August 23, 2002

2:48 PM

What did kids play with before this came along? Beautiful metal ray-guns like these. This site has a lot of history, and here are some books about these fantastic toys from a long-gone age. Want to start a collection? Be prepared to pay.
posted by interrobang (11 comments total)

Not to be a nerd, but isn't that Han Solo's Blaster in the first pic?
posted by effer27 at 2:53 PM on August 23, 2002

Haw! Up until two months ago I lived one block away from Gasoline Alley Antiques (of the "these fantastic toys" link above). I can assure you that they had that Pez raygun, along with an astounding assortment of other cra -- uh, "collectables".
posted by Shadowkeeper at 2:56 PM on August 23, 2002

Not to be a nerd, but isn't that Han Solo's Blaster in the first pic?

Here's Han Solo's blaster, you nerd. : )
posted by Ty Webb at 4:57 PM on August 23, 2002

Also, great post.
posted by Ty Webb at 4:57 PM on August 23, 2002

Ty, Similar items. I don't recall where Luke used it in ESB. You Ubernerd :o)
posted by effer27 at 6:04 PM on August 23, 2002

I think the Orkin Man uses the first one these day.
posted by Hall at 6:20 PM on August 23, 2002

(sigh)...the parents, fearing brother against brother percussive demonstrations, would never buy us the metal toys. We had to make with the plastic ray-guns, and they didn't really shoot rays like it looked on the box.
posted by crunchburger at 6:33 PM on August 23, 2002

Wow, those are some fussocking beautiful toys.

crunchburger: my parents were so anti gun that I never had any toy guns, plastic or otherwise. My solution: I would chew my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches into the shape of a gun and play with that...until I finished eating it.
posted by untuckedshirts at 8:43 PM on August 23, 2002

untucked, my mother banned them, too for my brothers and I--it was a Vietnam-era thing...no one in our neighborhood had toy guns either....I don't even remember our GI Joes having them (which is weird--we could play w/army guys but not with guns: maybe because they were really dolls?)
posted by amberglow at 8:16 AM on August 24, 2002

Ty, Similar items. I don't recall where Luke used it in ESB.

Yeah, based on the same German machine-pistol, I think. Luke used it in Cloud City when trying to save Han and Leia.
posted by Ty Webb at 11:18 AM on August 24, 2002

At the eBay link, I think that this is the real find.
posted by mikrophon at 6:42 AM on August 26, 2002