Trifling

Bill donated some old toys recently including this neat vintage toy rifle. The make is unknown to me but I had lots of fun messing about attaching pipes to it. Nothings glued, just strapped on with tree ties. 

Anyone recognise it? 

Lone Star Super TEC-8

 Who is that character on the card meant to be?

Van Der Valk?

There's a bit of Secret Sam typeface there too in the word Super.

The Day of the Attic

Secret Sam took the call in his attic office.

The Moonbase toy collection had to be protected at all costs. Stop.

The mission is go! You're on your own Sam.

Over and out.

Open and Shut Case: a Near Mint Redbox Special Agent 707 Set

 After buying a well-used Redbox agent 707 set last week, I treated myself to this much less used and superbly boxed example I stumbled across online.

A real bargain on Etsy, this set is virtually complete and almost near mint.

The photographic box is fabulous! It also incorporates a camera-wielding-agent painted illustration that seems to hark back to much earlier sets to me.

The CE import address sticker is for Redbox in Swinton.

The actual Red Box home address is in California!

You can see how shiny the case is compared to my previous purchase.

Some of the gold print has come away. 

The contents are just brilliant.

 The gun and it's accessories are a more authentic black and it contains both large and small toy bullets.

One larger bullet was missing in the opened packet but amazingly I had a spare courtesy of Bill!

Interestingly this version ran with a Gold Tip cigarette box pistol too. The other case I have houses a less controversial radio gun.

It also comes with two smart pistol dart missiles reminiscent of Marx's spy sets.

The little box of smaller bullets is hard to find separately, although Bill did give me a loose box-full about 25 years ago! Sadly sold on since, my other case is still waiting for its own ammo.

The 707 passport contains the toy's original lucky owner's details and his agent CV! It dates the set to 1990. I thought it was older.

Assembled with shoulder stock, silencer and scope, the agent's black pistol looks stupendous I think!

It looks better than the orange version in my opinion.

So, there you have it. An open and shut Redbox case. Hope you like it.

Have you an attache case readers?

Special Agent 707's New Case Opened

Just before Easter I treated myself to two Redbox toy special agent attache cases, a classic design that goes back decades: Agent 707 may ring bells with you readers?

One I've bought is an older boxed version and the other unboxed set a newer release like the one I bought at the Ridings Index store in the early 1990's, sadly since sold on.

This later unboxed release arrived this week and I've been busy cleaning it up and replacing the odd missing part, as always great fun messing with special agent stuff. 

This set from eBay was more compete than I thought: all two badges and the key present.

I cleaned everything up, glued down ripped pockets and blacked out any scratches on the case.

Luckily I had a similarly coloured plastic pipe of a suitable size to make a decent ersatz of the missing silencer. 

The black shoulder stock came without a grip fastener, so a couple of bits and some glue later, I whittled a fair enough replacement, that does the job.

All that's missing now are the small brown bullets for the little secret radio pistol (amazingly I found another one of these tiny guns at the local boot sale yesterday!)

All in all it's a great example of this later Redbox set, with it's orange weapons. I'm unsure if the black stock is the right colour - should it be orange? - but it looks good and harks back to earlier Redbox sets.

For the time being, this case, 707, is now closed!

One Man Custom: My Home-Made Johnny Seven

Since childhood and my parents giving me a Johnny Seven one Christmas I've always loved this classic Topper toy rifle.

Like all my old toys I guess it went to Preston's landfill back in the mid-Seventies.

Remembering how much I loved it, in 2000 I bought myself a boxed Johnny Seven at the NEC's Memorabilia show. It was from an affable young dealer called Ian and cost £300, the most I've ever spent on a collectable.

It's tucked safely away in the attic.

 I do occasionally get it out on maneuvers!

I restored another Johnny Seven in 2007 for re-sale, replacing some missing parts with original and repro replacements.

I blogged about it some years back, the post comments becoming a sort of talking shop for J7 restorers! 

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2018/04/rebuilding-johnny-seven-one-man-army.html?m=1

And so to the present. Having finished my Secret Sam rifle recently I was looking for something else to make, when I came across a bunch of old Nerf guns at the Thorpe Arch boot sale. Bingo! £4 later I had my raw materials for making a ........

..... Johnny Seven! 

With a good dose of bits from my bits box and a pair of plastic shoe horns the toy began to take shape.

A couple of home-made missiles completed the look.

Dipping my toe into paint spraying for the first time, I took my mock-off in the garden ......

... And primed it red.

I made a whole armoury of missiles!

And here's Johnny! 

The One Man Army made in the kitchen! 

Hope you like it.

You can see it's a similar size to the original.

Phew! Boy, was it fiddly but lots of Topper fun! 

*

Next up, Redbox Secret Agent.

Sixgun Justice: TV WESTERN GIMMICK GUNS

This website of western toy guns is fascinating. See what you think!

https://www.sixgunjustice.com/2020/01/western-tie-instv-western-gimmick-guns.html?m=1 

Tune In and Fire

 I've always loved little radios. As a kid I had a small portable transistor. I don't think I had a radio gun but I would have loved these.

The Transogram Girl from Uncle Radio Pistol. How cool is that! The Flashlight Whistle is pretty smart too!

Here's another fab toy bullet firing radio from Japan. It looks really ace.

Do you have any toy radio guns?