Space Pilot Nuclear Missile Gun (Merit / U.K. / 1950s / 6 x 9 inches)

It's sometimes hard to believe that these toys were made for children. Take, for instance, the Space Pilot Nuclear Missile Gun, which has a handle suitable for any adult hand. It's like they anticipated the collector market; either that, or whoever owned Merit saw in this gun an opportunity to live out his own space adventure fantasies. And who can blame him?

The Space Pilot Nuclear Missile Gun is really an insane concept. Consider it: A pistol that fired some sort of nuclear missile! It's yet another example of the awesome mixed signals -- "Fun toys fire nuclear missiles!" -- that popped from the collective mind of a civilization living at the dawn of the atomic age.

Regardless, this British toy is fantastic. The wonderful, fluid lines; the shiny silver plastic; the dials; the compass. I tell ya, every space gun should have a compass. Every space toy should have a compass. "Hey, see that space compass over there, the one you wear on your wrist? It'd be even cooler if had a tiny compass attached to it." I love compasses.

The Space Pilot Nuclear Missile Gun was loosely designed around the mechanism found previously in both the Space Patrol and Dan Dare Rocket Guns. It's similar in size and fires the same type of darts.

Both dials turn. The green one is an "Interplanetary Selector," with settings for Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The red one is the "Velocity Control," and ranges from 1,000 to 14,000. Yes, yes, they're just free-spinning knobs that don't control anything, but it's fun to imagine sending a nuclear missile screaming towards Saturn at a velocity of 14,000... um... somethings. On the other hand, am I the only one who's disturbed that the gun has an Earth setting?

As far as I know, the only variations have to do with the knob and cap colors; besides red and green, I've also seen blue. No color is scarcer than any other.

This is a pretty rare gun, especially in complete condition. It's almost always missing the little cap on the back, as well as that compass. The knobs can fall out, too. Despite the toy's scarcity, I recommend holding out for as complete an example as possible -- they do show up, all you need is patience.

Zetaray (Pifco / Early 1960s / U.K. / 4.5 x 7 inches)

Sorry for the delay, everybody. The holidays can be a busy time... and a lazy time. But we're back, and ending 2009 with a bang! Get it? Hm...

The Zetaray, by a British company called Pifco, is definitely one of the gee-whizziest ray guns in my collection. Its sleek, slick lines and sweeping fins make it look more like a space ship than a space gun, and the metallic blue plastic is probably the most beautiful finish you're likely to find on any toy.

Of course, like so many of these ray guns, the looks outweigh the functionality -- this one clicks and has a flashlight in the barrel. But it's still enough to have made the Zetaray a fun toy for kids to play with back in the day.

The gun is clearly modeled on the Radionic Resonator Beam Gun (which I wrote about here), which was made by the British manufacturer Multum. Pifco modified the tail fin and ditched the more complicated, multi-color lens array. They also offered up the Zetaray in a second color, metallic bronze, which is quite striking. Still, I've got to say I like the blue one more. It's definitely less common.

The basic Pifco version of the design was reused a few other times. There's version from Argentina called the Linterna Espacial, which is available in both red and green. And I recently saw an amazing version from Australia called the Supersonic Space Shooter that includes a color-changing mechanism similar to the one found on the Radionic Resonator Beam Gun.

Australia's version of this classic gun. Pic via eBay.

While all these variations might be tough to get, luckily for collectors, the Zetaray isn't that hard to find, and can usually be had for a reasonable price. Which is nice, because it's a great piece that looks stellar in any collection.

Space-Phones (Selcol, 1950s)

A ray gun's all well and good... until you're out of ammo and need to call for back up. That's when a good set of space-phones can save the day!

This British set was made by Selcol and uses the then-cutting-edge "can-and-string" toy technology to create a communicator perfectly suited for conversations between galaxies. If, of course, those two galaxies are approximately three feet away.

The toys do go a bit beyond the typical space walkie talkies of the day by including a little whistle above the communication grill. It's a nice little touch that adds some play value.

I love the box art, which, despite limiting itself to only three colors, delivers a lot of bang. Keen eyed observers will notice that it pulls heavily from the artwork of Britain's greatest space hero, Dan Dare. In fact, for all intents and purposes, that is Colonel Dare on the flip-up display. He's only missing those weird, kinked eye brows -- probably so Eagle Publishing wouldn't sue Selcol out of existence.

While this isn't the rarest set of walkie talkies, it's definitely not common either. I spent a while looking for a pair in nice condition, with a clean box and both easily broken antennas in place. The hunt was worth it, though -- it's a great toy!

Moon Man 001 (OK / 1960s / U.K. / 6 inches)

As part of my continuing celebration of the Apollo 11 moon landing, I thought I'd talk a little bit about the one and only toy in my collection with the word "moon" in its name. 

Truth: There's nothing very heroic looking about this British astronaut. He's both roly and poly, and his soft, yellow uniform makes him look like a giant, alien crumpet. He's a far cry from Dan Dare, the preeminent British space hero of the 1950s. 

Some collectors share my point of view, but not all. In fact, one of the collectors I respect the most, a man who helped make me the collector I am today, a man who also happens to be a beefy, tattooed, badass, chopper-riding, multiply-body-pierced, tougher-than-your-average-bear kind of dude, once told me that he absolutely loves the weird, geeky, little astronaut. Clearly it's a demonstration of how collecting is an intensely personal hobby, and each person's collection is governed by their own peculiar taste. We shouldn't judge each other... even if I did think my friend was nuts!

And I'll admit, the Moon Man has a cool action: It walks with a nice "step-over" motion while its head turns back and forth, as if scanning the horizon of an alien planet. Clever, cute, the kind of action that gives a toy some personality. But not enough to make me buy it, right? Right? 

Ah, but how often has it happened to other collectors: You're walking through a toy show, you're surfing through eBay, you're picking through an antique market, when all of a sudden you see that toy you hated so much (and, ahem, so vocally). Only now, with the piece right in front of you, it doesn't look quite so bad. "Hm," you think to yourself, "I never really noticed that before. Or that. Or the way it does that or that or especially that! You know, this toy's actually not that bad."

Which is, of course, what happened to me. I was at the Kane County Toy Show outside of Chicago when I came across a rare, silver variation of the Moon Man. Suddenly, I found myself taking another look, a closer look. I don't know what I saw that transformed the toy in my eyes, and maybe my tastes had just developed over the last few years of collecting different toys, but suddenly I found myself really wanting to take the astronaut home with me. 

My friend was there, and he saw the look in my eye. He of course took the opportunity to pester me about it. But I played it cool; I put the toy back on the table and moved on. He shrugged, thinking he'd misread me after all. I gave him a self-satisfied little grin and said something like, "That's what you get for thinking you can read me, sucka!" Of course, the real reason I put the toy down was that I'd spent all my money for the weekend. A show of willpower isn't tough when you're flat broke! 

Needless to say, I was hooked on the Moon Man. A few months later, a dealer I know had one on eBay, mint-in-box, for a really low starting price. I decided to throw a bid at it, and ended up winning the auction. A few months after that I finally told my friend about it. I think he's just about ready to stop saying "I told you so!"

Raydionic Resonator Beam Space Gun (Multum / 1950s / U.K. / 5 x 9 inches)

Here's another great ray gun from across the pond: The Raydionic Resonator. Say it with me: "Ray-Dee-Onik Rez-Oh-Nator." Kinda rolls off the tongue, right?

This spiffy little toy has a flashlight that changes colors via a small switch on top of the lens assembly. Flipping the switch to one side or the other moves either a green or red gel in front of the bulb. Simple and elegant, it's a system that -- with minor tweaks here and there -- pops up in many different ray guns. The Raydionic also makes a clicking noise when you pull the trigger.

This is definitely a rare toy, though another British company called Pifco will appropriate the body design a few years later for use in its Zeta Ray line of guns. More on those when I get around to them. For now, rejoice in the fact that I don't actually have much more to say about the Raydionic, and instead will leave you to admire the pictures. 

Atomic Ray Gun (Tudor Rose / 1950s / U.K. / 6.5 x 7.5 inches)

While the United States produced a majority of toy ray guns, some of the most beautiful, like the Atomic Ray Gun, came out of Great Britain.

I'm not exactly sure what the designers were thinking when they came up with the Atomic Ray, but the sculpted handle is scaled to fit comfortably in an adult-sized hand -- slightly odd at the time, but perfect for today's collector! The gun features an abundance of rings and molded gadgetry, as well as two non-functional, free-spinning knobs on either side. 

The toy fired a strange suction cup dart with a forked back. A rubber band stretched vertically through the middle of the barrel; the dart would push back on the rubber band and clip on either end. Imagine a tiny bow and arrow an you've got the general picture. The firing mechanism is unique to this gun, which isn't surprising considering how overly complicated it is. But the darts look suitably impressive... 

The gun was also available in a copper-colored version, which is a touch rarer. It was also originally sold with three darts. I bought this from a wonderful dealer in the U.K. named Antoni Emchowicz. He runs a web site called Zoomer Toys, and is also the author of one of my favorite space toy books, Future Toys.