Boys' Toys - Models & Gee Dees


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1950s Spud guns were made of a cast metal and fired spud pellets for a respectable distance. A spud gun fight was a must during the long summer holidays.

 

 

 

 

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Amazing what could be bought from the chemists in the 40's and 50's. As well as the usual salt petre etc. you could get photographers flash powder - whoooo!  Think I mentioned the big explosion we cau

Richard was encouraged in his explosive pursuits by his great uncle, also named Richard. A major in the Army and a weapons instructor. As a child, this maniac made a 'cannon' from a length of Victoria

No self-respecting boy of the 1950s or 60s would be without a water pistol. They came in hundreds of different styles but there were two main types: The trigger pistol and the plastic pouch type. The trigger type (Picture 1) fires a bolt of water and repeated pulls on the trigger fires repeated bolts of water. The second type (Picture 2) was squeezed to give a continuous jet that could beat off any would-be attacker. I preferred the second type myself.  With apologies for the tiny image of the non-pump style water pistol. 1f642.png:)

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Having  six Brothers Compo I remember them well, especially the ones in picture 2.

I was usually on the receiving  end but not always. I would try and give as good as I got

and if all else failed I'd run crying to my mam.:aggressive:

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could'nt afford a pea shooter,had to make do with a Bic pen outer cover and a pocket full of rice for the ammo

 

Rog

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We used to catapult bits of rolled up paper at each other; via elastic bands made into homemade catapults on our fingers. dint half come sharp if they caught yer; double whammy if teacher caught you as well. Ouch.

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Same here Carni until some wag decided to use netting staples instead of paper, the brown stuff hit the fan then I can tell you

 

Rog

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I never quite mastered the elastic band catapults, my efforts would either fly about six foot away and fall to the floor or just twizzle round and flop off the band onto the floor by my feet. No danger to man nor beast ( one for the "Things our parent used to say thread") lol.

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Some of the things we did should, by rights, have killed us.  We made banger guns and fired Roman Candles at each other, cycled all over without a care, climbed trees without safety ropes, swam in the river, carried large sheath knives, you name it - we've done it at some point.

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I remember a particular cap gun that I had for a birthday when I was about eight or nine years old.  I was dead chuffed with it because it had six bullets each of which could be loaded with a single "Cap".  

 

The problem was that I got six shots before my caps ran out and I had to unload and reload the bullets.  By this time the others had pumped about a thousand bullets into me with their cap guns that held a full roll of caps each :Fool:

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Richard spent his childhood, in the early 50s, making all sorts of explosives, aided by his friends whose parents had farms which afforded all kinds of chemicals for experimentation.

 

He told me that as a young child, he made his own gunpowder and wandered into the kitchen one morning with a jam jar full of the stuff when the milkman turned up. Milkman came in to collect the week's milk payment and said to Richard: "And what have you got there, Sonny?"

 

"It's gunpowder," replied Richard.

 

"Oh aye?" replied the milkman, laughing as he tapped his cigarette ash into the jam jar!

 

B A N G !!!!!!   :blink:

 

That was the last they ever saw of this particular milkman and the kitchen needed redecorating.

 

He wonders why little boys don't get chemistry sets for Christmas nowadays!

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Richard was encouraged in his explosive pursuits by his great uncle, also named Richard. A major in the Army and a weapons instructor. As a child, this maniac made a 'cannon' from a length of Victorian brass curtain pole which was so successful it almost blew his hand off! His mother fainted when she saw a couple of fingers literally hanging by a flap of skin. The local doctor, an excellent fisherman and a whizz at tying flies, was prevailed upon to sew the carnage back together and, apparently did a pretty good job.

 

As Richard says, a visit to any chemist in the 50s would procure all sorts of lethal ingredients for a few pennies. He's very lucky to be here to tell the tale!

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I believe so Katy.  And if you got it wrong you could fire the missile straight into the back of your thumb.  That made your eyes water...

 

Col

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9 hours ago, Compo said:

I remember a particular cap gun that I had for a birthday when I was about eight or nine years old.  I was dead chuffed with it because it had six bullets each of which could be loaded with a single "Cap".  

 

The problem was that I got six shots before my caps ran out and I had to unload and reload the bullets.  By this time the others had pumped about a thousand bullets into me with their cap guns that held a full roll of caps each :Fool:

 

Ah, but you had the satisfaction knowing that your version was much closer to what real cowboys used to do!  (I had one of those 'single shot' cap guns myself).

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I still love marbles and have a bowl of assorted ones on my table as an ornament. The table is just in the right place to pass on the way to the kitchen and you can hear the familiar clinking sound as neither of us can resist swizzling them around (I mean the Marbles) on the way, it's a good way of dusting them. :biggrin:

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As a kid I was lucky in that my dad had worked at Ransome and Marles at Newark after the war and had many assorted size "steelies" to play marbles with and for ammunition for my 'gadder'. You used to be able to buy 1/4 inch square gadder elastic from the corner shop. The real trick was how to secure it to the gadder frame so it did not come off and hit you in the chops when taking aim. My granddad showed me how ti secure it using the twine that held ferrules on fishing rods by tyeing it like you would a spade end fishing hook.

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#13

My local chemist at corner of Mapperley plains and Gretton road, can't remember his name, short tubby little fellow with frame less bottle bottom glasses, must have known what I was up to when I used to buy my salt peter, pemangamate of potash and other goodies for my childhood "bomb making " enterprises !

We even used to make our own charcoal and grind it up !

We then moved on to weedkiller and other sweet things that went bang !  I used to buy "Jetex" fuse from the model shop up past the Porchester pub, great stuff for our experimentation at the time, my brother had a little jetex car, powered by a small solid fuel jet motor, so I used to pinch his fuses also.

 

Mapperley brickyard was our testing area, especially the clay bank bordering plains road. Had some lucky escapes but always good fun at the time.

 

I think a catapult was always carried wherever we roamed, complete with small stones or if lucky some marbels  or ball bearings.

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6 hours ago, katyjay said:

I think we called some marbles,  gallies?

We actually called our catapults Gally's or Gallies.

 

I actually still use a proper bought catapult sometimes still now, black widow I think it's called, uses round hollow rubber tube that is also used on spear fishing guns, and has a metal frame with wrist support.

 

 

 

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