Who remembers comic book character "Sarge Steel" with his steel fist and Luger?

[Bill_in_fl]

Who remembers the 1960's comic book character "Sarge Steel" with his steel left hand and his omnipresent shoulder holstered nickel plated luger (author called it "silver") he always used ? One of my favorite Charlton comics detective characters of the 1960's. I didn't keep track of him after D.C. years later acquired the character from Charlton.

I think reading about him in comics when I was a little kid in the early to mid 1960's, was my very first introduction to what a Luger was and looked like. He always used a Luger and was the only comic hero I know of that did from that era (early to mid 1960's). Matter of fact, he's the ONLY comic hero I can remember who always used a luger (at least while his character was at Charlton comics before D.C. acquired him). Read about him at these below links.

http://www.writeups.org/fiche.php?id=5084

http://www.writeups.org/fiche.php?id=5104

http://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=24224

Nazis and former Nazis made the best villians for us kids in the '60's didn't they? Lol. Gee, you think "The Smiling Skull" might have been a ripoff of Captain America's villainous adversary "The Red Skull"? Naw, just a coincidence....riiiight. Lol. Never fear, Sarge Steel with his steel fist and "silver" Luger will prevail. Be sure to tune in next week....err, I mean to buy the next issue to find out the exciting ending. Lol. Just like the old t.v. and movie serials. I sorely miss those days.






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[alanint]

And always a scantily clad female in the mix to aggravate those pre-teen hormones!

[sheepherder]

I grew up in the 50's/60's [born 1949] and never heard of Sarge Steel or Charlton Comics...Sgt Rock & Easy Co were the only WW II comics I can recall...They weren't the only combat comic stories; there were AAC and Navy tales too, but Rock & the members of his company were the only recurring stories/characters...

I do recall a story from DC's combat-action comics called "Ghost Ship Of Three Wars" where some WW I biplane flew into a cloud and entered WW II Europe against BF-109's, then into another cloud and flew into Korea against Mig 15's...IIRC, the enemy planes all had the same nose-art (like it was the same pilot each time)...I really can't recall any other storylines from the combat comics...Somebody told me they 'cleaned up' Sgt Rock in the later comics; no cigar, no #$%^*@ symbols, no ethnic labels...I guess Rock wasn't politically correct enough...

Funny what things you can remember from 50+ years ago...

[Bill_in_fl]

Originally Posted by sheepherder

I grew up in the 50's/60's [born 1949] and never heard of Sarge Steel or Charlton Comics...Sgt Rock & Easy Co were the only WW II comics I can recall...They weren't the only combat comic stories; there were AAC and Navy tales too, but Rock & the members of his company were the only recurring stories/characters...

I do recall a story from DC's combat-action comics called "Ghost Ship Of Three Wars" where some WW I biplane flew into a cloud and entered WW II Europe against BF-109's, then into another cloud and flew into Korea against Mig 15's...IIRC, the enemy planes all had the same nose-art (like it was the same pilot each time)...I really can't recall any other storylines from the combat comics...Somebody told me they 'cleaned up' Sgt Rock in the later comics; no cigar, no #$%^*@ symbols, no ethnic labels...I guess Rock wasn't politically correct enough...

Funny what things you can remember from 50+ years ago...

I was born in 1953 Sheepherder, so we're from the same generation. I also remember Sgt Rock of Easy Company too, and "little sure shot" the American Indian in his squad. Do you remember a nazi nemesis of Sgt Rock who was called "The Iron Major"? He had an iron hand like "Sarge Steel" had and he sometimes used a Luger, a Mauser Broomhandle C96, as well as a funky hybrid of a Luger/Broomhandle C96.

Joe Kubert didn't know gun design well (check the Thompson) nor uniform design (Check the Major's hat & overall uniform). Good thing his main audience was mostly us as children who didn't know any better. Lol.


Check out the below funky Luger/C96 Broomhandle hybrid. A C96 with toggle grips! (Must be a "Khyber Pass" gun Lol!). Obviously the author/illustrator didn't know guns that well or was just having fun combining the two. First the author says: "His Mauser zeroed in right between my eyes" (and indeed it does look like a Mauser C96 Broomhandle only with the toggle grips of a luger! Lol). Then next he says:...."The Luger blazed". So which was it? A Mauser Broomhandle or a Luger? Answer? Both, or whichever the author or us as little kids wanted it to be. Lol! Gotta luv it.



Remember the written text sound for the burp guns of the Chinese and North Koreans in 50's and 60's comics about our guys fighting them in Korea? Their burp gun's sound text was:..."buddha,buddha,buddha!" (Or something very similar sounding to that). Funny that all these years later I remember that written text sound. I always wondered if that was a tongue in cheek reference of the author to many of the enemy soldier's religion being Buddhism. We probably will never know.

I also remember "Enemy Ace" who was based on the WW1 Red Baron, then there was "Captain Storm" the skipper of the U.S. P.T. boat that had a wooden leg, (kind of based on a JFK character but with a wooden leg)....and "Johnny Cloud" the American Navaho Indian who was a fighter pilot. Then there was "Gunner and Sarge" who fought the japs in the pacific. Then there was the comic (I forget its name) about the guys in the WW2 Stuart tank that was "haunted"/protected by the ghost of Confederate General Jeb Stuart, that the style of tank was named after. And let's not forget "Nick Fury and his howling commandos", in WW2 decades before they became all sci fi and became agents of "S.H.I.E.L.D.".

But my favorite comic book character of all time was "The Gunmaster and Bullet the Gun Boy". Kind of like Batman and Robin only in the old west with guns. He wore a full head cover like "The Phantom" did and "Bullet" wore a mask like Batman's Robin wore. Gunmaster's secret identity was a gunsmith and he wore and used all kinds of different cool guns. Some unusual ones of his own design. Like a top fed mag revolver and top fed mag semi auto pistol years before the Borchardt or C96. He wore guns all over him in waist, shoulder and ankle holsters. His guns were like his western version of Batman's utility belt. He was Zorro, The Lone Ranger, Batman and Robin, a gunsmith secret identity.....all rolled into one.....and with all those cool guns. His character's influence still lingers with me today, and my handle at CasCity (cowboy action shooting forum) is "Gunmaster". I attribute "The Gunmaster" having such an influence on me with his novel and ahead of their time gun making abilities, that may have influenced me later in life when I invented bumpfire stocks such as my Akins Accelerator and other bumpfire shooting stocks and devices. His influence on me as a kid was really strong and got my young child's mind to thinking about unusual firearm designs and caused me to take my toy cap guns apart to see how they worked and pretend I was "The Gunmaster" as a child. Funny how a comic book character can influence one so much as a child, that helps set a mind path that influences one later in life (and the anti-gunner's know this too).

Check that top fed mag revolver (like a Bren or Owen) and the mag fed cut down lever gun in the left column of below comic.



Dig that crazy belt fed Vickers/Gatling hybrid on a Vickers tripod mount! Then check the top fed mag pistol. (The Gunmaster could make any kind of gun Lol).



What's really amazing is I also remember reading that very same comic you were talking about Sheepherder, where the WW1 biplane went into the time cloud vortex and fought in three wars. As soon as you started to describe that, I remembered it too. That's amazing we both remember that specific story from a comic book 50 or more years ago! Ohhh....remember the comic called "Amazing Tales" or was it "Amazing Stories"? Something like that. It frequently had WW2 soldiers fighting Dinosaurs or outer space aliens or the like. I remember one where Tojo and Hitler were stranded on an island and both of them grew into giants and then became petrified like statues by some sort of ancient curse. Anyone else remember that one?

It was a better time when we were kids in the 50's and early 60's. We had Senator Joe McCarthy to protect us from the "Red" menace (that today sits in the white house). Comics today suck. Either all touchy feely or sci fi. They don't want another generation of kids growing up idolizing independent heroes of liberty and freedom that used guns to defeat tyranny. No more Sgt Rock. No more Gunner and Sarge. No more Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. Can't have another generation of independent minded , liberty loving, "gun nuts" being educated from an early age about guns.....like you and I were. No more "Tiger Joe" toy tank commercials or toy gun commercials like "Johnny Seven, One Man Army (O.M.A.)". All toy guns have to have that orange tip on the barrel and are still frowned upon by teachers and anti-gunners. Ahhh....now where did I put my "Dr Who" "Tardis" time machine. Grab my "Tiger Joe" toy tank I bought off ebay several years ago and set the time selector to 1960 and chew on some Bazooka Joe bubble gun and drink some colored (pop?) fluid from that little 1960's bottle made of wax, and sit back for the trip back to a much better time. If only that were possible.

Me and some of family in 1960 (when comics and t.v. as well as the country was good). I'm the bad little 6 year old boy sticking out his tongue and wearing a twin Hubley cap gun holster rig with a cap pistol in my hand.....naturally . I regularly wore my twin Hubley cap guns to kindergarden for show and tell every Friday. You already know what would happen if a kid did that today. It's the anti-gun, propagandist, indoctrination of our children and grandchildren to insure they are good little disarmed sheep. Sorry....I digress and best shut it.







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[sheepherder]

Originally Posted by Bill_in_fl

I also remember Sgt Rock of Easy Company too, and "little sure shot" the American Indian in his squad.

The only one I can recall now was 'chocolate soldier' or something like that...The noise SMG's made - 'budda budda budda"!!!

I also remember "Enemy Ace" who was based on the Red Baron...

Now that you've jogged my memory, I recall the name but not any storylines...

Then there was the comic (I forget its name) about the guys in the WW2 Stuart tank that was "haunted"/protected by the ghost of Confederate General Jeb Stuart...

I remember that one!

What's really amazing is I also remember reading that very same comic you were talking about Sheephearder, where the WW1 biplane went into the time cloud vortex and fought in three wars..

I took a quick look on eBay, but there were way too many comic books for me to find that one...I didn't know Rock had his own comic; he was always in "Our Army At War" DC Comics when I read them. I think that's what the 'Ghost Ship' story was in too.

I might try to find that 'Ghost Ship' comic - It's somewhat interesting that I would remember it, as flying was never very interesting to me...Must be something Freudian...

I had a bunch of Mattel and Hubley zinc cap guns, I've posted a couple pics of them here somewhere, as well as a couple I got from eBay a few years back for nostalgia...Plus Tinker Toys, Erector Sets, Lincoln Logs, and some kind of snap-together blocks something like Lego kits...

My parents took me to the Worlds Fair in NYC in 1965, saw the Helldrivers, the people wall & multi-camera F1 cars racing, the Small World dolls...

50's was a fun time to grow up...

[Bill_in_fl]

Originally Posted by sheepherder

I might try to find that 'Ghost Ship' comic - It's somewhat interesting that I would remember it, as flying was never very interesting to me...Must be something Freudian...

This is the one you are talking about Sheepherder. I had this same comic of the WW1 biplane that went through time to fight in WW1, WW2 and Korea. So I knew instantly which one you were talking about. Here was the cover.



.

[sheepherder]

Bill -

Yeah, that sounds right! One of the guys at comicbookdb.com agrees with you!

http://www.comicbookdb.com/forums/vi...php?f=1&t=8064

I posted the question there and he also suggested All American Men Of War #101 'Death Ship Of three Wars'...

I probably read all three and sort of amalgamated the stories...My neighborhood barber traded comic books with us kids...

So that's three comic books I may try to find on eBay...

I liked Donald Duck comics back then too - The main one I recall now involved Donald, the 3 nephews, and Scrooge McDuck searching for 'The Flying Dutchman'...

[Curss]

Nothing wrong with a pair of cap guns at the ready! Heck I'm jealous, the Gunmaster seems like a comic I would've liked as a kid.

[Curly1]

I still have my Sgt Rock and Capt Storm comics

[sheepherder]

Originally Posted by Curly1

I still have my Sgt Rock and Capt Storm comics

Gary, do you remember Charlton Comics??? Gunmaster??? Sarge Steel??? These are all new to me...I have to wonder if comic books were 'regional' back in the 50's.

I'm still a bit skeptical about the Johnny Cloud version of 'Ghost Ship of Three Wars' (or whatever the title was). Cloud seems to have been a WW II pilot, whereas the story I recall had the WW I pilot going through the time rift...And finally returning to WW I...That Johnny Cloud story was in a 1952 comic book, I have to wonder if a comic that old would still be around when I was reading them in 1960 or so...Maybe...

All three of the 'ship of X wars' seem to be available on eBay. If I can work up the energy to actually bid/buy one, I'll scan the story and share it.

[sheepherder]

Originally Posted by Bill_in_fl

Just like the old t.v. and movie serials..

There was a theater just up the street from me, I can remember the old 20 minute serials. Batman was everyone's favorite, he drove a 1949 Ford and Batman actually carried (& used) a revolver. The entrance to the Batcave was thru an old grandfather clock (you set the hands to 12:00 to open the secret door in the clock) and the villain had his hideout in the middle of the Tunnel of Love (thugs getting in the little boat and riding thru the tunnel to get to the hideout). ...

I got the two Batman serials on DVD some years back but haven't played them through yet. Got as far as the villain's car changing color in mid-chase and the Batmobile/Ford flying off a cliff...

Also in the late 50's or early 60's, on Saturday afternoon, there was a TV show called "The Cliff Hanger Club" that played old serials...Flash Gordon, Batman, whatever...And Andy Devine had some show with Froggie The Gremlin (a rubber frog) that kept playing tricks on him..."Wave your magic twanger, Froggie!"...Or something like that...

[Curly1]

I do not remember those characters, my comics are from the 60's

[ithacaartist]

I probably had other cap guns, but the two that stand out were the "Fanner 50" and the "Shootin' Shell", both by Mattel. The '50 had a real leather single holster rig which impressed me with its realism at the time. The other had brass cases with plastic bullets that clicked in place to load. As I recall, it was double action, and with each fall of the hammer, a round was actually struck by it. This did two things simultaneously. First, it would ignite the round-cut, self-adhesive, single-dot cap that was stuck to the back of the round. The hammer also pushed the round slightly forward in the cylinder, which would compress the small tabs located on either side of the bullet, which released the projectile from its retention within the case--and the plastic bullet would fly out of the unobstructed barrel. IIRC, it had enough momentum to knock a plastic army man, or cowboy/Indian figure off its feet. Great for wars in the neighbor kid's gravel driveway next door to my grandmother's house, where we would take turns shooting at our respective enemies in dug-in positions, machine gun nests, etc.

[Bill_in_fl]

Originally Posted by sheepherder

Gary, do you remember Charlton Comics??? Gunmaster??? Sarge Steel??? These are all new to me...I have to wonder if comic books were 'regional' back in the 50's.

I'm still a bit skeptical about the Johnny Cloud version of 'Ghost Ship of Three Wars' (or whatever the title was). Cloud seems to have been a WW II pilot, whereas the story I recall had the WW I pilot going through the time rift...And finally returning to WW I...That Johnny Cloud story was in a 1952 comic book, I have to wonder if a comic that old would still be around when I was reading them in 1960 or so...Maybe...

All three of the 'ship of X wars' seem to be available on eBay. If I can work up the energy to actually bid/buy one, I'll scan the story and share it.

Take another look at the text on the comic's cover I provided Sheepherder. It doesn't say Johnny Cloud was in the story entitled "The ship that fought in three wars". It says "Featuring Johnny Cloud the Navajo Ace".....(within another story in the same issue) and notice it says "ALSO the startling ship that fought in three wars". So the 3 wars plane was an ALSO story separate from the Johnny Cloud one, but still in that same issue. Now that one that you posted the cover of, that says Johnny Cloud dives through time to fight the ship that fought in three wars,....I can't account for that one and am not familiar with it if it starred Johnny Cloud. The only one I was/am familiar with was the one with the cover I posted of the WW1 biplane shooting down the zeppelin, getting its tail hit by a ME109 and fighting a Mig jet. and although it was in the same issue along with another story about Johnny Cloud, it was a different story. Several stories in the same comic. That might allay some of your confusion about that.....but then still.....there is that one you posted the cover of that says Johnny Cloud dives through time to fight the 3 war ship. Strange. Maybe they just recycled the story in that issue and put Johnny Cloud in it. I know comics frequently would reprint a story from years earlier. Sometimes they would even reprint the story and also change it a little bit. Maybe that's what happened in the one you posted the cover of. The one I posted the cover of, I got from a friend who I traded comics with in the 1960's. I even remember getting that particular one since I liked its premise so much. And it always stuck in my mind which is why I recognized it when you mentioned it.

An interesting thing, is there was an old early 1960's Twilight Zone t.v. episode very similar. Where the WW1 pilot was in a dogfight, and went through a strange cloud, and winded up landing his WW1 biplane fighter at a U.S. airbase in the early 1960's. He had his fighter and documentation, but of course the 1960's officers all thought he was nuts. As it turned out, his wingman who was in the dogfight along with him against the Germans, had stayed in the air force and later became a General whose nickname was "Old lead bottom" because of a wound he received in the butt flying in WW1. Well when the WW1 pilot found out that his buddy (now the much older and a General... "Old lead bottom") was coming to the base for an inspection, he realized that if he didn't get back to his time and dive on the Germans and stop them from killing his buddy, that his buddy wouldn't be able to exist in the future. So he got away from the officers, and ran to his plane, took off, flew back into that strange cloud, and saved his friend "old lead bottom" from being killed. Unfortunately he was killed himself doing that. At the end of the episode, when old lead bottom arrived at the base, and was asked by the officers about his WW1 flying partner and showed the documents of his former WW1 flying buddy, he asked "What's this all about? How did you get these documents and things from my WW1 friend who saved my life and lost his?". The officer told him, "Sit down old lead bottom, I have something to tell you" and that was the end of the t.v. episode. Anyone else remember that one?

Now did the comic cause a Twilight Zone writer to write that t.v. episode, or did the t.v. episode cause the comic author to write the comic? I don't know, but they are somewhat similar. I also remember another Twilight Zone early 1960's episode where a passenger airliner flew back in time to the age of the dinosaurs. Then tried to get back to their own time only to wind up at La Guardia airport in the 1930's and the episode ended with them trying to get back to the 1960's again. Another time traveling airplane story.



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[Bill_in_fl]

Originally Posted by sheepherder

There was a theater just up the street from me, I can remember the old 20 minute serials. Batman was everyone's favorite, he drove a 1949 Ford and Batman actually carried (& used) a revolver. The entrance to the Batcave was thru an old grandfather clock (you set the hands to 12:00 to open the secret door in the clock) and the villain had his hideout in the middle of the Tunnel of Love (thugs getting in the little boat and riding thru the tunnel to get to the hideout). ...

I got the two Batman serials on DVD some years back but haven't played them through yet. Got as far as the villain's car changing color in mid-chase and the Batmobile/Ford flying off a cliff...

Also in the late 50's or early 60's, on Saturday afternoon, there was a TV show called "The Cliff Hanger Club" that played old serials...Flash Gordon, Batman, whatever...And Andy Devine had some show with Froggie The Gremlin (a rubber frog) that kept playing tricks on him..."Wave your magic twanger, Froggie!"...Or something like that...

That is amazing that you have those two Batman serials from the 1940's....so do I! Only mine are on VHS tapes not DVD's like yours. There were two separate Batman serials both by Columbia pictures. The first serial was just called "Batman" (even though Robin was in it too) and was from 1943 and the other one was from 1949 and was called "Batman and Robin". The two separate serials used different actors for Batman and Robin. The first 1943 serial starred Lewis Wilson as the Batman and Douglas Croft as Robin. Famous character actor J. Carrol Naish (who also played many Asian characters in the 1940's....but he wasn't Asian!) was the bad Jap WW2 enemy villian and like you said, he had his enemy Jap lair hidden inside an old "Tunnel Of Love" carnival ride, gotta luv it. There were 15 chapters from Ch 1 "The Electrical Brain" to Ch 15 "The Doom of the rising sun". I'm reading off the jackets of my VHS copies right now.

Then in the second later 1949 Batman serial, Batman was played by Robert Lowery and Robin by Johnny Duncan with Lyle Talbot who I believe was in either the original Frankenstein with Boris Karloff, or the original Wolfman movies with Lon Chaney Jr. It also had 15 chapters from Ch 1 "Batman takes over" to Ch 15 "Batman Victorious".

The Batman's costume was a bit different between the two serials also. There were differences between the bat emblem on his chest as well as the ears of his cowl. I think his belt was different too. They were both a far cry from the costume worn by Adam West in the 1966 t.v. series as well as the later more modern Batman movies. Now I'm going to have to watch them all over again. I still have a working VCR believe it or not. Two of them actually and one is still hooked up to my modern t.v. along with my DVD player and cable box. I have quite a few old VHS tapes so I kept/keep the old VHS players.

I remember Tom Tyler as the 1940's serial "The Phantom" as well as him being in the 1940's serial "Captain Marvel" too. There was even a 1940's serial "Captain America" and like the serial Batman, he also used a revolver....but he didn't have that famous shield.

Those were the days huh? I remember as a very young little kid in the late '50's and very early '60's, I'd go to Whaley's open air vegetable market in Tampa with my mom, and I'd always go to the sawdust floor section where they kept their empty wooden crates they had for glass pop bottle returns. I'd search through the crates and find RC cola bottle caps down in the wooden crates and put them in a pickle jar, because if you got seven of them, you could use them for two kids (my sister and I) to get in free to the old Silver Springs theater in Tampa for Saturday morning kiddie matinee. I'd also scour the old 5 cent coke machines bucket that caught the caps from you decapping your pop drink for RC cola caps too.

Of course the get in free with bottle caps was a loss leader and like today the theater made their money off the snack bar. As we went into the theater, we'd get a free small paper bag with a few toy trinkets (like cracker jack box or cereal box toy trinkets) with a couple of pieces of candy or bubble gum, but yeah, mom always gave us a dime or two to get popcorn and sometimes a soda or we'd just drink from the water fountain. Mom would take us to the theater in our old (newer then) '54 or '55 Ford sedan (we had both). The matinee fare was usually a few cartoons and my favorite was "Mighty Mouse" ("Here I come to save the day! Mighty Mouse is on his wayyyy!" He was a flying costumed "Superman" type mouse who would turn super and in costume and cape when he ate cheese just like Popeye did when he ate spinach....for youngsters who don't know who Mighty Mouse was), then maybe an old serial or newsreel, followed by the main feature like say..."The three Stooges go to the moon" or maybe an old cowboy movie or maybe an old Laurel and Hardy movie. Most of which were 10 to 20 years old even back then! Lol. But we were kids and we loved it old stuff or not. Hey, we had got in free! Then mom would pick us up or we'd walk the couple of miles home.

Sheephearder, like you, I also remember Andy Devine (with his hoarse voice) on early t.v. and "Froggie" his gremlin, all us kids liked that one. We had a local t.v. show on Channel 13 in the late '50's in Tampa called "3D Danny" who was a spaceman with a robot and used the crew and announcers already working at the station for the show....which had rudimentary sets and NO budget Lol. That was back when t.v. was all live and shows hadn't started being recorded yet. Lots of funny mistakes were made in those live t.v. days. In the mid to late '60's channel 13 also had a teenage Frankenstein character called "Shock Armstrong the all American Ghoul" played by another announcer at the station. "Shock" had a full head cover Frankenstein mask and wore a number 13 "All American" football jersey and rose up out of his coffin as the show started to crashes of lightening and the howling of wolves, and his room was in the attic and he would shoot a howitzer at his neighbor and blow him up when he complained of the noise Shock Armstrong was making and Shock would also throw a hand grenade downstairs to make his mom scream when she got onto him about something. That wouldn't play today but it was great fun and he was a great creature feature host many years before Dr. Paul Bearer or Elvira became creature feature t.v. hosts.


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[alanint]

Originally Posted by ithacaartist

I probably had other cap guns, but the two that stand out were the "Fanner 50" and the "Shootin' Shell", both by Mattel. The '50 had a real leather single holster rig which impressed me with its realism at the time. The other had brass cases with plastic bullets that clicked in place to load. As I recall, it was double action, and with each fall of the hammer, a round was actually struck by it. This did two things simultaneously. First, it would ignite the round-cut, self-adhesive, single-dot cap that was stuck to the back of the round. The hammer also pushed the round slightly forward in the cylinder, which would compress the small tabs located on either side of the bullet, which released the projectile from its retention within the case--and the plastic bullet would fly out of the unobstructed barrel. IIRC, it had enough momentum to knock a plastic army man, or cowboy/Indian figure off its feet. Great for wars in the neighbor kid's gravel driveway next door to my grandmother's house, where we would take turns shooting at our respective enemies in dug-in positions, machine gun nests, etc.

I had these as well. They were, of course discontinued as soon as some safety nazi decided you could shoot your eye out with those little grey bullets.

[Bill_in_fl]

Originally Posted by ithacaartist

I probably had other cap guns, but the two that stand out were the "Fanner 50" and the "Shootin' Shell", both by Mattel. The '50 had a real leather single holster rig which impressed me with its realism at the time. The other had brass cases with plastic bullets that clicked in place to load. As I recall, it was double action, and with each fall of the hammer, a round was actually struck by it. This did two things simultaneously. First, it would ignite the round-cut, self-adhesive, single-dot cap that was stuck to the back of the round. The hammer also pushed the round slightly forward in the cylinder, which would compress the small tabs located on either side of the bullet, which released the projectile from its retention within the case--and the plastic bullet would fly out of the unobstructed barrel. IIRC, it had enough momentum to knock a plastic army man, or cowboy/Indian figure off its feet. Great for wars in the neighbor kid's gravel driveway next door to my grandmother's house, where we would take turns shooting at our respective enemies in dug-in positions, machine gun nests, etc.

ithacaartist you are right on about that. Those cap dots that stuck to the Mattel gun's cartridge rears were called "greenie stickem caps". I didn't have the "Fanner 50" but I did have the "Shooten shell fanner". I have one today. My wife's parents were selling their home and moving to an apartment since they are 86 and 84, and guess what we found helping them move when we cleaned out boxes in their attic? Yep, a Mattel "Shooten shell fanner". No brass spring loaded cartridges and plastic bullets for it though and it doesn't index the cylinder very well anymore and the silver plating on the pot metal is pitted and a bit flaked, but it's all there! It sits atop my bookcase along with my huge working 1960 "Deluxe Reading Tiger Joe" battery powered toy tank that I rebuilt and bought off ebay. Sadly my twin toy Hubley holsters and ".38 Colt" cap revolvers are long gone. But I keep a watch on like ones (.38 colt Hubley top breaks like a Webley) on ebay and plan to get one of them soon to go along with my Mattel "shootin shell fanner". Like you said, I'd knock down little green army men with my shooting shell fanner's plastic bullets. I also had a little Mattel belt buckle gun that was a derringer that held one spring loaded case with plastic bullet, that would spring loaded flip out from the buckle (when you pushed your stomach out) and fire its "greenie stickem cap" and plastic bullet towards the unsuspecting "cowboys and Indians" playmate.

We also didn't have seat belts, only jet pilots and race car drivers used those. We walked around the neighborhood as little kids (as young as 5 years old) and rode our bicycles all over, without any child rapists ever bothering us, climbed trees and fell out of them, played with toy caps and toy guns that shot plastic bullets and later BB guns and never shot our eye out. My allowance from my parents was .25 cents a week and that included me mowing the lawn or doing chores. A couple of years later upped to .50 cents a week and then a whole dollar a week....wow! Lol. I'd use dad's lawnmower to mow neighbor's yards to make money to buy toys and comic books that I couldn't afford on my meager weekly allowance. Taught me the value of a dollar. About the only time my parents bought us toys was either on our birthdays or Christmas. Seldom any other time.....we had to earn it. I also had a Mattel "Buffalo hunter" "rolling block" rifle that was a single shot and also had a lever action Mattel rifle that also was a single shot and both shot those same plastic bullets and greenie stickem caps. A neighborhood playmate had the ultimate "Johnny Seven One Man Army" (O.M.A.) rifle that shot plastic/rubber darts and missles and bullets and even grenades. We had those cheap green little army men that we'd use as targets and sometimes blow up with firecrackers too. All us kids knew how to shoot before we even got a BB gun, much less a real firearm. Mattel taught us how to do that. "If it's Mattel...it's swell!". Lol. Remember that line in their t.v. commercials and packaging? We also made our own slingshots out of wood and inner tube rubber and shot acorns out of them. We made rubber band guns out of wood and used clothes pins to hold the rubber band "bullets". For little kids, we got pretty good at shooting our plastic bullets and sling shots and rubber band guns at little things like toy mini green army men. By the time we were of age to have BB guns, we already knew how to use sights and shoot. Toy guns, to BB guns, to .22's and up. And the anti-gunners know this and that's why they want to dissuade and indoctrinate our kids and grandkids against toy guns......so they won't grow up like we did liking and playing with them, getting familiar with them and get real ones when they grow up. That's why the only toy gun commercials you'll see on t.v. today are those lame foam rubber bullets nerf guns or water squirt guns I see on commercials when I watch Saturday morning t.v. with the grandkids. Our shootin shell fanners were just too realistic and showed us how a real single action '73 peacemaker loaded and worked. Nerf guns don't teach todays kids that.....and that's exactly what the anti-gunners want....only they don't like the nerf guns nor any kind of toy gun....even a pop tart ate into the shape of a gun.

Of course all us kids were devastated when George Reeves (Superman) died. There's still controversy as to whether that was really a suicide or a murder. And it was a LUGER they found by his body on the bed. Elvis was on Ed Sullivan but they wouldn't show him from the waist down when he wiggled his hips Lol. We made "forts" out of refrigerator, washing machine and dryer packing boxes and anything we could find to make one. We used clothes pins to attach bubble gum cards to click on the spokes of our bicycle wheels to make them have that "vrrrroooommm" sound. In the summer time in Florida it was brutally hot and we and most homes didn't have air conditioning and had attic fans instead so we'd play outside and run under the hose sprinkler to cool off. The very first McDonalds in Tampa was across from the old now defunct Tower drive in theater. Burgers were 15 cents and fries were a dime and so were drinks. Speedy McDonald the Hamburger head character was their icon WAY before Ronald McDonald ever existed. For a couple of bucks Dad would get a whole bag of burgers and fries and drinks, and on Friday or Saturday evenings we'd drive across the street from that first McDonalds in Tampa to the Tower Drive In directly across the street, to watch a triple or quad feature. Had a "pee pot" under the seat for us little kids who couldn't make it to the snack bar bathroom quick enough and we'd toss that out the door if we needed to use it. Everyone did that. We'd get the "caracal" incense from the snack bar to burn in the car to keep the mosquitoes away. And the speaker would attach to the driver's window frame for listening to the movie. At intermission, we'd see the commercial ads on the screen for pizza...."And into the oven it goes!"....and we'd all go to the snack bar to get something, my favorite was a "Sno-cone" and use the bathroom and play on the slides and swings and the hand pushed manual merry-go-round. And we wouldn't have missed a game boy or X box if we had one. And yet somehow we survived.



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[Bill_in_fl]

Originally Posted by alanint

I had these as well. They were, of course discontinued as soon as some safety nazi decided you could shoot your eye out with those little grey bullets.

Yep, sadly you're right alanint. But did we ever know anyone who actually shot their eye out with a light little plastic bullet? No one i knew did. That was in the beginning of days of anti-gunners and was just an excuse to start culling and doing away with toy guns that shot toy bullets. They were already gearing up to change the next generations thinking and to propagandize them that toy guns were bad. So that hopefully they wouldn't want a real one when they grew up. It's about conditioning and indoctrinating and we see this by them making examples of kids who eat a pop tart into the vague shape of a gun and get expelled from school for that. Or expelled for just pointing their finger and saying "bang" in playing. It's like Eric Holder said and gleefully admitted in a statement he made, "that the government was going to propagandize and indoctrinate people out of wanting guns". Except for themselves.....of course.

Here's a toy machine gun do it yourself article from the 1920's or '30's that's easy to build (for your kids or grandkids) that shoots wooden dowel bullets via a clothes pin spring. And yet somehow the generation that built these as children, somehow didn't shoot their eyes out and managed to survive to later fight and win WW2. How EVER did they survive those toy wooden bullets to do that?

This old 1920's/'30's do it yourself article shows how to make what looks like a Marlin/Colt "potato digger" machine gun with tripod as used in WW1. It is an ingenious yet simple project that has small wooden dowels for bullets that gravity feed (like a Gardner or Gatling gun) and are projected out of the barrel by spring tensioned wire or slightly modified (stretched out) clothespin spring that is actuated by the cam on a crank. The gravity feed in the plans only holds 12 wooden dowel "bullets", but you could make the gravity feed taller to hold more.

Real Colt/Marlin "potato digger" machine gun.


The toy project machine gun that resembles the "potato digger" machine gun.


Machine-Gun before Hammer has been drawn Back. Notice that the screen door spring or stretched out clothespin spring (H), relies on a long spring for its tension (J).


Machine-Gun with Hammer in Position for Firing. The cam on the crank (L) is just about to release the wire (G), whereupon the tension from the long spring (J) will snap the screendoor/clothespin spring forward, rapidly pushing the wooden dowel "bullet" out of the barrel and allowing another "bullet" to gravity feed downward for the next shot. Pretty cool huh? Kinda like the gravity feed on a magazine fed Chinese and Roman crossbow. You could put rubber tips on the wooden "bullets" or just make sure their wooden ends are rounded so no eye injuries result.


The gravity feed magazine is made from a cut, straightened out and folded, tin can.


Read the complete TWO PAGE article on how to make it here.....

Page 1.
http://chestofbooks.com/home-improve...chine-Gun.html

Page 2.
http://chestofbooks.com/home-improve...Continued.html

Defy the toy gun nazis by building your kids or grandkids one. We are all just big kids.





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[Lugerdoc]

In the mid 1940s, my allowance was 10 cents every Saturday, with which I would walk alone (beginning at age 5) to the drug store at the end of the block and buy a comic. The neighbor hood kids would then play poker for comics. I compiled a stack 3 feet high by the time I was 9, which was left behind when we moved to the suburbs in 1949. I wish that I still had them today. TH

[Bill_in_fl]

Originally Posted by Lugerdoc

In the mid 1940s, my allowance was 10 cents every Saturday, with which I would walk alone (beginning at age 5) to the drug store at the end of the block and buy a comic. The neighbor hood kids would then play poker for comics. I compiled a stack 3 feet high by the time I was 9, which was left behind when we moved to the suburbs in 1949. I wish that I still had them today. TH

They would be worth a lot of money today LugerDoc, especially if in really good condition.



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