Doing The Happy Dance

[Tinman]

Congratulations FJW, it's absolutely one of my favorite pieces of plastic!

[robothunter]

Don - I forgot to ask. Is it a clicker pistol? Or does it do something other than exist as a beautiful peice of sculpture? The more I look at this pistol, the more I'm overwhelmed by it's beauty!

[Sparkrobot]

Well done FJW,,for getting your Holy Grail,,,,,,,,What's the next Holy Grail? ;) ....Great Ray gun,,Thanks for sharing your pictures,,,and Delight!!

[dratomic]

Pat -- it's a clicker... of sorts. When you pull the trigger, the barrel and top portion of the gun reciprocate while making a clicking noise. It's really kind of neat, and goes slightly beyond the typical clicker gun.

I'm pretty sure I showed you the mechanism when I got the copper one way back when... not sure if I showed you my candy-colored one when we were at Botstock or not, but they all have the same mechanism.

The rifle also has the reciprocating action, but it's driven by a crank on the side of the gun. Much less elegant.

A little more trivia to flesh out the info on Fin's new toy... The Pyrotomic Disintegrator was made in 1953 by Pyro Plastics. It was eventually made in candy colors as well as metallic colors, with the candies coming first. (The metallic version has the letter R, for "registered trademark," by the word "Pyrotomic." This mark is missing from the candy colored ones.) There are at least four different color combinations known:

1. red/yellow/blue (like Fin's and mine and two others I know of, making four total)

2. red/blue/yellow (reverse the blue and yellow bits -- like the one that appears in Ray Gun, by Gene Metcalf. I know of two in this variation.)

3. red/yellow/turquoise (just a hint of green added to the blue... I know of three, inlcuding the boxed one that sold a few months ago)

4. red/yellow/black (I only know of one). The metallic colored one seems to be exclusively made of a copper body and silver barrel/details (about 12 in known collections -- rare, but not as rare as the candy ones).

There are also two known versions of the rifle -- candy colored (red/blue/yellow) and copper/silver. Not sure how many are out there, but I can think of about five or six metallic rifles, and maybe three or four of the candies.

Only two known boxes -- one of which just sold on ebay for an insane amount of money.

Pyro made one other ray gun, a simple clicker -- it's neat, but nothing to write home about. Not rare at all. But still a nice addition to any collection.

The Pyrotomic Disintegrator is about as top-tier as you get in the world of ray gun collecting. With the exception of a super rare Pez gun and one Space Patrol rifle, no loose space gun has come close in price -- at least, not consistently -- though there are some others that might be just as rare. However, they don't also have the amazing looks of the Pyrotomic... It's really just an awesome space gun.

This is by far my favorite ray gun.

Congrats again, Fin!

[dratomic]

Here's another view of the red Pyro, as well as a shot of the metallic one...

[TinWindUp]

That is a beautiful piece, Congratulations!

[Fineas J. Whoopie]

Thanks very much for your comments everyone. I'm so glad to have you all to help me enjoy these milestones. :)

I've been putting off re-doing my whole ray gun display until I got a Pyrotomic, so I guess there's no more excuse. Time to get to work.

Robert - The "smoking space ship" that Rotobadger and I were admiring at Botstock was a Bandai Space Jet X-001 (Future Toys #249). By the way, what's up with the black KO Flying Saucer - is that your handywork?