Do You Have A Permit For That Space Gun?

These came out in the 1950s - before they got space gunz off the streets.

Every Space Gun came with a permit which made it way too easy for felons to obtain the weapon.

Space Gunz were also fully automatic with easy to load cartridges - the number of PEZ rounds per minute was just crazy.

(images via Hake's)

The Beautiful Design And The Space Age Mystique Of The Pyrotomic Disintegrator Weapons

March 1953 U.S. Patent image for Grover C. Schaible's Toy Pistol - The design would become famous as the Pyrotomic Disintegrator pistol manufactured by Pyro Plastics, N.J. (image via Google Patents)

The Pyrotomic Disintegrator pistol is considered by most collectors as the Holy Grail of ray guns. Doc Atomic at Astounding Artifacts best describes its allure:

For many people, myself included, this is the very ideal of a vintage space gun. It's got rings. It's got vents. It's got a sweeping design that conveys the poetry of space flight. It's even got its name spelled out in a cool, 1950s font that's underlined by lightning bolts. That's right, lightning bolts! And did I mention it's called the Pyrotomic Disintegrator? If anyone tries to say that's not the best name for a ray gun ever, that person's looking for a fight.

The top Pyrotomic Disintegrator pistol is the first to be manufactured - it's known as the candy-colored Pyro. The bottom pistol is the copper version manufactured in the later part of the 1950s - a more authentic space cadet look. (images via Doc Atomic's Attic of Astounding Artifacts)

There was a Pyrotomic Disintegrator rifle manufactured by Pyro Plastics shortly after the pistol.

August 1953 U.S. Patent image for Grover C. Schaible's Toy Gun - The design would become famous as the Pyrotomic Disintegrator rifle manufactured by Pyro Plastics, N.J. (image via Google Patents)

Toy Rayguns lists the Pyrotomic Disintegrator rifle as one of the 'rarest (and most beautiful) toy ray guns in the world.'

...being perhaps the rarest of all space rifles, The Pyrotomic Disintegrator Rifle is also the most beautiful. Powerfully sculpted with a fluted barrel and an undulating stock, this wonderfully designed toy exudes a sense of delicacy and techno-scientific power.

The Pyrotomic rifle is 'fired' by turning the rotating crank on the side which causes the barrel to move back and forth. (image via Toy Tent)

Both the Pyrotomic pistol and rifle are very hard to find in good condition. Having been made with brittle plastic makes the guns fragile and susceptible to cracking and breaking if dropped. The shooting mechanism was cheaply made and is often not working in the surviving guns. So, not only are the Pyrotomic guns considered the most beautifully designed, they are also the most scarce. Perhaps sometime in the future someone enterprising might recreate the guns based on G. C. Schaible's 1953 patents - the question is, would the beauty of the designs carry without the 1950s sci-fi space age mystique?

The U.N.C.L.E. GUN - A Cold War Weapon That Keeps On Giving

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (NBC TV, September 1964 - January 1968)

U.S. Operative Napoleon Solo and Russian Illya Kuryakin participate in a joint mission working for U.N.C.L.E. (United Network Command for Law and Enforcement). They battle a mysterious international syndicate known as THRUSH (Technical Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity), which is working to proliferate nuclear weapons.

That's the set-up. Below is a screenshot of Solo during a tense moment in The Iowa Suba Affair episode. He's holding the much coveted U.N.C.L.E. GUN - in this shot it's a Mauser carbine.

Cut to a close-up of the weapon - it's a Walther P38 carbine...!(?)

That's a neat bit of trivia pointed out by Brad Ferguson - the master craftsman at U.N.C.L.E. GUNS, the go to place for fab replicas. Like this P38 carbine:

It could be the real thing, yeah? If a collector wants one it'll cost a nice chunk-a-change. The all metal semi-auto blank gun (which fires 8mm blanks) alone sells for $575.00 - that's not including all the extras that make it the carbine version. Still, for a super-agent U.N.C.L.E. collector, the price is reasonable for this fab work of craftsmanship.

And then there's this...

It's the 1965 Man From U.N.C.L.E. Napoleon Solo Gun set! The toy weapon was designed by Reuben Klamer, and his staff at Toylab studios and marketed by Ideal. Rather than being based on the Walther P38 or the Mauser, this gun appears to be more of a standard .45 automatic. This kit has it all - the cap gun that 'Converts Into Rifle With: Stock, Silencer, Telescopic Sight, [and] Bipod' and it comes with an U.N.C.L.E. No. 6 plastic badge and a 'United Network Command For Law And Enforcement' membership card. Below is the listing from a 1960s Wards' catalog. Their version came with a holster. Notice the price.

The instruction sheet gives details on how to lock and load the caps clip, and the cleaning of the gun. Of course there's a nice detailed accessory assembly graphic as well.

The Wards' price was listed at $3.99. This particular set sold in most stores for $4.99. In March 2015, the final bid for the set at Hake's Auction #214 was $1,075.25.

So there it is. The moral of the story: Cold War weapons, real or imagined, are pretty damned expensive.