There were dozens of westerns dominating the television airwaves, throughout the fifties and early sixties and there was no boomer way you would watch Gunsmoke, Have Gun Will Travel, Lone Ranger, Wanted Dead or Alive, Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy, Annie Oakley, Sky King, Maverick or Tales of the Texas Rangers without your own personal set of cowboy hardware to roll play along with your favorite TV heroes.
I have great memories exploring the vast western territory known as my Brooklyn Neighborhood fighting off the bad guys with my Shootin Shell Fanner 50 by Mattel Toys.
I was lucky back in the 1980's to talk Mattel Toys into letting me restore part of their film archives before the ban on showing toy guns took hold. Don't worry in other posts I show those great Winchester rifles.
-bogsidebunny
I had a Fanner 50, and the Winchester when I was a kid. I played them to death. A couple of years ago, I was in an antique shop and a Mattel Winchester was on the shelf. It came home with me. Shortly after that, a Fanner 50 popped up at another shop, and a Daisy Strong Box with map, key, and a bag of Mattel Shootin' Shells inside was at another. They're on display at my house now. There's lots of memories tied up in those toys. Kids today have no idea what they're missing.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'll bet in forty years no old dude spots a Duck Hunt game cartridge and takes it home to put on display.
DeleteI still have mine, complete with holster! No box and no shells anymore though!
ReplyDeleteWow! This brings back memories. I had a Fanner 50.
ReplyDeleteI remember walking around the house on Christmas day, wearing my cowboy boots, my cowboy, my dual pistols and holster setup...in my nothing but my underwear. And yes, you're right...kids today have NO CLUE how cool it was.
ReplyDeleteIn our neighborhood, it was all Civil War stuff. Flap holsters, cartridge boxes, swords, the whole works. Oddly enough, it was all Confederate memorabilia emblazoned with the proud CSA emblems. I don't recall ever seeing a union (yankee) getup.
ReplyDeleteJohnny Yuma, he was a Rebel. I can still hear it. Also the Grey Ghost.
DeleteI was the only Confederate Civil War vet attending my Yankee gradeschool!
DeleteI also have one of these. Can you imagine the uproar if they tried to produce this today? https://youtu.be/Ly0KGBuHI5g?si=0q7VeoFoiFGzslmA
DeleteGood thing they banned those commercials or kids would be shooting up schools all the time.
ReplyDelete