- Toy weapon
Toy weapons are
toy s that mimic realweapon s, but are designed to be fun for children to play with and less dangerous.Types of toy weapons
Some are essentially similar to the real thing, but less powerful. Weapons for cutting and stabbing have dull blades usually in plastic. Weapons formerly made out of
metal andwood are now often made of a lighter material such asplastic . Toy guns either cannot really shootprojectile s or just soft ones such as cork shootingpop gun s orNerf darts with limitedvelocity .However, cap pistols use caps with extremely small amounts of explosives for the sound effect. Toy
hand grenade s do not contain explosives except for a cap.BB gun s are often called toy guns, but their shots can cause bodily harm.Many newer toy weapons are brightly colored and oddly shaped to appeal to children and distinguish them from the real thing (see Dangers below). For example, a toy that shoots Nerf balls might have a rounded shape and a neon yellow color.
For big weapons, the toy version is usually on a smaller scale. It might be much smaller, such as a toy
catapult that is convert|20|cm|in|0 tall. Or it might just be sized for children, such as asquirt gun that is half the size of a similarfirearm .A prop weapon (such as a stage gun or a stage sword) has to look real, but like a toy weapon, it should not be dangerous. A woodworking business, the Parris Manufacturing Company was contracted by the
United States Government to provide over 2 million accurate copies of theM1903 Springfield rifles for the largeWorld War II USarmed forces . After the war they manufactured and sold their replicas todrill team s and to children as toy guns. [www.parrismfgco.com]Popularity and proliferation
Children have always had small imitations of things from the adult world and toy weapons are no exception. From a hand carved wooden replica to factory produced
pop gun s andcap gun s, toy weapons came in all sizes, prices and materials from wood to metal.With the influence of
Hollywood andcomic strips ,tie-in s could make an ordinary toy gun a majorbestseller . In the 1930sDaisy Outdoor Products came out with aBuck Rogers Rocket Pistol (1933), Disintegrator Pistol (1934), and Liquid Helium Pistol (1935) that sold in record numbers. [www.daisymuseum.com]In 1940 Daisy went from
spacemen tocowboy s with theirRed Ryder BB Gun that still is in production today. Though theRed Ryder comic strip is not as popular as it was with itsspin-off s onradio and the cinema, theRed Ryder BB Gun gained a new life from the film "A Christmas Story ". In the 1950smotion pictures andtelevision heroesRoy Rogers ,Gene Autry ,Hopalong Cassidy andDavy Crockett added their names to toysix shooter s andrifle s.Mattel had usedtelevision advertising to sell their "burp gun " on "The Mickey Mouse Club " in the mid 1950s to great effect. In 1959 Mattel sponsored their own television showMatty's Funday Funnies with theirtrademark little boy "Matty" showing cartoons and advertising their products.Mattel toys came out withDick Tracy weapons in 1960 that werestate of the art . Not only could the "Dick Tracy Crimestoppers" have a realisticsnubnosed revolver in a shoulderholster , butMattel also boosted junior law enforcementfirepower with aDick Tracy cap firing tommy gun that fired a burst of 6 caps "automatically" when the M-1 Thompson-style bolt was pulled back.Mattel also came up with a "Dick Tracy Water Jet Gun" that was a miniature replica of a policepump action shotgun that fired caps when you pulled the trigger "and" squirted water when you pumped the slide. When theDick Tracy craze faded the same two weapons were reissued inmilitary camouflage asGreen Beret "Guerrilla Fighter" weapons. (seeUnited States Army Special Forces in popular culture ).Mattel later issued the sametommy gun in its original colours as a "Planet of the Apes"tie-in complete with ape mask.In the mid 1960s Multiple Toymakers/Multiple Plastics Corporation (MPC) came out with
James Bond 'sattache case from "From Russia With Love".Topper Toys replied with a copy called "Secret Sam" that featured a toy gun that fired plastic bullets "through" theattache case and had a working camera that outsold 007's kit. MPC toys replied with a "B.A.R.K" - "Bond Assault and Raider Kit" anattache case that opened up to display a firing mortar and a rocket shootingpistol . MPC also provided a "Bond-O-Matic"water pistol . Bond'stelevision competitionThe Man From UNCLE had their pistol with attachments that turned it into a rifle made by both theIdeal Toy Company in the US and theLone Star Toys company in the United Kingdom.Perhaps inspired by "
Zulu (film) " but not advertised as a film tie in, a mid 1960's child's toyblowgun the size of aball point pen called a "Zulugun" was produced that shot plastic sticking darts that sadly were often inhaled and swallowed. [http://www.chestjournal.org/cgi/reprint/55/4/356-a.pdf]In the 1970s the
Star Wars motion pictures provided newrayguns andlightsabers produced byKenner Toys.Perhaps the ultimate toy weapon was the 1964
Topper Toys Johnny Seven OMA (One Man Army) where an excitingtelevision commercial showed one little boy using each of the seven weapons of the gun to wipe out a neighborhood full of children armed only with "ordinary" toy guns. Though an amazing seller, theCaptain Kangaroo television program refused to air the advertisement. The proliferation of toy weapons was satirized in the "Our Man in Toyland" episode of "Get Smart ".Dangers and controversy
Toy weapons can cause harm like most objects in the hands of children. Unlike most other toys though, much of the danger of these toys is related to mistaking a toy weapon for a real weapon.
As
plastic replaced wood and metal in toy weapon manufacture, so did real weapons such as the M-16 start a trend to use plastic in manufacturing modernassault rifles . Current military rifles such as theSteyr AUG now resemble children's toys. Technological advancement also enabled weapons to be the same size of toy weapons. In previous daysColt Peacemaker pistols,Winchester lever action rifles,tommy gun s, andLouis Marx and Company children's versions of the M-1 and M-14 were noticeably scaled down in size and unlikely to be mistaken for the real thing. From the 1960s weapons like theUzi andMac-10 submachine gun s are the same size as children's toys.Problems with toy weapons that look very much like a real one include:
*arobber or other criminal might threaten people with a toy weapon
*people might flee and panic, or overpower the carrier of a toy weapon
*police officer s or other authorities treating the carrier of a toy weapon as armed may harm him or her, and take measures such as closing an area, causing disruption to the public; it causes work for the authorities
*a child might handle a real weapon confusing it with a toyTherefore these toy weapons are forbidden in many countries. Realistic looking toys are often called "replicas". In the
United States since 1992, toy guns are required to have an orange plug or be entirely brightly colored to signify them as toys.Toy weapons are sometimes banned from certain
public place s where responses could cause a disruption.Attempts at toy disarmament
There is a controversy as to whether or not toy weapons are appropriate for children to play with. Some people believe they can teach children
violence .Jean Shepherd 's alleged encounter with a righteous elderly woman wearing a "DISARM THE TOY INDUSTRY" button led to his writing hisnostalgic story about hisRed Ryder BB Gun "Duel in the Snow, "or" Red Ryder Nails the Cleveland Street Kid" published in "Playboy magazine " in 1964. The story became part of his 1966 collection "In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash" that was used as the basis of the film "A Christmas Story ". [Estate of Jean Shepherd, "A Christmas Story" Broadway Books (2003)]Toy guns were removed from the
Sears Roebuck 1968Christmas catalog after the assassinations of civil rights leaderMartin Luther King, Jr. andU.S. Senator , formerUnited States Attorney General , andpresidential candidate Robert Francis Kennedy . [Sifakis, Carl "Encyclopedia of Assassinations: Revised Edition" Fitzhenry & Whiteside (2002)]English Children's
Clown Barney Baloney AKA Tony Turner is a practitioner ofballoon modelling . He was banned from providing children with shapedtoy balloon s because a nationalsupermarket chain said thelatex may be harmful. Barney stated "I also go into schools to entertain children and recently inRotherham I was told that I mustn't make guns out of balloons because it could encourageviolence but I was told it was okay to makesword s". [www.dailymail.co.UK 16 Aug 2007]ee also
*
Airsoft
*Lasertag
*Nerf
*Tie-in
*N-Strike
*Paintball References
External links
* [http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/01/08/ctv.toy.guns/ CNN: "A toy gun, a real crime"] . (
January 8 ,2003 ) Matt Bean on the dangers of toy guns being mistaken for real ones in the U.S.
* [http://www.toyraygun.com/ Toy Rayguns]
* [http://www.sscentral.org/ Super Soaker Central]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.