Here are three TV commercials from the 1960s for Mattel toy guns. The snub-nose .38 looks like a real pistol. It comes with bullets that you can attach caps to so the gun bangs and smokes when you fire it. A robber could use it to hold up a bank.
In the second commercial, actor Billy Mumy shoots his Dick Tracy machine gun. The commercial was made around the same time Mumy starred in my favorite Twilight Zone episode, "It's a Good Life" (1961). I was half expecting Mumy to say, "You're a very bad man!" before firing off a burst from his machine gun. Things sure were different in the 1960s! Realistic toy guns are unthinkable as smoking on airplanes or leaving a kid locked up in a car, or drinking and driving today.
This is one toy that deserves to be sent to the cornfield.
"You can tell it's Mattel — it's swell!"





