I picked up this old toy water pistol in Germany. I love its simplicity.
A lovely small toy gun with a rotating red top nozzle.
It has a UK patent number.
I cant quite make out the logo. Here's one bagged I saw on Ebay with the same logo on the header.
We've seen Rot-a-Matic water pistols before on MC:
The more famous Thunderbirds water pistol.
The Rotamatic Special no less!
Its has the same technology as my little blue one.
and they have the same patent number and makers' logo!
Looks like JR21 just bagged up these pistols and put their own header on.
I dont have a Thunderbirds water pistol so I can't say of the JR21/ Century 21 logo is on the pistol or the header anywhere. Can you readers?
There's a green version too. I wonder if this has the same UK patent number on it?
Alas, I don't remember having water pistols until the mid-70's generic pistol shaped rubbish. We always had cap guns, with either the 8 shot? ring or reels of caps. My brother and I went through loads of them. Then we went on to the 'clacker' guns that made a lot of noise but didn't use caps, tbe 'sparking' guns, and then squirty guns.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great description of Kids playing with toy pistols and how they progress through the styles Anon. Took me right back!
DeleteI was lucky enough to have one of these water pistols for Christmas in 1966. My overwhelming memory of it was that it leaked! Quite badly too... I don't remember if it did have a JR21 / C21 logo on it. Later I had the Spectrum model, which also leaked, a lot.
ReplyDeleteWhat a shame that they leaked Bill. I wonder if the rotamatic tap on top is a design weakness? beautiful designs and I really liked the Spectrum pistol design, although I never had one.
DeleteOh, it didn't just leak out of the Rotomatic Top! It leaked out of the trigger, and the gun itself! I guess the two half injected moulds were not very accurate. I suppose they could have used even more plastic cement to fill the gaps.
DeleteBut as we know the quality was "Broken by Boxing Day"... I don't think anyone realised how much longevity these TV series had at the time.
The 1960s was a carefree era of use it, enjoy it, and throw it away. Sadly.
We certainly loved our toys back then Bill .... To bits! We're we the first true toy generation I wonder? Thanks for the leaky insights and your email.
DeleteNice catch Woodsy! I've had a couple of water pistols on eBay watch for forever. I may actually buy one one of these days! hahaha
ReplyDelete