Posted 3 years ago
dav2no1
(839 items)
Halco & Wyandotte Cap Guns
Picked these 2 cap guns up today. They are in very bad shape. One is missing the hammer and the other is a break open model, that was stuck in the open position, and also missing the top plate.
Both these guns are very fancy models. Look at those fancy grip panels. Usually you just see a flat panel
They are barely even parts guns. But they were cheap and I worked a little magic to make them decent to display. I used a long skinny zip tie to hold the break open Halco shut. Then I made a cork filler for the top plate. Both guns were lightly polished on one side(that would be shown) to enhance the faux engravings. See 2 before and 2 after pictures.
Halco "Pinto"
Wyandotte "Red Ranger"
HALCO, HALPERN?
"Halco (the J. Halpern Company of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania) was known for their quality. They were a high volume distributor that sold millions of Cap Guns that were produced by other companies. They sold to a lot of the major retail outlets. In many cases the manufacturing companies even put the HALCO name on the guns they produced for Halco."
Julius Halpern immigrated to the United States from Austria in 1907 and in 1909 ended up in Pittsburgh. He was a banker and started a toy and costume company in 1946.
ALL METAL PRODUCTS
"From 1921 to 1957, the All Metal Products Co., better known as Wyandotte Toys, turned out mil-lions of toys that sold around the world."
"The fledgling company manufactured popguns, water guns and spring-loaded pistols. By the end of that decade, they claimed to be the largest maker of toy guns in the world."
ITS A DAISY
They started making spring-air BB guns, and won a contract with Sears. Their design wasn't very good, and customers complained. They were in danger of loosing their contract, but amazingly Daisy bought the rights to the whole line to eliminate competition.
"The factory turned out rifle clips and flare guns when steel was needed for the military during World War II." And during that time, they stayed in the toy business by producing wood and paper toys during a period when metal was precious.
***There's a lot more interesting history and I will add links in the comments***
Further reading
HALCO
http://heinzhistorycenter.emuseum.com/people/10797/j-halpern-company;jsessionid=70402669CF6DB4103AF83A5C2B6F63C5
WYANDOTTE TOYS
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thenewsherald.com/2008/12/04/history-remembering-wyandotte-toys/amp/
I loved my cap pistols when I was a child but my parents did not keep me well supplied with ammo for some reason…..probably just wanted to appreciate some silence again. ;^)
Thanks for the walk down Memory Lane!
Nice informative post.
Mr. Dav2no1 sorry about that posting
that caused you to feel that way
Bo (Burning ham)
V33- sorry I know other people don't always share my sense of humor. Just trying to be funny..
daveno1 don't feel bad, my sense of humus ( yes humus ) frequently puts me in the dog house. It seems not everyone gets it all the time and frequently see my remarks as sarcasm. Hell if I intended sarcasm it would be much worse.
fhrjr2 - thanks..I often unintentionally offend people from time to time. I have thick skin and see humor in everything. I often forget that we live in a society where some people are wound up so tight, if you say the wrong word they could explode. An attempt at religious humor was a bad choice on my part, should've known better.
My friend had these guns back when, remember having a lot of fun!~
These are really great Dave! I sure wish I still had some of the cap pistols I had as a kid in the early 1970's.
These look very similar to one I played with as a child here in Sweden. The white part on the handle had a cow or buffalo scull with hornes, if I remeber corectly. It had the same pattern on the pipe as yours and I know it was not swedish. It belongen to my uncle who had played with it as a child in the 50's. He let me have it for a few years and I remember being upset when he wanted it back, thinking it was childish of him ha ha.
How I loved those shootouts and the smell from the Gun! I had amo but was still always running short of it:) I was so proud of "mine" since it was the coolest amongst us friends. Quite fun to think back on. Today I understand he wanted it back. Thanks for this post!
Thank you all for sharing your wonderful stories. I'm glad I bought these and saved them from the trash. They are in poor shape, but the comments above show that these probably sparked(pun intended) hours and hours of fun.