While serching for inspiration for Space Base 8, I fell in love with old space toys, especially toy ray guns. I couldn’t resist starting a collection of my own, and this is the vintage ray gun I bought to start my collection. It is called the Razer Ray Gun, and boy, is it peachy keen! When you pull the trigger it makes a death-ray zapping sound and makes sparks that are visible through the translucent red plastic tip. I love the fin details on the back, the rings on the barrel, the sparks, and the sound it makes. Bring it on, invaders from mars, I’m ready for ya!
It works pretty well, but the trigger sometimes slides out of its track and misfires, which makes me afraid of breaking it by pulling the trigger too hard. So this one is better put o a shelf than taken to the playground. I’d definitely like to get one in better condition someday, but I think this one is a terrific start for my collection.
According to the book, “
Zap! Ray Gun Classics
“, This ray gun was made by H. Y.Manufacturing, Hong Kong, in the 1970s. (Click on that link to get the book from Amazon; I’m an Associate). Judging by the design, I would guess it is from the early, pre-Star Wars 1970s, when the idea of what outer space stuff would look like was more “neato gee-whiz”, and less “that looks real, better pass a law banning it”.
Next Monday I will post a photo of the second toy ray gun I have acquired for my collection. Have you ever seen a dart gun that fired not one… not two… but
three darts? I have. And what’s more, that’s not even the coolest thing about this toy!
RAY GUNS! ROBOTS! ROCKETSHIPS!
It’s Ray Guns on Monday, Robots on Wednesday, and Rocketships on Friday here at Space Base 8.
I want to feature your sci-fi art on Space Base 8! Email me your Raygun, Robot, or Rocketship art and I will post it in the blog for all the Space Base 8 readers to see. A sketch, a sculpture, a photo, whatever! Just as long as you made yourself. If you have a great Ray Gun, Robot, or Rocketship toy you want to share, that would be fun too! Email
spacebase8@gmail.com, and include a picture as a jpg or png file, your name, and your website URL if you have one. We look forward to seeing your contributions!
Did you know that there is a Space Base 8 book now available? It’s called
Space Base 8 Book 1: BLAST OFF! It collects the first year and a half of comic strips from Space Base 8. You can get a printed book, a signed artist edition complete with personalized sketch, or an ebook version. Click
BUY THE BOOK in the menubar above the comic, or just
click here to get your copy.
If you’ve ever visited the comments at Space Base 8, you may have seen encouraging words from Danica Sevilla, today’s artist for Robot Wednesday. I call her First Fan Dani, because she followed my blog, Monkey Always Wins, where I documented the creation of Space Base 8. She was a Space Base 8 fan even before the first comic strip was posted. Now that’s a Number One Fan!
Over at Dani’s blog, Baring My Heart, she posted a really cool piece about Space Base 8 and our longtime internet friendship, and about how a girl from Down Under may (eventually) get to go to Disneyland. Check it out.
Here’s another robot by Dani. So cool!
Thanks so much to you, Dani, for the artwork and the support over these last few years. You really are Number One. 🙂
This is the second toy ray gun in my newly begun collection. it is the Superior Rocket Gun from the 1950s, and I absolutely love it. I first saw one in the book, “
