The National Air and Space Museum has a cool post up about the first metal Buck Rogers gun: the XZ-31 Rocket Pistol, produced in 1934 by the Daisy Manufacturing Company of Plymouth, Michigan.
"That toy, which was wildly successful, even sparked a Christmastime price war between two of the biggest department stores in the country at the time."
Read more about the war of the ray guns here.
From top left, clockwise, the prototype for the XZ-31, the XZ-31 itself, and the XZ-35 "Wilma Deering" Rocket Pistol of 1935.
