Mattel Shootin’ Shell Buckle Gun

Posted on January 12, 2015 by admin

Here is Mark Evanier’s remembrance of owning the Mattel Shootin’ Shell Buckle Gun.

http://www.newsfromme.com/

Note you may have to scroll down as Mark keeps his posts one page

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23 Responses to Mattel Shootin’ Shell Buckle Gun

  1. George Albany says:
    January 13, 2015 at 8:16 PM

    Couldn’t open the link, but this post reminded me of the Shootin’ Shell .38 Special I had. Came w/ a nasty plastic shoulder holster. Used it as a back up when we played army along with my Marx Tommy gun. Had two of those, one w/a traditional wood colored stock and a second in camoflauge that came w/a bad plastic knife and a camo poncho (and a few other accessories, a helmet, I think). Was a tie in to the Combat! TV series. Loved that stuff. Could go on for hours. Who else wants to talk about the great toy guns we had as kids? Give me a little time to wake up some old dormant brain cells and I can probably recall some great ones.

    Reply
  2. eborris says:
    January 14, 2015 at 10:16 AM

    I had the Mattel greasegun and a wooden Springfield. Had numerous fanner 50’s, of course the Winchester. Also had a wooden flintlock musket I got at Fort Dells that fired a cork musket ball.

    Reply
  3. George Albany says:
    January 14, 2015 at 8:50 PM

    A grease gun??? Don’t remember that, sounds really cool, we could have used a grease gun guy. Had two Cadet Trainer rifles that were wooden Springfield copies (like high school and college color guards used). Gave them to my son when he was little, he used them to shoot hippos and giraffes (can’t tell you ho many he shot in the street in front of the house). Kid down the street had a really cool plastic ’03 Springfield, nice copy of the real thing. Never had a good Winchester copy, but had two great Daisy air rifles (neither shot BBs), but one had a really cool ricochet sound. Under the forearm was a mechanism with a “gear” that spun upon firing and rotated against s little metal strip and made the ricochet sound, similar to putting a baseball card on your bike to buzz against the spokes. Shot a lot of Apaches with that rifle. The kid up the street had a really cool plastic M-1 carbine. Didn’t shoot caps or anything like that, but really looked like the real thing. Kid down the street had a great plastic Remington rolling block copy — he shot a bunch of buffalo with it. I had the musket too. As I recall, it was made by the same folks who made the Cadet trainers. It fired a cork ball propelled by a standard cap. Unfortunately, if you rammed a cork ball into the barrel too hard, it would not shoot out. Made that mistake as a kid. Had several Colt pistol copies, a couple of the “fanner” styles, but the best was one that was probably the size of the real thing. You loaded it with cartridges like a real handgun. The cartridges were really cool. Two pieces, a long pot metal “bullet” and a brass case. You put a cap into the bottom of the brass case, inserted the “bullet” that had a hole down the center. When you fired the pistol, smoke went through the “bullet” and out the barrel. Looked like the real thing. Great gun; can’t tell you how many times I had a shoot out with the James Gang using that one. God, I loved playing army/fighting Indians as a kid. Had a relative who built me a small stockade in the back yard. Fought a lot of Confederates and Apaches from that fort. Really miss those days of my youth. Anyone else have any memories of playing army or fighting
    Indians (or Japs or Confederates, of the James Gang, etc.)?

    Reply
    • admin says:
      January 14, 2015 at 10:47 PM

      George

      Go to this link and you will see the Mattel grease Gun
      http://www.nicholscapguns.com/mattel2.htm

      Reply
      • George Albany says:
        January 16, 2015 at 8:25 PM

        Paul — Thanks for the grease gun image. We never had one of those in my neighborhood. Of course, as I mentioned in an earlier post, we had a BAR guy. He took a real Civil War musket and put a bipod on the end and called it a BAR. Shot a lot of Nazis with that one. Also, the camo tommy gun underneath the grease gun looks a lot like the Combat! tommy gun I had.

        Reply
    • Don Perkins says:
      January 15, 2015 at 7:07 PM

      Down in my home state of Arkansas, we always fought Yankees.

      Reply
      • Don Perkins says:
        January 15, 2015 at 7:10 PM

        Or, in lieu of Yankees — Indians or Alamo Mexicans.

        Reply
        • George Albany says:
          January 16, 2015 at 8:29 PM

          Not a problem. I grew up north of the Mason Dixon line, had no choice but to shoot Confederates. Matter of fact, the relative who built me the stockade told me if he ever saw a Confederate flag flying over it, he’s sneak back and burn it down. The Rebs captured it once briefly, but we managed to recapture it before they could raise the stars and bars.

          Reply
          • Don Perkins says:
            January 16, 2015 at 9:00 PM

            If we weren’t fighting Yankees, Indians, or Alamo Mexicans, we sometimes fought badguy cowboys.

  4. eborris says:
    January 15, 2015 at 7:29 AM

    I grew up in Chicago and it seemed there were always a lot of kids within a couple of blocks. We used to have massive shoot em ups, the weapons seemed irrelevant , winchesters, machine guns, cap pistols they were all used at the same time. The Alamo movie came out when I was a kid so we played that a lot too. It was soliders when it rained, guns when the weather was nice.

    Reply
  5. eborris says:
    January 15, 2015 at 7:33 AM

    My greasegun was different, looked more like the real one, except it had a hand crank for firing off the caps I believe, it had a wire stock and everything. I thought it was Mattel, but maybe not.

    Reply
  6. eborris says:
    January 15, 2015 at 9:39 AM

    My looked like e-bay auction mumber 291354945053 , except mine was black with a red piece covering where you inserted the caps.

    Reply
  7. Greg Liska says:
    January 15, 2015 at 6:56 PM

    I had a load of toy guns! Had the trainer rifle, a Fanner 50, a Thompson that fired caps, a great cap firing metal M-1911, a metal cap firing Luger, the shell firing .38 Special, I’d gotten the Marx Cavalry rig and loved the Remington pistol (looked more like the Navy .36 than the Army .44) but it didn’t come with the carbine. I got a Winchester with it, to my disappointment. I’d gotten a cool metal M1919 on a tripod that was battery operated. I also ended up with some dumpster finds that were great: some sort of bazooka that you hand pumped to make a blast sound (didn’t work anymore) and that crazy Johnny 7 (I think) that was a big MG that broke down into a pistol, grenade launcher and all sorts of stuff. The coolest was an M-14 that shot plastic 2 part bullets. I learned my first lesson about trigger control and safety by accidentally shooting an ornament on the tree. My parents would just not believe it was an accident because it was too much of a coincidence that I hit it square. My butt glowed like the plugged in tree for hours after that.

    Reply
    • George Albany says:
      January 16, 2015 at 8:40 PM

      Johnny Seven OMA (One Man Army). The kid up the street had one of them, but it was cumbersome, kinda like trying to carry a Ma Deuce into combat like it was a regular combat rifle. We were all jealous about all the cool attachments/detachments, but it was just too cumbersome, When it came time to chase Nazis or Japs out of the back yard, the OMA was just to much to carry.

      And the bazooka. Had one of them too. It had a long recoil spring that fired the plastic rocket at a cardboard bunker. Made a really distinctive sound when fired. I remember that ’cause it was the bazooka that taught me there was no Santa. My folks always hid the Xmas gifts in our walk up attic. After putting us to bed, Mom, Dad, and my uncle (after having a few drinks) would then set up the tree, get out the gifts, etc. That particular Xmas, as they were bringing things down from the attic, they banged the bazooka on the doorframe. I wasn’t completely asleep and heard the recoil spring noise. Next morning, after opening my gifts, I fired the bazooka and thought, hmmmm, didn’t I hear that noise lastnight?

      Reply
  8. Greg Liska says:
    January 15, 2015 at 6:57 PM

    Oh! Just coming back to me! That M-14 was called a Johnny Eagle. That right?

    Reply
  9. Jack Gibbons says:
    January 15, 2015 at 7:38 PM

    I still have a some of my old guns. I bought the Paris long rifle at Disneyworld in the early 70s. It was often used in civil war reenactments in the backyard. It also was just used in my 5th grader’s classroom for a reenactment of Simon Kenton meeting Tecumseh in the Ohio territory. The Mattel Lone Ranger fanner pistol, the Mattel Thompson, realistic snub-nosed metal .38 pistols, an Ideal M-16, realistic squirt guns, and the Daisy Winchester and Colt guns were always in the arsenal.

    This summer the current stock of my kid’s toy guns were put into storage for their children some day. Many days of play in the neighborhood and no one has ever used a firearm in an improper manner.

    Reply
  10. eborris says:
    January 16, 2015 at 10:05 AM

    I have one fanner 50, but it’s the newer cheaper version where they cyclinder doesn’t turn, it came with a plastic vinyl holster instead of a leather one. I had one original and two of the newer versions. I also had a Mattel rifle that had a revolving cyclinder, don’t remember what it was called. It was like a hybrid of the scout rifle and the fanner 50.

    Reply
    • George Albany says:
      January 16, 2015 at 8:47 PM

      That revolving rifle was a copy of a real rife that was popular with late Civil War skirmishers and irregular cavalry. The real thing was a rifle with a revolving percussion cylinder. Was an early attempt at a repeating rifle, was pretty reliable unless you had a chain fire (an errant spark might ignite all five or six chambers and blow off your weak hand — the one supporting the fore end). Anyhow, one of the kids in our neighborhood had one and as I recall, it shot “shootin’ shells” too.

      Reply
  11. eborris says:
    January 17, 2015 at 7:00 PM

    Yeah, you had to attach greenie stick em caps to the base of the shell. Mine never fired real well, it was a long ride dow the barrel.

    Reply
  15. erwin says:
    January 19, 2015 at 10:09 PM

    The good times children could play, no bother about injuries, not complain, not sue, . And play like normal boys!!!If I give this today to my 6 years old girl to play in my back yard; the entire neighborhood will call police claiming a small woman is pointing a real gun to every body!!.Then they will charge me and possible social service will try get my child off me because I do teach her to use a possible murder “tool”. Last I will get sue by other parents with traumatic distress and being affected by what could had been a real attacker!!
    What a world we come to be!!WOW!!

    Reply

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