1946 - Atom Ray Gun By Hiller Mfg.

[Joe K.]

Here's a completed auction listing for a purported 1947 Johnson Smith Novelties catalog. The blurry photo of the catalog cover makes it hard to tell if the year is even printed there, but there's no mistaking the Atom Ray Water Pistol in the upper left-hand corner.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/Christmas-Catalog-TOYS...=item56363a78f9

 

See Ray Gun, page 30 or Zap!, page 13.

[Joe K.]

And this Antiques Roadshow appraisal:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/archive/200606A35.html

Some follow-up info on Hiller:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/fts/honolulu_200606A35.html

[ANZinSpace]

In google news archive the Spokane Daily has an ad for it and the paper is dated 1st August 1946.

[Electric Robot and Son]

Joe,

Thanks for posting this. I had no idea the raygun Hiller was also the helicopter Hiller. Interesting enough, besides the ray gun that he produced, there are a couple of Japanese tin toys of Hiller helicopters. (I couldn't find any pics)

[dratomic]

So I guess ANZ's discovery pushes the timeline back to 1946. I guess once the war-time call for 'copters ended, Hiller immediately tooled up for toys.

ER&S, I'd love to find a Hiller Helicopter toy. Could be neat to display it with the gun. Of course, I don't actually have the gun, either...

[Joe K.]

From an undated Gimbels newspaper ad: