Posted: 2/11/2010 3:45:59 AM EDT
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I am sure this has been visited before and will incite alot of responses.....
Basic question is did Mattel make M16A1's during "their" time? I work with a guy who was US Army special forces circa 1983 and he said he has personally seen an M16A1 lower stamped with the Mattel MFG logo on the lower receiver. I know all the stories of rumors etc. He looked into it on the web an has seen the back and fourth conflicts about it. In my opinion, it's not about "a toy company" making the rifles. Several MFG's were making M16A1's during 60's 70's (I was in a reserve unit in the mid 90's that had M16A1s with Hydra-Matic Divison of General Motors stamped on them....). So is there any actual info on this "rumor"? He showed me of an internet pic of an M16A1 lower pic with the Mattel logo. Sure any clown with minimal photoshop skills can alter a pic for the web. But he swears up and down about a distict conversation with another officer concerning the origin of the Mattel stamped M16A1..... He is not an idiot so I have no reason to doubt his statement. I always thought the Mattel thing to be a vicious rumor started in the 60's to discredit the M16 series and because of the "toy company image" the US gov't pulled all Mattel stamped M16's and destroyed them.... I wasn's around til 1975, so I can only go off what I hear..... ETA: Spell.... |
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Snopes article on the mattel m16
I've read numerous places that Mattel did mold a piece to do with the rear of the gun, never could tell if they were describing the buttplate or the stock itself- I'm inclined to believe they may have molded something with the gun,but not have near thelevel of involvement as say Singer/Sears Roebuck/etc in previous wars |
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Mattel never made M16 military rifles..they did make a toy that looked similar to it (it even had a cameo in THe Green Berets with John Wayne) called an m16 marauder. someone started this rumor years ago and it just won't die.
though i have seen pics of someones retro build with the mattel logo engraved into it-but they admitted it was a joke to screw with people. so no. he is either full of shit, confabulating, or buying into the bullshit |
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Yep, it's right there on the first page. You ever notice that we get stupid threads about the same stupid shit in clusters? |
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Ok, for the last time, it wasn't Mattel. It was Revell, the model company. And it was a one time special run for the USCG Commando Regiment. This comes straight from a veteran of that group who was working undercover at the gunshow.
Geez people, I thought everybody knew this. |
| I can distictly remember seeing a Mattel logo on either the Butstock or pistol grip of an M16 A2. I know it was not on all of them because I looked for it after that. My guess is some Devil Dog somehow stamped it himself for his own ammusment. But is it possible that they did make some butstocks or pistoll grips to supply to Colt? |
| As a child of the late '50s and '60s, I can testify that not even the most corrupt member of the military industrial complex would risk their reputation by having their name connected with that brittle styrene toy maker. My brother and I broke their stuff sometimes before Christmas was a week in the past! |