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

[Bill_in_fl]

Originally Posted by saab-bob

Bill
I have all the "Magnus Robot Fighter" series.They where Gold Key comics.
Great artwork on the early ones.The later ones went downhill.
Does anyone remember "Doc Savage"? Originally published in pulp magazines in the 1930's and 1940's? He and his men carried fully automatic pistols with the rams horn magazines!
They traveled in gyro-copters and Zeppelin's and lived in the Empire State building.
Good Stuff!
Bob

You have all of the Magnus Robot Fighter series Bob? That's awesome! Not too many people even know who he was, much less have his entire comic series. That's amazing!
I'll bet they are worth something today. Especially if in great condition in those plastic sleeves.

Oh yes Bob, of course I remember Doc Savage ("The Man Of Bronze"). They even made some movies and t.v. episodes about him. One of the guys who played Tarzan in the late '60's early '70's (Ron Ely? or something like that?) played Doc Savage. I remember seeing in the movies or t.v. shows or maybe it was in the comics, of Doc Savage using Mauser Broomhandle pistols (so did the Rocketeer, that he appropriated from a German, in the latest Rocketeer movie made around 20 years ago....the one with Timothy Dalton (007) in it as the bad guy loosely based on actor Errol Flynn.

Speaking of the Rocketeer, do y'all remember the big brutish ugly guy in the movie who was fighting with the Rocketeer on top of the zeppelin? Well the interesting thing is, that, that actor was wearing a mask that was made to look exactly like the face of 1930's/'40's actor Rondo Hatten. So Rondo Hatten lived again, although it was just a mask of his face on another actor. Rondo Hatten was the actor who played the monster in a few 1930's/'40's monster movies ("The Creeper") and he played mobster style thugs too. Poor man died as a result of his gland problem right after WW2.

Anyway, the funny thing is, my grandfather knew him personally and was friends with him when he was a handsome man before his glands distorted his head and face. Grandad, my dad and I, were all born in Tampa, Fl. and Rondo Hatten and his family lived in Tampa. Granddad (who lived to be 98 yrs old) told me that Hatten was a very handsome man who had a gland problem that suddenly manifested itself in adulthood and horribly disfigured his face and head. The movie studio later said it was being gassed in WW1 that did it, (Hatten was gassed) but that was incorrect, it was his gland problem that did it not the mustard gas. Interesting story that. Here's a wikipedia link that tells of him with a few pics.....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rondo_Hatton

Granddad met quite a few famous people being born in Tampa in 1898 and living til 1996. He met Buffalo Bill Cody who came through Tampa doing a wild west show (a few years before Cody died in 1917) and granddad got to shake his hand. I've always been amazed by that, my granddad shook Buffalo Bill's hand! He also knew Tony Jannus the pilot who flew the first scheduled airline passenger flight in history from Tampa to St Petersburg Fl. And he met Wiley Post and the very famous comedian and rope trick artist Will Rogers, when they flew around America in Post's Lockheed Vega and stopped in Tampa for awhile, before the famous plane crash that killed them both.

Another actor who was gassed in WW1, caused him to lose all his teeth (nasty thing WW1 gas), and he became an actor after the war and although was relatively young, usually played much older men without his false teeth in. His name was Walter Brennen. "Grandpa" in the old 1950's/'60's t.v. series "The Real McCoy's". Even in the 1930's when Brennen was still pretty young he played the elderly preacher in "Sgt York" starring Gary Cooper. Another interesting thing is Gary Cooper (Sgt York)'s young sister in that movie, was June Lockhart, who grew up to play the mom in the 1960's t.v. series of "Lassie" and also as the mom in "Lost in Space". June Lockhart had a daughter that looks almost exactly like her. But I digress on a tangent Lol.

Anyway, yes I remember Doc Savage traveling by autogyro, but I had forgotten that he lived in the Empire state building. That character is ripe for a well done modern movie to be made about.
Another one I really liked was actor Jude Law in "Sky Captain and the World Of Tomorrow" with Gwenneth Paltrow, made back in 2004. Always wished they would make a sequel to that, they never did. And I'm still waiting for the sequel to that MarK Walberg "Planet Of The Apes" where he comes back to his own time and lands at the Lincoln memorial, and it's his right time alright, but Lincoln's statue is an ape. That was screaming for a sequel, but they never made one that continued where that particular one left off. And they never gave us an ending to the 1960's "Time Tunnel" t.v. series either. Just like they never gave us an ending to the t.v. series "The Lost World" and just left us hanging in suspense with a swirling vortex in the last episode that was done about almost 20 years ago. There's a website/club for that t.v. show online that I'm a member of. Just google "The Lost World forum". Some of the actors (older now) actually have posted there as do several of the writers for the show. They simply ran out of financing for the last season at the last minute. Hence the cliffhanger that never was resolved. And there I go, digressing and rambling on again. Lol.



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[Bill_in_fl]

Originally Posted by sheepherder

Yeah, that's him! I got it wrong because I only remember the first story! -

The Martian Manhunter (J'onn J'onzz) is a superhero who appears in comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Joseph Samachson and artist Joe Certa, the character first appeared in Detective Comics #225 "The Manhunter From Mars" in November 1955.

That's right, his given name was J'onn J'onzz. I had forgotten that name. Thanks for reminding me.

Originally Posted by sheepherder

Don't remember that one - but you reminded me of a group of four survivors of an atomic war called "The Atomic Knights". They wore medieval-like armor to protect them from the radiation. Probably DC Comics - I don't really remember any others except the Disney characters line.

I don't remember the armor wearing one you are talking about.

Originally Posted by sheepherder

According to Wikipedia, the super-simians appeared in the Flash comics -Gorilla City is a fictional city in the DC Comics Universe. The city, hidden in the jungles of Africa, is home to a race of super-intelligent gorillas, that gained their powers from a meteorite...Gorilla City first appears in The Flash vol. 1 #106, (April 1959)...After an alien spacecraft crashes into the jungles of Africa, local gorillas become hyper-intelligent and acquire telepathic abilities. These gorillas form Gorilla City. The city led by Solovar quickly creates technology far surpassing that of humanity and cloaks itself from human society.

I don't remember that one either. But the fact that the Simians cloaked themselves from being discovered by humans, showed how smart they were. Humans would have just taken them over, stole their technology, their city and their land, and studied and dissected them in labs, and eventually wiped them all out except for a few examples they would have kept in zoos or on special ape reservations. Almost like our government did to the American Indians. Heck, sometimes I wish I could go to a secret island and cloak myself and my family from being discovered by the rest of humanity. Kind of like the Swiss Family Robinson, or Robinson Crusoe. But before I did that, my granddaughters would have to grow up and one marry a dentist and one marry a doctor....who took all their tools with them to our secret, cloaked island. The oldest is only 14 and the other is 6. So it will be awhile ROFL!

Originally Posted by sheepherder

I saw a Hubley that looked like my old one except for the serrated hammer, so I must have had the 'fanner' version. The T-lock top break was familiar, but the one on eBay had enfraving/filigree/whatever it's called, and I don't recall that. It did have the cream & black grips. It was cool! I was disappointed that i didn't get the Mattel Fanner 50, but I grew to like the Hubley better.

Sheephearder I can help you with the Hubley's since I've been searching online (for the two gun rig exactly like I had) for years. Once I found a kinda ragged out and torn version just like my twin holsters, (belt and twin holsters only, no cap guns) but it was in too bad of shape for me to want it. And once I found the EXACT twin holsters twin Hubley's with blue grips identical to mine and in almost mint condition, but I quit bidding at $360.00! Can you believe the today prices for these antique toy guns from the '50's and '60's? Unbelievable.

Anyway, the largest toy gun site online is Nichols. They show all kinds of cap pistols of every type. Go to their link I'm providing and if you had a cap pistol in the 1930's to 1960's, you can bet there will be an example or two of it there. They have 12 pages just on Hubleys!

But before I get to the Nichols site, here's a pic below of the Hubley Colt .38 (the one with the smooth and wide "fanner" hammer), and some of the Hubley Texan .38 (the one with the less wide and serrated hammer). There were various styles of grips on both, and you can buy replacement reproduction grips for them on ebay (to match which grips you had as a kid). Which isn't a bad idea since sometimes the original plastic grips have shrunk with age and warp.

Below is the Hubley Colt .38 with the wide, smooth, "fanner" hammer, with fake stag grips that you can always change out to another style like the longhorn steer head grips like you and I had Sheepherder.


Next below, is the Hubley Texan .38 which except for saying "Texan .38" on it, and having a more narrow and serrated hammer, is otherwise identical to the Hubley Colt .38. Although you now believe yours was a "fanner" hammer like mine was Sheepherder, this one looks like the longhorn steer head grips you described.....cream and black. Some Hubley Colt .38 and some Texan .38's had the star on the grip painted red and some didn't. My set from 1959 didn't.



Next below, is several pics that except for the grips having ribbons of black mixed in with the blue, is exactly like mine were (no black ribbons in my blue grips). I'm showing you a couple of pics of it to also allow you to see the "fanner" hammer and how wide it is and smooth....as opposed to the more narrow serrated hammer of the Hubley Texan .38.


Below, nice pic of the underside of the "fanner" hammer showing how wide it is. The star on the grip (actually on the grip frame, grip had a cutout hole that fit over the star) is not painted red. Mine were plain just like that.


Another nice closeup of the Hubley Colt .38 "fanner" hammer.


And real quick....not a Hubley, but a Mattel belt buckel derringer I had (pic isn't the one I had) that spring loaded swung out and fired a "greenie stickem cap" and plastic bullet when you pushed your stomach out against the buckle. The derringer could also be removed from the buckle and fired by hand. Had that for years, even into my adult life. Not sure what happened to it. Probably lost in a move or something.




Okay, now for the jewel of all cap gun sites, and where you will see antique cap guns in better condition than most....Nichols at this link.....http://www.nicholscapguns.com/index.html

And Nichols has a full twelve pages just on Hubley cap guns! They have many, many pages on other model cap guns too. Everything practically is there. You'll enjoy going back in time and seeing your childhood cap guns and learn a lot too. I always wanted that Hubley "Rifleman" rifle. Never got it. But Nichols shows it, and rare versions of it too with a white stock and standard models of it too.

Here a set identical to the Hubley Colt .38 double holster/gun set I got for Christmas in 1959 on page 7 (of 12 Hubley pages) at the Nichols site. Same blue "jewels" on the belt and holsters, same exact holster and belt and same exact Colt .38 guns with the wide, smooth, "fanner" hammers and one color blue grips with unpainted star. I sooo want this set and have been trying to get one like this for years. Like I said, I almost got an identical to this one set, but stopped bidding at $360.00 I want one, but not enough to pay more than $360.00, I can be happy just getting one gun and forget the holster rig and other gun. I just want it to go along with my Mattel shootin shell fanner for display. I went a little crazy even bidding that high to $360.00 and I STILL didn't win it! Antique toy cap guns can be profitable!


Closer up view of set identical to mine. This and the above pic is identical to the set you saw me wearing in my pics from March 1960 that I posted earlier on page one in this thread.


Sheepherder, all the Hubley Colt .38's as well as the Hubley .38 Texans, all had that engraving on them. Never seen one that didn't. And if memory serves me, they were also both double action only and although you could fan them, they were incapable of single action fire. But so is my Mattel shooting shell fanner. My Mattel shootin shell fanner can be fanned or double action'ed, but is also incapable of single action fire. The little short metal cartridges for the Hubley's are available on ebay too. If memory serves me, I think I used "greenie stickem caps" on the back of the cartridges and they worked, even though they weren't made for the Hubley and were made for the Mattel cap guns. Also, the "ejector rod" under the barrel is fixed, doesn't work, and is just for looks. But if I recall correctly, the cap gun ejected the cases just like a Webley did when you unhooked the latch and lowered the barrel. At least I think it ejected like that. Heck, it's been 55 years since I had one in my hand, so some memories are dim. No doubt when I finally get one, I'll be surprised at how small it feels, just like I was surprised at how small the Mattel shootin shell fanner felt to me when I found it in a box in my wife's parent's attic. Felt much larger when I was a kid. The cap gun didn't change.....I did. Lol. Here's some pics of that Mattel Shootin shell fanner we found in my wife's parents attic.

My finger tip can barely fit in front of the trigger today.


The loading and loading gate, was just like a real '73 Colt peacemaker. Very realistic for a cap gun in that era.


Left side with the spring loaded cartridge. I got lucky, it had all six cartridges in it. No plastic bullets though and flaking is pretty bad and cylinder timing and indexing isn't good. But it was free and just like the one I had as a kid.


Right side.


Closer view of end of spring loaded cartridge where the plastic bullet would go.


Another view of the loading gate. See that hole in the right grip? You put your plastic bullet in there nose down, and then shoved the cartridge on top of it to load the cartridge.


Another view of very realistic loading gate.


Showing how small the Mattel shootin shell fanner is in relation to my hand. Fit much better in my hand when I was 7 to 8 yrs old. Lol. I had my Hubley's first and earlier, a year or two before I got my Mattel shootin shell fanner.
Okay, off the Mattel shootin shell fanner and back to the Hubley's.


Sheepherder, if you could live with the serrated hammer Hubley .38 Texan, there's one included in with a batch of two others on page two of the classifieds at Nichols. It has the cream with black longhorn steer head grips like yours had. But it doesn't work correctly ad says, so you'd have to live with that or get it fixed. Seller wants $89.00 for all three at this link.....
http://www.nicholscapguns.com/classifieds2.htm

Myself, I'm waiting for the "Fanner" hammer one like I had. To me, that's the whole idea, to get one EXACTLY like what I had 55 years ago. Otherwise, no sense in getting it in my opinion. But included that link for you just in case you were interested.

There's also one currently on ebay for $40.00 so far, but it doesn't work either and is missing its cylinder. There are guys who specialize in fixing cap guns and some replacement parts are available, even newly made replacement parts for them.

I regularly watch for them on ebay. But I'd like to get one with the longhorn steer head blue grips like mine had. If I see one with the cream and black longhorn steer heads, I'll shoot you a P.M. with the link Sheepherder. But even a single gun, without holster, will run about $60.00, and that's with flaking and indexing issues, considerably more if in really fine shape condition, and even more if still sealed in the plastic or unfired in the box. Recapturing fragments of our childhood isn't cheap! Lol.



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[sheepherder]

Thanks for the link! I'm browsing through it now...Looking for the one I *didn't* get as a kid...It was a Mattel I'm sure; and an almost exact copy of a Colt SAA. Not distorted like the Fanner 50 or Shootin' Shell. I've tried to look for it on eBay but I don't remember what it was named/called. It would have been in the late 50's, maybe even 60's, when I was just transitioning to Sci-Fi novels. It may even have been discontinued for being TOO realistic.

One other 'gun' I look for is a model kit (you had to assemble it) of what was called a "Luger" but was a really crude copy. Not that it wasn't well made, but just that the proportions were all off. It came as green plastic, oversized compared to a real Luger, the grips were cast in and sunk below the grip-frame level. The box had a sort of background like a draftsman's board/table. I actually had two of the 'model' Lugers at different times, and although you needed to cycle them manually, they were supposed to work (feed, eject, etc) like the 'original'. But I could never get them to work. The plastic just wouldn't slide easily. I even greased one with Vasoline and that didn't help. I don't know who made them (some German company maybe?) but the local stores carried them, IIRC. It screwed together with tiny bolts & nuts, had a detachable magazine, toggle worked like the real one...but it was huge...I think the barrel even screwed in like a real one...

That model/toy I still look for...I have unfinished business with that one...

Edit: I think I see both of the above on Ebay...The 'Mattel Shootin' Shell 45' is described as "The Big One!" which sounds right and looks right too...And boy do they want big bucks for it!...

The model Luger seems to be made by Premier; only one on eBay and no box to jog my memory...But the seller notes that it is complete but doesn't shoot, which was the problem with my two also...At the time, the best 13 yr old model minds in my neighborhood concluded that the instructions were either wrong or they shipped a wrong part...