usual.

[kidfenris.livejournal.com]

That pistol looked really familiar to me, but I couldn't remember where I'd seen it before. I was too young to have one as a kid, after all.

Then I remembered where I saw it: Shadowrun (http://gods-inc.de/macavity/IsleOfShadows/weapons/pistols.html). The weapon designers ripped off its look for the Colt American pistol.

[jasonrmerrill.livejournal.com]

Lots of artists have used it as a prop. I think I saw it on a Dave Dorman cover painting at least twice. Always cool to see it and know where it came from.

[frustratedpilot]

Very neat design. While pellet pistols are commonly found--especially in flea market stalls--I don't remember seeing one exactly like this one. Perhaps this weekend I'll see if there's a vendor in the area that might have a replica available.

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

Toy guns, I know toy guns, I am a toy gun otaku.

There was a BROAD range of these from Edison, and they were all magnificant. They were geared for all price points so everybody could pack yellow rubber bullet heat.

Off the top of my head I have:

That one in the picture, it's meant to be a target pistol (hence the weights and sight)

There is indeed one that looks like the Model 12, the magazine holds I think 12 bullets, then there's a stub magazine in the forward grip that held I think 4 bullets, maybe 6 that you could swap out. It was a pump action, push the back towards the front and POP!

There was a big bulky pistol with 4 barrels. You cocked the action on the top of the frame, fired, then manually rotated the barrels to put the next in line. I LOVE the look of this one.

There was a 'pocket' pistol where you folded the grip over the barrel to carry. Single shot but carried extra bullets in holes in the grip.

Then the Chinese jumped in and started cranking out copies, and someone did a sweet original submachine gun that looked alot like a Tec 9 with a 20 round mag. Single shot (that is, had to be cocked again and again to empy the mag) but it worked well.

I recall seeing back in '82 they had many of these as electronic 'space' guns, and I think some cap versions surfaced from Edison, and again all the knock-offs.

I love these. I LOVE them. The sculpting is so original, so...so...ITALIAN. God, like props from Barbarella or something.

[dave-iii.livejournal.com]

I remember those guns... very nice feel, good heft for a toy gun. Can't remember if they shot worth a damn, but when you're running around and acting like an idiot that's just a minor detail.

[jasonrmerrill.livejournal.com]

I seem to remember putting shots way up into the bleachers from the stage in the "old gym" at Campbell. Not that we carried them at school or anything like that...

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the yellow rubber bullets worked really well with the pneumatic system they developed. Generally every gun had decent range and pretty good force. I'd say 20 feet and able to knock over a paper cup would be the norm. I know for a fact you felt those things when shot in the 5-10 foot range.

I want to go on record saying that after looking at both catalogs, I would go for a case of each and every gun. Most of the cap guns are kinda lame but a couple of those are really sweet. I could see some easy modifying into cool costume props.

If you could actually carry the damn things in this crazy paranoid time. *sigh*

[sobieniak.livejournal.com]

It's sad the way things are now. Kids can't even comprehend simple logic.