Another toy gun...but not like the last one...

[REVIER]

Yesterday I went to different woods and found another toy gun, but this one is a totally different story than the first one which was pretty complete and in good shape for something that was buried for over 50 years.
http://www.findmall.com/read.php?91,2014685


This one I probably destroyed myself trying to get it out of ground that was way to frozen to even think about a careful extraction, but I never said I was the brainy type.
By the time I got half of it out of the ground and realized what it was it was too late.

Oh well, I still got all of the pieces which is way more than I usually find in the cap gun department.

A 1958 or so Mattel Fanner 50 full size and very popular gun.
What was more fun than fanning that trigger and hearing those rapid pops?

This was one of the first toys that put Mattel on the map and came out 1 year before the Barbie doll...the most popular toy ever made.

They produced these from 1958 to about 1965, and had many different styles.
This was an early model with a stationary barrel and used cap rolls but over time they evolved to spinning barrels and bullets where you put stick-on caps on the ends and fired small plastic tips off the front of those bullets...something they could never get away with today.

I guess if you hunt in the woods, something I will be doing a lot more of this year, this is exactly the kind of things you should expect to find.

Hopefully, more to come.

 

[MikeO]

Pretty interesting.
Good research on it.

 

[Elton]

Did that one hold the roll of caps that had 50 pops hence the fanner 50 model..

Your bringing back a lot of memories when I used to shoot a lot of bad guys ( my Cousins) when we played Cowboys.... I had the White Hat so I was always the good guy !!!

 

[knack4iron]

Probably from the 60's. I think every kid a version. I had the basic and the one's called Cowboy in Africa. Remember those with Chuck Connor who went on to play The Rifleman???
I used to restore the Mattel Fanners as a hobby. You can still get the repro parts.

 

[mudpuppy]

Thats a good sign of some heavy kid activity! Must have been one heck of a shootout there in the days gone by...I think you are right to hunt that area in Allmetal...I got into a woods like that, and hit an old cigar tin buried next to a big old oak, that was obviously also a treehouse tree from all the nails...anyway, it held a bunch of wheat pennies, some kids treasure stash no doubt.
Nice find REVIER!
Mud

 

[REVIER]

Probably from the 60's. I think every kid a version. I had the basic and the one's called Cowboy in Africa. Remember those with Chuck Connor who went on to play The Rifleman???
I used to restore the Mattel Fanners as a hobby. You can still get the repro parts.

Maybe, I did a bunch of research on this and found out that the original models in the late 50's just used rolls of caps and had no place to load fake bullets.
Later on they redesigned them and added chambers that could hold bullets and eventually a spinning cylinder.
Not long after a "shootin shell" models came out that could shoot projectiles.
The impala grips came on the Cowboy in Africa models that came out in the early 60's along side of that failed tv show with Chuck Conners.
In the future those same grips were on repackaged models called the Ramrod, Wild-Land and eventually Rango after another failed tv show...maybe other models, also.

I believe I got all the pieces, (hunted all over the area in all metal but all these pieces were were in a small area), and I didn't see or dig any part that fit inside the cylinder where bullets could be loaded, the cylinder did not spin on mine so I am assuming this was probably an early model and the box below was probably the right one for this model.
The site I got this pic from and some info, nichols cap guns, has several models pictured the pic below was labeled as a gun from 1958.
I could be wrong, they might have continued to make an sell the basic model roll cap only, no bullet loading, no revolving cylinder for years after 1958 when they initially they came out with it along side their upgraded models, but I wasn't keeping track because from 1958-1965 I was 3-10 years old.
My job was to just play with them, not study their history, and I did my job well and killed many a bad guy with my guns.
There were many different packages with different holsters so it is hard to track the time frame on all the models.

Thanks for your opinion, you repaired them so you must know stuff.

My other gun I found this week was around a 1958 Hubley model so just for the heck of it I will just assume this is also an original 1958 model because, well, it is cooler that way.
Even though I might not get an exact date on this model I still say it is almost as much fun researching your finds as it is finding them.
With 2 cap guns found in the last few days and all the reading I have been doing I have learned a ton about cap guns and still have only touched the surface of knowledge that is out there.

 

[knack4iron]

The Shootin' Shell was the deluxe line, we didn't get those they were more $$$.My cousin had the lever action that did the shootin shells. I had the regular and used Greenies rolls of caps. I still got some in the attic. These Fanners still hold alot of value today even broken, go up on ebay and checkout some of the prices then google the toy stores on the web for vintage. THe two gun and holster setup brings and easy $100, probably more since I hadn't repaired and restored any in about 6 years. The 60's was a great time for toys with Mattel,Marx,Remco all those cool makers.

 

[REVIER]

See that piece on the bottom left?
As you well know that is the door that covered the area where you load in the caps.
I have seen a few guns for sale online that were missing that.
Bet I could get a few bucks just for that piece if I posted it, even in the shape it is in.

 

[knack4iron]

Oh yea that piece got broken alot. You can get repro parts of all of it. Made from potmetal a chromed. I've still got a few of the hammers and grips up in the attic too. I don't know if the website I bought from is still in business though. It 'd have to be searched for.

 

[Bunited2]

Heck, I forgot until now I had one of those, I remember it now like it was yesterday.
As a matter of fact I think I had that same exact green flannel shirt like that kid had
too. Think I shot at my older Sister more than anything.

Cool find!

Bunited2