Lost Treasure Found...

[funkrobotik]

Great find TM but next time do us all a favour .

Don't pick something so obvious. :P

[robobob]

''Damn Damn Damn....

Congrats Don...You saw what I couldnt see.

I saw that Branded In Space thing, and instantly thought of Chuck Connors - The Rifleman.

Unfortunately, after looking at many a rifle picture, including the Space Cadet rifle, nothing

came to me...Good job, Fin, on coming up with it @

And now I'm sorry, but Machel and I had our annual Halloween party tonight, its 1:00 am, and I'm

VERY tired....(read that as slightly drunk). Time to go nighty-night ... Congrats TM on a FANTASTIC find,

I'm very happy for you, and would love to see more pics !! Great job, and great puzzle...really enjoyed it !!! :)

[ToyMemories]

Steve Thanks very much! Yeah, I was kind of counting on Fin to come through, I knew he had it in him ;)

I just love it all around, defects and all... it even feels special :) Of course it would be wonderful if it was in perfect shape, but in reality I'm just so glad it survived (one day I'll post about the horrible fate of many Marx prototypes... :angry2: but that's for another day!)

Doc Hey, where ya been? :P I couldn't wait to show it, too! Sheer torture, yes... Thanks for helping me out there on the phone, my friend!

Below is a pic taken tonight of it cleaned up, so you can compare better between it and production. Remember this is likely the initial prototype, so that would account for a variety of differences.

As for the scope, it appears for lack of paint on two spots near where it would be that it WAS there at one time. For the knobs, I'm pretty sure it had some kind of circular disk or object configuration in that area because of the circular cut-outs there (just have no idea what exactly they'd look like) perhaps because of the tight fit there is why they relocated the vent holes in production. Thanks for the kind words!! :D

(I'm working on TRYING to find out who actually made it, or anything else I can find out, but so far no luck... too many of the old employees have passed on I'm afraid)

Joe! Thanks, buddy! Hey, that sounds like a rather cool idea to me! I've been working on the wife to see if we can make B-V, and so far she's agreeable :rolleyes: if it's a go, I'll have to dig out the original drawings the blueprints were made from (they're nicer than the blueprint versions) and maybe (if I can scrape the dough together) I can have that 150 pound "thing" I mentioned on the phone shipped here so I can bring it to B-V too!

Spark Thanks also! I really liked your ideas there :) I had fun doing it (it was really hard not giving up too much too obviously!) and could be fun for other stuff too!

Funk :D :P :D Thanks! Wait'll you see the clues...

Robobob Hahahaha... The Branded thing you were on the right track; if I remember right, didn't Chuck have his sword broken in half and thrown in the sand in the beginning? (similar to the Atomic rifle being broken in half), and then the Rifleman ;)

Thanks RB!! More pics coming soon... and I'm glad you had fun with the mystery too!

Ok, here's a fresh pic of the cleaned rifle proto:

[Fineas J. Whoopie]

Thanks for the kind words everyone. This was a very fun game in addition to a very important find. Thanks again To Toymemories for not only sharing this treasure but also making the "reveal" so much fun!

I actually spent several hours pouring over reference book after reference book looking for this toy while an example of the production piece was displayed behind me on the wall not more than six feet away. The part that really threw me was, like I said, that fluted detail. I can now see that detail was just moved to the right and shaped a bit differently while the slots exposing the inner striped panel were moved to the left on the production model. This made the proto and the production models hard to reconcile. Once I started to look for more loose interpretations of the form and re-visited my American made ray guns, the Atomic Rifle finally became a candidate.

I still can't imagine how it must feel to own such an important piece of history......... :)

[ToyMemories]

Ok, some of the hidden clues were (don't know if I even remember them all):

Post #1 Basically just a little background story for fun; the "scouting mission", "war-torn" a couple of vague tips.

Post #4 "(and no checking with Doc or Joe!)"; mentioning Doc Atomic is a clue as Doc loves rayguns, and of course his name... is Atomic.

Post #6 "...especially without Atomic regenerators...". And you have the "Branded up in space" reference (as mentioned, Chuck Connors- Rifleman, also Branded had him with his sword broken in half and tossed in the sand if I recall right. I thought that was cool because the rifle was broken in half, and "found in the Umagi sands" ;) )

Post #13 here we get the (well I thought it was) obvious giveaway clues...

In the response to Eagle, you had ...Also, the old Magloi infantry Captain B'Bon B'Bonz had passed through before me...

In the response to Fineas, you had Really, I feel like exploding here...

Then in the response to Doc Atomic, you had I'll blast you if you give it away!

The rhyme at the end refers to the letters hidden in the beginning of words, one letter per word. (I was working on a more complex hidden letter clue system where the first letter of a word was the first letter of the name, the second letter of the second word was the second letter of the name, and so on, but that seemed too deep and complex. Also considered were the last letter of every line, or the first letter of each line with the name spelled backwards; both of which I thought were too over the top! Can you tell I'd been a writer in the past? )

Post #16 had Permission granted from Exalted Grand Commander T'Car! (T'Car signifying Tom Corbett Atomic Rifle :P )

It also had an important one- (it's rather unique; where you'd normally find it would be to some unlucky...) This meant the Alphadrome category headings page (you know, "Robot Talk", "Vintage Robots and Space Toys", etc.) where "Rayguns" is the 13th category from the top...

Post #30 Robobob was right on track with the piecing of the 2 pictures together; that was a close one! If he'd rotated them I think he would have had it (or someone else would have)

The "I can't spell it out for you... or could I? Or did I" was referencing the earlier hidden letters in words clues... the poem at the end I was working on continuing, and including the full name within more verses, but I was brain-dead at that point... hard to make a logical rhyming poem with predetermined letters for the beginning of each word normally, and moreso when you're really tired... without making it obvious :blink:

And then Fin stepped in, saved the day (and my sanity!) and whoo-hoo! Finally I could post pictures!

Thanks to everyone who played, I hope everyone got a kick out of it! I'm crazy, yeah, but it was fun for me too :)

[Fineas J. Whoopie]

I did get an overall feeling from the tone of your posts (without fully understanding the specific clues) that it was going to be a raygun. I did try spelling some words backwards but I didn't think to put together first letters. The one clue that I spent a lot of time on was the "to some unlucky" reference. I thought about 13th floors, under ladders, all kinds of things that never panned out. It's good to know that the "unlucky" clue was pointing in a direction I was already going in.

[ToyMemories]

Hey Fin, you deserve it! You're very welcome, and thanks for playing (and working so hard and winning!)

That's pretty funny and ironic... at the same time I was thinking if the one pic was the giveaway or not :) also, you know me too well (though we've never met)!

It's really strange... My feelings have been that I'm really happy and satisfied with all that I've been able to collect, and feel very fortunate to be able to have what I have; I'd be content if I never made another addition.

But when things come up like this, it's like being a kid at Christmas again! It's exciting, a thrill, and a feeling of saving and protecting a piece of history. Like holding a slice of time past in your hands; the "birth" of something that would become a happy memory for so many kids. And with the Corbett rifle, it's really cool because it came pretty soon after another major acquisition (for me at least!); a prototype for the head of Marx's Marvel the Mustang, one of my favorite childhood toys! (my 2 year old son has his own Marvel now, and he loves it too) Now combine the two with the usual lack of money, it was pretty exciting, scary, hectic, and finally a relief in the end... ;) I always believe that "if it was meant to be, it will be", and that things work out in strange ways; I am eternally thankful.

I guess the feeling, for me, is always pretty much summed up as... "Wow".

[Blechroboter]

Oh, it´s over and finished? :huh: This post was the right fun. :lol:

I was sure that it has to do with Doc A and I will find a something on his website.

Than the hint about the Atomic Regenerators. For me it sounded similar with Pyrotomic Disintegrator. Another Hint to Docs website?

I searched several times through his space gun pages but found nothing. Did also a few hours of fruitless search on the web.

Congratulations to you Fin. Old sure eye. That was very good.

(Actually I´m glad that I didn´t won the prize. In the past these Umagi sands were a wonderful quiet place. But nowadays owercrowded with tourists.) :D

Also congratulations to you ToyMemories. Lucky Man. What a great detection! ;)

Guess it was for you like christmas and two times birthday + national holiday at one moment.

[Fineas J. Whoopie]

Toy memories - did you see this weird variation that sold on ebay a while back?

[ToyMemories]

Blech Yes! Good ol' Fin came through with flying colors!

But you did good too... Aha, you caught the Doc Atomic connection ;) and sorry the Atomic Regenerators threw you off :) it was tough to do, but I'm happy you had fun with it!

Yeah, good ol' Umagi zone has become a tourist trap :P maybe Fin will meet up with B'Bon Bonz there, and have some... heh... Bon-Bons! :lol:

Thanks, Blech! Yeah, I've been floating on air with the 2 recent acquisitions for sure! I'm just constantly afraid another treasure will turn up when I'm flat broke! :ph34r:

Toy memories - did you see this weird variation that sold on ebay a while back?

Fin what in the heck is that supposed to be?? Kind of looks like a mutated Atomic Rifle knock-off, but kind of lacking some of the Corbett rifle style. Who made it, and what were it's actions supposed to be? Looks kind of neat, but definitely odd...

[Fineas J. Whoopie]

Unfortunately I don't know much about the variation. I just saved the picture from an ebay auction a couple months ago. I think it's a knock off from South America.

[ToyMemories]

Unfortunately I don't know much about the variation. I just saved the picture from an ebay auction a couple months ago. I think it's a knock off from South America.

Ah, ok... kind'a makes sense then ;) Did one of us here win it?

Hey, can you post a picture of the reverse of the Atomic rifle? I'll post a similar picture of the prototype reverse too, along with a couple of detail pics... Thanks :)

[Fineas J. Whoopie]

Now I think I remember it's an English variation, possibly Tudor Rose. Since the writing on the stock is in English the South American idea doesn't make sense.

[dratomic]

Yep, British version. I think I remember who won it, but I'm not positive... If I'm correct, it's a VERY big ray gun collector.

I think it's sort of funky looking, though it definitely lacks the elegance of the original.

[Andyman]

*turns in detective badge*

I wasn't even in the same ballpark.

Congrats, TM! It's a wonderful specimen to acquire. I'm glad you survived the expedition. ;)