The Last Starfighter was a classic eighties film about a whiz arcade game player called Alex who goes on to fight aliens in a distant galaxy.
There are lot of prop space guns and pistols in the movie.
Early on in the film, around when Centauri asks him to fight in an interstellar war, Alex is in his bedroom, where we see a table full of typical teenage boy clutter.
On the table is a red toy pistol with a yellow handle. But what is it?
My You Tube screengrab is not very clear but here's the toy in close-up.
About three years ago I suggested on this blog that the toy gun was possibly a 1967 Lone Star Captain Scarlet pistol. This was die-cast and fired caps.
Looking at the close-up again the toy has a trigger guard so I now think it's unlikely to be the Lone Star gun. However, I found this picture of a Marx pistol which has the same colouring and a similar trigger guard.
It's from a Marx set called Cops 'N' Robbers, which came with a stand-up target.
It's clear though that the Last Starfighter toy does not have a silencer like this Marx gun. It looks tapered like an old Moulinex hairdryer and has a bulbous barrel tip.
Maybe the toy gun is also from the 1980's, a contemporary of the film?
Ages ago reader Jay suggested it might be a Pez space gun. What do you think?
The search goes on. Anyone got a better screengrab of the Last Starfighter toy gun or any idea what it is readers?
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Addendum:
There is a similarly fascinating toy gun in the film called the Super Electronic Gun.
A mere ornament in the film, the superb blog 2 Warps to Neptune takes up the story of how it became a promo give-away!.
Addendum 2:
Turns out that 2 Warps to Neptune [sadly now defunct] was as fascinated by Last Starfighter guns as me and pretty much covered the rest, so kudos to 2 Warps as was.
Within its pages is a picture of a 1984 HG Toys Last Starfighter Target Set borrowed from the amazing archive called Parry Game Preserve [as I have done too].
Looking at the set it looks like a prototype to me. The artwork is sketchy and rushed. I can't find any other images of this set anywhere online. Can you readers?
So what of the toy gun inside?
To me it looks a lot like an unfinished version of the company's Eagle Force Commando Pistol seen here. What do you think?
I doubt very much that HG Toys produced the Last Starfighter Target Set. Is that the case readers do you think?
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