No Name Clicker Ray Gun Story

[Fineas J. Whoopie]

When I was at the collectibles show in Portland a week ago I was chatting with a toy dealer who on occasion has some space toys. This show is put on three times a year and this guy always has a couple of the common, no name clicker space guns with the flame style detail in the front of the barrel. About a year ago I upgraded my red and yellow example form his stock and this time out I picked up a black and red example.

I commented that he always seemed to have a few of these guns in stock and he told me this story.

According to this dealer he bought a box full of these guns from an estate sale of the family of a retired "sundries" distributor/salesman. Apparently these ray guns were in-store giveaways connected with some sort of juice drink promotion (the dealer couldn't remember the name - doh!) He was unsure if the promotion happened in grocery stores or in drug stores or both, but he was sure they told him that you got a free gun when you bought a glass of this juice drink to be drunk on the premises. This makes me think drug stores were more likely. He went on to tell about the real tragedy of the story which was that the ray guns were mounted on a large cardboard advertising display. The family had no use for it and threw it out years ago!! I can only imagine how awesome this display could have been, particularly if it was heavy on the space age theme. I would so love to find a picture or even an actual display.

Now I have nothing to confirm this story but I don't see why the guy would lie, the story doesn't up the value of the toys at all but it does make sense considering the toy has no marking and we've never seen any packaging.

[dratomic]

A neat story!

But I've gotta say, I'm a *little* skeptical that these guns were made FOR the promotional event. We see these guns a lot, and they show up all over the place, which means there were tons of them produced and that they were distributed on a national level. If they were all made for the promotion, that means it was a GIANT giveaway, one that happened across the country. If it were that big an event, and if these guns were custom made for it by a company big enough to pull off such an event, I imagine they'd be branded in some way. It wouldn't cost any more money, and I can't see a large company missing out on that sort of advertising/marketing opportunity.

That said, I'd be likely to believe that the guns were generic toys, made by some company to be sold in stores, and that the sundries salesman picked up a case or two (or three or four or whatever) to be used for a local -- or maybe even regional -- promotional event. And that it was one of those cases that ended up in the hands of the dealer in Oregon.

Obviously, I'm just speculating.

[Fineas J. Whoopie]

It kills me that the guy couldn't tell me the brand name of the drink. It would be so much easier to research.